o receive his dust.

ALFRED TENNYSON

Not of the sunlight,
Not of the moonlight,
Nor of the starlight!
O young Mariner,
Down to the haven,
Call your companions,
Launch your vessel,
And crowd your canvas,
And ere it vanishes
Over the margin,
After it, follow it,
Follow the Gleam.
--_Merlin_

[Illustration: ALFRED TENNYSON]

The grandfather of Tennyson had two sons, the elder boy, according to
Clement Scott, being "both wilful and commonplace." Now, of course, the
property and honors and titles, according to the law of England, would all
gravitate to the commonplace boy; and the second son, who was competent,
dutiful and worthy, would be out in the cold world--simply because he was
accidentally born second and not first. It was not his fault that he was
born second, and it was in no wise to the credit of the other that he was
born first.

So the father, seeing that the elder boy had small executive capacity, and
no appreciation of a Good Thing, disinherited him, giving him, however, a
generous allowance, but letting the titles go to the second boy, who was
bright and brave and withal a right manly fellow.

Personally, I'm glad the honors went to the best man. But Hallam Tennyson,
son of the poet, sees only rank injustice in the action of his ancestor,
who deliberately set his own opinion of right and justice against
precedent as embodied in English Law. As a matter of strictest justice, we
might argue that neither boy was entitled to anything which he had not
earned, and that, in dividing the property between them, instead of
allowing it all to drift into the hands of the one accidentally born
first, the father acted wisely and well.

But neither Alfred nor Hallam Tennyson thought so. How much their opinions
were biased by the fact that they were descendants of the firstborn son,
we can not say. Anyway, the descendants of the second son, the Honorable
Charles Tennyson d'Eyncourt, have made no protest of which I can learn,
about justice having been defeated.

Considering this subject of the Law of Entail one step further, we find
that Hallam, the present Lord Tennyson, is a Peer of the Realm simply
because his father was a great poet, and honors were given him on that
account by the Queen. These honors go to Hallam, who, as all men agree, is
in many ways singularly like his grandfather.

Genius is not hereditary, but titles are.