ll, is nought, is silence implying sound;
What was good shall be good, with for evil so much good more;
On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round.

And, being no dreamer or pessimist, seeing reason at the heart of
things, and good the final goal of ill, he

At least believes in soul, and is very sure of God.

Here are the three imperishable realities--God, Soul, Hereafter. Of
all the rest is it ultimately true which the weary preacher said:
"Vanity of vanities; all is vanity," or, as the modern Ecclesiastes has
it: _Tout passe, tout lasse, tout casse_.

In the words of the opening stanzas of the "In Memoriam," Tennyson is
evidently affected by the spectacle the world exhibits to the
thoughtful man in its multitudinous religious sects and segments, and
the strange contrasts the national, political and ethical unities of
mankind present, with their theological divergencies. As we have seen,
the etymology of the word "religion" signifies that its intent and
purpose is to bind men together, whereas, as we mournfully confess, it
has hitherto proved a fruitful source of schism and division, national
as well as individual. It is only since the much-despised and
denounced "world" and its modern civilisation has effectually curtailed
the offensive powers of corporations, synods and inquisitions, that
religion has ceased to outrage the public conscience by repetitions of
the enormities of former times.

As the sweep of his vision ranges over past and present, the poet is
enabled to estimate these fragmentary philosophies aright; he sees them
in their proper perspective, in their relation to the infinite Reality
behind them. He calls them "little systems," "broken lights": he is
able to forecast their future; "they cease to be". There is but One
Eternal, "without shadow of change or turning": "And Thou, O Lord, art
more than they".

This is the fact which weighs so heavily with the thoughtful and
discriminating minds of the day--that all the apocalyptic theologies
and religious philosophies which purport to reveal the unspeakable
mystery known to exist, though hidden from our sight, end only in
belittling it. Doubtless an element of accommodation is discoverable
and essential in the purest thought of the unseen order; our thoughts
of the Soul of souls must be such as our spirits can supply. Men so
divided in belief as Kant and Newman have both recognised this fact,
the only difference being