Lecture on Tennyson.

An audience that completely filled Sever 11 last evening welcomed Mr. E. Charlton Black at the first of the series of lectures he will give here this winter. He spoke on Tennyson, more in the way of tribute than of criticism. Last spring, said he, when we last considered Tennyson, he was in the pertection of his powers, now he is with the great dead. The mourner of "In Memoriam" is now mourned by the English speaking race.

To the last Tennyson was progressive. His thought was more profound, and his diction more energetic. There is no need of a softening of criticism as we read his last volume. This little book of less than a thousand lines possesses more than a sentimental value. It shows to the full Tennyson's bread+++h, variety, suggestiveness, and purity of diction.

The last day of Tennyson bespoke the lofty character of the man. He who had sung of death as has no other poet of any time passed away in such quiet majesty that it makes his mourners realize that death is after all, an integral part of life, that it comes as a loving mother to close the eyes of her weary child.

Mr. Black then reviewed in outline the growth of Tennyson's genius, and the events of his literary life. From his parents he inherited physical vigor, spiritual charm, and intellectual superiority. His father was a man of parts, strong and artistic; his mother a gentle, loving woman; his many brothers and sisters bright, intelligent, and poetic. It was a dreamy, and yet inspiring life.

It was in his early youth, that Tennyson inbibed his deep love of nature. The charms of the scenery stamped themselves indelibly on his mind. He never contented himself with picturesque generalizations. He shows an intimate, precise acquaintance with nature, and his eye for color and minuteness of detail lends much of their charm to all his poems.

At college, he never made any attempt for honors. He entered into a brilliant circle of friends, chief among them Arthur Hallam, and passed four glorious years. While there, he published his first book of poems, and though these were immature, yet they bespoke the coming poet. In 1833 and again in 1842 further poems were published. A new poet was recognized. The wealth, variety, sentiment, and music in his talent charmed the nation. Some of his poems were graceful, with dainty turns and quaint conceits; some shook off all elaborations, and sprang from the very soul of the poet.

In 1850 he was made Poet Laureate, and in the same year he published his "In Memoriam." and this poem has now come to mourners. We make no attempt to judge Tennyson, nor to give him his proper rank. We are, in the most serious sense, hero-worshippers before him. The more we read, the more must we admire at once his gentle loveliness, his subtle charm, his manly greatness, and above all, his pure and lofty tone of mind.