But the fear of xli. was not quite that of the loss
of all communion whatsoever, but that of the loss of
an equal matehood. This involves the conception of
the spirit's life as an active and progressive one from
the moment of death, and XLii., iipon consideration
accepting such a conception, sees a beautiful relation
to be possible out of it — a relation, too (so the poem
affirms), not different from that which had always in
measure been between the friends. But XLin. raises
another picture, involving the recognition of the
difference between what is called the intermediate
state and the state after the Eesurrection. This
picture, throughout the whole remainder of In
Mcmoriccm, is never returned to; but always the
immediate entrance upon an active and progressive
state is assumed. The fact on its positive side is one
of considerable gravity ; for not only does it give an,
at least, doubtful bias to a good deal of the poem, but
it prepares the way for a tendency not uumanifested
in the poem itself, and very explicitly manifested in
poems dealt with in the chapter on The Preternatural
in Tennyson. Nor, on the other side, was the poet
shut up to the picture of XLiii. as an alternative.
Offering the comfort that XLiii. might offer, in that it
too seems to preclude the danger that the dead should
grow away from the living who love them, yet giving
to the dead themselves a condition of positive blessed-
ness, is the Christian doctrine of Paradise. The
Christian Faith concerning the blessed dead is that
neither are they fully awake, nor do they wholly
sleep. " I sleep, but my heart waketh," might one of



140 A STUDY OF TENNYSON'S WORKS chap.
