Abide : thy wealth is gathered in
When Time hath sundered shell from peaii.' " (lii.)

and



142 A STUDY OF TENNYSON'S WORKS chap-

" And dare we to this fancy give,

That had the wild oat not been soavh,

The soil, left barren, scarce had grown

The grain by which a man may live ? " (liii.)

But now the poet faces the jieiil of the doctrine he
is preaching. Perhaps we maj' think that he is rather
slow in doing so ; that he might have thought that
the eyes of the dead, if thej' are like God's, are as a
flame of fire as well as eyes of charity ; eyes of judg-
ment as well as of mercy, warning as well as encourag-
ing, rebuking as well as excusing.
" There must be wisdom with great Death," he said ;
but wisdom's standard is an awful one. At all events,
the poet faces round now. Eeferring to the doctrine
of the last extract, he says —

" Oh, if we held the doctrine sound

For life outliving heats of youth,
Yet who would x^reach it as a truth
To those that eddy round and roujid ?

" Hold thou the good : define it well :
For fear divine Philosophy
Should push beyond her mark, and be
Procuress to the Lords of Hell."

And who does not eddj', or is not in danger of
eddying, round and round ? "Who dares to take such
a philosophy into his ^j/rR'^f'c«Z thoughts, in whatever
time of life he may be ? For young or for old, there
should be but one governing thought in life, that
evil is evil, and must be hated, and shunned at all
costs.
