Tennyson's place among the poets of his century must be esti-
mated according to the nature of the qualities in which he excels,
and those in which he falls beneath his predecessors. If he is
inferior to Campbell in the war lyric, in sublime nights of imagi-
nation, and in lofty and impassioned poetry, he certainly rivals
him in exquisite pathos, while he ranks above him in the artistic
embellishment and conception of his subjects, in the simple idyll
of common life, and in the softer graces of conventional love sen-
timent. If Tennyson could never have written the " Mariners of
England," or the " Last Man," Campbell could never have written
"Enoch Arden," or "The Princess." " Theodora " is one of
Campbell's worst productions ; in the hands of Tennyson, it



334 ESTIMATE OF MODERN ENGLISH POETS.
