第 10 节
作者:理性的思索      更新:2021-02-21 10:15      字数:9321
  moved slowly from edition to revised and improved edition; bringing
  neither money nor much increase of fame。  The poet was living with
  his family at Cheltenham; where among his new acquaintances were
  Sydney Dobell; the poet of a few exquisite pieces; and F。 W。
  Robertson; later so popular as a preacher at Brighton。  Meeting him
  for the first time; and knowing Robertson's 〃wish to pluck the heart
  from my mystery; from pure nervousness I would only talk of beer。〃
  This kind of shyness beset Tennyson。  A lady tells me that as a girl
  (and a very beautiful girl) she and her sister; and a third; nec
  diversa; met the poet; and expected high discourse。  But his speech
  was all of that wingless insect which 〃gets there; all the same;〃
  according to an American lyrist; the insect which fills Mrs Carlyle's
  letters with bulletins of her success or failure in domestic
  campaigns。
  Tennyson kept visiting London; where he saw Thackeray and the despair
  of Carlyle; and at Bath House he was too modest to be introduced to
  the great Duke whose requiem he was to sing so nobly。  Oddly enough
  Douglas Jerrold enthusiastically assured Tennyson; at a dinner of a
  Society of Authors; that 〃you are the one who will live。〃  To that
  end; humanly speaking; he placed himself under the celebrated Dr
  Gully and his 〃water…cure;〃 a foible of that period。  In 1848 he made
  a tour to King Arthur's Cornish bounds; and another to Scotland;
  where the Pass of Brander disappointed him:  perhaps he saw it on a
  fine day; and; like Glencoe; it needs tempest and mist lit up by the
  white fires of many waterfalls。  By bonny Doon he 〃fell into a
  passion of tears;〃 for he had all of Keats's sentiment for Burns:
  〃There never was immortal poet if he be not one。〃  Of all English
  poets; the warmest in the praise of Burns have been the two most
  unlike himselfTennyson and Keats。  It was the songs that Tennyson
  preferred; Wordsworth liked the Cottar's Saturday Night。
  CHAPTER V。IN MEMORIAM。
  In May 1850 a few; copies of In Memoriam were printed for friends;
  and presently the poem was published without author's name。  The
  pieces had been composed at intervals; from 1833 onwards。  It is to
  be observed that the 〃section about evolution〃 was written some years
  before 1844; when the ingenious hypotheses of Robert Chambers; in
  Vestiges of Creation; were given to the world; and caused a good deal
  of talk。  Ten years; again; after In Memoriam; came Darwin's Origin
  of Species。  These dates are worth observing。  The theory of
  evolution; of course in a rude mythical shape; is at least as old as
  the theory of creation; and is found among the speculations of the
  most backward savages。  The Arunta of Central Australia; a race
  remote from the polite; have a hypothesis of evolution which
  postulates only a few rudimentary forms of life; a marine
  environment; and the minimum of supernormal assistance in the way of
  stimulating the primal forms in the direction of more highly
  differentiated developments。  〃The rudimentary forms; Inapertwa; were
  in reality stages in the transformation of various plants and animals
  into human beings。 。 。 。  They had no distinct limbs or organs of
  sight; hearing; or smell。〃  They existed in a kind of lumps; and were
  set free from the cauls which enveloped them by two beings called
  Ungambikula; 〃a word which means 'out of nothing;' or 'self…
  existing。'  Men descend from lower animals thus evolved。〃 {7}
  This example of the doctrine of evolution in an early shape is only
  mentioned to prove that the idea has been familiar to the human mind
  from the lowest known stage of culture。  Not less familiar has been
  the theory of creation by a kind of supreme being。  The notion of
  creation; however; up to 1860; held the foremost place in modern
  European belief。  But Lamarck; the elder Darwin; Monboddo; and others
  had submitted hypotheses of evolution。  Now it was part of the
  originality of Tennyson; as a philosophic poet; that he had brooded
  from boyhood on these early theories of evolution; in an age when
  they were practically unknown to the literary; and were not
  patronised by the scientific; world。  In November 1844 he wrote to Mr
  Moxon; 〃I want you to get me a book which I see advertised in the
  Examiner:  it seems to contain many speculations with which I have
  been familiar for years; and on which I have written more than one
  poem。〃  This book was Vestiges of Creation。  These poems are the
  stanzas in In Memoriam about 〃the greater ape;〃 and about Nature as
  careless of the type:  〃all shall go。〃  The poetic and philosophic
  originality of Tennyson thus faced the popular inferences as to the
  effect of the doctrine of evolution upon religious beliefs long
  before the world was moved in all its deeps by Darwin's Origin of
  Species。  Thus the geological record is inconsistent; we learned;
  with the record of the first chapters of Genesis。  If man is a
  differentiated monkey; and if a monkey has no soul; or future life
  (which is taken for granted); where are man's title…deeds to these
  possessions?  With other difficulties of an obvious kind; these
  presented themselves to the poet with renewed force when his only
  chance of happiness depended on being able to believe in a future
  life; and reunion with the beloved dead。  Unbelief had always
  existed。  We hear of atheists in the Rig Veda。  In the early
  eighteenth century; in the age of Swift …
  〃Men proved; as sure as God's in Gloucester;
  That Moses was a great impostor。〃
  distrust of Moses increased with the increase of hypotheses of
  evolution。  But what English poet; before Tennyson; ever attempted
  〃to lay the spectres of the mind〃; ever faced world…old problems in
  their most recent aspects?  I am not acquainted with any poet who
  attempted this task; and; whatever we may think of Tennyson's
  success; I do not see how we can deny his originality。
  Mr Frederic Harrison; however; thinks that neither 〃the theology nor
  the philosophy of In Memoriam are new; original; with an independent
  force and depth of their own。〃  〃They are exquisitely graceful re…
  statements of the theology of the Broad Churchman of the school of F。
  D。 Maurice and Jowetta combination of Maurice's somewhat illogical
  piety with Jowett's philosophy of mystification。〃  The piety of
  Maurice may be as illogical as that of Positivism is logical; and the
  philosophy of the Master of Balliol may be whatever Mr Harrison
  pleases to call it。  But as Jowett's earliest work (except an essay
  on Etruscan religion) is of 1855; one does not see how it could
  influence Tennyson before 1844。  And what had the Duke of Argyll
  written on these themes some years before 1844?  The late Duke; to
  whom Mr Harrison refers in this connection; was born in 1823。  His
  philosophic ideas; if they were to influence Tennyson's In Memoriam;
  must have been set forth by him at the tender age of seventeen; or
  thereabouts。  Mr Harrison's sentence is; 〃But does In Memoriam teach
  anything; or transfigure any idea which was not about that time〃 (the
  time of writing was mainly 1833…1840) 〃common form with F。 D。
  Maurice; with Jowett; C。 Kingsley; F。 Robertson; Stopford Brooke; Mr
  Ruskin; and the Duke of Argyll; Bishops Westcott and Boyd Carpenter?〃
  The dates answer Mr Harrison。  Jowett did not publish anything till
  at least fifteen years after Tennyson wrote his poems on evolution
  and belief。  Dr Boyd Carpenter's works previous to 1840 are unknown
  to bibliography。  F。 W。 Robertson was a young parson at Cheltenham。
  Ruskin had not published the first volume of Modern Painters。  His
  Oxford prize poem is of 1839。  Mr Stopford Brooke was at school。  The
  Duke of Argyll was being privately educated:  and so with the rest;
  except the contemporary Maurice。  How can Mr Harrison say that; in
  the time of In Memoriam; Tennyson was 〃in touch with the ideas of
  Herschel; Owen; Huxley; Darwin; and Tyndall〃? {8}  When Tennyson
  wrote the parts of In Memoriam which deal with science; nobody beyond
  their families and friends had heard of Huxley; Darwin; and Tyndall。
  They had not developed; much less had they published; their 〃general
  ideas。〃  Even in his journal of the Cruise of the Beagle Darwin's
  ideas were religious; and he naively admired the works of God。  It is
  strange that Mr Harrison has based his criticism; and his theory of
  Tennyson's want of originality; on what seems to be a historical
  error。  He cites parts of In Memoriam; and remarks; 〃No one can deny
  that all this is exquisitely beautiful; that these eternal problems
  have never been clad in such inimitable grace 。 。 。 But the train of
  thought is essentially that with which ordinary English readers have
  been made familiar by F。 D。 Maurice; Professor Jowett; Ecce Homo;
  Hypatia; and now by Arthur Balfour; Mr Drummond; and many valiant
  companies of Septem 'why Septem?' contra Diabolum。〃  One must keep
  repeating the historical verity that the ideas of In Memoriam could
  not have been 〃made familiar by〃 authors who had not yet published
  anything; or by books yet undreamed of and unborn; such as Ecce Homo
  and Jowett's work on some of St Paul's Epistles。  If these books
  contain the ideas of In Memoriam; it is by dint of repetition and
  borrowing from In