Page:Adams - Essays in Modernity.djvu/39

Rh and (somehow or other) manages, while doing so, to go not only 'forward, forward, ay, but backward, downward, too, into the abysm,' thus entirely beating the performance of Mr. Gladstone's protégés, the Gadarene pigs.

The simple truth is that stuff of this sort is beyond the bounds of patience. Tennyson's negative criticism of his age cannot be taken seriously for one moment. It is childish. We turn, therefore, to his affirmative criticism in the hope of finding there, in his efforts at direct creation, something that the mind can at least rest upon. Now, it happens that he has come to the test here in the fullest and most satisfactory manner, to wit, in his creation of King Arthur.

King Arthur is a crucial case, because he is Lord Tennyson's deliberate attempt to present to us an ideal figure of social manhood. He disclaims, of course, all historical fidelity. This is not the British Arthur of cairns and cromlechs, nor yet he 'of Geoffrey's book, nor he of Malleor's.' This is the King Arthur who is 'like a modern gentleman of stateliest port,' and as a perfected product of modernity is he to be judged. His story is the story of 'Sense at war with Soul,' He is himself 'the fair beginner of a nobler time,' the protagonist of goodness, truth and beauty for each and for all, 'the highest and the most human too.' We are led to understand that