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S it fair to attribute to certain persons and particular scenes the inspiration of a poet's masterpiece? Some say such a course is very unfair, as it makes the poet a photographer instead of an artist. But, while an undue insistence on the principle is not permissible, it is surely not unfair to connect scenes once familiar to the eyes of a poet with the products of his brain; or to identify in the characters he portrays persons with whom he may have been familiar.

That Lord Tennyson is at present the centre of so much interest to the generation is a happy augury for the perpetuation of his fame. Within the last twelve months more than one volume has appeared in which the scenes surrounding him in early life, and personages with whom he was early acquainted, have been dilated upon and illustrated with more or less fulness and accuracy. All this shows conclusively that