Excerpt from Tennyson The nineteenth century is well-named the wonderful, for among all the centuries of man's history there is none that can rival it in variety and range of achievement. Tennyson's life almost spanned this great period. He saw the old order change and give place to new in all departments of human activity. When he was archil-d, tra velling, for instance, was still conducted by almost the same means as it had been when, fifteen cen turies earlier, a Roman emperor passed from the remote province of Britain to Rome. 'when steam came, all this was changed. A new age, if only in mechanical power, was come. But with the new external advance in power went the internal or invisible advance - men's thoughts were widened. As the railway-train sped man on to conquests over time and distance, so the onward-speeding thoughts of man were to lead him ever forward, spinning down the ringing grooves of change. The mere catalogue of the new thoughts and new actions would fill a volume. The great body of modern science was developed. The far-influencing theory of Darwin, that all forms of life were developed from fewer and simpler forms through countless ages, was applied to the study of all branches of knowledge, includ ing Religion. Old hereditary rights and privileges gave way more than ever to those founded on human worth, as political power passed from the few to the many. With the passing of power into the hands of the people, there arose also the query, - are not women of the people, too, and shall they not have education, and rights and votes? On all these and a thousand other topics a flood of literature was poured out. Enlightenment spread, and as it spread, unrest necessarily increased: an enlightened populace will not be content with less than its due. Mean while England's over-seas dominions grew - Mel bourne was founded when the poet was twenty six - commerce, too, grew with tremendous rapidity, and brought men of all nations more and more into contact with each other. Despite the numerous wars, there grew steadily the realisa tion of the great truth, proclaimed by both reli gion and science that all men are brothers, in spirit and in flesh. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.