The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-08-24

into contact with them but who can. with thu
blandeSt case and most elegant indifference
trample upon the tender flowers of feryent trus
end devotion which expand themselves in hcl
soul.
Tennyson hes dared to depart from the hack.
neyed standard of heroes and heroines, in the
Prince and the Lady Ida. Their love does not
grow out of the venerable, worm eaten analogy
OF the tree with vine twining itself about it.
The Prince is not built upon colossal propor-
tons; he IS not seven feet in height; in fact
there is nothing terrible or stern about him.
He is not monster, but the ideal of man.
He thus describes himself:
A Prince WIS, blue eyed and fair offaco.
With length of yellow ringlots, like girl
Just think of the temerity Of cur great poet
who dares to be so unorthodOx as thus TO de-
scribe his hero, while the Princess is as regal
as Cleopatra and in her eyes and hair are cen.
tired the finest glory of darkness.
The Lady Ida is glorious character: she IS
actuated by no petty motives, no sentiments of
vanity or sslfshness. She tramples with scorn
upon the unnecessary restraints with which
harsh and narrow minded men have desired To
surround the development of the woman. She
jee1S the wrongs ct her SEX Tic STRINGS Of =!
though misguided impulses urge her to stand
forth as their champion; and with the most
determined energy and the mort dauntless cour-
age she presses towards the imagined goal :;
having made herself one with her cause. she is
willing for its sake to labor, to suffer, and TO
die.
But the Prince ia not afraid of her noble
strength and splendid pride; he has seen her.
unmoved as rock, breast the waves of prcju-
dice and circumstance, and he feels that she
needs no support no protection, from any man
he has heard her reject his own proffered love
With magnificent disdain, untouched by his
fattering devotion, because her own individu-
ality is lost in zeal for her cause, and he is
aware that she is strong enough to be suffi-
Gent unto herself; but he conoeives of q love
built on a nobler foundation than a sense of
dependence and power to protect Those
ties may exist, as well between dog and his
master, as between man and woman.
When hear man asserting that true and
permanent affections in woman grow out of
ana are tostered by timidity, weakness, and
lmbecliIty, am inclined to suspect he il con-
scious of such mental and moral deformi.y
In himself, that he feels that nothing but the
most outrageous blindness could ever permit
any woman to love him.
Not so is it with cur noble Prince He feels
that Ida is truer woman for scorning those who
would reduce the Development Of wOmanhOod
to mere animal life, and he knows that lie DOS
gesses depth enough in his own nature 10 stay
the splendid strength of hors.
Hear him whom he says
True she errs
But In her own grand way: being herseR
Three times moro noble than three score Of men,
He does not appear TO have the slightest de-
Gre to crush her strOng nature into bondage to
his own; he loves her with an earnestnes3 and
tenderness that receive generally the anatLema
of sentimcntality."
And the Princess Ida, when she is won to
loving him-although she has never known
fear, although she needs no protector although
her great heart moves IL unison with a noble
intellect-she loves with thousand times more
tenderness and devotion than if she had pos
sessed that weakness and childishness which
men call wOmanly. The perfect statue grand
though cold IN its fine proportions, receives the
breath OK deep Life beating from latent pulses,
and bursts into the most imprisoned vitality.
The conclusion Of the poem, in clcquence
and pathos, is unoqualed in our language
Little TO be envied 10 the cold imp8ssiblity Of
that Ean or woman VINO would read it I'M
moved.
close this article with quotation, of which
| cannot help earnestly expressing my hope
that the future may prove it to be- not only the
eloquenoo OF the poet, but tho ioreshadOwing Of
living truth:
. Tho womsn's cause is mans they rise or sink
Together, dwartsd or godlike, bond or free;
For she that out Of Lcthe scales with man
The shining steps OF Nature shares with man
His nights. his days, moves with him to ono goal,
Stays all the fair young planets in her hands:
III che be small, slight-natured, miserable,
How shall men grow
Yet in the long years likor must they grow;
Tho man be more of woman, she OF man;
lie gain in sweetness and in MORAL height,
Nor loose the wrestling thews that throw the world
Sho mental breadth, nor fail in childward care,
Nor lose the ehldko in tho larger mind
Till, at tho last, she set herself to man,
Like perfect music unto noble words
A. A. N.