MAN'S PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE. [To THE EDITOR OP TER
"51MT:120E1.1 Sig,—Will you allow me to direct the attention of. your
readers to a passage in tie" Ode on the Death of the Duke
of Wellington" in which Tennyson make a valuable contri- bution to the controversy as to "man's place in the universe"
(Spectator, March 7th) ?—
" For tho' the Giant Ages heave the hill
And break the shore, and evermore Make and break, and work their will ; Tho' world on world in myriad myriads roll Round us, each with different powers And other forms of life than ours, What know we greater than the soul?"
Matter and spirit are surely absolutely incommensurable. The universe is, indeed, oppressively immense when we take as the
unit of measurement the body in which we dwell, but it is neither great nor small compared with the souL Is a rock, a mountain, a world, a system, a universe, greater or less than the soul ? The question is meaningless until we can fix on a measure applicable to both. Only when this is possible can we argue that the human race is or is not worthy to have the heavens spread out as a tent to dwell in.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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