2 SEPTEMBER 1911, Page 16

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR, — Mr. Mayor's letter in

your issue of August 26th on that glorious, sad, but triumphant song "In Memoriam" is of much interest. May I presume to suggest a simple meaning P The late Rev. Frederick W. Robertson gave the short analysis of canto xxvi. as " the idea of death less dreadful than the conception of the possibility of forgetting." May not the sense of the verses referred to be : If the omniscient God, in whom there is no " before " and no "to be"—who sees the mouldering in the green. tree—should see in the continuance of my life less truth, and in the future of my love indifference, it were better that the shadow of death should shroud my self- contempt. I see no difficulty about the conjunction, or improvement in the suggested alteration.—I am, Sir, &c.,