Introduction - Page 2

errors, but I may have occasionally retained matter which, for one
reason or another, did not recommend itself to them. In no case are
they responsible for the opinions expressed, or for the critical
estimates. They are those of a Tennysonian, and, no doubt, would be
other than they are if the writer were younger than he is. It does
not follow that they would necessarily be more correct, though
probably they would be more in vogue. The point of view must shift
with each generation of readers, as ideas or beliefs go in or out of
fashion, are accepted, rejected, or rehabilitated. To one age
Tennyson may seem weakly superstitious; to another needlessly
sceptical. After all, what he must live by is, not his opinions, but
his poetry. The poetry of Milton survives his ideas; whatever may be
the fate of the ideas of Tennyson his poetry must endure.