Sublime

Lord Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam and “Ulysses,” which famously closes with the final lines: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Tennyson, as we see him in his poem, may be compared to the Western scientist who seeks the truth by means of dismembering life.

‘Arma virumque cano,’ began the harsh voice in the darkness, as some recollection of Diana’s mad cousin set Stephen’s memory in motion. ‘Well, thank God we are in Latin again,’ said Jack. ‘Long may it last.’ Long indeed; it lasted until the Equatorial Channel itself, when the morning watch heard the ominous words: ‘… ast illi solvuntur frigore memb

As T. S. Eliot wrote, in a brilliant and painstaking way: I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, For hope would be hope for the wrong thing: wait without love for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.