Themselves but shadows of a shadow-world."
Tennyson's illumination is certain, clearly defined, distinct and
characteristic, although his poems are much less cosmic than those of
Whitman and of many others. There is, however, in the above, all that is
descriptive of that state of consciousness which accompanies liberation
from the illusion--the _enchantment_ of the merely mortal existence.
Words are, as Tennyson fitly says, but "shadows of a shadow-world"; how
then may we hope to define in terms comprehensible to sense-consciousness
only, emotions and experiences which involve loss of _self_, and at the
same time gain of the _Self_?
Tennyson's frequent excursions into the realm of spiritual consciousness
while still a child, bears out our contention that many children not
infrequently have this experience, and either through reserve or from lack
of ability to explain it, keep the matter to themselves; generally losing
or "outgrowing" the tendency as they enter the activities of school life,
and the mortal mind becomes dominant in them.
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