Nor canst thou prove that thou art both in one.
Thou canst not prove thou art immortal, no,
Nor yet that thou art mortal--nay, my son.
Thou canst not prove that I who speak with thee,
Am not thyself in converse with thyself,
For nothing worthy proving can be proven
Nor yet disproven. Wherefore be thou wise,
Cleave ever to the sunnier side of doubt,
And cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith!
She reels not in the storm of warring words,
She brightens at the clash of 'Yes' and 'No,'
She sees the best that glimmers through the worst,
She feels the sun is hid but for a night,
She spies the summer through the winter bud,
She tastes the fruit before the blossom falls,
She hears the lark within the songless egg,
She finds the fountain where they wailed 'Mirage!'"

This illustrates Tennyson's mental attitude. If all who plume
themselves upon their doubts would put themselves into this posture of
mind, they would find themselves in possession of a very substantial
faith.

Tennyson has touched with light more than one problem of the soul. The
little stanza beginning

"Flower in the crannied wall"

has shown us how the mysteries of being are shared by the commonest
lives; the short lyric "Wages" condenses into a few lines the