Hallamshire.
_Cycle of Cathay_ (Vol. iv., p. 37.).--Without reflecting much on the
matter, I have always supposed the "cycle" in Tennyson's line--
"Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay"--
to be the Platonic cycle, or great year, the space of time in which all
the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect of
the equinoxes; which space of time is calculated by Tycho Brahe at
25,816 years, and by Riccioli at 25,920: and I understood the passage
(whether rightly or wrongly I shall be glad to be informed) to mean,
that fifty years of life in Europe were better than any amount of
existence, however extended, in the Celestial Empire.