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diff --git a/41491-8.txt b/41491-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0876680..0000000 --- a/41491-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7320 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Browning and Dogma, by Ethel M. Naish - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Browning and Dogma - Seven Lectures on Browning's Attitude towards Dogmatic Religion - -Author: Ethel M. Naish - -Release Date: November 26, 2012 [EBook #41491] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROWNING AND DOGMA *** - - - - -Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images -generously made available by The Internet Archive.) - - - - - - - - - -BROWNING AND DOGMA - - - - - LONDON: GEORGE BELL AND SONS - PORTUGAL ST. LINCOLN'S INN, W.C. - CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. - NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. - BOMBAY: A. H. WHEELER & CO. - - - - - BROWNING AND DOGMA - - SEVEN LECTURES ON BROWNING'S ATTITUDE - TOWARDS DOGMATIC RELIGION - - - BY ETHEL M. NAISH - (FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF NEWNHAM COLLEGE, CAMB. HIST. TRIPOS) - - - LONDON - GEORGE BELL AND SONS - 1906 - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - LECTURE I - INTRODUCTORY, AND CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS 1 - - LECTURE II - CLEON 27 - - LECTURE III - BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY 61 - - LECTURE IV - CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (i) 93 - - LECTURE V - CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (ii) 123 - - LECTURE VI - CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (iii) 147 - - LECTURE VII - LA SAISIAZ 179 - - - - -SYNOPSIS - - - LECTURE I - - Sources of Browning's influence as a teacher. - - Connection between the five poems of the Course. - - _Caliban upon Setebos_--Origin of--Criticisms. - - Characteristics of Caliban. Cf. Caliban of Shakespeare. - - Analysis of Poem. - (i) Introductory (ll. 1-23). - (ii) Conception of Setebos. - (_a_) Place of abode (ll. 24-25). - (_b_) Creator of things animate and inanimate (ll. 26-55). - (_c_) Motives of Creation: self-gratification or wantonness (ll. - 55-84, 170-199). - (_d_) Answer to prayers addressed by his creatures uncertain - because result of caprice (ll. 85-97). - (_e_) Main characteristic--Power, irresponsible and capricious - (ll. 98-126, 200-240). - (iii) "The Quiet" and Caliban's estimate of evil (ll. 127-141, - 246-249). - - Other lines of thought relating to: - _A._ Doctrine of Sacrifice. - _B._ A Future Life. - _C._ Indirect suggestion of necessity of an Incarnation of the - Deity arising from negative conditions ascribed to "the - Quiet." - - - LECTURE II - - CLEON - - _Cleon._ Cf. _Caliban_: (i) Dramatic change; (ii) point of contact. - - Greek conception of life--Influences affecting Cleon. - - Analysis of Poem. - - I. Introductory and descriptive (ll. 1-42). - - II. Varied attainments of Cleon indicative of progress of race - through development of _complexity_ of nature (ll. 43-157). - Includes (ll. 115-126) Cleon's conception of an Incarnation. - - III. Answer to question of Protus, Is death the end to the - man of thought as well as to the man of action? (ll. 158-323.) - - Increase of happiness not necessarily accompaniment of - fuller knowledge (ll. 181-272). - - Fuller insight, attribute of artist-nature, rather productive - of keener sense of loss in face of death (ll. 273-323). - Cf. _Old Pictures in Florence_, etc. - - IV. Hence arises conception of necessity to man of future - life (ll. 323-335.) - - V. Conclusion. With reference to current reports of Christianity. - Cf. Cleon and Paul (ll. 336-353). - - - LECTURE III - - BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY - - Dramatic character of poem. - - Connection with preceding poems. - - Identity of Bishop Blougram--Browning's treatment of subject--Criticisms - discussed. - - Indications of identity--_A._ External. _B._ Personal characteristics. - - Analysis of Poem. - - I. Epilogue (ll. 971-1014). How far is the Bishop serious in - his assertions? - - II. Introductory. Bishop and Critic (ll. 1-48). - - III. Bishop's Life. Cf. Ideal of Critic (ll. 49-143, 230-240, - 749-805). Cf. _A Grammarian's Funeral_, _Dîs Aliter - Visum_, _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, etc. - - IV. How far schemes of life reconcilable--Difficulties of - consistency in either (ll. 144-212). - - V. Positions compared--Advantages of belief (ll. 213-431). - - VI. Is life divorced from faith possible? (ll. 432-554.) - - VII. Recognition of value of enthusiasm result of faith (ll. 555-646). - - VIII. Is "pure faith" possible? (ll. 647-748.) - - IX. Deeper thoughts suggested: - Faith increased through conflict with Doubt. - Truth essential to Life. - Mystical element of Blougram's faith. - - - LECTURE IV - - CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (i) - - Special interest of poems, common and individual. - - _Christmas Eve._ Faith corporate. - - I. Realism in Art, I-IV--Zion Chapel and Methodism--Soliloquist - at first capable of criticism only--Inspiration - of Love wanting (ll. 117-118, 139-184). - - II. Truth absolute, IV-IX--God revealed in Nature as _Power_ - and _Love_--Knowledge finite, Love infinite. - - The Vision (ll. 373-520)--Essentials of worship, spirit and - truth. - - III. Rome, St. Peter's, X-XII. Symbolism or materialism in - worship? - - IV. German University, XIII-XVIII--Historic criticism by - Lecturer of Christian creed--Treatment of criticism by - soliloquist. - - V. Mental attitude, result of night's experience, XIX-XXI. - - (i) Easy tolerance, succeeded by (ii) realization of necessity - of individual acceptance of creed. - - VI. Return to Zion Chapel and ultimate choice of creed, XXII. - Reasons for choice. - - - LECTURE V - - CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (ii) - - _Easter Day._ Faith individual. - - Part I, Sections I-XII. Discussion between _First Speaker_, struggling - with difficulties involved in practical acceptance of Christianity, - and _Second Speaker_, who would hold the Faith without question. - - _First Speaker_, I (ll. 1-12, 15-17, 21-28), III, V, VII (ll. - 171-203), VIII, X, XII. - - _Second Speaker_, I (ll. 13, 14, 18-20), II, IV, VI, VII (ll. - 204-226), IX, XI. - - Part II. _The Vision._ Sections XIII-XXXIII. - - Introductory, XIII, XIV. - - The Judgment, XV-XXII; Character of. - - Results. Freedom in complete possession of Earth. No satisfaction - derivative therefrom in (_a_) Nature, XXIII, XXIV; (_b_) Art, XXV, - XXVI; (_c_) Intellectual attainment, XXVII, XXVIII; (_d_) Love-- - sought as final refuge, XXIX-XXX (l. 969). - - Argument in favour of credibility of Gospel story, XXX (ll. 969-990). - - Ultimate results of Vision--Acceptance of existing uncertainty - rather than of satiety within temporal limitations, XXXI-XXXIII. - - - LECTURE VI - - CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (iii) - - General character of poems. How far dramatic? - - Expression of Browning's personal opinions under dramatic guise on - - I. Doctrine of the Incarnation. - - II. Faith and Life temporal. - - III. Judgment and Future Punishment. - - Dramatic element stronger in references to - - IV. Roman Catholicism. - - V. Nonconformity of "Zion Chapel." - - VI. Asceticism. - - - LECTURE VII - - LA SAISIAZ - - Peculiar interest attaching as _direct_ expression of Browning's thought. - - General character of poem. Cf. _Prospice_. - - Prologue outcome of conclusions of poem. - - Circumstances giving rise to _La Saisiaz_. - - Death of Miss Egerton-Smith, 1877. - - Analysis of Poem. - - _A._ Prelude (ll. 1-404). - - (i) Narrative of events leading to subsequent reflections (ll. - 1-139). - - (ii) Immortality of the soul--Treatment of question (ll. - 139-179). - - (iii) Nature of Immortality (ll. 179-216). - - (iv) Primary truths constituting basis of succeeding argument - (ll. 217-234). - - (v) Grounds for belief in a future life--Imperfections of - present life--Its probationary character--Preponderance of - evil (ll. 235-404). - - _B._ Argument, imaginary, between Fancy and Reason (ll. 405-524). - - _C._ Conclusions from foregoing (ll. 525-604)--Supplementary (ll. - 605-618). - - Relation of _La Saisiaz_ to earlier poems considered. - - Its relation to Browning's attitude towards Christianity--Christianity - and a Future Life. - - Summary of Browning's creed as deduced from foregoing considerations-- - Dogma and spiritual growth. - - - - -ERRATA - - -Page 32, line 21, _for_ "four hundred years" _read_ "five hundred." - -Page 39, line 11, _for_ "men to become" _read_ "man." - -Page 71, line 30, _for_ "interval of six years, in 1847" _read_ "four -years, in 1845." - -Page 71, line 31, _for_ "1853" _read_ "1851." - - - - -LECTURE I - -INTRODUCTORY, AND CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS - - - - -BROWNING AND DOGMA - - - - -LECTURE I - -INTRODUCTORY, AND CALIBAN UPON SETEBOS - - He at least believed in Soul, was very sure of God.[1] - - -To this faith, to this assurance, is largely attributable the influence -unquestionably possessed by Browning as a teacher in the nineteenth and -twentieth centuries. For the intentionally didactic element in the work -may not honestly be ignored in whatever degree it is held to militate -against artistic merit. Amid the throng of seekers after Truth in the -world of poetry, Browning stands pre-eminent as one who not only sought -Truth, but, having gained what he held to be Truth, kept it as "the sole -prize of Life." Poets of the school of thought of which Matthew Arnold and -A. H. Clough may perhaps be regarded as among the more prominent -exponents, are able to give no even approximately satisfying answer to the -questionings bound inevitably to arise, at some time or other, in all -minds whose energies are not dissipated by a too ready compliance with the -demands of the hour. In certain moods their work appeals to us -irresistibly, but the appeal is one of sympathy with doubt rather than of -suggestion of solution. The author of _Obermann_ may indeed in "hours of -gloom" remind us that there have been "hours of insight"; that the -individual soul, though through prolonged struggle and effort alone, may -"mount hardly to eternal life." The consolation he would offer to -spiritual depression is that of self-dependence. Nature may soothe, but is -powerless to satisfy; the appeal to her is answered by that which, -although "severely clear," is but "an air-born voice," directing the -enquirer back upon himself-- - - Resolve to be thyself, and know that he - Who finds himself loses his misery.[2] - -So, too, Clough, sympathizing fully with doubt, may in his more inspired -moments speak of hope and of the assurance - - 'Tis better to have fought and lost - Than never to have fought at all. - -Although from his pen has come at least one short poem[3] worthy in -invigorating force of the faith of Browning himself, yet the note of -defeat rather than the ring of triumph is more generally characteristic of -his language. Tennyson had splendid glimpses of the Truth, passing visions -of glory; yet here, too, the vision was but transitory, the full glory -evanescent. - -The continued popularity of _In Memoriam_ is undoubtedly due in large -measure to the fact that the author has there given poetic utterance to -those questionings and aspirations of the human soul, peculiar to no time -or place, to no nation or form of creed--to the cry wrung from the heart -when inexorable Death brings with it the hour of separation. There is in -truth a triumphant note towards the close of _In Memoriam_: the child of -the fifty-fourth stanza "crying in the night, and with no language but a -cry," though yet crying in the night, becomes in the final section (stanza -cxxiv) a child "who knows his father near." But even when the heart rises -triumphantly, and in defiance of the arguments of reason asserts "I have -felt," the faith so expressed is not the faith of Browning. Beyond all the -temporary darkness of _La Saisiaz_ we recognize that the author of -_Asolando_ is speaking nothing more than the truth when he tells us that -he "never doubted clouds would break." The dispersal of the clouds -gathered over La Salève added confidence to the _Epilogue_ which -constitutes so fitting a close to the life's work. The assertion "I -believe in God and Truth and Love," expressed through the medium of the -lover of Pauline, finds its echo in the more direct personal assertion of -the concluding lines of _La Saisiaz_, "He believed in Soul, was very sure -of God." This was the irreducible minimum of Browning's creed. How much -more he held as absolute, soul-satisfying truth it is the design of this -and the six following lectures to determine. - -And here at once on the threshold of our investigation we are confronted -by the difficulty inseparable from any consideration of Browning's -literary work; the difficulty of eliminating the dramatic and gauging the -extent of the purely personal element. Although, as was inevitable, such -difficulty has been universally recognized by critics and students, yet -the very strength of the dramatic power has in many cases proved -misleading. Browning has too completely lost himself in his subject. In -the writings of the man capable of merging his personal identity in that -of an Andrea and a Pippa, of a Caliban and a S. John; of assuming -positions as opposed as those of a Guido and a Caponsacchi, it is a -sufficiently simple matter to discover opinions supporting directly or -indirectly any individual line of thought. To him who seeks with intent -to obtain such confirmation may the promise be fairly made - - As is your sort of mind - So is your sort of search; you'll find - What you desire.[4] - -Moreover, whilst the obscurity of the writing has been the subject of too -general comment, the frequently elusive character of the meaning may be -liable to escape notice. A certain course of thought having been detected -is accepted to the exclusion of an even more important undercurrent only -now and again rising to the surface. Despite the difficulties attendant -upon a genuine study of Browning, both from the frequently recondite -character of the subject and the amount of literary or historical -knowledge demanded of the reader, comparatively slight attempt has so far -been made towards a detailed treatment of individual poems such as that, -for example, accorded to the plays of Shakespeare. And yet such -concentrative labour possesses the highest value as a protection against -misconstruction arising from a too hastily formed conception of the -relative proportions of personal intention and dramatic presentation. -Having once fallen into the error of accepting an under-estimate (an -over-estimate is rarely possible) of the histrionic element in certain -avowedly dramatic soliloquies, there is danger lest the temptation of -seeking amongst others confirmation of the theory thus suggested should -prove too strong for our literary honesty. - -Any investigation as to Browning's attitude towards religion in the wider -acceptation of the term--as that which relates to the spiritual element in -human nature and life--must of necessity be co-extensive with his work. -For him to whom "the development of a soul" was the object alone worthy -the devotion of the intellectual faculties, it was inevitable that to the -consideration of this spiritual element his mind should continually -revert. From _Pauline_ to _Asolando_ it is hardly too much to say such -consideration is never absent. With the addition to the title of our -subject of the term _dogmatic_, the scope of the inquiry is at once -narrowed, whilst the difficulty of ascertaining fairly the position is -possibly proportionately increased, since the writer, who has been -designated "the most Christian poet of the century," is claimed by -Unitarians as their own. It is, therefore, of especial importance in -dealing with the subject that no assumption be made, no assertion -advanced, unsupported by adequate proof. The direct statements of the few -non-dramatic poems afford us, however, some vantage-ground whence to begin -our advance: for the rest, progress must be made through careful -comparison of the dramatic poems as to subject and treatment, (we may not -judge of one poem apart from the rest) recognizing that the dramatic -character of the soliloquy does not necessarily _exclude_, as it does not -necessarily _imply_, an expression of the author's own opinions. When, -therefore, we find the same theme perpetually treated through the medium -of different externals, when we are met by similar expressions of belief -emanating from the various soliloquists of the _Dramatis Personae_ and the -_Men and Women Series_, we may not unreasonably hold ourselves to possess -fair _prima facie_ evidence that in a theory so treated is centred much of -the interest of the writer; in the arguments deduced is to be accepted a -more or less definite expression of the writer's own belief, or at least -of that form of creed to which he is most strongly attracted. - -Of the five poems chosen as illustrative or explanatory of Browning's -attitude towards that which we have designated _dogmatic_ religion, one -only, _La Saisiaz_, the latest in point of time, is non-dramatic in -character. Between the other four a line of connection is easily -established, since all deal with different aspects of the same subject -regarded through different media. If, then, beginning with the lowest link -of the chain, we gain by means of a consideration of _Caliban_ some -realization of the dramatic feats which Browning could accomplish at -pleasure, we shall find less difficulty in distinguishing between the -dramatic and personal elements in _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_ where the -line of demarcation is more finely drawn. - -In _Caliban upon Setebos_ (from the _Men and Women Series_ of 1855) is -presented the lowest conception of a Deity and of his dealings with the -world and humanity, as evolved by a being incapable of aspiration, -satisfied with existing conditions in so far, although in so far only, as -they afford opportunity for material gratification. With _Cleon_ follows -the substitution of the Greek conception of life at the beginning of the -Christian era, speculations as to the design of Zeus in his intercourse -with man. The speculator, at once poet, musician, artist, to whom have -been accessible all the stores of Greek philosophy and Greek culture, -feels inevitably the necessity for the existence of a Deity differing from -that of the monster of Prospero's isle. Nevertheless to the Greek thinker -the immortality of the soul is not yet more than a vague suggestion, the -outcome of desire. His world has come into touch, but at its extreme edge, -with the recently promulgated tenets of Christianity. To this inhabitant -of "the sprinkled isles" the teaching of the Apostles of Galilee is so far -"a doctrine to be held by no sane man": and yet his very yearning, nay, -even his reasonable deductions from the experience of life, point to the -need of "doctrines" such as those which he now deems impossible of -credence. Of the character of the changes separating the world of -religious thought of Blougram from that of Cleon, suggestions are -afforded by the _Epilogue_ to the _Dramatis Personae_. The Christianity -which Cleon criticized from afar has, by the date of the Bishop's -_Apology_, become the creed of the civilized world. Not only has the time -passed when - - The Temple filled with a cloud, - Even the House of the Lord, - Porch bent and pillar bowed: - For the presence of the Lord, - In the glory of His Cloud, - Had filled the House of the Lord. (_Epilogue, Dram. Pers._) - -But more than this, the _simplicity_ of the earlier faith is at an end. -Past, too, are those mediaeval days when the faith of a prelate of the -Church would have been assumed without question by the lay world. Both -stages of development have been left behind, but the yet later condition -has not been attained when scepticism shall cause as little comment as did -the childlike faith of the Middle Ages: a condition defined by the lament -of Renan-- - - Gone now! All gone across the dark so far, - Sharpening fast, shuddering ever, shutting still, - Dwindling into the distance, dies that star - Which came, stood, opened once! (_Epilogue, Dram. Pers._) - -_Bishop Blougram's Apology_ is a possible exposition of the religious -attitude of a professing Christian of the nineteenth century. It matters -little whether his form of creed be that of Anglican or Roman Catholic: -his position as a dignitary of the Church alone compels apology. From -these unquestionably dramatic poems we pass to one, the classification of -which appears to be usually regarded as less obvious, judging from the -criticisms of commentators. How far the decision of the soliloquist in -_Christmas Eve_ may be justly held as that of Browning himself is a -question requiring separate and careful consideration (to be given in the -Sixth Lecture). Here it is sufficient to notice that, entering the -confines of dogmatic religion, in this poem has found more immediate -expression that which we may fairly deem one principle, at least, of the -teaching which its author would impress upon his public; that in no one -form of creed is the Divine influence to be exclusively found; that -wherever love dwells, in however limited a degree, there, too, may with -confidence be sought the Presence of the Supreme Love. In _Easter Day_ the -discussion is again transferred to a wider plane and deals with the -individual difficulties involved in an unconditional acceptance of -Christianity itself--difficulties in the end not only acknowledged as -inevitable, but thankfully accepted by the speaker as essential to the -strengthening of personal faith, to the advancement of individual -development. Finally, with _La Saisiaz_ we are brought face to face -unmistakably with the struggle, with the doubts and yearnings of Browning -himself at a critical hour of life, twelve years before the end--a -struggle whence he was ultimately to issue with faith in the fundamental -articles of his belief confirmed and deepened. - -Of other poems bearing more or less directly upon the subject, the most -notable as well as the most familiar, are probably _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, _An -Epistle of Karshish_, and _A Death in the Desert_. Of these, _Rabbi Ben -Ezra_, in its treatment of the theory of asceticism and of the working out -of the design of the perfect unity of the individual human life, goes -further afield and carries us beyond the limits of any definite dogma: -though on the ascetic side it may serve as comment on some of the -conclusions of _Easter Day_. _An Epistle of Karshish_ embodies two of -Browning's favourite themes: (1) the essentially probationary character -of human life as exemplified by the attitude of Lazarus towards things -temporal, an attitude at once becoming _super_-human through a revelation -obviating the necessity for faith; (2) the collateral suggestions -contained in the estimate of Christianity conceived by the Arab physician. -Of these, the first may be well employed as a comparison with the final -decision of _Easter Day_, the second with the references of Cleon to the -Apostolic teaching. _A Death in the Desert_ offers but another form of -refutation of the results of the German methods of Biblical criticism -represented by the teaching of the Göttingen Professor of _Christmas Eve_. -Direct declarations of faith such as those contained in _Prospice_ and the -_Epilogue_ to _Asolando_ serve but as confirmation of the assertion -standing at the head of this Lecture. - -To a superficial consideration the first of the dramatic poems is not -pre-eminently attractive, nor as a soliloquist is Caliban attractive in -the ordinary acceptation of the term as an appeal to the senses affording -distinctly pleasurable sensations. But the attraction peculiar to the -grotesque in any form is here present in a marked degree: an attraction -frequently stronger than that exerted by the purely beautiful, involving -as it does a more direct intellectual appeal; since grotesqueness, whether -in Nature or in Art, does not usually denote simplicity. And Caliban is by -no means a simple being, rather is he a singularly remarkable creation -even for the genius of Browning. As we know, the idea suggested itself -whilst the poet was reading _The Tempest_, when there flashed through his -mind the passage from the Psalms (l, 21) which stands beneath the title: -"Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself." In a -recognition of the full significance of this fact may be found the key to -all seeming inconsistencies which have evoked criticisms describing the -poem from its theological aspect as a "monstrous Bridgewater -treatise,"[5] and "a fragment of Browning's own Christian apologetics," -the "reasoning" of Caliban as "an initial absurdity,"[6] whilst Caliban -himself is designated "a savage with the introspective powers of a Hamlet -and the theology of an Evangelical clergyman"[7]--the entire scheme of -this "wonderful" work being even summarized as a "design to describe the -way in which a primitive nature may at once be afraid of its gods and yet -familiar with them."[8] There is perhaps more to be said for the poem than -the suggestions involved in any or all of these comments. A protracted -investigation as to how far Browning's Caliban is an immediate development -of the Caliban of _The Tempest_ would be beside the main object of these -Lectures; but for an understanding of the value to be reasonably attached -to the soliloquy it is essential to estimate as fairly as may be possible -the character, intellectual and moral, of the soliloquist, since Caliban's -conception of his Creator must necessarily be influenced by the -limitations of his own powers, whether physical or mental. For here, as -elsewhere in the dramatic poems, Browning has completely identified -himself with his soliloquist. How far, therefore, we are justified in -claiming for Caliban's theology the title of "a fragment of Browning's own -Christian apologetics" can only be decided by a careful consideration and -a comparison with work not avowedly dramatic in character. - -Reading again those scenes of _The Tempest_, in which Caliban plays a -part, we become more than ever convinced that the Caliban of the poem is -but the Caliban of the play seen through the medium of Browning's -phantasy. This, however, is not equivalent to the admission of simplicity -as a characteristic of this strange being, merely is it a recognition that -the potentialities existent in Shakespeare's Caliban are nearer to -becoming actualities in the Caliban of Browning. Caliban's may, indeed, be -the nature of a primitive being, but the nature is not, therefore, simple; -to the peculiarly complex character of his personality is due the main -interest of the poem--curiously undeveloped in some departments of his -nature, the moral sense appears to be almost non-existent, he is, -nevertheless, an imaginative creature with a distinct poetic and artistic -vein in his composition. Whilst Prospero's estimate of him seems to have -been a fairly accurate one: - - The most lying slave - Whom stripes may move, not kindness; - -as Mr. Stopford Brooke has pointed out "his very cursing is -imaginative"[9]-- - - As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed - With raven's feather from unwholesome fen - Drop on you both. (Act I, Sc. ii.) - -And it is Caliban who appreciates the music of Ariel which to Trinculo and -Stephano, products of civilization so-called, is a thing fearful as the -work of the devil. - - Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, - Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. - (Act III, Sc. ii.) - -Such is the re-assurance offered by the "man-monster" of Shakespeare. But -the Caliban of Browning is yet in his primitive condition, untouched by -contact with the outer world as represented even by these dregs of a -civilization which, whilst checking the expression of the brutish -instinct, increases by repression the force of passions struggling for an -outlet to which conventionality bars the way. - -To the Caliban of _The Tempest_ Prospero rather than Setebos is the -immediate author of the evils of his environment. He has not yet reached -the stage of formulated speculation with regard to the character of his -mother's god--to which Browning's Caliban shows himself to have attained. -And it is worthy of notice that the Caliban of the poem does not accept -without examination such information as he has received from Sycorax -concerning Setebos. Only after due consideration does he advance his own -ideas (not according with those of Sycorax) on the subject; proving -himself thus capable not merely of imagination but of reasoning; his -intellect is alive whatever limitations may be assigned to its capacity -for exercise. Although no immediate evidence is afforded of the -capabilities of Shakespeare's Caliban in the regions of abstract thought, -yet of the potential existence of the ratiocinative faculty sufficient -testimony is afforded by his attitude towards the supernatural powers of -Prospero, by his scheme for rendering the new-comers instruments, -subserving his own interests in his designs against his employer and -tyrant--all this clearly the outcome of something more than a mere brute -cunning. - -With these aspects of the character of Caliban before him as ground-work, -Browning has developed his poem; and in the twenty-three opening lines, -introductory to the definite reflections concerning Setebos, are -discoverable evidences of all the characteristics of the Caliban of _The -Tempest_. Browning has done nothing without intention, and we are here -prepared, or should be prepared, for what is to follow later in the poem. -Here the "man-monster" is described as sprawling in the mire, in the -enjoyment of such comfort as may be derived from the sunshine in the heat -of the day: the sensuous side of the nature finding its satisfaction in - - Kicking both feet in the cool slush - -and feeling - - About his spine small eft things course, - Run in and out each arm, and make him laugh. (ll. 5, 6.) - -At the same time is recognizable the artistic element in the -composition--for not only does he enjoy - - A fruit to snap at, catch and crunch, - -but he - - Looks out o'er yon sea which sunbeams cross - And recross till they weave a spider-web - (Meshes of fire, some great fish breaks at times.) (ll. 11-14.) - -Here is assuredly the language of no mere savage! Compare with this the -later descriptions of the inhabitants of the island as assigned to Setebos -(ll. 44-55). No mere dry category of animal life, it suggests the result -of the observations of a mind at once poetic and imaginative. - - Yon otter, sleek-wet, black, lithe as a leech, - Yon auk, one fire-eye in a ball of foam, - That floats and feeds; a certain badger brown - He hath watched hunt with that slant white-wedge eye - By moonlight; and the pie with the long tongue - That pricks deep into oakwarts for a worm, - And says a plain word when she finds her prize, - But will not eat the ants: the ants themselves - That build a wall of seeds and settled stalks - About their hole. - -Not because this is the work of a poet, but because it is the work of a -_dramatic_ poet do we get these lines: and Browning has unquestionably, I -think, given its character to this earlier passage with intention. He -would suggest that this element--poetic and imaginative--in Caliban's -nature must of necessity influence his conception of his Deity. - -But whilst emphasis is thus given to the sensuous and artistic aspects of -the character of this most complex being, by these introductory lines is -more than suggested the obliquity of the moral nature--this, too, -influencing, as is inevitable, its theology. Deception is to the Caliban -of Browning as to the Caliban of Shakespeare, the very breath of life. His -pleasure in inactivity is vastly intensified by the consciousness that he -is thereby defrauding Prospero and Miranda of the fruits of his labours. - - It is good to cheat the pair, and gibe, - Letting the rank tongue blossom into speech. (ll. 22, 23.) - -Immediately combined with this is the form of cowardice distinctive of the -lowest moral grade, the cowardice which would insult whilst occupying a -position of security, but which grovels before the object of its antipathy -as soon as it sees reason to fear approaching vengeance. To the mere -physical pleasure of basking in the sunlight is added not alone the -negative gratification of the consciousness of defrauding his employer, -but the more active enjoyment of soliloquizing concerning "that Setebos -whom his dam called God." And why? With the sole purpose of affording him -annoyance. In the winter-time such discussion might prove dangerous to the -speaker, as Caliban possesses an insurmountable dread of that "cold" so -powerful a weapon in the hands of his Deity. Even in summer he deems it -desirable to avoid a too openly offered challenge to Setebos; hence the -employment throughout his soliloquy of the third person, singular, in a -curious attempt to mislead his hearer. - -And what according to Browning's theory as expressed elsewhere are we to -expect of the god of this untaught, half-savage being, morally -undeveloped, with artistic and poetic faculties already awakening? More or -less will it necessarily be the outcome of his own experiences. A -commentary on that familiar passage which S. John in _A Death in the -Desert_ (ll. 412-419) puts into the mouth of the objector to the truth of -the facts of Christianity, who would regard the conception of the Godhead -as subjective rather than objective in character. First in the history of -the race came the ascription to the Deity of hands, feet, and bodily -parts; then followed the human passions of pride and anger. Finally, all -yield to the higher attributes of "power, love, and will," these -succeeding to and supplanting the earlier characteristics. In his -imaginary answer the Evangelist is represented as attributing these -changes of conception to the necessity of growth in human nature whereby -man uses such aids to his development as may be attainable. The Truth -itself remaining unaltered and unalterable, man obtains from time to time -fuller glimpses thereof, the greater superseding, even apparently -falsifying, the less. Caliban, uniting the two earlier conceptions of the -Deity--as a being possessed of bodily parts and human passions--offers but -the merest suggestion of any further and higher development. Yet there are -such _indirect_, should we rather say _negative_, suggestions observable -towards the close of the poem. - -To Setebos is assigned as a dwelling-place "the cold o' the moon," -possibly because the speaker feels it satisfactory that the god whom he -fears should be at what he deems a distance sufficiently remote from his -own habitation; partly also because to him "the cold o' the moon" or, -indeed, any cold, is suggestive of intensely disagreeable sensations, and -to his unsatisfactory environment he ascribes the attempts of Setebos -towards creation as designed to effect a change in his own condition. All -things animate or inanimate inhabiting the island have been, according to -Caliban, the work of Setebos. What still lies beyond the range of his -creative power? Not the sun, as might have been anticipated, since to -Caliban its agency is purely beneficial, and its influence apparently of -limitless extent; not the sun, "clouds, winds, meteors," but the stars. -These "came otherwise," how or by what means the soliloquist is unable to -determine. - -Then arises the further question. If, indeed, Setebos is the author of the -visible creation, what has been the motive instigating him to the work? In -accordance with Caliban's experience of his own nature, it is impossible -that any motive other than self-interest in some form or another should -have actuated the Creator: hence he attributes the design to the -discomfort of the dwelling-place "in the cold o' the moon." Nevertheless, -even after the creation of the sun its warmth proved insufficient for -comfort, the god failed to enjoy "the air he was not born to breathe." -Again, in the constitution of the animate beings inhabiting the island he -strove to realize (so says Caliban) "what himself would fain in a manner -be." Hence the creatures made by Setebos are "weaker in most points" than -is the god himself, yet "stronger in a few." A theory suggesting an -interesting comparison with the arguments by which David in _Saul_ deduces -the necessity of an Incarnation. Caliban ascribes to Setebos the power of -originating faculties which he does not himself possess, and which in the -nature of things he might, therefore, be deemed incapable of realizing. -The illustration or comparison offered is that of Caliban's own imagined -occupation in an idle moment, when the idea occurs to him to make a bird -of clay, endowing it with the power of flight, a power not numbered -amongst his own capabilities. Thus he holds that Setebos, too, may create -living beings, bestowing upon them faculties which he is himself incapable -of exercising, making them, though, "weaker in some points, stronger in a -few." To the more cultivated intelligence of the Hebrew psalmist, as -represented by Browning, such theory is untenable. That "the creature -[should] surpass the Creator--the end what Began"[10] is as -incomprehensible as it is illogical. Love existent in the creature is to -David proof sufficient of the existence of love in the Creator. So thinks -not Caliban. And yet with the curious inconsistency marking the reasoning -of the slowly developing intellect, Setebos is represented as mocking his -creatures whilst envying the capabilities with which he has gifted them. -Thus: - - So brave, so better though they be, - It nothing skills if He begins to plague. (ll. 66, 67.) - -As the creation has been the result of mere wantonness, so the recognition -of all appeal from created beings to the Creator will be governed by the -same caprice. As with Caliban's imagined dealings with his clay bird, he -would do good or ill accordingly - - As the chance were this might take or else - Not take my fancy. (ll. 90-91.) - -So also is the action of the Deity towards his creation in all relations -of life. He has elected Prospero for a career of "knowledge and power," -and, as his servant judges, one of supreme comfort, whilst he has -appointed Caliban, equally deserving--in his own estimation--to hold the -position of slave. - - He hath a spite against me, that I know, - Just as He favours Prosper, who knows why? (ll. 202-203.) - -Power which is irresponsible is exercised in a manner wholly capricious. -There is no more satisfactory explanation of the dealings of Setebos with -his creatures than that which Caliban can offer for his own treatment of -the crabs - - That march now from the mountain to the sea, - -when he may - - Let twenty pass, and stone the twenty-first, - Loving not, hating not, just choosing so. (ll. 101-103.) - -Of one thing the savage deems himself assured, again judging from the -pettiness which he finds existent in his own nature. Of one thing he is -assured--that the wrath of the god is most readily to be kindled through -envy, envy of the very objects of his own creation. A display of happiness -is the surest method of incurring his vengeance; therefore - - Even so, 'would have Him misconceive, suppose - This Caliban strives hard and ails no less, - And always, above all else, envies Him: (ll. 263-265.) - -a belief inherent in all pre-Christian creeds in intimate connection with -the doctrine of sacrifice, the place of which in the theology of Caliban -must receive separate consideration. So does Herakles warn Admetus against -indulgence in a supreme happiness, - - Only the rapture must not grow immense: - Take care, nor wake the envy of the Gods.[11] - -Thus will Caliban in spite kill two flies, basking "on the pompion-bell -above," whilst he gives his aid to - - Two black painful beetles [who] roll their ball - On head and tail as if to save their lives. (ll. 260-261.) - -Such are, according to Browning, some of the main features of the "Natural -Theology in the Island," suggesting conditions of life at once depressing -and degrading: no satisfaction for the present but in deception of the -over-ruling power, the sole hope for the future, that this dread being may -tire of his early creation and hence relax his malicious watch in favour -of a new and distant world, made "to please him more." It is not difficult -to conceive of such a creed as the outcome of deductions from the -teaching of Sycorax, who held that "the Quiet" was the virtual creator, -the work of Setebos being limited to disturbing and "vexing" these -creations of the Quiet. In this aspect Setebos would appear as -representative of the powers of evil. And of great interest in any study -of Browning are the suggestions resulting from Caliban's treatment of the -subject. (1) He holds that the author of evil must be supreme. That the -Quiet, had he been the creator, _could_ unquestionably, and, therefore, -_would_ most certainly have rendered his creatures of strength sufficient -to be impervious to the attacks of Setebos. Therefore he attributes the -weaknesses of humanity to design on the part of a creator who would -wantonly torment. - - His dam held that the Quiet made all things - Which Setebos vexed only: 'holds not so. - Who made them weak, meant weakness He might vex. - Had He meant other, while His hand was in, - Why not make horny eyes no thorn could prick, - Or plate my scalp with bone against the snow, - Or overscale my flesh 'neath joint and joint, - Like an orc's armour? Ay,--so spoil His sport! (ll. 170-177.) - -(2) Again, and later in the poem, he treats Setebos--or Evil--not merely -as a negative aspect of good, but as that which may in time become -transmuted into good. He may - - Surprise even the Quiet's self - Some strange day--or, suppose, grow into it - As grubs grow butterflies. (ll. 246-248.) - -(3) One further alternative suggests itself--and this yet more -probable--that evil may finally be overcome of good, or may of itself -become inoperative. - - That some strange day, will either the Quiet catch - And conquer Setebos, or likelier He - Decrepit may doze, doze, as good as die. (ll. 281-283.) - -Two or three less obvious thoughts may not be omitted in any consideration -of a poem containing much which is characteristic of Browning's work -wherever found. From the theology of Caliban inevitably results _the -doctrine of sacrifice_, though in its lowest, crudest form. Since that -condition most likely to excite the wrath of Setebos, as we have already -had occasion to notice, is the happiness of his creations, Caliban would, -therefore, present himself as a creature full of misery, moaning even in -the sun; only in secret rejoicing that he is making Setebos his dupe. -Should he be discovered in his deception, in order to avoid the greater -evil attendant on the expression of the god's wrath, he would of his own -will submit to the lesser ill; - - Cut a finger off, - Or of my three kid yearlings burn the best, - Or let the toothsome apples rot on tree, - Or push my tame beast for the orc to taste. (ll. 271-274.) - -A sacrifice the outcome of fear. Spare me, and I will do all to appease -thy wrath. Into the midst of the meditations of Caliban breaks the -thunder-storm, and what he has depicted as a possible event of the future -has become a present danger. - - White blaze, - A tree's head snaps--and there, there, there, there, there, - His thunder follows! Fool to gibe at Him! (ll. 289-291.) - -The prospective vows are now made in earnest. - - 'Lieth flat and loveth Setebos! - 'Maketh his teeth meet through his upper lip, - Will let those quails fly, will not eat this mouth - One little mess of whelks, so he may 'scape. (ll. 292-295.) - -Sacrifice as distinguished from or opposed to the principle of -_self_-sacrifice. Whilst self-sacrifice, self-abnegation, -self-suppression--call it what we may--marks the crowning height of -spiritual attainment, scaled alone by the few, and those the pioneers and -saviours of the race, all early forms of religion bear witness to the -existence of this belief in _sacrifice_--the propitiation of the Deity--as -an element inherent in human nature, whether embodied in the legend of -Polycrates, in the vow of Jacob at Bethel,[12] or in that condition of his -descendants when in accordance with the prophetic denunciation[13] -sacrifice had superseded mercy and burnt-offerings constituted a -substitute for the knowledge of God. Again and again on different soil, -amid men of alien races, the principle of sacrifice is found reappearing -throughout history. As the enthusiasm of self-sacrifice becomes enfeebled, -by a retrograde process of moral development the barren growth of -sacrifice would appear to thrive. The echo of the unquestioning outcry, -"God wills it," had died away when, in the crusading vows of the later era -of the movement, expression was too frequently given to the theory of -_sacrifice_. How far may the one be regarded as the outcome of the other, -the higher the development of the lower instinct? When man has learned - - To know even hate is but a mask of love's - To see a good in evil, and a hope - In ill-success;[14] - -then, too, may the links between sacrifice and self-sacrifice become -apparent. Along this line of connection we have to pass in traversing the -ground between _Caliban_ and _Easter Day_. - -And what place does the creed of the unwilling slave of Setebos accord to -the _life beyond the grave_? Will the future, if future there be, prove -but an indefinite prolongation of the present? From the evils of this -life the groveller in the mud sees no escape. He has discarded that tenet -of his mother's creed which included a theory of retribution after death -when Setebos "both plagued enemies and feasted friends." Such theory would -indeed have been wholly inconsistent with that which represented the god -as indifferent to his creatures, as utterly capricious in his dealings for -good or ill--whereby he may be said to have neither enemies nor friends. -No, poor Caliban, brutal and selfish, can but hold that "with the life, -the pain shall stop." What satisfaction to be derived from the continuance -of a loveless existence? Without love, life to the author of _Caliban upon -Setebos_ would have lost its use, would be fearful of contemplation; the -"can it be, and must, and will it?" of _La Saisiaz_[15] finds no faintest -echo on Prospero's isle. In the one case the utterances are the utterances -of Caliban, in the other those of Browning himself. From the calculations -of the one the doctrine of immortality is as inevitably excluded as it is -inevitably included in those of the other. - -Finally, whilst in the various scattered references to "the Quiet" are to -be found some of the most striking evidences of the existence of the -artistic element in Caliban's nature--"the something Quiet" which he deems -resting "o'er the head of Setebos" - - Out of His reach, that feels nor joy nor grief. - - * * * * * - - [The] stars the outposts of its couch; (ll. 132-138.) - -yet far more than this is involved in the suggestions of the relations -subsisting between the Quiet and Setebos and the creation to which Caliban -belongs. The Quiet too far from Caliban's sphere of existence for him to -be in any way affected by it. He only surmises as to its possible -influence upon, and ultimate triumph over, Setebos, who partakes -sufficiently of his own nature to call forth fear and enmity, who lives in -a proximity to His creations which renders advisable the avoidance of any -action calculated to excite His wrath. The Quiet, the impersonation of -supreme power, is beyond the reach of all the ills attendant upon this -lower phase of existence, hence is equally incapable of experiencing joy -and grief, since both alike are relative terms. Although here suggested as -incidental to Caliban's reflections, the theory involved is one appearing -more or less frequently elsewhere in Browning's work, notably in _A Death -in the Desert_, and again in _Cleon_, when it is, however, applied to "the -lower and inconscious forms of life." To the Supreme Power beyond man, as -to the world of animal life below, is denied "man's distinctive mark," -progress. Thus incidentally in these references to the Quiet may be traced -a _suggestion foreshadowing_ in a degree, however remote, _the necessity -of an Incarnation_. Not that this outcome of his theories would appear to -have found any place in Caliban's mind; it may possibly indeed be an -assumption, wanting sufficient warrant, to assign to Browning himself any -definite intention in the matter. Nevertheless, even the suggestion, -remote as we may admit it to be, leads up to the argument used by David in -_Saul_ in the extremity of his anxiety to relieve the sufferings of the -object of his affections. Through sympathy alone may suffering be -relieved, and genuine sympathy may be best attained through personal -experience of suffering. Humanity suffers, but is unequal to the task of -aiding effectively its fellow-sufferers. The Deity, whilst possessing the -necessary power, is yet untouched by the sympathy resultant from -fellow-feeling. A suffering God! Can this be? Only, therefore, through -union of the human with the Divine, through an Incarnation alone, can the -relief of human suffering be fully accomplished. Even Caliban feels the -need of contact between the Creator and His creatures. The Quiet, -incapable of experiencing joy or grief, is also beyond the reach of mortal -intercourse or worship. He cannot be God even in the sense in which -Setebos is God until, through an approach to His creatures. He experiences -something of the sorrows as of the joys of humanity. This in brief is the -general course of Browning's arguments for the reasonable necessity of an -Incarnation. The suggestion, if suggestion we may call it, here made -constitutes the lowest rung in the ladder which leads us to the confession -of S. John. - - The acknowledgment of God in Christ - Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee - All questions in the earth and out of it.[16] - - - - -LECTURE II - -CLEON - - - - -LECTURE II - -CLEON - - -Between Caliban and Cleon a wide gulf is fixed: between the savage -sprawling in "the pit's much mire," gloating over his powers of inflicting -suffering, at once cowering before and insulting his god: and the cultured -Greek, inhabitant of "the sprinkled isles," poet, philosopher, artist, -musician, sitting in his "portico, royal with sunset," reflecting on the -purposes of life, his own achievements and the design of Zeus in creation, -which, though inscrutable, he yet must hold to have been beneficent. Could -contrast be anywhere more striking than that suggested by these two -scenes? And yet amidst outward dissimilarity there is a point towards -which all their lines converge. On one subject of reflection alone, this -man, the product of Greek intellectual life and culture, has hardly passed -beyond that of the savage awakening to a "sense of sense." To both alike -death means the end of life, to neither does any glimpse of light reveal -itself beyond the grave. And death to the Greek is infinitely more -terrible than to the son of Sycorax. To Caliban the belief that "with the -life the pain will stop," affords a feeling akin to relief in the present, -when the mental discomfort arising from fear of Setebos temporarily -over-powers the physical satisfaction to be derived from basking in the -sun. To Cleon, possessed of the capacity for "loving life so over-much," -the idea of death affords so terrible a suggestion that its very horror -forces upon him at times the necessity of the acceptance of some theory -involving belief in the immortality of the soul. Thus we have moved -onwards one step, though one step only, in the ladder of thought, of which -Caliban's soliloquy constitutes the lowest rung. The inert conjectures, -the vague surmises of the savage are succeeded by the reflections and -subsequent logical deductions of the man of intellectual culture, -culminating in the anguished cry: - - I, I the feeling, thinking, acting man. - - * * * * * - - Sleep in my urn. It is so horrible, - I dare at times imagine to my need - Some future state revealed to us by Zeus. - - * * * * * - - ... But no! - Zeus has not yet revealed it, and alas, - He must have done so, were it possible! (_Cleon_, 11. 321-335.) - -Different as are the modes of contemplating death, differing as the -character and environment of the soliloquist, one is yet in a sense the -outcome of the other, an exemplification of Cleon's own assertion: - - In man there's failure, only since he left - The lower and inconscious forms of life. (ll. 125-126.) - - * * * * * - - Most progress is most failure. (l. 272.) - -With the opening out of wider possibilities to the mind comes the -consciousness of the gulf between actuality and ideality. To Caliban, -whose pleasurable conceptions of life are bounded by the prospect of -defrauding Prospero of his services, lying in the mire - - Drinking the mash, with brain become alive, - Making and marring clay at will; (_Caliban_, 11. 96-97.) - -to such a being not long endowed with a capacity for the realization of -his own individuality, with the "sense of sense," the Greek appreciation -of life is a sheer impossibility. By the mind capable of entering into -sympathy with Homer, Terpander, Phidias, the joys of life are felt too -keenly to be relinquished without a struggle, and that a bitter one. Death -and the grave cast a chilling shadow over the brightness of the present. - -Before analysing the arguments contained in the reflections of Cleon, it -may be well to inquire what were the influences to which the poet had been -subjected, and which resulted in the condition of mind in which the -messengers of Protus found him. The Greece in which Cleon lived was the -Greece to which S. Paul addressed himself from the Areopagus, the -character of which is sufficiently indicated by the circumstances leading -to the assembly on that memorable occasion. The Athenians, we are told by -the writer of the _Acts_, "spent their time in nothing else but either to -tell or to hear some new thing."[17] The age was then, it would appear, -not one of action or of practical thought. All had been done in the past -that could be done in the departments of artistic achievement, of poetry, -of philosophy. Now _creative_ power would seem to have disappeared from -amongst Greek thinkers, all that remained being the natural restlessness -which ultimately succeeds satiety. Much had been accomplished in the past: -What remained to the future? It is in accordance with this spirit of the -age that Cleon writes to Protus: - - We of these latter days, with greater mind - Than our forerunners, since more composite, - Look not so great, beside their simple way, - To a judge who only sees one way at once, - One mind-point and no other at a time,-- - Compares the small part of a man of us - With some whole man of the heroic age, - Great in his way--not ours, nor meant for ours. (ll. 64-71.) - -Hence the poet of modern times, though he has left the "epos on [the] -hundred plates of gold," the property of the tyrant Protus, and the little -popular song - - So sure to rise from every fishing-bark - When, lights at prow, the seamen haul their net; (ll. 49, 50.) - -yet admits freely that he has not "chanted verse like Homer." What though -he has "combined the moods" of music, "inventing one," yet has he never -"swept string like Terpander," his predecessor by some seven centuries. -What though he has moulded "the image of the sun-god on the phare," or -painted the Poecile its whole length, yet has he not "carved and painted -men like Phidias and his friend"--his forerunners by something like four -hundred years. With these mighty achievements in poetry and art of those -giants amongst men to be contemplated in retrospect, what hope remains for -the future? What greater attainments may be possible to the human -intellect? Here again life--this mortal life--would seem to have become -all that it is capable of becoming; the powers of mind and body have alike -been developed to the full. Thus on this side too is satiety. The yearning -for growth, for progress, inherent in human nature, seeks instinctively -further heights of attainment. When for the time being all visible peaks -appear to have been scaled, then, in the phraseology of S. John, "man -[turns] round on himself and stands."[18] And then arises the enquiry into -the purposes of existence, an enquiry unheard in the earlier days of -practical activity and struggle. Is this the end of all? No progress being -possible along the old tracks, we must hear or see some new thing. The -late Dr. Westcott in comparing the dramatic work of Euripides with that of -Æschylus, and remarking that Euripides (only a generation younger) had to -take account of all the novel influences under which he had grown up, -adds, "Once again Asia had touched Europe and quickened there new powers. -Greece had conquered Persia only that she might better receive from the -East the inspiration of a wider energy."[19] Once more in the days of -Cleon might it be said that Asia had touched Europe and quickened there -new powers. But this time the positions of conquered and conquerors were -reversed. Asia was to conquer Europe, but the conquest effected by the -sword of Alexander was to be avenged by weapons forged in another armoury. -This time Asia invaded Europe when Paul of Tarsus responded to the appeal -"Come over to Macedonia and help us." So far that invasion had borne small -fruit: "certain men" had believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, -whilst others, whose attitude Protus would appear to have shared, desired -to hear further on the subject of the Resurrection.[20] Cleon is -represented as ranking among the sceptics with reference to the new -Christian teaching. The special influence of Greek thought upon his -philosophy and creed, as expressed in the poem, may be best noticed in a -closer consideration to which we now turn. - -I. The opening lines (1-18) present, with Browning's usual power of -delineation, the environment of the speaker. Cleon, the poet, as well as -his correspondent, Protus, the tyrant, seem alike to be imaginary -personages. With lines 19-42 the soliloquist at once strikes the key-note -of the poem. By the act of munificence which showers gifts upon the poet, -"whose song gives life its joy," the king evinces his "recognition of the -use of life": and by this recognition proves himself no mere materialist. -He is ruling his people, not with exclusive attention to their material -needs, though they may not themselves look beyond the gratification of -these. Whilst he is building his tower, achieving his life's work, the -beauty of which is sufficient to the "vulgar" gaze, he, the builder, is -looking "to the East"; and looking to the East in a sense not intended by -the Greek when he makes enquiry through his messengers for the "mere -barbarian Jew," "one called Paulus." - -II. The following section of the poem (ll. 42-157) is an interesting -elaboration of Cleon's theory of the development, not only of the -individual (Browning's favourite theme), but of the growth of the race. -The Greek holds that where individual members of humanity have attained in -their several departments to the greatest heights, nothing further _in -that direction_ is possible of accomplishment. What then remains for the -advancement of the race? When the "outside verge that rounds our -faculties" has been reached, "these divine men of old" must remain -unsurpassed by their successors in that particular department of work or -thought. - - Where they reached, who can do more than reach? - -What then remains? How may the contemporary of Cleon excel "the grand -simplicity" of Homer, of Terpander, and in later times of Phidias? It is -to the growing complexity of the human mind that Cleon looks for an -answer. Although in one intellectual department he may fall short of that -which has been attained in the past, he is yet capable of appreciating all -that his predecessors have achieved to a degree impossible to an earlier -generation of mankind. _All_ the faculties are developed, not one to the -exclusion or limitation of the others; hence is obtained a more completely -sympathetic union of the intellectual capacities. Thus the further -development of the race is to be sought in a greater complexity of being -rather than in an advance along any individual line of progress. Three -several illustrations of his theory Cleon adduces (1) That suggested by -the mosaic-work of the pavement before him: and (2) the more unusual one -of the sphere with its contents of air and water: yet again (3) the -comparison between the wild and cultivated plant. (1) Each individual -section of the mosaic was in itself perfect--thus with the great ones of -old. This perfection having been attained, all that should succeed would -be at best but a reproduction of the already perfect forms, a repetition, -a renewal of that which had gone before. A higher, because more complex -beauty might, however, be created by a combination of these separate -perfections, producing thus a new form, that, too, perfect in itself. And -this synthetic labour must prove an advance on the almost exclusively -analytic which had preceded it; since new and more complex forms should be -thus evolved, "making at last a picture" of deeper meaning and finer -interests than those offered by any number of individual chequers -uncombined, however perfect in symmetry and colour. Hence there might -still remain a goal towards which human energy should direct its efforts. -Though man may have attained to perfection _in part_, to continue the -simile, he has now to develop towards the attainment of a perfect _complex -whole_, resulting from a composition and adjustment of perfect individual -parts, united by a bond of sympathetic intellectual appreciation -non-existent in past ages. When Cleon shall have "chanted verse like -Homer," "swept string like Terpander," "carved and painted men like -Phidias and his friend," then, not only will the individual of recent -times have surpassed each of his forerunners in the variety and -comprehensiveness of his powers, but he will have attained in each -individual department of his being to that greatness for the development -of which man's entire faculties were of old required. To this Cleon has by -no means yet attained. Such growth, change, and expansion in the -individual character is not, he would suggest, readily recognized by the -world, and the second illustration here applies: (2) water, the more -palpable, material element, is estimated at its worth, whilst air, with -its subtler properties, - - Tho' filling more fully than the water did; - -though holding - - Thrice the weight of water in itself. (ll. 106-107.) - -is yet accounted a negligible quantity, and the sphere is pronounced -empty. Of the deeper, more subtle, thoughts and workings of the soul in -Cleon and his fellows, the outcome of the labours of humanity in past -generations, thoughts too deep for expression, ideas only destined to bear -fruit in the years to come; of all these, and such as these, the -contemporary world takes little heed. To the gods alone Cleon would refer -for his appreciation. With David he would exclaim: - - 'Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do![21] - -With Ben Ezra he would triumph - - All, the world's coarse thumb - And finger failed to plumb, - So passed in making up the main account; - All instincts immature, - All purposes unsure, - That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's amount: - - * * * * * - - Thoughts hardly to be packed - Into a narrow act, - Fancies that broke through language and escaped: - All I could never be, - All, men ignored in me; - -("ignored" because incapable of the understanding essential to -appreciation); - - _This_, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.[22] - -For Cleon, equally with the Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages, accepts -the entire subserviency of man to his creator. Both alike recognize the -value of life, human life; its unity, its perfection in itself: both alike -realize that this life means growth. "Why stay we on the earth unless to -grow?" asks the Greek. "It was better," writes the Jew as age approaches, - - It was better, youth - Should strive, through acts uncouth, - Towards making, than repose on aught found made.[23] - -Thus progress! Nevertheless, the Rabbi, whilst recognizing to the full the -value of the present life as a thing _per se_, bearing its peculiar uses, -its perfect development advancing from youth through manhood until age -shall "approve of youth, and death complete the same!" with the _unity_ -yet recognizes also _continuity_; and at the close of the old life can -stand upon the threshold of the new "fearless and unperplexed," "what -weapons to select, what armour to indue," for use in the renewed struggle -he foresees awaiting him. To the Greek life was equally, nay, surpassingly -beautiful, the human faculties equally worthy of cultivation. As in -Nature, so with man (and here is employed the third of his illustrations): -(3) the wild flower, _i.e._, according to his interpretation, the -possessor of the single artistic faculty--Homer, Terpander, Phidias-- - - Was the larger; I have dashed - Rose-blood upon its petals, pricked its cup's - Honey with wine, and driven its seed to fruit, - And show a better flower if not so large: - I stand myself. (ll. 147-151.) - -Whilst the Rabbi esteems himself as clay in the hands of the potter, the -Greek admits no personal pride in the multiplicity or magnitude of his -gifts. All alike he refers to "the gods whose gift alone it is," -continuing the reflection-- - - Which, shall I dare - (All pride apart) upon the absurd pretext - That such a gift by chance lay in my hand, - Discourse of lightly, or depreciate? - It might have fallen to another's hand: what then? (ll. 152-156.) - -So far with Ben Ezra. But where the Rabbi can say with confidence - - Thence shall I pass, approved - A man, for aye removed - From the developed brute: a god though in the germ. (xiii.) - -With Arthur - - I pass _but shall not die_, - -merely shall I - - Thereupon - Take rest, ere I be gone - Once more on my adventure brave and new (xiv.) - -for the Greek is no such confidence possible. He, too, shall pass--"I pass -too surely." His hope, if hope it be, lies in the development of a -humanity of the future which shall have profited by the experience of its -individual members in the past--"Let at least truth stay!" - -Incidentally is introduced in this section of the poem a reference to the -yearning of the correspondent of Protus for some revelation of the gods to -be made through man to men. Through an Incarnation alone can the purposes -of Zeus in creation be fully and comprehensibly revealed to man. Truth may -indeed stay, but its revelation is progressive in character; according -thus with the nature of the human intelligence (a favourite theme with -Browning). For any more complete realization of Truth absolute, a direct -revelation of the Deity is essential. God, in man, may show that which it -is possible for men to become, hence the design of Zeus in placing him -upon earth. So had Cleon "imaged," and "written out the fiction," - - That he or other god descended here - And, once for all, showed simultaneously - What, in its nature, never can be shown, - Piecemeal or in succession;--showed, I say, - The worth both absolute and relative - Of all his children from the birth of time, - His instruments for all appointed work. (ll. 115-122.) - -Through this revelation, too, may be proved the immanence of the Deity, a -doctrine even now accepted by the Greek. The speaker on the Areopagus[24] -needed only to remind his hearers of this their belief, when he assured -them that the God of whom he preached was not one who dwelt in temples -made with hands--but is "not far from every one of us," since "in him we -live and move and have our being." Even, in the words of Aratus, "we are -his offspring." But this theory of an incarnation which "certain slaves" -were teaching in a fuller, more satisfying form, than that presented by -the imagination of the Greek philosopher, might be to him but "a dream": -his sole hope rested, as we have seen, on an advance of the race through -the higher development of individual members. - - No dream, let us hope, - That years and days, the summers and the springs, - Follow each other with unwaning powers. (ll. 127-129.) - -III. With line 157 we pass to a consideration of the more intensely -personal question, yet one involving in its answer much that has gone -before; the question put by Protus in the letter accompanying his gifts: -is death (which king and poet alike esteem the end of all things), is -death to the _man of thought_ so fearful a thing in contemplation as it -must be to the _man of action_? To Protus, the man of action, who has -enjoyed life to the full, whose portion has been wealth, honour, dignity, -power, physical and mental appreciation of all the privileges attendant on -his station and environment; to the possessor of life such as this death, -as not an interruption merely, but as an end to all joy, all -gratification, must perforce bring with it nothing but horror. The horror -which Browning represents elsewhere as falling momentarily upon the -Venetian audience listening to the weird strains of Galuppi's music,[25] -when an interpolated discord suggests to the onlooker the question, "What -of soul is left, I wonder?" when the pleasures of life are ended? and the -answer is given, with its note of hopeless finality, "Dust and ashes." To -Protus, too, recurs the answer, "Dust and ashes." Although his work as a -ruler has been of that character which has caused him to seek the -intellectual and moral, as well as the material welfare of his people (so -much we saw Cleon recognizing in his introductory message), yet he -regretfully, and probably unjustly, in a moment of depression, estimates -his legacy to posterity as "nought." - - My life, - Complete and whole now in its power and joy, - Dies altogether with my brain and arm, - Is lost indeed; since, what survives myself? - The brazen statue to o'erlook my grave, - Set on the promontory which I named. - And that--some supple courtier of my heir - Shall use its robed and sceptred arm, perhaps, - To fix the rope to, which best drags it down. (ll. 171-179.) - -(An estimate suggesting a truth of practical experience: schemes of -absolute government not infrequently bearing within themselves the seeds -of their own decay: the "sceptred arm," originally the symbol of its -strength, becoming in good sooth the chief agent in the work of -destruction.) - -To Protus, whose life has been thus spent in activity, forgetfulness seems -the one thing most terrible of contemplation. He must pass, and in the -words of the dying Alcestis, "who is dead is nought"; of him shall it be -said, "He who once was, now is nothing." But for the man whose life "stays -in the poems men shall sing, the pictures men shall study," for him may -not death prove triumph, since "_thou_ dost not go"? Yet Cleon deals with -the question as might have been anticipated. Genius, even in its highest -form, culture, art, learning, alike fail to satisfy the restless soul, -tossed upon the waves of uncertainty, unanchored by any reasonable hope -for the future. All these fail where the satisfaction derivative from -wealth and power honourably wielded has already failed. The genius ruling -in the kingdom of intellectual life has no consolation to offer the -sovereign ruling the outer life--the material and moral welfare--of his -subjects. Poet and tyrant alike bow before the inevitable approach of -death, taking "the tear-stained dust" as proof that "man--the whole -man--cannot live again." - -The entire poem has been happily designated "the Ecclesiastes of pagan -religion." At the outset we have remarked Cleon admitting that Protus -equally with himself has recognized, not only that joy is "the use of -life," but that joy may not be found in material gratification alone, but -rather in the cultivation of the higher faculties of man. - - For so shall men remark, in such an act [_i.e._, in the munificence - displayed by the gifts bestowed upon the poet] - Of love for him whose song gives life its joy, - Thy recognition of the use of life. (ll. 20-22.) - -The poet had so estimated "joy." It is in truth a higher estimate than -that based upon a recognition of material good. Nevertheless, he is now to -confess that from this, too, but an empty and transitory satisfaction is -obtainable. His answer to Protus affords an analysis of his own -reflections on the subject, since the thoughts have clearly not arisen now -for the first time. And in the arguments immediately following we cannot -but recognize Browning's own voice. The theory advanced is reiterated -constantly throughout his writings, dramatic and otherwise. Cleon directs -the attention of Protus to the perfections of animal life as created by -Zeus in lines suggesting an interesting comparison with that remarkable -and frequently quoted passage from the concluding Section of _Paracelsus_ -(ll. 655-694). - - The centre-fire heaves underneath the earth, - And the earth changes like a human face; - - * * * * * - * * * * * - - The grass grows bright, the boughs are swoln with blooms - Like chrysalids impatient for the air, - The shining dorrs are busy, beetles run - Along the furrows, ants make their ado; - Above, birds fly in merry flocks, the lark - Soars up and up, shivering for very joy; - Afar the ocean sleeps; white fishing-gulls - Flit where the sand is purple with its tribe - Of nested limpets; savage creatures seek - Their loves in wood and plain--and God renews - His ancient rapture. Thus he dwells in all, - From life's minute beginnings, up at last - To man--the consummation of this scheme - Of being, the completion of this sphere - Of life: whose attributes had here and there - Been scattered o'er the visible world before, - Asking to be combined, dim fragments meant - To be united in some wondrous whole, - Imperfect qualities throughout creation, - Suggesting some one creature yet to make, - Some point where all those scattered rays should meet - Convergent in the faculties of man. - -So writes Cleon: - - If, in the morning of philosophy, - Ere aught had been recorded, nay perceived, - Thou, with the light now in thee, could'st have looked - On all earth's tenantry, from worm to bird, - Ere man, her last, appeared upon the stage-- - Thou would'st have seen them perfect, and deduced - The perfectness of others yet unseen. - Conceding which,--had Zeus then questioned thee - "Shall I go on a step, improve on this, - Do more for visible creatures than is done?" - Thou would'st have answered, "Ay, by making each - Grow conscious in himself--by that alone. - All's perfect else: the shell sucks fast the rock, - The fish strikes through the sea, the snake both swims - And slides, forth range the beasts, the birds take flight, - Till life's mechanics can no further go-- - And all this joy in natural life is put - Like fire from off thy finger into each, - So exquisitely perfect is the same." (ll. 187-205.) - -But the Teuton of the Renascence passes beyond the Greek in his history of -the evolution of man--as the outcome, the union, the consummation of all -that has gone before. In his description of human nature so evolved, he -continues by enumerating power controlled by will, knowledge and love as -characteristics, hints and previsions of which - - Strewn confusedly about - The inferior natures--all lead up higher, - All shape out dimly the superior race, - The heir of hopes too fair to turn out false, - And man appears at last.[26] - -To Cleon such hopes, but vaguely suggested, leading upwards and onwards -towards a recognition of the soul's immortality, are too fair for _truth_, -their very beauty leads him to question their reality. - -Admitted then that in "all earth's tenantry, from worm to bird," -perfection is to be found, in what direction may advance be made? -Impossible in degree, it must, therefore, be in kind: some new faculty -shall be added to those which man, the latest born of the creatures, shall -share in common with his predecessors in the world of animal life--the -knowledge and realization of his own individuality. - - In due time [after leading the purely animal life] let him critically - learn - How he lives. - -And what shall be the result of the new gift? To him who, inexperienced in -its uses, lives "in the morning of philosophy," it must be indicative of -an increase of happiness. With the greater fulness of life, resultant from -extended knowledge, must surely follow also an extension of enjoyment. But -such a belief, says Cleon, living in the eve of philosophy, could have -existed only in its morning "ere aught had been recorded." Experience, -that prosaic but infallible instructor, has taught man otherwise. The -simplicity of mere animal life, though involving not the conscious -happiness of a reasoning being (if indeed happiness there be for such) -served to impart "the wild joy of living, mere living." A joy from which -Caliban was to be found awakening to a realization of his own -individuality, and also to a realization that joy and grief are relative -terms: that joy, equally with grief, was impossible to the Quiet, the -possessor of supreme power, as it was impossible to - - Yonder crabs - That march now from the mountain to the sea.[27] - -To Cleon, oppressed by a profound sense of discouragement in life, the -cynical suggestion presents itself that the semi-conscious vegetating -existence of the animal may be more desirable than the yearnings and -aspirations inevitably attendant on human life, with its joys keen and -intensified, but, alas! all too brief. - - Thou king, hadst more reasonably said: - "Let progress end at once,--man make no step - Beyond the natural man, the better beast, - Using his senses, not the sense of sense." (ll. 221-224.) - -It is a purely pagan view of life. - - In man there's failure, only since he left - The lower and inconscious forms of life. (ll. 225-226.) - -So man grew, and his widening intelligence opened out vast and -ever-increasing possibilities of joy. But with the realization of -possibilities came also the consciousness of his limitations. So long as -the flesh had remained absolutely paramount, the restrictions it was -capable of imposing upon the workings of the soul had been unfelt. Now, -when the soul has climbed its watch-tower and perceives - - A world of capability - For joy, spread round about us, meant for us, - Inviting us. - -When at this moment the soul in its yearning "craves all," then is the -time of the flesh to reply, - - Take no jot more - Than ere thou clombst the tower to look abroad! - Nay, so much less as that fatigue has brought - Deduction to it. (ll. 239-245.) - -In other words, the ever-recurring conflict between flesh and spirit. In -human nature, as at present constituted, one is bound to suffer at the -expense of the other; the sound mind in the sound body is unfortunately a -counsel of perfection too rarely attainable in practical life. The poet is -conscious of the growing vitality of the spirit as well as that of the -intellect (although he does not admittedly recognize that this is so, his -use of the term "soul" being seemingly synonymous with "intellect"), the -decreasing power of the flesh. In vain the struggle to - - Supply fresh oil to life, - Repair the waste of age and sickness. (ll. 248-249.) - -Thus the fate of the man of genius, of keener perceptions, of wider -capacities for enjoyment, becomes proportionately more grievous than that -of the less complex nature of the man of action. - - Say rather that my fate is deadlier still, - In this, that every day my sense of joy - Grows more acute, my soul (intensified - By power and insight) more enlarged, more keen; - While every day my hairs fall more and more, - My hand shakes, and the heavy years increase-- - The horror quickening still from year to year, - The consummation coming past escape - When I shall know most, and yet least enjoy. (ll. 309-317.) - -A recognition of the emptiness of life, necessarily hopeless when thus -viewed in relation to its sensuous and intellectual possibilities only. To -these things the end must come. Thus Browning leads us on, as so -frequently elsewhere, to an admission of _the inevitableness of -immortality_. - -An estimate of life curiously opposed to this simple pagan aspect is that -afforded by the conception of _Paracelsus_, a poem containing no small -element of the mysticism which offered so powerful an attraction to its -author. In a familiar passage at the close of the First Section we find -Paracelsus describing the methods he proposes to pursue in his search for -truth; truth which he deems existent within the soul of man, and acquired -by no external influence. - - Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise - From outward things, whate'er you may believe. - There is an inmost centre in us all, - Where truth abides in fulness; and around, - Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, - This perfect, clear perception--which is truth. - A baffling and perverting carnal mesh - Binds it, and makes all error: and to KNOW - Rather consists in opening out a way - Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape, - Than in effecting entry for a light - Supposed to be without.[28] - - * * * * * - - See this soul of ours! - How it strives weakly in the child, is loosed - In manhood, clogged by sickness, back compelled - By age and waste, set free at last by death.[29] - -In S. John's reflections in _A Death in the Desert_, a similar suggestion -of mysticism is modified by the medium through which it has passed. The -Christian teacher who wrote that "God is Love," and that in the knowledge -of this truth immortality itself consists, propounds for himself a -question similar to that which has so hopeless a ring when issuing from -the mouth of the Greek. - - Is it for nothing we grow old and weak? - -A suggestion of the character of the answer is found in the conclusion of -the question, "We whom God loves." - - Can they share - --They, who have flesh, a veil of youth and strength - About each spirit, that needs must bide its time, - Living and learning still as years assist - Which wear the thickness thin, and let man see-- - With me who hardly am withheld at all, - But shudderingly, scarce a shred between, - Lie bare to the universal prick of light?[30] - -True is the lament of the reply to Protus. - - We struggle, fain to enlarge - Our bounded physical recipiency, - Increase our power, supply fresh oil to life, - Repair the waste of age and sickness. (ll. 244-247.) - -All too true. But if, as we are assured, there is no waste in Nature, -whence comes the apparent destruction wrought by age and sickness? What -the design of which it is the evidence? In the words of the Christian -mystic, but to admit "the universal prick of light," to effect the union -of the individual soul with that central fire of which it is an emanation; -when the training and development inseparable from suffering shall have -done their work, since "when pain ends, gain ends too." - - Thy body at its best, - How far can that project thy soul on its lone way?[31] - -The decay, it must be, of its temporal habitation which shall bring to -the soul eternal freedom. To the Greek, on the other hand, with the decay -of the body, passed not only all that made life worth living, but the life -itself. The keener the appreciation of life, the harder, therefore, the -parting of soul from body. He, indeed, - - Sees the wider but to sigh the more. - -"Most progress is most failure." Failure absolute if death is the end of -life; failure relative and indicative of higher, vaster potentialities of -being, if that dream of a moment's yearning might be true, if death prove -itself but "the throbbing impulse" to a fuller life; if, freed by it, man -bursts "as the worm into the fly," becoming a creature of that future -state - - Unlimited in capability - For joy, as this is in desire for joy. - -But to the Greek the door of actuality remains fast closed. - -Before concluding an examination of this section of the poem which has -suggested, as was inevitable, a comparison between the pagan and the -Christian conception of life; between an estimate into which physical and -intellectual considerations alone enter, and that in which spiritual also -find place, it may not be unprofitable to recall the method by which -Browning has treated the same subject elsewhere, in a different -connection. _Old Pictures in Florence_, published originally in the volume -of the _Men and Women Series_, which likewise contained _Cleon_, is one of -the few poems in which the author may be assumed to speak in his own -person. The contrast there drawn is that between the products of Greek Art -which "ran and reached its goal," and the works of the mediaeval Italian -artists. Having pointed to the Greek statuary, to the figures of Theseus, -of Apollo, of Niobe, and Alexander, the speaker recognizes therein a -re-utterance of - - The Truth of Man, as by God first spoken, - Which the actual generations garble, - ... Soul (which Limbs betoken) - And Limbs (Soul informs) made new in marble.[32] - -Here all is perfection, man sees himself as he wishes he were, as he -"might have been," as he "cannot be." In such finished work no room is -left for "man's distinctive mark," progress,--growth. When, then, -according to Browning, did growth once more begin? When was the depression -of Cleon's day out-lived? Vitality, he asserts, once more became apparent -when the eye of the artist was turned from externals to that which -externals may denote or conceal, not outwards but inwards, from the form -betokening the existence of Soul to Soul itself. The mediaeval painters -started on a new and endless path of progress when in answer to the cry of - - Greek Art, and what more wish you? - -they replied, - - To become now self-acquainters, - And paint man man, whatever the issue! - Make new hopes shine through the flesh they fray, - New fears aggrandize the rags and tatters: - To bring the invisible full into play! - Let the visible go to the dogs--what matters?[33] - -Browning's estimate of Art, as of all departments of work, was necessarily -one which would lead him to sympathize with that form which strives, -however imperfectly, to bring "the invisible full into play," though the -achievement must be effected, not by neglect of, but rather by the -fullest treatment of the visible. The avowed function of Art, in the most -comprehensive acceptation of the term, was with him to achieve "no mere -imagery on the wall," but to present something, whether in Music, Poetry, -or Painting, which should - - Mean beyond the facts, - Suffice the eye and save the soul beside.[34] - -The more distinctive artistic function (commonly so accepted) of -gratifying the senses is not to be neglected, although it may not--as with -the Greek--be cultivated to the exclusion, whole or partial, of that which -is in its essence more enduring. The monkish painter (1412-69), whilst -defending his realistic methods, yet perceives in vision the immensity of -possible achievement if he "drew higher things with the same truth." To -work thus were "to take the Prior's pulpit-place, interpret God to all of -you."[35] In so far, then, as he strives towards this realization of the -spiritual, the early Italian painter holds, according to Browning, higher -place in the ranks of the artistic hierarchy than the Greek who had -attained already to perfection in his particular department, feeling that -"where he had reached who could do more than reach?" No such perfection of -attainment was possible to him who would "bring the invisible full into -play." His glory lay rather "in daring so much before he well did it." -Thus - - The first of the new, in our race's story, - Beats the last of the old.[36] - -As with the artist, so with the spectator, growth had only begun when - - Looking [his] last on them all, - [He] turned [his] eyes inwardly one fine day - And cried with a start--What if we so small - Be greater and grander the while than they? - Are they perfect of lineament, perfect of stature? - In both, of such lower types are we - Precisely because of our wider nature; - For time, theirs--ours, for eternity.[37] - - * * * * * - - They are perfect--how else? they shall never change: - We are faulty--why not? we have time in store. - The Artificer's hand is not arrested - With us; we are rough-hewn, nowise polished.[38] - -Bitter as is to Cleon the realization that "What's come to perfection -perishes," to the Christian artist the same axiom serves but as incentive -to more strenuous effort. In imperfection he recognizes the germ of future -progress. - - The help whereby he mounts, - The ladder-rung his foot has left, may fall, - _Since all things suffer change save God the Truth_.[39] - -As imperfection suggests progress, so to "the heir of immortality" is -failure but a step towards ultimate attainment. With confidence he may -inquire - - What is our failure here but a triumph's evidence[40] - For the fulness of the days? - -The Greek, with his bounded horizon, realizes but the first aspect of the -truth: that - - In man there's failure, only since he left - The lower and inconscious forms of life. - -That - - Most progress is most failure. - -The horizon being bounded by the grave, progress cut short by the -approach of death, failure may become failure absolute, irremediable. What -wonder, then, that the horror should "quicken still from year to year"; -until the very terror itself demands relief in the imaginative creation of -a future state. But for this there is no warrant; for the Greek all -attainable satisfaction must be sought through the present phase of -existence alone. - -IV. Cleon's answer to the question of Protus with regard to Death's aspect -to the man of thought, whose works outlast his personal existence (ll. -274-335), is but an utterance of the cry of human nature in all times and -in all places. Individuality must be preserved! In a moment of artistic -fervour the poet may acquiesce in the fate by which his friend has become -"a portion of the loveliness which once he made more lovely,"[41] but such -acquiescence can only hold good where poetic imagination has overborne -human affection. The soul of the man first, the poet afterwards, demands -that - - Eternal form shall still divide - Eternal soul from all beside, - -and that - - I shall _know_ him when we meet.[42] - -And what he claims for his friend, man requires also for himself. The -individual soul, as at present constituted, cannot conceive of divesting -itself of its own individuality, of becoming "merged in the general -whole." As easy almost is it to conceive of annihilation. In hours of -abstract thought such theories may be evolved, and in accordance with the -mental constitution of the thinker, be rejected or honestly accepted; but -when brought face to face with the issues of Life and Death, the heart, -freeing itself from the trammels of intellectual sophistries, cries out, -"I have felt"; and yearns for a creed which shall allow acceptance of a -tenet involving future recognition and reunion, hence, by implication, -preservation of individuality, and identity. Whatever his nominal creed, -experience teaches us that man at supreme moments of life craves for some -such satisfaction as this. - -It is, indeed, the Greek, materialist here rather than artist, who points -out to Protus that, in his estimate of the joy of leaving "living works -behind," he confounds "the accurate view of what joy is with feeling joy." -Confounds - - The knowing how - And showing how to live (my faculty) - With actually living. Otherwise - Where is the artist's vantage o'er the king? - Because in my great epos I display - How divers men young, strong, fair, wise, can act-- - Is this as though I acted? If I paint, - Carve the young Phoebus, am I therefore young? - Methinks I'm older that I bowed myself - The many years of pain that taught me art! - - * * * * * - * * * * * - - I know the joy of kingship: well, thou art king! (ll. 281-300.) - -All the Greek love of life, of physical beauty is here, intensified by the -consciousness of the brief and transitory character of its existence. If -death ends all things, then the poet and philosopher, whilst acquiring the -knowledge "how to live," has sacrificed the power of living. Yet a -sacrifice even greater than this is enthusiastically welcomed by the -Grammarian of the Revival of Learning, greater since in this case the -devotion of a lifetime leaves behind it no monument of fame. Yet, having -counted the cost, - - Oh! such a life as he resolved to live, - When he had learned it. - - * * * * - - _Sooner, he spurned it._[43] - -We can almost detect the voice of Cleon in the urgency of the student's -contemporaries. "Live now or never," since "time escapes." In the reply -lies the clue to the immensity of difference between the two positions-- - - Leave Now for dogs and apes! - Man has Forever.[44] - -In the one instance, life being lived in the light of the "Forever," it is -possible to perceive with Pompilia that "No work begun shall ever pause -for death":[45] and life, whatever its trials and limitations, becomes to -the believer in immortality very well worth the living. Thus the Christian -conception of human life transcends the pagan as the designs of the -Italian painters surpass in their suggestive inspiration the perfection of -the more purely technical achievements of Greek art. The whole discussion -is so peculiarly characteristic of Browning's work that it seemed -impossible to omit this comparison in the present connection, even though -we shall be again obliged to revert to the Grammarian, and the theory -exemplified in his history, in analyzing the defence of Bishop Blougram. - -In passing, then, to the concluding section of Cleon's reply to Protus, we -are met by no exclusively Greek utterance; the voice is the voice of -humanity unfettered by limitations of race or mental training. - - "But," sayest thou ... - ... "What - Thou writest, paintest, stays; that does not die: - Sappho survives, because we sing her songs, - And Æschylus, because we read his plays!" - Why, if they live still, let them come and take - Thy slave in my despite, drink from thy cup, - Speak in my place. Thou diest while I survive? (ll. 301-308.) - -It is self-abnegation, carried to an extent rendering impossible the -preservation of the race, which can look to happiness, or even to -satisfaction, in the prospect of annihilation so long as posterity shall -enjoy the fruits of a life of labour--which may express all its yearnings -towards immortality in the petition: - - O may I join the choir invisible - Of those immortal dead who live again - In minds made better by their presence: ... - - * * * * * - - _So to live is heaven_: - - * * * * * - - _This is life to come_ - Which martyred men have made more glorious - For us who strive to follow. May I reach - That purest heaven ... - - * * * * * - - Be the sweet presence of a good diffused, - And in diffusion ever more intense. - -Yet the mind which originated these nobly philosophic lines found it -impossible to continue literary work when severed from the human -comradeship and sympathy, criticism and inspiration to which the heart, -even more than the brain, had grown accustomed. After the death of Mr. G. -H. Lewes we are told--in the author's own words--that "The writing seems -all trivial stuff," ... and that work is resorted to as "a means of saving -the mind from imbecility."[46] We shall find Browning himself refusing, -in the hour of bereavement, to admit the satisfaction to be derived from a -contemplation of the progress of the race through individual sacrifice and -loss of personal identity; the satisfaction of the knowledge that - - Somewhere new existence led by men and women new, - Possibly attains perfection coveted by me and you; - - * * * * * - - [Whilst we] working ne'er shall know if work bear fruit. - Others reap and garner-- - We, creative thought, must cease - In created word, thought's echo, due to impulse long since sped! - -Poor is the comfort - - There's ever someone lives although ourselves be dead.[47] - -Something more than this, more even than "the thought of what was" is -demanded for the satisfaction of the soul, yet this is all the Greek has -to offer to his correspondent. - -Before leaving this section of the poem, one further comparison of -striking interest claims at least a brief consideration--a comparison also -of the life of the man of action with that of the man of thought: of -Salinguerra, the Ghibelline leader and Sordello, the poet and dreamer, -Ghibelline by antecedents, Guelph by conviction; the visionary and -dreamer, but the dreamer whose dreams should remain a legacy to posterity, -the visionary who held that "the poet must be earth's essential king." The -comparison is especially interesting, since in this case also it is drawn -(Bk. iv) by the poet himself. To Sordello, however, the recognition of a -future existence has at times a very potent influence upon the present. -For him, moreover, in his moments of insight, _service_ not _happiness_, -is the inspiration of life. Lofty as is the estimation in which he holds -the office of poet, he yet deems Salinguerra - - One of happier fate, and all I should have done, - He does; the people's good being paramount - With him.[48] - -Here is - - A nature made to serve, excel - In serving, only feel by service well![49] - -To the poet of the Middle Ages then, as to the Greek, though for different -reasons, the man of action has the happier fate. But where the Greek -shudders before the approach of death, the Italian issues triumphantly -from the final struggle of life--the supreme temptation--through the -realization - - That death, I fly, revealed - So oft a better life this life concealed, - And which sage, champion, martyr, through each path - Have hunted fearlessly.[50] - -Only he would crave the consciousness which served as inspiration to sage, -champion, martyr, and he, too, will hunt death fearlessly, will demand, -"Let what masters life disclose itself!" - -V. The concluding lines of the poem (336-353) contain a curiously -suggestive contrast between the influences of an effete pagan culture, and -of Christianity in its infancy. On the one hand, the Greek philosopher -surrounded by evidences of marvellous physical and intellectual -achievements, admitting the experience of an overwhelming horror, in face -of the approach of "a deadly fate." On the other hand, "a mere barbarian -Jew" and "certain slaves," pioneers of that faith which should offer -solution to the problems before which Greek learning shrank confessedly -powerless. A contrast between two stages of that development in the life -of man, indicated by the theory of St. John's teaching, given in the -interpolated note introductory to the main arguments of _A Death in the -Desert_: - - The doctrine he was wont to teach, - How divers persons witness in each man, - Three souls which make up one soul. - -(1) The lower or animal life, distinguished as "What Does," (2) The -intellect inspiring which "useth the first with its collected use," and is -defined as "What Knows," that which _Cleon_ calls Soul. (3) Finally, the -union of both for the service of the third and highest element, which is -in itself capable of existence apart from either: - - Subsisting whether they assist or no, - -designated as "What Is," that which _Browning_ calls Soul in _Old Pictures -in Florence_. - -Life, in the person of Cleon, would appear to have reached the second of -the stages thus distinguished--physical development, combined with -intellectual pre-eminence, marking "an age of light, light without love." -With Paulus life has passed beyond, and the spiritual energy has attained -to its position of predominance over the lower elements constituting this -Trinity of human nature. The barbarian Jew heralds a new phase in the -world's history. The entire conclusion may well serve as commentary on the -lines already quoted from _Old Pictures in Florence_: - - The first of the new in our race's story - Beats the last of the old.[51] - - - - -LECTURE III - -BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY - - - - -LECTURE III - -BISHOP BLOUGRAM'S APOLOGY - - -In _Bishop Blougram's Apology_ we are afforded yet another striking -illustration of Browning's methods of working by means of dramatic -machinery. On some occasions we have already found him relying on the -arguments of his imaginary soliloquists to support an apparently favourite -theory, on others we have noticed him employing these arguments to expose -the weak points of a system of which he personally disapproves. More -rarely two conflicting theories are placed side by side, the decision as -to the author's own relation to either being left to the judgment of the -reader. Thus with the Bishop and the Journalist of the present -instance--who may assert with confidence to which side Browning's -sympathies incline? How are we to judge of his actual feelings in the -case? Would he hold up to severer opprobrium the representative of honest -scepticism or the advocate of opportunism? Does he intend us to accept the -scepticism of the Journalist as genuine, the justification of the Bishop -as offered in entire good faith? Do his sympathies indeed belong wholly to -either side? To hold that he necessarily sets forth a direct expression of -his own opinions is to misunderstand the spirit in which he is accustomed -to approach his subject. As well believe Caliban to give utterance to his -conception of a Supreme Being as the personification of irresponsible and -capricious power; and Cleon to estimate his recognition of Christianity as -"a doctrine to be held by no sane man." - -This and the two foregoing dramatic poems have been chosen as leading step -by step from the earlier and cruder forms of religious belief, to the -later and more complex: before approaching the debatable ground of -_Christmas Eve and Easter Day_, and the unquestionably personal expression -of feeling in _La Saisiaz_. A wide gulf seemed indeed, at first sight, to -be fixed between Caliban and Cleon, but yet wider is the actually existent -distance dividing Cleon from Blougram. Less marked the change in outward -circumstances, the inherent difference becomes the more striking. The -beauties of Greek art and culture are but replaced by the nineteenth -century luxury surrounding a dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church. -"Greek busts, Venetian paintings, Roman walls, and English books ... bound -in gold"; the central figures, the Bishop and his companion dallying with -the pleasures of the table, discoursing of momentous truths over the wine -and olives. Surely the distance between this and Cleon is less to traverse -than that between the Greek, surrounded by the proofs of the munificence -of Protus, and Caliban revelling in his mire. The superficial difference -less, the inherent difference so wide that the idea at first suggested -itself of taking as an intermediate and connecting link the poem -immediately preceding this in the collected edition of the works, _The -Bishop orders his Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church_. On more mature -consideration it would seem, however, that the prelate of the nineteenth -century sufficiently approaches the type of the Renaissance churchman to -render the added link unnecessary. All, therefore, that remains for -consideration before analyzing the Bishop's Apology, is a brief survey of -the changes effected in the outlook of the civilized world, in so far as -they relate to the subject before us, during the eighteen centuries which -had elapsed between the letter of Cleon to Protus and the monologue of -Blougram addressed to the unfortunate owner of the name of Gigadibs. In -the first century of the Christian era in which Cleon wrote, the Greek -world had, as we have noticed, come into contact with Christianity only at -its extreme edge: to Cleon, student and representative of Greek -philosophic thought, its tenets were impossible of credence. The -difficulty of faith _then_ was that involved in the acceptance of any -formulated theory which should include an assertion of the immortality of -the soul and its future state of existence. The difficulties which demand -the defence of Blougram are of a character wholly different. Christianity -has become the creed of the civilized world: during the intervening -centuries the simplicity of the mediaeval faith has given place to the -more logical reasoning following the freedom of thought which accompanied -the Renaissance; whilst this has, in its turn, been superseded by the more -purely critical attitude of mind, resulting in the scepticism, and -consequent casuistry, attendant on the dogmatism of the earlier years of -the nineteenth century. The Bishop's definition of his position is -sufficiently descriptive of the situation. He is put upon his defence, in -truth, solely on account of the peculiar conditions of the environment in -which his lot has fallen. Three centuries earlier who would have -questioned the genuineness of his faith? Twice as many decades later who -would require that his acceptance of the creed he professes should be -implicit and detailed? His defence is made merely before the tribunal of -his fellow men; the character of this tribunal having changed from the -warmth of unquestioning faith to the barren coldness of scepticism, the -nature of the attack has likewise changed. - - Your picked twelve, you'll find, - Profess themselves indignant, scandalized - At thus being unable to explain - How a superior man who disbelieves - May not believe as well: that's Schelling's way! - It's through my coming in the tail of time, - Nicking the minute with a happy tact. - Had I been born three hundred years ago - They'd say, "What's strange? Blougram of course believes;" - And, seventy years since, "disbelieves of course." - But now, "He may believe; and yet, and yet - How can he?" All eyes turn with interest. (ll. 407-418.) - - * * * * * - - I, the man of sense and learning too, - The able to think yet act, the this, the that, - I, to believe at this late time of day! - Enough; you see, I need not fear contempt. (ll. 428-431.) - -In short, the Bishop's is a figure claiming the interest of his -contemporaries in that his position is one not readily definable: he may -be a saint and a whole-hearted churchman; it is yet more probable, so says -the world, that his conventional orthodoxy may be but the cloak of an -underlying scepticism. - -The identity of Bishop Blougram with Cardinal Wiseman was, as every one -knows, established from the first. That this should have been so was -inevitable from the various external indications introduced with obvious -intention into the poem; to the unprejudiced student it does not, however, -appear equally inevitable that the character sketch thus outlined should -be commonly estimated as conceived in a spirit hostile to the original. -Yet such would seem to be the case. In his _Browning Cyclopaedia_, Dr. -Berdoe quotes from a review contributed to _The Rambler_ of January, -1856, "which," he adds, "is credibly supposed to have been written by the -Cardinal himself." This article referred to the Bishop's portrait as "that -of an arch-hypocrite and the frankest of fools." Apparently accepting this -criticism, the author of the _Cyclopaedia_ not unnaturally observes that -"it is necessary to say that the description is to the last degree untrue, -as must have been obvious to any one personally acquainted with the -Cardinal." A similar opinion is expressed by no less an authority than Mr. -Wilfrid Ward, who characterizes the portrait as "quite unlike all that -Wiseman's letters and the recollections of his friends show him to have -been. Subtle and true as the sketch is in itself, it really depicts -someone else."[52] Is this so? May it not rather be the case that the true -character of Browning's prelate has not been fairly estimated? Does the -Bishop occupy the position assigned him by Mr. Ward when he continues, -"Blougram acquiesces in the judgment that Catholicism and Christianity are -doubtful, and yet that they are no more provable as false than as true; -that in one mood they seem true, in another false; that either the moods -of faith or the moods of doubt may prove to correspond with the truth, and -that in this state of things circumstances and external advantage may be -allowed to decide his vocation, and to justify him in professing -consistently as true, what in his heart of hearts he only regards as -possible?"[53] Again, "The sceptical element which had tried Wiseman in -his early years was something wholly different from Blougram's -scepticism."[54] Is there not something more than this to be said for the -Bishop's Apology? It is, indeed, the main difficulty of the poem to decide -to what extent the speaker is, or is not, serious in his assertions; but -if we come to the conclusion that he is either "an arch-hypocrite," or -"the frankest of fools," we shall assuredly be very far from having read -the defence aright. Browning himself has, according to report, had -something to say on this subject.[55] When accused by Sir Charles Gavin -Duffy and Mr. John Forster of abhorrence of the Roman Catholic faith on -the grounds of the then recent publication of this poem, containing, as -was alleged, a portrait of a sophistical and self-indulgent priest, -intended as a satire on Cardinal Wiseman, Browning met the charge with -what would appear to have been genuine astonishment; and, whilst admitting -his intention of employing the Cardinal as a model, concluded, "But I do -not consider it a satire, there is nothing hostile about it." And, looked -at more closely, it is questionable whether much of the alleged hostility -is to be detected. At least our feelings towards the Bishop contain no -element of either aversion or contempt as we conclude our study of his -defence! - -The external indications of identity are scattered, as if incidentally, -throughout the poem, according to the method habitual to Browning. (1) -Cardinal in 1850, Wiseman had been already consecrated bishop in 1840, and -sent to England as Vicar Apostolic of the Central District in conjunction -with Bishop Walsh. The year of his appointment as Cardinal was also the -date of the papal bull assigning territorial titles to Roman Catholic -bishops in England, a measure, rightly or wrongly, attributed popularly to -the influence of Wiseman. His episcopal title from 1840 had been that of -"Melipotamus in _partibus infidelium_," hence - - Sylvester Blougram, styled _in partibus - Episcopus, nec non_--(the deuce knows what - It's changed to by our novel hierarchy). (ll. 972-974.) - -(2) The reference in lines 957-960 to the Bishop's influence in the -literary world, in particular with the editors of Reviews, "whether here, -in Dublin or New York," recalls the fact that _The Dublin Review_ had been -founded by Cardinal Wiseman in 1836. - -(3) Again, in the opening lines, the allusion to Augustus Welby Pugin, the -genius of ecclesiastical architecture of the last century. When Wiseman, -in 1840, became President of Oscott College, Pugin was alarmed for the -results of his influence in architectural matters; since the Cardinal's -tastes had been formed in Rome, whilst the design of Pugin included a -Gothic revival in ecclesiastical architecture and vestments, as well as -the universal adoption of Gregorian chants in the services of the Church. -In spite, however, of the architect's fears, and some preliminary -collisions, the two men subsequently succeeded in preserving amicable -relations. Hence the Bishop's tolerant, but half-satirical comment, - - We ought to have our Abbey back, you see. - It's different, preaching in basilicas, - And doing duty in some masterpiece - Like this of brother Pugin's, bless his heart! - I doubt if they're half-baked, those chalk rosettes, - Ciphers and stucco-twiddlings everywhere. (ll. 3-8.) - -(4) Any considerations of internal evidences, especially those touching -the question of scepticism, will necessarily be repeated in following the -Bishop's arguments: but it may be well to refer briefly in this place to -the most noted characteristics of the Cardinal as estimated by the -contemporary world. - -(_a_) By some, even among his own clergy, he is reported to have been -opposed on account of his ultramontane tendencies and innovating zeal, in -particular with regard to the introduction of sacred images into the -churches, and the adoption of certain devotional exercises not hitherto -in use amongst English members of the Roman Catholic community. Thus we -find the Bishop asserting, "I ... - - ... would die rather than avow my fear - The Naples' liquefaction may be false, - When set to happen by the palace-clock - According to the clouds or dinner-time. (ll. 727-730.) - -Browning thus suggests the fact obvious to the world at large,--the -apparently implicit acceptance by the Cardinal of miracles which to the -average mind are impossible of credence; at the same time he allows -opportunity for an explanation of the position: the prelate fears the -effect upon the main articles of his faith of questioning that which is -least. - - First cut the Liquefaction, what comes last - But Fichte's clever cut at God himself? (ll. 743-744.) - -(_b_) Whilst, however, preserving these extreme views with regard to the -position and tenets of the Church, the Cardinal, with statesmanlike -wisdom, recognized that, in accordance with its genius as implied in the -attribute Catholic, it must likewise keep pace with the intellectual -advance of the age, not holding aloof from, but, where possible, -assimilating the highest results of contemporary thought. Now it is easy -to perceive that the onlooker of that day may have found these apparently -conflicting tendencies in the Cardinal's mind difficult of reconcilement, -and only to be accounted for by the supposition already suggested that the -man capable of assuming such an attitude towards his creed must be, if not -a fool, then an arch-hypocrite. It has been the work of Browning to show -how, without detriment to his intellectual capacity, the Bishop may -justify his position. To what extent, if at all, his moral character is -affected thereby must depend upon the degree of sincerity which we allow -to the entire exposition. - -It is no part of the present plan to attempt a vindication of Browning's -treatment of the character of Cardinal Wiseman; the issues suggested by -the Apology lie deeper, and are far broader than those involved in such a -discussion. One object, at least, of the design would appear to be that of -a defence of belief in those tenets of a creed which transcend the powers -of reason; the particular religious body to which the speaker belongs -being of little import to the real issue. It seemed, however, that any -treatment of the poem would be incomplete which did not contain some brief -comparison such as has been here attempted. And even now there is danger -lest the attempt may prove misleading. Whether or not Browning has given -us the true character of the Cardinal is not the question; the only fact -in that connection which we shall do well to bear in mind is that, working -from the materials at his command--the outward and visible manifestations -afforded by Wiseman's life as known to his contemporaries--the author of -the Apology has given what may be a possible interpretation of character, -sufficiently reasonable, at any rate, to account for, and to reconcile -seeming inconsistencies, without laying its owner open to the charge of -either folly or knavery. - -In approaching a more detailed examination of the poem we must not neglect -to take into account the peculiar conditions of religious life and thought -prevailing in England at the time of the publication, 1855. Fourteen years -earlier had appeared the celebrated No. 90 of _Tracts for the Times_. -After an interval of six years, in 1847, had followed the secession of J. -H. Newman to the Church of Rome, in 1853 that of Cardinal Manning. It was -a time of anxiety and sorrow amongst all those most deeply attached to the -Church of England, and of general unrest and uneasiness throughout the -country. Sufficient evidence of the universal unsettlement and anxiety is -afforded by the alarm, amounting almost to panic, excited by the Bull of -1850 announcing the territorial titles scheme. In a letter to Dean Stanley -on the question of the Oxford University Reform Bill of 1854, Mr. -Gladstone wrote, "The very words which you have let fall upon your paper -'Roman Catholics,' used in this connection (_i.e._, of extending full -University privileges to students other than members of the Church of -England) were enough to burn it through and through, considering we have a -parliament which, _were the measure of 1829 not law at this moment, would, -I think, probably refuse to make it law_."[56] Such was the spirit of the -times in England at the beginning of the second half of the nineteenth -century, and the existence of this spirit must not be left out of account -in dealing with Bishop Blougram and his Apology. - -That Browning did not wholly escape its influence, even though removed -from direct contact, is readily conceivable. And in spite of his own -expressed surprise at the suggestion that he did not favourably regard the -Roman Catholic creed, his natural sympathies would certainly appear to -have inclined towards a Puritanic form of worship rather than to a more -ornate ritual; setting aside questions of doctrine of which these may be -the outward manifestations. This being the case, ample reason is at once -discoverable for the resolve to examine the position more thoroughly, -ascertaining how far it was possible to make out a case for the other -side. For, whilst on the one hand, we have every right, despite his -cosmopolitanism and his Italian sympathies to claim the author of the -_Apology_ as a genuine Englishman, with a fair proportion of the -Englishman's characteristics, on the other hand, we may exonerate him, if -not wholly, yet to a very large extent, from insular prejudices and -narrow-minded judgments. Had he designed to present Blougram either as -fool or hypocrite, he might assuredly have attained his object with equal -certainty by writing something less than the thousand and odd lines -devoted to the work of psychological analysis: for, in making his defence, -the Bishop is likewise revealing himself--to him who has eyes to see. -Here, as elsewhere, it is Browning's intent to present to his readers not -what man sees but "what _this_ man sees"; to lead them to judge of cause -rather than of effect, of motive rather than of action, or of action by -the recognition of motive. We may attempt to classify his characters, if -we will: a Browning society may write and read papers on the "villains" or -the "hypocrites" of Browning as distinguished from his saints. Such a -classification is perhaps fairly possible in the case of a character -delineator such as Dickens, whose lines of demarcation are stronger and -broader, purposely so, than those of actual life; but it is questionable -whether Browning himself could have thus labelled his people and separated -them into distinct compartments. For if the complexity of human nature and -character is fully recognized by any writer whether poet, novelist, or -biographer, it has surely been so recognized by the author of -_Paracelsus_, of _Sordello_, of _The Ring and the Book_. It has been so -frequently remarked that it seems but reiterating a truism to repeat the -assertion that he writes of the individual, not of the race, not of _man_ -but of _men_; of men with much indeed which is common to the race, but -with peculiar attention also to those idiosyncrasies which establish -individuality. Hence the choice of soliloquists for the dramatic poems is -most frequently made amongst those the interpretation of whose actions has -presented special difficulty to the world at large. Thus to Browning was -left the vindication of Paracelsus, and for the bombast, the quack, the -drunkard, of contemporary biography has been substituted the pioneer and -martyr of science, failing, but on account of the magnitude of his -designs; recognizing even in defeat the divine nature of the mission -entrusted to his charge. For an Andrea del Sarto--to a less profound -student of character appearing as "an easy-going plebeian" satisfied with -a social life among his compeers, as an artist "resting content in the -sense of his superlative powers as an executant"--is offered the Andrea of -the poem bearing his name; a sometime aspiring nature, now embittered by -the struggle, wellnigh ended within the soul, between yearnings towards -future greatness and the desire for present gain; a nature of insight -sufficient to realize that the bonds of materialism are galling, of moral -force inadequate to effect their rupture. The more subtle, the more -outwardly misleading the character, the stronger the attraction it would -appear to have borne for Browning. It is no matter for surprise that in -_Prince Hohenstiel Schwangau_ he should have devoted over 2,000 lines to a -study of that mysterious, if disappointing, figure in European politics of -the middle of the last century--"at once the sabre of revolution and the -trumpet of order." And if conflicting elements of character constituted -the main attraction of the personality of Napoleon III, a similar cause of -fascination, as we have already noticed, exists in the instance before us; -viz., the possibility of reconciling the extreme opinions professed in -matters of Church ritual and doctrine, with the erudition, the political -ability, and width of intellectual outlook notably characteristic of -Cardinal Wiseman. - -I. For avoidance of misunderstanding as to the intention of the Apology it -is well to read the Epilogue as Prologue, although, even with this -introduction, it is not easy to decide how far the speaker is serious in -his assertions--a definite answer to the question would probably have -presented (so Browning would suggest) some difficulty to the Bishop -himself. - - For Blougram, he believed, say, half he spoke. - The other portion, as he shaped it thus - For argumentatory purposes, - He felt his foe was foolish to dispute. - Some arbitrary accidental thoughts - That crossed his mind, amusing because new, - He chose to represent as fixtures there, - Invariable convictions (such they seemed - Beside his interlocutor's loose cards - Flung daily down, and not the same way twice) - While certain hell-deep instincts, man's weak tongue - Is never bold to utter in their truth - Because styled hell-deep ('tis an old mistake - To place hell at the bottom of the earth) - He ignored these--not having in readiness - Their nomenclature and philosophy: - He said true things, but called them by wrong names. - "On the whole," he thought, "I justify myself - On every point where cavillers like this - Oppugn my life: he tries one kind of fence, - I close, he's worsted, that's enough for him. - He's on the ground: if ground should break away - I take my stand on, there's a firmer yet - Beneath it, both of us may sink and reach. - His ground was over mine and broke the first." (ll. 980-1004.) - -II. Thus the Bishop believed himself to realize the weakness of his -opponent; his superficiality in spite of his appeal to the ideal; the -worldliness which would esteem this hour of intercourse with the prelate -the highest honour of his life, - - The thing, you'll crown yourself with, all your days. - -An incident which he would not fail to turn to - - Capital account; - "When somebody, through years and years to come, - Hints of the bishop,--names me--that's enough: - Blougram? I knew him"--(into it you slide) - "Dined with him once, a Corpus Christi Day, - All alone, we two: he's a clever man: - And after dinner,--why, the wine you know,-- - Oh, there was wine, and good!--what with the wine ... - 'Faith, we began upon all sorts of talk! - He's no bad fellow, Blougram; he had seen - Something of mine he relished, some review: - He's quite above their humbug in his heart, - Half-said as much, indeed--the thing's his trade. - I warrant, Blougram's sceptical at times: - How otherwise? I liked him, I confess!" (ll. 31-44.) - -Just or unjust, such is the Bishop's estimate of his companion--(if the -opportunist is "quite above their humbug in his heart," not so the -would-be idealist!) And, accepting this view, the futility of casting -pearls before swine restrains him from a free expression of those deeper -thoughts which rise to the surface only here and there throughout the -monologue, evidence of the man beneath the prelate. There are problems -which do not admit of discussion "to you, and over the wine." Hence -Blougram holds himself justified in exercising that "reserve or economy of -truth" recognized[57] by a contemporary writer of his own community as -permissible under given conditions, within one class of which he may -reasonably account as falling, his interview with Gigadibs; viz., that in -which the listener is incapable of understanding truth stated exactly, -when it may be presented in the nearest form likely to appeal to his -comprehension. The journalist is thus from the first accepted by the -Bishop as representative of his world--that portion of the lay world to -which the position of this particular prelate of the Roman Catholic Church -is one requiring justification. Scepticism is so easy to this special -intellectual type of man, faith so difficult, that it is to him -incomprehensible that the Bishop may be genuine in his profession. On -these grounds Blougram bases the necessity for his defence. - -III. Taking himself then at his critics' estimate, _i.e._, as a sceptic -masquerading in the garb of an ecclesiastical dignitary, he opens his -exposition by a comparison of his life as actually lived with the ideal -life advocated by the critic and his compeers. Pursuing the -subject--having attained even to the supreme honour to which his calling -admits, having ascended the papal throne, the position would yet be but -one of _outward_ splendour, incomparable with "the grand, simple life" a -man _may_ lead; grand, because essentially genuine--"imperial, plain and -true." Nevertheless, he would submit, it is better for a man so to order -his life that it may be lived to his satisfaction in Rome or Paris of the -nineteenth century, rather than to dissipate his powers in the evolution -of some ideal scheme, impossible of practical execution. As illustration, -follows the incident of the outward-bound vessel in which are provided -cabins of equal dimensions for the accommodation of all passengers. One -would fain fill his "six feet square" with all the luxuries which the mode -of life hitherto pursued has rendered essential to his comfort. His -neighbour, meanwhile, has limited his requirements to the possibilities of -the space allotted; with the result that the man content with little finds -himself satisfactorily equipped for the voyage; whilst he of great, but -impracticable aspirations, is left with a bare cabin, one after the other -the articles of his proposed outfit having been rejected by the ship's -steward. Hence the deduction, that the man of moderate requirements is -better fitted for life, as life now is, than he of the "artist nature." -Later on (l. 763) the speaker again reverts to the same simile, passing to -the further illustration of the traveller providing his equipment in -advance, in each case adapting it to a climate to be subsequently -reached, rather than to that in which he is at the moment living. - - As when a traveller, bound from North to South, - Scouts fur in Russia: what's its use in France? - In France spurns flannel: where's its need in Spain? - In Spain drops cloth, too cumbrous for Algiers! (ll. 790-793.) - -The question not unreasonably follows, "When, through his journey, was the -fool at ease?" - -Thus, according to the Bishop, he who can most completely accommodate -himself to the exigencies of the present life, evinces his capability for -adapting himself to that which is to come. A theory, in direct opposition, -it would appear, to Browning's usual doctrine, repeated in so many of the -familiar poems. It is difficult to imagine a figure affording more -striking contrast to the prosperous prelate than that of the Grammarian, -once the "Lyric Apollo, electing to live nameless," occupied with the -pursuit of an abstract good; only paving the way for the attainment of his -successors; and in death throwing on God the task of making "the heavenly -period perfect the earthen," that incomplete phase of existence, full of -unsatisfied aspirations, of unfinished attempts. Of him the poet gives us -the assurance that he shall find the God whom he has sought: whilst for -the worldling who - - Has the world here--should he need the next, - Let the world mind him! - -In _Cleon_, in _A Death in the Desert_, in _Dîs Aliter Visum_, and perhaps -above all in _Abt Vogler_ (to refer to only a few illustrations out of the -many possible), the fact that man is incapable of accommodating himself to -his environment is treated as a proof that this is not his true sphere of -existence; that he was designed, and is still destined, for something -higher. So asks the lover of Pauline: - - How should this earth's life prove my only sphere? - Can I so narrow sense but that in life - Soul still exceeds it? - -In _Dîs Aliter Visum_, the assertion - - What's whole, can increase no more, - Is dwarfed and dies, since here's its sphere; - -has especial reference to love, - - The sole spark from God's life "at strife" - With death, so, sure of range above - The limits here. - -but there is a recognition of the general principle that that work alone -is worth beginning here and now, which "cannot grow complete," and which -"heaven (not earth) must finish." Even where, as in _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, -Browning lays strongest emphasis upon "the unity of life"; where age is -regarded as the completion of the physical life begun in youth, the -question is put, and left unanswered: - - Thy body at its best, - How far can it project thy soul on its lone way? - -These years of mortal life are to be devoted to the best use, so that it -shall not be possible to say that "soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh -helps soul." Nevertheless, the final result is to be that man, in yielding -his physical life, passes - - A man, for aye removed - From the developed brute; a god though in the germ. - -It cannot be denied that the Bishop is taking a distinctly lower position -than that suggested by any of the theories thus advanced. Nevertheless, he -holds himself, and probably with reason, to be upon higher ground than -that occupied by his critic. Recognizing his incapacity for experiencing -the enthusiasm of a Luther, he does not, therefore, feel constrained to -adopt the coldly critical attitude of a Strauss. In his own words-- - - My business is not to remake myself, - But make the absolute best of what God made. (ll. 355-356.) - -So Luigi, in calculating his fitness for the office of assassin assigned -him, is found reckoning his very insignificance as of greater worth, under -the given conditions, than his strength--extending his philosophy in a -general application to human life. - - Every one knows for what his excellence - Will serve, but no one ever will consider - For what his worst defect might serve: and yet - Have you not seen me range our coppice yonder - In search of a distorted ash? I find - The wry, spoilt branch, a natural, perfect bow.[58] - -There is a possible vocation in life for a Blougram as for a Luther. - -IV. Admitting then the wide difference between the ideal life proposed by -his critics, and the practical life which he has himself adopted, with -line 144 the Bishop passes to a consideration of the possibility of -effecting any form of reconciliation between the two theories. What -restrained his college friend from seeking the position occupied by his -comrade? What but his incapacity for belief, or, more accurately speaking, -his incapacity for accepting any fixed and markedly defined creed. This -difficulty the Bishop assumes himself to share: his faith is relative -rather than absolute; hence, having adopted the position of unbelievers, -so-called, the question remains, how may each in his several station, lead -a life consistent with such profession? The prelate holds that to preserve -a fixed attitude of unbelief is a feat of even greater difficulty than -that of maintaining the opposed position of faith--neither being in fact -absolutely and unalterably defined. It is easy enough for the onlooker to -imagine that the creed of the Church is a matter straightforward and -unperplexing for those living within the fold, admitting of no -questioning, no error; faith or unfaith; no half measures possible. Not -so; even within the Church the believer has his difficulties wherewith to -contend, his doubts, his hesitations. - - That way - Over the mountain, which who stands upon - Is apt to doubt if it be meant for road; - While, if he views it from the waste itself, - Up goes the line there, plain from base to brow, - Not vague, mistakeable! what's a break or two - Seen from the unbroken desert either side? (ll. 197-203.) - -The Bishop would go yet further, and suggest that the inevitable doubts -and questionings of the earnest believer are in themselves but a means of -strengthening faith: this being so, what should restrain him from entering -the Church's fold? - - What if the breaks themselves should prove at last - The most consummate of contrivances - To train a man's eye, teach him what is faith? - And so we stumble at truth's very test! (ll. 205-208.) - -Since consistent unbelief is at least as impossible as consistent faith, -the conclusion follows that life must be either one of "faith diversified -by doubt," or of "doubt diversified by faith." Well, he has chosen one, -let Gigadibs enjoy the other--if he can. - -V. Which life is preferable, that which calls the chess-board white, the -life of faith (in so far as faith is possible); or that which calls the -chess-board black, the life of doubt? The predominating (though by no -means absolute) influence of belief or of unbelief, determines the lines -on which character and life alike shall develop. Now, the Bishop asserts -that for him belief will bring, nay, has indeed brought, what he most -desires in life--"power, peace, pleasantness, and length of days." If -Gigadibs suggests that in his case unbelief will bring the satisfaction -which belief affords his companion of the dinner-table, then the Bishop -demurs. The faith of which he makes profession is calculated to meet all -exigencies--faith is in short his "waking life." The scepticism of the -journalist is, on the contrary, void of all practical utility. Should he -wish to live consistently he must cut himself off from those everyday -demands of life to which faith is an absolute requisite. He must "live to -sleep." And here the Bishop emphasizes an obvious, though not commonly -recognized fact--a powerful argument in favour of faith--in the abstract, -at least. He who professes himself a sceptic in matters spiritual, is yet -compelled to the exercise of faith in each act of practical life. Mutual -confidence abolished between man and man, business transactions become -impossible, and mercantile activity is brought to a standstill. Belief -involved in matters such as these, must, would the sceptic prove -consistent, be cast overboard with the other faiths of his childhood: and -the active man of the world becomes "bed-ridden." Amongst the temporal -advantages which the Bishop accounts as resulting from his profession, -first rank is accorded "the world's estimation, which is half the fight," -to gain which nothing less than a positive confession of unswerving faith -is required. Hence circumstances have forced from him the assertions: - - Friends, - I absolutely and peremptorily - Believe! (ll. 243-245.) - - * * * * * - - I say, I see all, - And swear to each detail the most minute - In what I think a Pan's face--you, mere cloud: - I swear I hear him speak and see him wink, - For fear, if once I drop the emphasis, - Mankind may doubt there's any cloud at all. (ll. 866-871.) - -The world has decided that with regard to - - Certain points, left wholly to himself, - When once a man has arbitrated on, - ... he must succeed there or go hang. (ll. 289-291.) - -And of the most important of these "points" is - - The form of faith his conscience holds the best, - Whate'er the process of conviction was. (ll. 296-297.) - -The Roman Catholic faith is that in which the Bishop was born and -educated. It had been decided from childhood that he should become a -priest: hence his choice of vocation. And this faith is, for him, one in -which power temporal, as well as spiritual, puts forth its claims. Its -undaunted champion may assert "I have loved justice and hated iniquity, -therefore I die in exile," but in drawing the distinction between "Peter's -creed" and that of Hildebrand, Blougram recognizes by implication the -political aspect of the cause for which the struggle thus closing had been -sustained. - -VI. If then, in satisfaction of the demands of those uncompromising -advocates of truth of whom Gigadibs is representative, the prelate of the -nineteenth century shall renounce his position as confessor of the creed -of the eleventh, in what rank of life may he take his stand? From what -career may faith be, without injurious effects, wholly excluded? For if -faith, to merit its title, is to be unmixed with doubt, equally must -unbelief be unalloyed in quality. A life apart from faith? That of -Napoleon? If so, then does the critic claim that Napoleon shares with him -the "common primal element of unbelief," belief being an impossibility. -Yet to such an admission the Corsican's whole career would give the lie. -Whatever the character of the faith which sustained him, faith there was, -sufficient to lead him on to colossal deeds: his trust may have been -"crazy," "God knows through what, or in what"; but to all intents and -purposes it was faith, possessing the essential element of faith, _life_, -and the inspiration of life: - - It's alive - And shines and leads him, and that's all we want. - -But to the Bishop such a life would have been impossible, since he has not -the clue to Napoleon's faith. "The noisy years" would not have offered him -his ideal, even were this life all. And he does not himself believe that -this life _is_ all: although he will not assert that to him a future state -of existence is matter of absolute certainty. If the career of "the -world's victor" is not then possible without faith of some kind, what of -that of the artist, of the poet? With a return to the earlier cynical -recognition of his own limitations, the Bishop enquires of what use an -attempt on his part to emulate Shakespeare when endowed by nature with -neither dramatic nor poetic faculty? Nevertheless he finds that he has -much in life which Shakespeare would have been glad to possess. The author -of _Hamlet_ and of _Othello_ might in truth enjoy the good things of earth -by the mere exercise of imagination; yet, strange anomaly, he built -himself - - The trimmest house in Stratford town; - Saves money, spends it, owns the worth of _things_. - -Even a Shakespeare, then, may be more or less of a materialist. Thus the -successful churchman who has attained the object of his ambition, whose -life is one of pleasantness and peace, may with confidence, turning to -the poet, ask him-- - - If this life's all, who wins the game? - -VII. If, however, the existence of another life _is_ to be recognized; if -belief is to be allowed to take the place of scepticism, then the face of -the argument is at once changed, and the Bishop is as ready as is his -critic to admit that enthusiasm is the grandest inspiration of human -nature. But he is--or so he would have his listener believe--no more -capable of the enthusiastic faith of Luther than of the strategic -achievements of Napoleon or the dramatic creations of Shakespeare. -Nevertheless, the negations of the sceptic's creed bear for him no -attraction. In either case remains the risk that faith or absence of faith -may prove error. The uncertainty on both sides being equal, it is _not_ as -well to be Strauss as Luther. Better even the mere desire for belief in -the story of the Gospels, than a dispassionately critical attempt to -reconcile discrepencies in that which has no personal interest for the -enquirer: the one means spiritual vitality, the other stagnation. - -VIII. With line 647, once more reverting to his earlier demonstration of -the impossibility of a "pure faith," the Bishop would submit that the -Divine Presence is veiled rather than revealed by Nature, until such time -as man shall have become capable of being "confronted with the truth of -him." But what of the mediaeval days, "that age of simple faith"? Were men -the better for their simplicity of belief? By no means, replies the -casuist of the nineteenth century, whose faith "means perpetual unbelief." -The simple faith proved itself unequal to the task of inspiring a life of -outward morality: men could and did - - Lie, kill, rob, fornicate - Full in beliefs face - -Rather the lifelong struggle with doubt, than this childish credulity -empty of practical result. And in spite of his doubts, Blougram holds his -faith "sufficient," since it just suffices to keep the doubts in check. -Nevertheless he will not incur the risk of shaking unduly such faith as he -possesses. He must not, therefore, begin to question even the most -questionable of ecclesiastical miracles. Whilst he cannot trust himself to -criticize things spiritual, he may yet prevent himself from taking the -first step in that direction. And here Browning has been accused of -implying that the Roman Catholic Church demands of its members acceptance -of miracles, such as that held to affect the blood of S. Januarius, -referred to as "the Naples' liquefaction." The Bishop is obviously -intended to suggest no universal obligation; with him the matter is purely -personal. He has not, as he has already admitted, sufficient confidence in -the calibre of his faith to allow reason to step in and question the -reliability of that which he would fain hold implicitly as truth. He fears -to take the first step on the road of criticism which ends in the -definition of God as "the moral order of the universe." Is not this, -allowing for the assumed scepticism of the Bishop, consistent with what we -find Cardinal Wiseman writing of his experiences in the early days of -struggle with doubts and questionings which cost him so much? Thus he -writes to a nephew twenty years after the worst of the conflict was over; -"During the struggle the simple submission of faith is the only remedy. -Thoughts against faith must be treated at the time like temptations -against any other virtue--put away--though in cooler moments they may be -safely analysed and unravelled."[59] - -In conclusion, the prelate emphatically reasserts the _practical_ -superiority of his choice of a career over that of this particular -sceptic, since it is in fact impossible for the journalist to live his -life of negation. He obeys the dictates of reason only where these do not -run counter too markedly to the prejudices of others: there he is forced -to yield to some extent. Thus he "grazes" through life, with "not one -lie," escaping the censure of his fellow men, but not gaining their esteem -or admiration, essentials to the happiness of his companion. So the Bishop -remains victorious on all counts, and emphasizes the superiority of his -position by bestowing upon his guest practical proof in the "three words" -of introduction to publishers in London, Dublin, or New York, securing - - Such terms as never [he] aspired to get - In all our own reviews and some not ours. - -IX. A few supplementary observations upon those points at which the -Apologist touches the firmer ground which he recognizes as existing -beneath the surface on which he bases his defence. That he is not entirely -satisfied with the conditions of his existence is obvious from the -character of the apology, which suggests, from time to time, thoughts -higher than those to which he gives direct utterance. Opportunist as he -would present himself to be, lines 693-698, are unmistakably the -expression of inmost experience-- - - When the fight begins within himself, - A man's worth something. God stoops o'er his head, - Satan looks up between his feet--both tug-- - He's left, himself, i' the middle: the soul wakes - And grows. Prolong that battle through his life! - Never leave growing till the life to come! - -It is here almost as if Browning cannot restrain the expression of his own -personal feeling, so markedly characteristic is this passage of his -general teaching. That which holds good of all struggle is applicable -also to the contest between faith and doubt. That implicit faith of -mediaeval times, which exerted too little influence on practical life, was -in character less virile, a factor less potent for good than is the -Bishop's own limited belief, constantly assailed by doubt. Good -strengthened by the contest with evil, faith increased by the conflict -with doubt. The creed of Browning, in brief: - - I shew you doubt, to prove that faith exists. - The more of doubt, the stronger faith, I say, - If faith o'ercomes doubt. How I know it does? - By life and man's free will, God gave for that! (ll. 602-605.) - - * * * * * - - Let doubt occasion still more faith. (l. 675.) - -Words recalling Tennyson's reference to the spiritual struggles of a more -finely tempered nature than that of Blougram: - - He fought his doubts and gather'd strength, - He would not make his judgment blind, - He faced the spectres of the mind - And laid them: thus he came at length - - To find a stronger faith his own.[60] - -And the Bishop may not unjustly claim - - The sum of all is--yes, my doubt is great, - My faith's still greater, then my faith's enough. (ll. 724-725.) - -These higher utterances, intermingled as they are with the openly -expressed tenets of the opportunist; whilst testifying most clearly to the -genius of Browning in its penetrative comprehension of human nature, that -admixture of noble aspiration and base compromise; find their counterpart -in the memorable advice of Polonius to Laertes, constituted for the main -part of prudential maxims regulating the social comportment of the -successful worldling; then, almost suddenly, as it were, at the close, -breaking through to deeper ground and striking upon that unalterable -principle of life, of universal import, of inexhaustible illuminative -power, since it treats only of that which is in its essence infinite-- - - To thine ownself be true; - And it must follow, as the night the day, - Thou canst not then be false to any man. - -Though the life which the Bishop defends may not be the highest measured -by the standard of his own ideal, yet, "truth is truth, and justifies -itself in undreamed ways." And there _is_ truth in the recognition that -the faith to which he looks for inspiration and guidance is a faith barely -capable of holding its own in face of the battalion of assailant doubts. -It may yet be that "the dayspring's faith" shall finally crush "the -midnight doubt." Some solution of the problems of life must be sought, and -why should that alone be rejected which alone offers a satisfactory clue? -There is perhaps no finer passage in Browning, certainly none more -melodious, than that in which Blougram, after comparing the relative -positions of faith and unbelief as influencing life, concludes with this -query. - - Just when we are safest, there's a sunset-touch, - A fancy from a flower bell, some one's death, - A chorus-ending from Euripides,-- - And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears - As old and new at once as nature's self, - To rap and knock and enter in our soul, - Take hands and dance there, fantastic ring, - Round the ancient idol, on his base again,-- - The grand Perhaps! We look on helplessly. - There the old misgivings, crooked questions are-- - This good God,--what he could do, if he would, - Would, if he could--then must have done long since: - If so, when, where and how? Some way must be,-- - Once feel about, and soon or late you hit - Some sense, in which it might be, after all. - Why not, "The Way, the Truth, the Life?" (ll. 182-197.) - -It must be left to the individual decision to acquit or condemn the -Bishop. The decision may perhaps depend upon the acceptance or rejection -of the alternative, "Whole faith or none?" And "whole faith" as defined by -the Apology is that which accepts all things, from the existence of a God -down to the latest ecclesiastical miracle. Such an attitude is possible -only to the uncritical mind. The spheres of faith and reason are not -identical. The childlike intelligence may receive without question or -effort of faith all that is offered it of things spiritual. It sees no -cause for question, hence doubt does not arise. The logical and critical -faculties have not been developed. But in the mind of the thinker, the -logician, the metaphysician, reason will assert itself; judgment will not -be blindfolded. If the postulates of faith are capable of proof by reason, -then is faith no longer necessary; its sphere is usurped by reason which -has become all-sufficient. To the man, therefore, whose intellect -questions, analyses, dissects truths as they present themselves to him, a -proportionately stronger faith is a necessity: the doubts so arising -being, "the most consummate of contrivances to teach men faith." - -Having once satisfied the insistent yearning of a nature which declares, I -... - - want, am made for, and must have a God - ... No mere name - Want, but the true thing with what proves its truth, - To wit, a relation from that thing to me, - Touching from head to foot--which touch I feel. (ll. 846-850.) - -(With this compare Mr. W. Ward on Cardinal Wiseman, "his own early doubts -... had been the alternative to a passionate, mystical, and absorbing -faith.") This relation having been attained, the speaker is prepared - - To take the rest, this life of ours. - -Faith in the greatest having been assured, faith in that which is less may -or may not follow. He who feels in touch with the Divine may well endure -the existence of doubts and questionings inevitable in matters of less -vital import. To the child "who knows his father near" tears are not an -unalloyed bitterness; or, to adopt the Bishop's own simile, so be it the -path leads to the mountain top, a break or two by the way matters little. - - - - - - -LECTURE IV - -CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (i) - - - - -LECTURE IV - -CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (i) - - -No poems of Browning's have probably excited more widely-spread interest -(the question of admiration being set aside) than those which we have -before us for consideration in this and the two following Lectures. The -interest so excited is due, one believes, less to artistic merit than to -the character of the subjects treated--unfailing in their attraction for -the speculative tendencies of the human intellect. The form in which they -now make appeal is no longer identical with that in which they presented -themselves when _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_ appeared in the middle of -the last century: fifty years hence the embodiment of thoughts thus -suggested may well differ yet more widely from that obtaining at the -present day. Nevertheless, beneath all external variations, that which is -essentially permanent remains: and in this enduring interest of subject -inevitably subsists the immortality of that literary work, whether poetry -or prose, in which it has found, or is destined to find, a vehicle of -expression. If it were permissible to suggest a division where the author -clearly intended no division should be, it might on the foregoing -hypothesis be reasonable to prognosticate for _Easter Day_ a more enduring -interest than for the companion poem; since, whilst the dramatic -attraction is less powerful than in _Christmas Eve_, the treatment of -subject goes deeper, and is more independent of temporary accessaries. In -a memorable phrase Professor Dowden has defined the subjects of the two -poems as "the spiritual life individual, and the spiritual life -corporate."[61] Both indeed deal with faith in its relation to life: the -first with faith as found incorporated in typical religious communities of -the civilized world; the second with faith as it makes direct appeal to -the individual apart from the influence of external formulae. The one -aspect of the subject is obviously regarded by Browning as complementary -to the other. "Easter Day" is essential to the completion of "Christmas -Eve." Both poems were originally published in one volume (1850), and still -remain united by the joint title standing at the head of both. Individual -faith is necessary to the vitality of faith corporate. The considerations -engaging the attention of the soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_ are confined -to a decision as to which of the forms of creed presented for choice shall -receive his adherence; or whether it may be justly yielded to that which -he finally accounts no creed, the theory of life based upon the teaching -of the Professor of Göttingen? In _Easter Day_ the debate in the mind of -the speaker goes deeper yet, and relates mainly to the difficulties -attendant upon a practical and consistent acceptance of Christian belief -in its simplest form: an acceptance involving a necessary reconstruction -of life on the lines of faith. In another sense also are the two poems -complementary. As indicated by the sequence of names in the title, the -love and universal tolerance suggested by the Peace and Goodwill of -Christmas find their fuller development, their essential, practical -outcome in the personal faith, implying a personal acceptance of the -sacrifice of which Easter Day marks the triumphant culmination. Hence the -more notable _asceticism_, if we are so to term it, of the second poem as -compared with the first. Rightly, he who would fain be a Christian stands -in awe before - - The all-stupendous tale,--that Birth, - That Life, that Death! (_E. D._, ll. 233-234.) - -Thus in _Easter Day_ is to be found no trace of that "easy tolerance" in -matters spiritual which suggests itself--only, however, to be finally -rejected--to the soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_ as the result of his -night's experiences. But a comparison of the two poems will be more -satisfactorily made after a brief separate consideration of each in this -and Lecture V. Lecture VI will be mainly occupied with a discussion of -criticisms relating to both, as well as to the question of vital -importance touching Browning's own position--How far must the conclusions -of either or both be regarded as dramatic in character? - -From a merely artistic point of view _Christmas Eve_ presents its own -peculiar interest. Having once read it, in whatever degree our minds may -have become impressed by its theological or dogmatic arguments, externals -have been so forcibly presented, that Zion Chapel and the common outside -"at the edge of which the Chapel stands," always thereafter bear for us a -curious kind of familiarity similar to that which attaches itself to -remembered haunts of our childish days. The first three Sections of the -Poem contain what may certainly be classed amongst the most grimly -realistic descriptions in English literature. It may, indeed, be objected -that these opening stanzas are _perilously_ realistic in character where -poetry is concerned, fitted rather for the pages of Dickens or of Gissing -than for their present position. - - The fat weary woman, - Panting and bewildered, down-clapping - Her umbrella with a mighty report, - Grounded it by me, wry and flapping, - A wreck of whalebones. - -Then "the many-tattered little old-faced peaking sister-turned-mother," -"the sickly babe with its spotted face," and the - - Tall yellow man, like the Penitent Thief, - With his jaw bound up in a handkerchief. (ll. 48-82.) - -In short, read the second Section in its entirety. Such description is -certainly not "poetic." But Browning knew well what he was doing. -Influenced doubtless by his love of striking effects, we cannot but feel -that he makes the unpleasing characteristics of the congregation assembled -within the walls of Zion Chapel the more repellant, that the transition -from the mundane to the divine may strike the reader with greater force. -From the flock sniffing - - Its dew of Hermon - With such content in every snuffle. - -the soliloquist of the poem calls us to follow him as he "flings out of -the little chapel"; and with Section IV we have passed into the boundless -waste of the common, where is - - A lull in the rain, a lull - In the wind too; the moon ... risen - [Which] would have shone out pure and full, - But for the ramparted cloud-prison, - Block on block built up in the West. (ll. 185-189.) - -The scene thus outlined prepares us for the culmination of Section VI. - - For lo, what think you? suddenly - The rain and the wind ceased, and the sky - Received at once the full fruition - Of the moon's consummate apparition. - The black cloud-barricade was riven, - Ruined beneath her feet, and driven - Deep in the West; while, bare and breathless, - North and South and East lay ready - For a glorious thing that, dauntless, deathless, - Sprang across them and stood steady. - 'Twas a moon-rainbow, vast and perfect. - - * * * * * - * * * * * - - But above night too, like only the next, - The second of a wondrous sequence, - Reaching in rare and rarer frequence, - Till the heaven of heavens were circumflexed, - Another rainbow rose, a mightier, - Fainter, flushier and flightier,-- - Rapture dying along its verge. (ll. 373-399.) - -So the poet leads us to the climax--to the silence awaiting the answer to -the speaker's query - - Oh, whose foot shall I see emerge? (l. 400.) - -Then follow Sections VII and VIII, revealing the vision. - - The too-much glory, as it seemed, - Passing from out me to the ground, - Then palely serpentining round - Into the dark with mazy error. - - * * * * * - - All at once I looked up with terror. - He was there. - He himself with his human air. - On the narrow pathway, just before. - -But the writer keeps strictly within the bounds of reverence: - - I saw the back of him, no more. (ll. 424-432.) - -This treatment in itself may, I believe, be not unjustly taken as -indicative of Browning's devotional attitude towards the subject. When, in -Section IX, the face is turned upon the narrator, he but records - - So lay I, saturate with brightness. (l. 491.) - -Where, in _Easter Day_, the description of the Divine Presence is given -(xix, l. 640, _et seq._), it is suggested with an awe and vagueness which -certainly narrow the conception to no material presentation. - -In addition to this vividness of contrast between the first three and the -following Sections, the realistic force with which the poem opens has a -yet further result. The uncompromising character of the realism opens the -way for a more readily accorded credence in the subsequent events of the -night. He who describes the vision has likewise seen the congregation in -Zion Chapel. When he "flung out" of the meeting-house, his mood was -certainly not indicative of imaginative idealism or mystic contemplation. -He is in a frame of mind little likely to prove unduly susceptible to -supernatural influences. A realization of this mental attitude is -essential to a fair estimate of the line of argument throughout the poem. - -I. Sections I, II, and III are thus occupied with the description of the -Chapel and the congregation gathered within its walls, of the preacher and -the spiritual food whereby he proposes to sustain the members of his -flock. And notice: the speaker has entered perforce, driven within the -sacred precincts by the violence of the elements. He is an outsider, and, -as such, prepared to assume the attitude of critic rather than of -sympathizer. And the severity of the criticism is intensified by physical -and intellectual repulsion at the scene before him. Hence he recognizes -all that is peculiarly objectionable in the special aspect of -non-conformity presented within the Chapel. He perceives at once (1) "the -trick of exclusiveness," and the consequent self-satisfaction induced; and -(2) the "fine irreverence" of the preacher in presenting the "treasure hid -in the Holy Bible" as "a patchwork of chapters and texts in severance, not -improved by [his] private dog's-ears and creases." He perceives "the -trick of exclusiveness" which causes the congregation to hold itself to be - - The men, and [that] wisdom shall die with [them], - And none of the old Seven Churches vie with [them]. - - * * * * * - - And, taking God's word under wise protection, - Correct its tendency to diffusiveness. (ll. 107-112.) - -Later, when freed from the physical irritation attendant on proximity to -this special collection of representatives of humanity, his prejudices are -sufficiently modified to allow of the perception that some explanation of -this exclusiveness is possible. - - These people have really felt, no doubt, - A something, the motion they style the Call of them; - And this is their method of bringing about - - * * * * * - - The mood itself, which strengthens by using. (ll. 238-245.) - -The speaker is quite willing (when at a distance from the Chapel) to admit -this right of attempting a reproduction of that mood in which the original -conversion may have been effected. Nevertheless, he will _not_ admit the -right of the flock to shut the gate of the fold in the face of any -outsider seeking entrance. Still - - Mine's the same right with your poorest and sickliest - Supposing I don the marriage vestiment. (ll. 119-120.) - -In _Johannes Agricola in Meditation_ this personal satisfaction of the -Calvinist is presented in a still more extreme form. - - Ere suns and moons could wax and wane, - Ere stars were thundergirt, or piled - The heavens, God thought on me his child; - Ordained a life for me, arrayed - Its circumstances every one - To the minutest. - -And this pre-ordained object of the Divine Love may assert with -confidence-- - - I have God's warrant, could I blend - All hideous sins, as in a cup, - To drink the mingled venoms up; - Secure my nature will convert - The draught to blossoming gladness fast. - -Thus happiness assured, inevitable, for the elect. For those excluded from -the sacred number-- - - I gaze below on hell's fierce bed, - And those its waves of flame oppress, - Swarming in ghastly wretchedness; - Whose life on earth aspired to be - One altar-smoke, so pure!--to win - If not love like God's love for me, - At least to keep his anger in; - And all their striving turned to sin. - -It is difficult to believe that the author of _this_ poem, at any rate, -would willingly have identified himself with the Calvinistic creed. To -Caliban, a creature so largely devoid of moral sense, we have, indeed, -seen him assigning a belief closely akin to that involved in the -meditations of Johannes, when he refers to the difference of the fates -irrevocably allotted by Setebos to himself and to Prospero; both theories -in curious contrast with the reflections of the Book of _Wisdom_: "For -thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast -made: for never wouldest thou have made anything, if thou hadst hated -it.... But thou sparest all, for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of -souls."[62] - -Thus is explained "the trick of exclusiveness." What of the "fine -irreverence" of the preacher? Here the success of the sermon as a means -of spiritual conviction, is held to be dependent upon the attitude of mind -of the listener. - - 'Tis the taught already that profits by teaching. (l. 255.) - -The method employed is only "abundantly convincing" to "those convinced -before." To the critic possessed of unprejudiced intellectual faculties, -the arbitrary collection of texts and chapters brought into connection by -the capricious choice of the preacher is deserving of condemnation as a -misrepresentation of the truth, by "provings and parallels twisted and -twined," which would draw from even the more obvious Old Testament -narrative proof of some doctrinal mystery of his creed--that Pharaoh -received a demonstration - - By his Baker's dream of Baskets Three, - Of the doctrine of the Trinity. (ll. 230-233.) - -Those of us who are inclined to reproach Browning for the severity of the -condemnation of Roman Catholic ritual ascribed to the soliloquist in -Section XI will do well to read again Sections I to IV, which assuredly -place the service of Zion Chapel in a far less attractive light than that -thrown upon the ceremony in progress beneath the dome of St. Peter's. - -II. Thus the listener passes from the confines of the Chapel to the -limitless expanse of the common without: and the change in externals is -indicative also of that within. Whilst discerning the errors of preacher -and congregation, the critic has been blinded to the fact that he, too, is -equally removed from the spirit of love designed to prove the inspiring -principle of all forms of Christianity, however crude their mode of -expression. The soothing influence of Nature to which he has ever been -peculiarly susceptible, causes at once - - A glad rebound - From the heart beneath, as if, God speeding me, - I entered his church-door, nature leading me. (ll. 274-276.) - -So he stands, recalling the visions of youth, when he "looked to these -very skies, probing their immensities," and "found God there, his visible -power." The power was unquestionable, a mere response to the evidence of -the senses; but reason, coming to the aid of sight, pointed to the -existence also of Love, "the nobler dower." The deduction is logical, -since the absence of Love at once imposes limitations to power otherwise -apparently infinite. The craving for love existent within the human heart -demands satisfaction, and if in this direction the Deity is _unable_ to -satisfy the needs of his creatures, man here surpasses his maker, the -creature the creator. Irresponsible power, not comprehensive of love, is -of the character of that exercised by Setebos according to the theory of -Caliban. Here man is seen endowed with gifts of heart and brain, to -exercise _through_ his own will, but _for_ the glory of his creator "as a -mere machine could never do." Power (in this place synonymous with force -combined with knowledge) may advance by degrees, not so Love. Love does -not admit of measurement, since it is by nature infinite. As with -eternity, so with Love. By no relative estimate of time can any possible -realization of eternity be approached; the sole result of any such attempt -at exposition being necessarily conducive to a wholly erroneous impression -on the mind, since that which is in its essence infinite admits of no -defined measure. Thus infinite Love remains infinite in spite of human -limitations. Whilst absolute truth remains, though the revelation to man -is gradual, so does Love remain unimpaired, though man may profit by or -abuse it. - - 'Tis not a thing to bear increase - As power does: be love less or more - In the heart of man, he keeps it shut - Or opes it wide, as he pleases, but - Love's sum remains what it was before. (ll. 322-326.) - -Thus S. Augustine: "Do heaven and earth then contain Thee, since Thou -fillest them?... The vessels which are full of Thee do not confine Thee, -though they should be shattered, Thou wouldest not be poured out."[63] - -To sum up: Where Power alone was at first discernible, in the wonderful -care manifested in the smallest creation, "in the leaf, in the stone," the -work of Love eventually became equally clear. For a similar expression of -Browning's more immediately personal faith we have only to turn to his -latest published work, _The Reverie of Asolando_. - - From the first Power was--I knew. - Life has made clear to me, - That, strive but for closer view, - Love were as plain to see. - -In simple faith in this all-prevailing Providence, in a recognition of the -immanence of the Divine Love, the critic of Zion Chapel believes himself -to have found the highest form of worship. Before the night is ended he -is, however, to learn differently. - -The Vision of Sections VII to IX renders still more forcible the -revelation already begun with the escape from the Chapel--that the Love -which may be duly worshipped alone in spirit and in truth yet recognizes -the feeblest manifestation of either in the worshipper: and that the -nearest approach to union with the Divine Love is to be sought in a fuller -and more immediate response to the human. And it is worthy of notice that -the Vision does not reveal itself within the confines of Zion Chapel, the -abode of religious exclusiveness and intolerance; only when the freer -atmosphere of Nature has been reached. - -III. Rome, St. Peter's. With the opening of the next division of the Poem -(Sections X to XII), we find the man who has been anxious that the divine -worship shall be celebrated in beauty, as well as in spirit and in truth, -again an onlooker: waiting without the walls of St. Peter's, "that -miraculous Dome of God,"--waiting without, yet with eye "free to pierce -the crust of the outer wall," and perceive the crowd thronging the -cathedral - - In expectation - Of the main-altar's consummation. - -And here is to be found all that was wanting to the bare whitewashed -interior of "Mount Zion" with its "lath and plaster entry," with "the -forms burlesque, uncouth" of its worship. Here the vast building - - Ablaze in front, all paint and gilding, - With marble for brick, and stones of price - For garniture of the edifice. (ll. 538-540.) - -In place of the "snuffle" of the Methodist congregation and the "immense -stupidity" of the utterances of the preacher is the silence which may be -felt of that solemn moment preceding the elevation, when "the organ -blatant holds his breath.... As if God's hushing finger grazed him." (ll. -574-575.) Whatever the sympathies of spectator or author, no lines in the -entire poem are more impressive for the reader than those which follow: - - Earth breaks up, time drops away, - In flows heaven, with its new day - Of endless life, when He who trod, - Very man and very God, - This earth in weakness, shame and pain, - Dying the death whose signs remain - Up yonder on the accursed tree,-- - Shall come again, no more to be - Of captivity the thrall, - But the one God, All in all, - King of kings, Lord of lords, - As His servant John received the words, - "I died, and live for evermore!" (ll. 581-593.) - -The conviction is almost inevitable that here something beyond even the -power of dramatic genius has to be reckoned with; that some spirit more -nearly akin to intimate personal sympathy served as inspiration of this -passage. - -Carried away by the infection of the prevailing enthusiasm, the spectator -questions as to the cause which has led him to remain without upon the -threshold-stone of the cathedral, whilst He who has led him hither is -within. And the answer which Reason returns is, that whilst the Divine -Wisdom may be capable of discerning the faith and love existent beneath -the outward imagery, yet with "mere man" the case is otherwise; hence for -him to disregard the inward promptings of his nature is dangerous to his -spiritual welfare. Thus the decision: - - I, a mere man, fear to quit - The due God gave me as most fit - To guide my footsteps through life's maze, - Because himself discerns all ways - Open to reach him. (ll. 621-625.) - -For him to whom the bare walls of Zion Chapel have proved repellant, the -glories of St. Peter's may conceivably be fatally attractive in their -appeal to the senses: such, reasonably or unreasonably, is at least the -belief of the soliloquist. The argument of this eleventh Section is -perhaps the most difficult to follow satisfactorily of all those leading -to the ultimate choice of creed. Before attempting to estimate the worth -of the conclusions, it may be well to trace briefly the line of thought -by which they appear to have been reached. - -(1) The spectator, at first struck by the glory of outward display as a -means of still imposing upon the world "Rome's gross yoke," is yet led, -through proximity to the Divine Presence, whilst seeing the error, "above -the scope of error" to realize the love. And further, to admit (2) that -the love inspiring the worshippers of St. Peter's on this Christmas Eve of -1849 was also "the love of those first Christian days," a love which did -not hesitate to sacrifice all which might interpose between itself and the -Divine Love whence it emanated. When - - The antique sovereign Intellect - Which then sat ruling in the world, - ... was hurled - From the throne he reigned upon. (ll. 650-653.) - -Subsequently followed all the wealth of poetry and rhetoric, of sculpture -and painting sometime the pride of the classical world. Love, and it _was_ -Love which was acting, drew her children aside from these intellectual and -sensuous gratifications, and pointed to the Crucified. She thus, says the -soliloquist, had demanded of her votaries vast sacrifices which might -reasonably have been held essential in the early days of Christianity. We -have already seen, indeed, how empty of ultimate satisfaction had been -these same intellectual pleasures to Cleon: how obviously light would have -been, to him, the sacrifice involved in an acceptance of any faith which -should afford a definite and reasonable hope for a future state of -existence: how small a price would have been the loss of life temporal in -view of the gain of life eternal. (3) But the critic, whilst admitting the -sublimity of the sacrifice of the first century of the Christian era, -deprecates the demand made for its repetition in the nineteenth. It is -time for Love's children not only to "creep, stand steady upon their -feet," but to "walk already. Not to speak of trying to climb" (ll. -697-699). The limitations imposed upon the intellect and its free -development should long since have been discarded. (4) Yet, though -recognizing this to the full, the speaker will not condemn one of those, -however mistaken, whose foreheads bear "_lover_ written above the earnest -eyes of them." These worshippers within St. Peter's need some satisfaction -of the demands made upon their nature by an inherent craving for beauty; -and yet have they sacrificed for Love's sake all that they might have -found of intense enjoyment in unfettered life. Dwelling amidst the glories -of Rome, ancient and modern, they yet turn from the "Majesties of art -around them." Faith struggles to suppress intellectual and artistic -cravings; and these, at length subdued, they "offer up to God for a -present." Denied in the world without the sensuous satisfaction for which -they yearn, they would seek it in the display attendant on the Roman -Catholic ritual. This is the view of the man who believes himself to be -the true "lover" of God, capable of worshipping in spirit and in truth. - -How far is he justified in such criticism? Unquestionably he is -prejudiced. There exists an unconscious mental bias towards that creed -which he is represented as finally accepting; and there is little doubt -that it is Browning's intention to expose the prejudice. The failure in -appreciation of the ceremonial at St. Peter's arises from inability to -apprehend beauty in the outward accessories of the service of which he is -witness. To his nature it would appear that the demand upon the sensuous -side is not so strong as he imagines when he expresses the fear of -entering the cathedral and joining the worshipping crowd. He seems, -moreover, to ignore, or to pass over lightly, the productions of -Christian art, whether in painting or in the music of religious ritual, -when he inquires (ll. 681, _et seq._): - - Love, surely, from that music's lingering, - Might have filched her organ-fingering, - Nor chosen rather to set prayings - To hog-grunts, praises to horse-neighings. - -He ignores, too, the value of symbolism in the later mocking allusion to -this experience as "buffoonery--posturings and petticoatings." - -In the main line of thought, however, beginning with Section XI, and -developed more fully in XII, is treated no imaginary danger, but that -bound inevitably to attend on any religious system in which authority is -paramount. The error attributed to the advocates of the Roman Catholic -creed is that of rendering the head too completely subservient to the -heart. Faith cannot indeed be acquired by any considerations of logic; -nevertheless, there is no necessity that Reason and Faith should prove -antagonistic forces. To the brain, as well as to the heart, must be -allowed scope for development. Hence the speaker represents that Church, -in which freedom of thought is limited, as interposing as an intermediary -between the conscience and the Divine influence. Such Church he regards as -having devoted its energies to the development of a single element or -faculty of human nature to the exclusion or limitation of the rest. -Nevertheless, in one direction there has been development to an -extraordinary degree: and Browning himself, as we have good reason to -know, would have been unlikely to criticize adversely this whole-hearted -devotion to a cause. For illustration the soliloquist employs that of the -sculptor who, without calculating the dimensions of his marble, devotes -his energies to the production of a perfect head and shoulders only. This, -though necessarily unfinished in actual performance, is far grander in -conception than a smaller and fully modelled figure; and the spectator is -free to seek elsewhere the completion of the unfinished statue in the work -of an artist complementary to that of the first. Thus the onlooker at St. -Peter's resolves to accept the provision there offered for the -"satisfaction of his love," then depart elsewhere--depart to seek the -completion of the statue--"that [his] intellect may find its share." And -it is noteworthy that the same critic, who condescends to the employment -of language such as that marking the references to the service of St -Peter's, ascribes to the Church of Rome the development of that element -which he esteems highest in human nature. Love is ever with the author of -_Christmas Eve_, as with the soliloquist, of worth immeasurably greater -than mere intellect. - -IV. With Section XIII the critic of Zion Chapel passes once more into the -night in search of satisfaction for those demands of the intellect which -have been left unanswered at St. Peter's; and in Section XIV he is -represented as finding that which he seeks. Love and Faith to the -exclusion of intellectual development he has left in the cathedral at -Rome; Intellect without Love he meets in the Lecture Hall at Göttingen. -Believing himself to have learned the lesson that wherever even nominal -followers of Christ are to be found, there, too, is the Divine Presence, -he is now "cautious" how he "suffers to slip" - - The chance of joining in fellowship - With any that call themselves his friends. (ll. 800-803.) - -Hence, entering the Hall, he follows the course of the consumptive -Lecturer's reasoning on "the myth of Christ." As to this fable which -"Millions believe to the letter" he (the Lecturer) proposes to attempt the -work of discrimination between truth and legend. - -(1) He reminds his audience, and justly, that it is well at times to pause -to inquire concerning the source of articles of their belief; historic -fact may become disguised or concealed by accretions of legendary -narrative gathered round it: by the various expositions assigned it by -commentators of different ages. (2) Having thus examined and freed his -"myth" from the misinterpretations of the early disciples, from later -additions and modifications; when all has been done he yet admits that the -residuum is well worthy of preservation. - - A Man!--a right true man, however, - Whose work was worthy a man's endeavour. (ll. 876-877.) - -Moreover - - Was _he_ not surely the first to insist on - The natural sovereignty of our race? (ll. 888-889.) - -As it were in startling comment upon the assertion of this natural -sovereignty, the Professor's further speech is interrupted by a fit of -coughing, and the listener avails himself of the opportunity thus offered -to leave the Hall. - -Once more free to breathe the outer air his critical powers reassert -themselves, and he sees from a point of observation, sufficiently removed, -the relative effects of the excesses of the most widely differing forms of -Christianity and of that form of belief or of scepticism which denies the -divinity of the founder of the creed. His decision is given in favour of -superstition as opposed to scepticism. - - Truth's atmosphere may grow mephitic - When Papist struggles with Dissenter, - - * * * * * - - Each, that thus sets the pure air seething, - May poison it for healthy breathing-- - But the Critic leaves no air to poison. (ll. 898-909.) - -Then follows the criticism of the Critic. - -What has the lecturer, indeed, left to the followers of the Christ? - -(1) Intellect? Is the possession of pure intellect to be accounted cause -for worship? Even so, others have taught morality as Christ taught it, -with the difference (and this surely an advantage from the critic's -standpoint) that these teachers have failed to assert of themselves that -to which Christ laid claim on his own behalf: that, - - He, the sage and humble, - Was also one with the Creator. (ll. 922-923.) - -(2) Worship of the intellect being thus disallowed, what then of the moral -worth of the Man Christ as admitted by the Lecturer? Is mere virtue, -however great in degree, sufficient to claim as of right for its possessor -the submission of his fellow men? Perfection of moral character being -allowed, is this adequate reason that the Christ should be held supreme -ruler of the race? To answer the question satisfactorily one of two -theories must be accepted: either "goodness" is of human "invention" or it -is a divine gift freely bestowed. If the first, the Professor's listener -holds that "worship were that man's fit requital" who should have proved -himself capable of exhibiting in his own life, _for the first time in the -world's history_, that which "goodness" really is. Recognizing, however, -the incontrovertible fact that moral worth was present in the world prior -to the foundation of Christianity, the so-called "invention" of goodness -resolves itself into a mere matter of definition, and the adjustment of -names to qualities already existent. In this case he who has achieved this -work is no more deserving of worship as the originator or creator of -goodness than is Harvey to be adjudged inventor of the circulation of the -blood. One is inclined here to question whether the speaker is not -carrying his argument beyond the point necessary to the exposure of the -weakness of the Lecturer's position as professed follower of a merely -human Christ. Whether or not this be so, he has succeeded in proving -logically untenable the first of the two hypotheses suggested in this -connection. What then of the second? If goodness is admittedly the direct -gift of God, if the founder of Christianity taught how best to preserve -such gift "free from fleshly taint"; then he merits indeed the title of -Saint, but no more transcendent honour, his powers differing in degree, -not in kind, from those of his fellow men: he was inspired, but as -Shakespeare was inspired. No immensity of virtue may effect the conversion -of human nature into the divine; and the man of supreme moral dignity, as -of marvellous intellectual capacity, remains man only; vastly, but yet -measurably, beyond his fellows; the position attained being one to which -it is possible that humanity may again attain, nay, which it may even -surpass in the future "by growth of soul." And this divine gift of -goodness may, moreover, necessarily be bestowed in accordance with the -divine will; hence, he who made this man Pilate may well make "this other" -Christ. Thus then, if the Prophet of Nazareth is to be regarded as mere -man, the Professor's argument breaks down following the adoption of either -hypothesis--that involving a divine or a human origin of goodness. - -Is there any point at which the faith of the Christian may come into -contact with that of him who, whilst calling himself a follower of Christ, -by a denial of His divinity refuses credence to a direct assertion on the -part of his leader? To the Christian the main proof of divine inspiration -is the spark of divine light kindled within the human breast, that which -supplies motive for action, which instigates to practical application of -the good already recognized as good by the intelligence: not identical -with conscience (as is clear from line 1033), but the power which awakens -the activities of conscience. Here again a suggestion of Browning's usual -estimate of the relative worth of the intellect and the heart. The man -whose moral standard of life is most depraved is yet possessed of the -capacity for discriminating between good and evil; since such capacity -does not necessarily imply the co-existence of a life-giving faith, and -through faith alone may knowledge become of practical utility. - - Whom do you count the worst man upon earth? - Be sure, he knows, in his conscience, more - Of what right is, than arrives at birth - In the best man's acts that we bow before. (ll. 1032-1035.) - -To _know_ is not to _do_: a distinction akin to that drawn in the Epistle -of James[64] between intellectual credence and living faith--between -belief, the result of the acceptance of certain facts making inevitable -appeal to the intellect, and faith inspiring life, the ultimate results of -which are manifest in action. This distinction we find again strikingly -presented in parabolic form in _Shah Abbas_ of _Ferishtah's Fancies_. - -The most marked lines of divergence between listener and lecturer would -appear then to be that mere abstract good, even morality personified, is -insufficient for the satisfaction of the demands of human nature: that the -life lived in Palestine did not denote a mere renewal of things old, a -more extended development of the good already existent in the world. It -introduced a new and more active principle of life, that to which all past -history had been leading up, that from which the future history of the -human race must take its starting point. _The revelation of God in man had -been made to men._ To sum up-- - - Morality to the uttermost, - Supreme in Christ as we all confess, - Why need we prove would avail no jot - To make him God, if God he were not? - What is the point where himself lays stress? - Does the precept run, "Believe in good, - In justice, truth, now understood - For the first time?"--or, "Believe in me, - Who lived and died, yet essentially - Am Lord of Life?" Whoever can take - The same to his heart and for mere love's sake - Conceive of the love,--that man obtains - A new truth; no conviction gains - Of an old one only, made intense - By a fresh appeal to his faded sense. (ll. 1045-1059.) - -These the lines of divergence. Are there none of approach? asks the -listener who is gradually learning from his night's experience to seek a -common bond of sympathy between himself and his fellow men, rather than an -increase of the repulsion so spontaneously awakened within the walls of -Zion Chapel. At Rome he took his share in the "feast of love," which -afforded little satisfaction to intellectual cravings; here he would fain -accept all that may accrue to him from the pursuit of learning apart from -love. - - Unlearned love was safe from spurning-- - Can't we respect your loveless learning? (ll. 1084-1085.) - -Recognizing the zeal for truth which has instigated the critical -investigations of the lecturer, he is prepared, with a liberality of which -he is clearly sufficiently conscious, to allow to him and to his followers -such benefit as may be derived from the acceptance of "a loveless creed"; -even conceding to them, so be it they still desire it, the name of -Christian, which he too bears. With generosity yet greater he will refrain -from all attempt to disturb that condition of stoical calm to which they -have at length attained, by pointing out to them the weaknesses of their -theory, which he has just so amply demonstrated to his own satisfaction. - - -V. Thus he leaves the lecture hall in a "genial mood of tolerance," of -which the conclusions of Section XIX are the outcome. The element of truth -existent in varying forms of creed, beneath all dissimilarities of outward -expression, has at length become recognizable; carrying with it the -prevision of that complete union ultimately to be effected before "the -general Father's throne." When "the saints of many a warring creed" shall -have learned - - That _all_ paths to the Father lead - Where Self the feet have spurned. - -Where - - Moravian hymn and Roman chant - In one devotion blend; - -and all - - Discords find harmonious close, - In God's atoning ear.[65] - -Of what nobler conception, it may be asked, is the human imagination -capable? Nevertheless, to certain natures (so holds the soliloquist, -clearly recognizing his own as of this calibre) there is danger lest this -generous comprehensiveness should prove inseparable from the "mild -indifferentism" fatal to action. Hence in Section XX, whilst engaged in -watching his - - Foolish heart expand - In the lazy glow of benevolence, (ll. 1154-1155.) - -he is not surprised to perceive, in the token of the receding vesture, -indications of the divine disapproval of his position. And he is led to -the conclusion that not only for the individual worshipper must there be -some special form of creed best adapted to the individual needs of -temperament, but (as ll. 1158-1159 would appear to suggest) some -_absolute_ form of creed may possibly be discoverable. And to this -"single track": - - God, by God's own ways occult, - May--doth, I will believe--bring back - All wanderers. (ll. 1170-1172.) - -Thus unity is attained, but with a suggestion of methods of attainment -other than those indicated at the close of Section XIX. The main -difference of intention between the two Sections would appear to be that -whilst here (XX) also ultimate unity is to be achieved through the divine -providence, yet something more is required of the individual believer than -a passive reliance on the assurance of this future fusion of creeds. And -further, the manifest and immediate duty being the discovery of the, for -him, "best way of worship," this once reached, he must rest satisfied with -no merely personal acceptance: the benefits resultant from his own -spiritual experiences are designed for a wider use, a more extended -service of human fellowship; he, too, may seek to "bring back wanderers to -the single track." Here again is perceptible one of Browning's prevailing -ideas. Never (I believe) is he to be found advocating any vast corporate -revolution for the amelioration of mankind: the advance of the race is to -be secured through the advance of individual members. - -VI. As a practical result of the foregoing conclusions follow (in Section -XXII) a return to the Chapel, and an application to the special form of -worship therein celebrated, of the genial "glow of benevolence" already -kindling within the breast of the sometime critic. And here the dramatic -character of the poem becomes perhaps more strikingly obvious than -hitherto. By one or two able and characteristic strokes is suggested the -egotistical temperament of the soliloquist, with its susceptibility to -external influences, its inevitable tendency towards criticism. Even -though he has, as he deems, learnt from the night's experience the -valuable lesson of receiving "in meekness" the mode of worship simplest in -form and most spiritual in character, yet the language employed in lines -1310-1315 is that of no advocate of a kindly tolerance, but of an orthodox -and bigoted methodist. It is a part, so it would seem, of the dramatic -purpose, and of the mental analysis of which Browning was so fond, to thus -demonstrate to his readers how a reasoning and reflective being, possessed -of a certain amount of intellectual alertness, should enrol himself -amongst the members of a body whose pre-eminent characteristic to the -unsympathizing spectator appears that of a narrow dogmatic exclusivism, -combined with extreme intellectual limitations. - -Nevertheless, in spite of practical result, very ably does the speaker in -Section XXII theoretically define the essence of true worship, the spirit -of devotion. Whilst human nature remains untranslated, and man is -possessed of physical perceptions, and of ratiocinative faculties, the -nasal intonation, and logical and grammatical lapses of the preacher, -though they may be condoned, can hardly be ignored. But to the seeker -after truth, so ardent should be the yearning towards the attainment of -the end, that all defects in the means should be cheerfully accepted. It -is perhaps not easy to put the case strongly enough, without going too far -on the other side, and ignoring the means absolutely, thus returning to -the position, already renounced by the soliloquist in Section V, where man -looks direct "through Nature to Nature's God." A condition which, whilst -unquestionably the highest and most purely spiritual, would appear to be -possible to a certain type of mind only, and that in moments of special -illumination. To the average temperament might arise from such a system -the danger lest, whilst dispensing with forms, the spirit should likewise -be forgotten; and worship should thus altogether cease. In accordance with -the capacity for growth inherent in man's nature, with his creed, as with -all else, must be development, if life is to be preserved. The means -appointed for his instruction may not be always those in most complete -adjustment with his inclinations; nevertheless let him not neglect those -vouchsafed him so long as all tend, however indirectly, towards the -attainment of the ultimate goal, the complete realization of Truth. -Seeking to gain for himself further knowledge of the Divine Will, let him -not lose sight of the end in a too critical consideration of the means. -What avails the thirsty traveller the splendour of the marble -drinking-cup, if so be that it is empty: - - Better have knelt at the poorest stream - That trickles in pain from the straitest rift! (ll. 1284-1285.) - -To the question of main import advanced in the present instance, - - Is there water or not to drink? (l. 1288.) - -the latest comer to Zion Chapel replies in the affirmative; though he -would fain wish - - The flaws were fewer - In the earthen vessel, holding treasure - Which lies as safe in a golden ewer. (ll. 1300-1302.) - -We are inclined to ask, might he not, too, have returned an affirmative -answer in yet another relation, had he but regarded the celebrants of St. -Peter's in that spirit of tolerance with which he now condones the defects -of the Methodist preacher: since, on his own showing, there prevails in -Zion Chapel the jealous exclusivism resultant from spiritual pride. Was -not some valuable residuum of truth to be found in Rome? Surely so. But -had the soliloquist proved capable of giving this answer, with the change -of personal character thus indicated, would have been transformed, also, -the character of the entire poem. - -The reason for his present choice he makes sufficiently clear. That form -of creed shall be his which takes into account the complexity of human -nature. The emotions (so he holds) alone received satisfaction at Rome; -intellectual development being checked. At Göttingen the intellect was -cultivated at the expense of the spiritual faculties. Now in the poverty -and ignorance of Zion Chapel he believes himself to discern provision, -however poor in quality, for all man's requirements and aspirations. -Immeasurably inferior to Rome in beauty of architectural form, in the -impressiveness of its ritual; incomparably below Göttingen in intellectual -attainment, it is yet in some sort superior to both alike. Superior to -Rome in that it allows scope for the development of the intellectual -capacity, coarse and poor as is the quality of the mental pabulum offered -by its minister. Superior to Göttingen in that the preacher would fain -afford some satisfaction to the emotional as well as to the intellectual -cravings of his congregation. To these poor "ruins of humanity," a -personal Saviour is a necessity: - - Something more substantial - Than a fable, myth, or personification. - -_Some one, not something_, who in the critical hour of life shall do for -him - - What no mere man shall, - And stand confessed as the God of salvation. (ll. 1322-1325.) - -Clearly to the speaker, in spite of the objectionable character of the -surroundings, they secure a "comfort"-- - - Which an empire gained, were a loss without. (ll. 1308-1309.) - -Thus the choice is made in face of defects seemingly at first hopelessly -repellant. And in leaving the soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_ amidst the -Zion Chapel congregation, our conviction touching the future is based upon -grounds amply justifiable; that he may in spiritual development outgrow -the limits he has for the present assigned himself. Since, despite the -influences of prejudice and of bigotry yet remaining, he has already -proved capable of seeking a position whence, in his own words, direct -reference is made to Him "Who head and heart alike discerns." From such a -position, progress, expansion, as the law of life becomes, not only -possible, but inevitable, since the soul's outlook is at once freed from -limitations by the transference of contemplation - - From the gift ... to the giver, - And from the cistern to the river, - And from the finite to infinity, - And from man's dust to God's divinity. (ll. 1012-1015.) - -Such deductions as to the intention of _this_ poem are at least fully in -accordance with those suggestions of theories which we have so far -gathered from a consideration of other of Browning's works. - - - - -LECTURE V - -CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (ii) - - - - -LECTURE V - -CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (ii) - - How very hard it is to be - A Christian! - - -Thus in the opening lines of _Easter Day_ is suggested the subject -occupying the entire poem: a consideration of the difficulty attendant -upon an acceptance of the Christian faith, sufficiently practical in -character to serve as the mainspring of life. The difficulty is not solved -at the close, since identical in form with the earlier assertion is the -final decision - - I find it hard - To be a Christian. (ll. 1030-1031.) - -Nevertheless, the nature of the position has been modified. The obstacles -in the way of faith are no longer regretted as a bar to progress, rather -are they welcomed as an impetus towards the increase of spiritual vitality -and growth. It is the work of the intervening reflections and resultant -deductions to effect this change, by supplying a reasonable hypothesis on -which to base an explanation of the existent conditions of life. - -As with _Christmas Eve_, so here, for a full appreciation of the arguments -advanced, some understanding is essential of the character of the speaker. -It is at once obvious that he who finds it hard to be a Christian may not -be identified with the critic of the Göttingen lecturer: but, that no -loophole may be left for question, the statement is directly made in -Section XIV. - - On such a night three years ago, - It chanced that I had cause to cross - The common, where the chapel was, - Our friend spoke of, the other day. (ll. 372-375.) - -Later, in the same Section (ll. 398-418), a descriptive touch is supplied, -recalling curiously Browning's estimate of himself in _Prospice_. - - I was ever a fighter, so--one fight more, - The best and the last! - I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore, - And bade me creep past. - -Thus the first speaker in _Easter Day_ refers to his childish aversion to -uncertainty, even though uncertainty meant present safety. - - I would always burst - The door ope, know my fate at first. (ll. 417-418.) - -This then is the man, a fearless fighter, an uncompromising investigator -who, whilst he would "fain be a Christian," is yet bound to reject a mere -uncritical acceptance of the tenets of Christianity. Opposed to him in the -first twelve Sections is a second speaker to whom, somewhat strangely it -would seem, the designation sceptic has been applied. The title in its -virtual sense, is, indeed, justly applicable, but in the ordinary -acceptation might possibly prove misleading. It is a fact of common -experience that among professing Christians, of whatever form of creed, -are to be found those who, in that peculiar crisis of life when death -removes from sight those dearest to them, go back from the fundamental -tenets of a faith in which hitherto their confidence appeared to have -been unshaken. Even that main pillar of faith, a belief in the immortality -of the soul, lies temporarily shattered. Such failure suggests itself as -the result of an insufficiently considered acceptance of dogma; an -acceptance without question, rather than in spite of doubts and -questionings. This distinction we have seen Bishop Blougram drawing -between the position of the man who implicitly believes, since, his -logical and reasoning faculties being undeveloped or inactive, no cause -for question arises; and the position of him who, in the midst of -spiritual perplexity, makes "doubt occasion still more faith." To -Browning, with whom half-heartedness was the one unpardonable sin, this -so-called faith would necessarily be far more dangerous than downright -acknowledged scepticism. Hence the succeeding argument of _Easter Day_ -becomes one, not between a pronounced sceptic and a would-be Christian, -but rather between two nominal Christians whose outward profession may be -similar but the motives inspiring it wholly at variance--This in -accordance with Browning's peculiar attraction towards problems involving -the establishment of connection between motive and action. As in _Bishop -Blougram's Apology_ his psychological analysis would reconcile two -apparently irreconcilable aspects of the mind of a prelate whose position -had perplexed the world. As by a method closely akin to this treatment, he -offers explanation of the presence, amongst the illiterate and bigoted -congregation of Zion Chapel, of a man whose intellectual capacity should -have led him to assume a position of wider tolerance: so here, too, he -would discover and reveal the link between the outward form of creed and -the widely differing spiritual acceptance of the same in two individual -cases. - -I. The arguments of Sections I to XII are not always easy to follow -closely; but, in passing with Section XIII to the history of the Vision, -all obscurity vanishes, and we have no difficulty in tracing the line of -thought of the first speaker, resulting in his willing reconcilement to -the uncertainties inseparable from human life as at present constituted. A -brief attempt to follow the preceding course of argument will afford an -explanation of the speaker's position at the opening of Section XIII. (1) -The difficulty advanced at the outset of attaining to even a moderate -realization of the possibilities of the Christian life is ascribed by the -first speaker (at the close of Section I) to the essential indefiniteness -in things spiritual implied in the very suggestion of advance, of growth. -That which we believed yesterday to be the mountain-top proves to-day but -the vantage-ground for a yet higher ascent: - - And where we looked for crowns to fall, - We find the tug's to come. (ll. 27-28.) - -In reply, the second speaker admits the existence of difficulty, but of -one differing somewhat in character from that recognized by his -interlocutor. The Christian life were a sufficiently straightforward -matter, if belief pure and simple were possible: if, as he puts the case, -the relative worth of things temporal and eternal were once rendered clear -and unmistakable. Even martyrdom itself would then become as nothing to -the believer. - -(2) The first speaker, or the soliloquist (since he it is who actually -advances the arguments consistent with the position of his imaginary -companion), whilst accepting the truth of the proposition, reasserts the -theory, little more than suggested in Section I, that such fixity and -definiteness of belief is, under existing conditions, an impossibility. If -not in the visible world, granting so much, yet beyond it, is that which -may not be grasped by the finite intelligence. Such limitations may -perchance serve for the term of mortal life; but in the light thrown upon -life by the approach of death a change will inevitably pass over the -aspect of all things, and - - Eyes, late wide, begin to wink - Nor see the path so well. (ll. 57-58.) - -Again, the Christian who does not wish his position of moderate faith to -be disturbed, agrees; but attributes the shifting ground of belief to the -self-evident truth that faith would no longer be faith were the objects -with which it deals mere matters of common and proved knowledge, belief in -them as inevitable as the necessity of breath to the living creature. - - You must mix some uncertainty - With faith, if you would have faith be. (ll. 71-72.) - -Even in the intercourse of everyday life, faith is a necessity. Now, had -the easy-going Christian paused at this stage of the discussion, with line -82, his argument would have had the weight which attaches to an -elaboration of the same theory given by Browning elsewhere--in _An Epistle -of Karshish_. But even he, upon whom these considerations are forced for -what one may well believe to be the first time, finds that any individual -proposition requires constant modification, that a doubt will "peep -unexpectedly." Thus, though faith, with its attendant uncertainty, may -well obtain in the relations between man and man, yet, between the Creator -and his creation, is it not possible that more clearly defined regulations -shall subsist? - -(3) The thinker who is anxious to rightly adjust his own position in the -world of faith interposes before the argument has passed to its final -stage, and points to the conditions prevailing in the world of lower -animal life where the entire creation "travails and groans"--reverting -again to the assurance which, as the conclusion of the poem is to show, -had been indelibly stamped upon his mind by the experience of the -Vision--the assurance already referred to in Sections I and II, that could -these conditions be changed, then, too, would be altered the character of -human life, its purpose--as Browning ever regards it--would be annulled. -This is not the place to discuss the question of the probationary -character of life and its educative purpose; it is sufficient to recognize -that in Nature is discoverable no definite and final answer to the -questionings of doubt. Hence, with Section VI, the second speaker shifts -his ground; and admitting that this suggested "scientific faith," is -impracticable, declares himself none the more prepared, therefore, to -yield such faith as may yet be possible to him. All he would ask is that -the greater probability may rest upon the side of that creed which he -professes. His belief, such as it is, affords him satisfaction, and will -continue, so he holds, sufficient for his needs until its "curtain is -furled away by death." And he would at once meet the arguments which he -sees his companion prepared to advance in favour of asceticism. To give up -the world for Eternity is surely an act sufficiently easy of -accomplishment, since the renunciation is daily effected for causes of -small moment. Whilst the would-be Christian shrinks at prospect of the -hardships involved in self-denial, his worldly neighbour is adopting that -self-same life of abstention that he may attain an object no more -important than that of acquiring a record collection of beetles or of -snuff-boxes. In short, in the speaker's own words, by subduing the demands -of the flesh, he would be - - Doing that alone, - To gain a palm-branch and a throne, - Which fifty people undertake - To do, and gladly, for the sake - Of giving a Semitic guess, - Or playing pawns at blindfold chess. (ll. 165-170.) - -(4) The second speaker then, having declared himself satisfied with a -minimum of evidence as to the truth of his creed, a balance, merely, in -favour of its probability, there follows the scornful comment of the man -who would take nothing upon trust, investigation of which is possible-- - - As is your sort of mind, - So is your sort of search: you'll find - What you desire, and that's to be - A Christian. (ll. 173-176.) - -To such a nature belief is easy where belief is desirable; the very reason -which would hinder faith on the part of his opponent. The search made -either for intellectual or emotional satisfaction will meet with equal -result. Whether for historical confirmation of the Scriptural narrative, -or in a philosophic attempt to adapt the Christian creed to the wants of -the human heart. Where, indeed, this satisfaction is found for spiritual -cravings, the intellectual may be disregarded; when - - Faith plucks such substantial fruit - - * * * * * - - She little needs to look beyond. (ll. 190-192.) - -So Bishop Blougram in a somewhat different connection-- - - If you desire faith--then you've faith enough: - What else seeks God--nay, what else seek ourselves? - (_B. B. A._, ll. 634-635.) - -In the concluding lines of Section VII and in Section VIII is presented -the contrast between the two opposing views. On the one hand, that of the -man who is glad to accept the Christian faith as that best calculated for -his advantage both in this world and in that to which he looks in the -future. On the other hand, the view of the man who will take nothing on -trust, who is "ever a fighter," and who, having fought, and partially, -though by no means wholly, vanquished his doubts, is prepared "to mount -hardly to eternal life," at whatever cost of sacrifice and self-denial may -be demanded of him. The criticism of the second speaker touching this -proposed life of asceticism is that it is to be deprecated, not on account -of the self-denial involved, but because such life ignores the bountiful -provision of the Creator as evidenced in Nature. To abstain from the -enjoyment of the gifts offered is an act of ingratitude towards the -Provider. On the contrary, the Christian, whilst discerning love in every -gift, should seek from his creed intensification rather than diminution of -the joys of life: and in time of adversity when - - Sorrows and privations take - The place of joy, - -the truths of Christianity shall throw upon the darkness the light of -revelation, and - - The thing that seems - Mere misery, under human schemes, - Becomes, regarded by the light - Of love, as very near, or quite - As good a gift as joy before. (ll. 216-221.) - -(5) The arguments of this and the Section following are of special -importance, since on them are based the charges of a too great asceticism -which have been urged against the poem. Here, too, the dramatic element is -more pronounced than elsewhere. The life of ease, physical and spiritual, -to the second speaker a source of supreme gratification and happiness, to -the man of sterner mould presents itself as an impossibility. "The -all-stupendous tale" of the Gospel leaves him "pale and heartstruck." The -belief that the sufferings there recorded were undergone for the purpose -of intensifying the joys of life and affording consolation for its ills, -is to him an explanation so inadequate as to approach the verge of -profanity. This being so he would demand of the advocate of the life of -ease, - - How do you counsel in the case? - -The answer is characteristic: - - I'd take, by all means, in your place, - The _safe_ side, since it so appears: - Deny myself, a few brief years, - The natural pleasure. (ll. 267-271.) - -That the eternal reward will outweigh the temporal suffering to the -exclusion even of recollection, the testimony of the martyr of the -catacombs affords ample proof. - - For me, I have forgot it all. (l. 288.) - -(6) _If_ this be so, then indeed there remains a direct and certain means -of escape from sin, of fulfilment of the purposes of life--self-denial, -renunciation. But, as the reply of Section X points out, the argument has -been conducted in a circle, and the starting-point on the circumference -has now been reached. The original statement has never been satisfactorily -controverted. "How hard it is to be a Christian"; hard on account of the -uncertainty bound to be attendant on all matters in which faith is -requisite. It is hard to be a Christian since the difficulty but shifts -its ground and is not actually removed by any venture of faith. After all -argument, all reasoning, the possibility remains that the Christian's hope -is a mistaken one; that death is not the gateway to fuller life but the -annihilation of life; in short that the Christian has renounced life - - For the sake - Of death and nothing else. (ll. 296-297.) - -In which case his gain is less than that of the worldling, since he has, -at least, temporarily possessed the object towards the acquisition of -which his self-denial was directed. Beetles and snuff-boxes may be but -small gains, but gains they are to whomso desires them: and "gain is gain, -however small." Nevertheless, in the spirit of Browning, the wrestler with -his doubts would rather risk all for the vaguest spiritual hope, than rest -satisfied with a life limited to material gratification: rather be the -grasshopper - - That spends itself in leaps all day - To reach the sun, (ll. 310-311.) - -than the mole groping "amid its veritable muck." When Bishop Blougram -makes the same decision--in favour of faith as opposed to scepticism--the -motive he alleges is one which might well be ascribed to the second -speaker of _Easter Day_. The choice is influenced, not by aspirations -which refuse to be checked, but by considerations of prudence touching a -possible future. - - Doubt may be wrong--there's judgment, life to come! - With just that chance, I dare not [_i.e._ relinquish faith]. - (ll. 477-478.) - -The attitude of the second speaker towards life generally recalls, indeed, -not infrequently the professed opportunism of the Bishop. With Blougram -also he fears the effects upon the stability of his faith of a critical -investigation of its tenets. Hence, the reproach of Section XI, addressed -to the first speaker, whose questionings threaten to disturb the earlier -condition of "trusting ease." The reply of Section XII points out that, -the eyes having been once opened, to close them wilfully, living in a -determined reliance on hopes proved only too probably fallacious, is to -adopt a pagan rather than a Christian conception of life. - -II. Section XIII constitutes the introduction to the second part of the -poem in which is given the history of the revelation to which the narrator -ascribes his realization of the momentous nature of the faith which he and -his companion alike profess; and of the life which should be lived upon -the lines of that faith. Vivid as the account of the Vision in _Christmas -Eve_ is the description by the first speaker of the experiences of the -night preceding the dawn of Easter Day, three years ago; when, into the -midst of his reflections touching the possibility of a near approach of a -Day of Judgment, there broke that tremendous conflagration marking the -crisis when man shall awaken to realities from - - That insane dream we take - For waking now, because it seems. (ll. 480-481.) - -And the portrayal of the Judgment which follows is, in character, just -that which we should expect from the pen of the writer who held that "the -development of a soul, little else is worth study." How far the conception -is indeed Browning's own will be best considered in estimating the extent -of the dramatic element--in Lecture VI. To trace the history of this -particular soul awaiting judgment is our immediate object. In a position -of personal isolation from his kind, face to face with his Creator, to -that lonely soul "began the Judgment Day." The sentence from without was -unnecessary to him who should pass judgment upon himself. - - The intuition burned away - All darkness from [his] spirit too; (ll. 550-551.) - -and he recognized in that moment of revelation that, whatever the -uncertainty of his position before "the utmost walls of time" should -"tumble in" to "end the world," in that moment was no uncertainty; his -choice of life was fixed irrevocably. Hitherto he had loved the world too -well to relinquish its joys wholly, whilst yet looking for a time when the -renunciation, in which he believed to discern the highest course, should -become possible: when he would at last "reconcile those lips" - - To letting the dear remnant pass - ... some drops of earthly good - Untasted! (ll. 583-585.) - -In the light of that flash of intuition, it at once became clear that such -an attitude of compromise had meant, in fact, a decision in favour of the -world; a choice of things temporal to the virtual exclusion of things -eternal. That he, too, had been doing that which he to-night reproaches -the Christian of placid assurance for doing: he had been but using his -faith "as a condiment" wherewith to "heighten the flavours" of life. The -final issue being assured, the true relations of life and faith became -manifest. The sentence of the voice beside him was unessential to the -revelation - - Life is done, - Time ends, Eternity's begun, - And thou art judged for evermore. (ll. 594-596.) - -And yet "the shows of things" remain. No longer fire that - - Would shrink - And wither off the blasted face - Of heaven, (ll. 524-526.) - -but the common yet visible around, and the sky which above - - Stretched drear and emptily of life. (l. 601.) - -In that vast stillness of earth and heaven, judgment is as emphatically -pronounced as if read from "the opened book," in the presence of "the -small and great," following "the rising of the quick and dead" which all -prior conceptions of the Day of Judgment had led the spectator to -anticipate. But he whose sentence had been passed was not of those whom - - Bold and blind, - Terror must burn the truth into. (ll. 659-660.) - -For these, _their_ fate: such fate as the old Pope trusted should awaken -the criminal Franceschini to a realization of the horror and brutality of -a deed which he sought to justify to himself and to the world, as an act -of self-defence. Sentence is there passed in lines recalling, though with -intensified force, the description of Section XV. Thus, the result of the -papal reflections-- - - For the main criminal I have no hope - Except in such a suddenness of fate. - I stood at Naples once, a night so dark - I could have scarce conjectured there was earth - Anywhere, sky or sea or world at all: - But the night's black was burst through by a blaze-- - Thunder struck blow on blow, earth groaned and bore, - Through her whole length of mountain visible: - There lay the city thick and plain with spires, - And, like a ghost disshrouded, white the sea. - So may the truth be flashed out by one blow, - And Guido see, one instant, and be saved.[66] - -No such violence of retribution is here necessary. To the more finely -tempered nature another fate. The choice between flesh and spirit having -been decided, henceforth for the flesh the things of the flesh; for the -spirit those of the spirit. The line of demarcation remains unalterable. -For him who has chosen "the spirit's fugitive brief gleams," yearning for -fuller light and life, for him shall those transitory gleams expand into -complete and enduring radiance, and he shall "live indeed." For him who -has but employed the spirit as an aid to the gratification of the flesh, -using it to - - Star the dome - Of sky, that flesh may miss no peak, - No nook of earth. (ll. 693-695.) - -For him, as the inevitable outcome of the choice, shall the heaven of -spirit be shut; the material world delivered over for the full -gratification of the senses. No sudden revelation of terror, no judgment -by fire, but the permission-- - - Glut - Thy sense upon the world: 'tis thine - For ever--take it. (ll. 697-699.) - -The hell designed for this man is one in which externals inevitably take -no part. The world and its inhabitants apparently pursue their course, "as -they were wont to do," before the time of probation was at an end. The -sole difference is to be found in the spiritual outlook. The interest -attaching to these things of time is no longer existent; no longer is the -soul "visited by God's free spirit." Thus is again suggested that central -doctrine of Browning's creed: the superlative worth of the individual soul -in the divine scheme of the universe. "God is, thou art." From this it is -only one step to the assurance, - - The rest is hurled to nothingness for thee. (ll. 666-667.) - -All upon which the eye rests has become for the spectator but an outward -show, to be regarded with the consciousness that his own period of -probation is for ever ended. It is, of course, in reference to this result -of the judgment that in Section XIII the speaker questions the utility of -a narration of his story; since if, on the one hand, the listener is -actually alive, not to be numbered amongst the outward shows of things, -then this fact is proof sufficient of the illusory character of the -Vision. Yet, on the other hand, should the listener be "what I fear," that -is, the presentation of a man passed already beyond his probationary phase -of existence, then, in good sooth, will the - - Warnings fray no one; (ll. 360-361.) - -as they will convert no one. With him, the speaker, alone rests the -knowledge of the nature of his surroundings, and at times he, too, -experiences the old uncertainty as to their true character. - -And what the results following the Judgment? (_a_) At first, joy that all -is now free of access where heretofore part only was attainable. _Nature_ -lies open not merely for the gratification of the senses, but to be -studied by aid of science-- - - I stooped and picked a leaf of fern, - And recollected I might learn - From books, how many myriad sorts - Of ferns exist (etc.). (ll. 738-741.) - -Will not the vistas of "earth's resources," thus opening out before the -lover of nature, prove composed of "vast exhaustless beauty, endless -change of wonder?" Yes: but the Judgment has taught that which the term of -probation failed to teach--that a genuine appreciation of these beauties -was even then a possibility. Absolute renunciation was not essential to -spiritual development: for that alone was needed the insight capable of -looking beyond "the gift to the giver," beyond "the finite to infinity." -Which could recognize in - - All partial beauty--a pledge - Of beauty in its plenitude. (ll. 769-770.) - -The cause of life's failure, justifying condemnation, lay in an acceptance -of the means as the end, of the pledge in place of the ultimate -fulfilment. Now, absolute satiety being attained, the soul's ambition -being bounded by the limits of earth, the plenitude of "those who looked -above" is not for it. - -(_b_) But if Nature refuses to yield the satisfaction demanded, the seeker -for consolation would turn thence to a contemplation of _Art_, the works -of which he holds as "supplanting," mainly giving worth to Nature: Art -which bears upon it the impress of human labour. And here again recurs the -teaching of _Andrea del Sarto_, of _A Toccata of Galuppi's_, of _Old -Pictures in Florence_, of _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, of _Cleon_: in short, of -almost any of the more characteristic poems. In so far as these artists, -to whom the lover of earth looks for satisfaction in his search for the -beautiful, refused to recognize as binding the limitations imposed upon -their work by temporary conditions: in so far was a sphere of higher -development prepared for and awaiting them elsewhere. Undesirous of -contemporary appreciation, the true artist is represented as fearing lest -judgment should be passed upon that which he realizes to be but the -imperfection denoting "perfection hid, reserved in part to grace" that -after-time of labour, the existence of which the world ignores. He was - - Afraid - His fellow men should give him rank - By mere tentatives which he shrank - Smitten at heart from, all the more, - That gazers pressed in to adore. (ll. 791-795.) - -And the speaker has been amongst the throng of spectators who accepted -these "mere tentatives" as the consummation of the artist's powers. Thus -with Art as with Nature, "the pledge sufficed his mood." Hence, in both -relations--failure. Enjoyment, enjoyment to the full, of Art as of Nature -was no impossibility, only, here too, with the sensuous gratification -should have subsisted also the "spirit's hunger," - - Unsated--not unsatable. (ll. 860-861.) - -Unsated, until the soul's true sphere shall have been attained. Now is -that judgment pronounced which we find Andrea del Sarto passing upon -himself whilst life and its opportunities yet remained his. - - Deride - Their choice now, thou who sit'st outside. (ll. 862-863.) - -Their choice, whose guide has been "the spirit's fugitive brief gleams." -So says Andrea of his fellow artists in Florence-- - - Themselves, I know, - Reach many a time a heaven that's shut to me, - - * * * * * - - My works are nearer heaven, but I sit here.[67] - -(_c_) Nature and Art have then alike failed. Wherein may the yearnings of -the soul discover the satisfaction hitherto denied them? Perchance, -through a more complete _intellectual development_. - - Mind is best--I will seize mind. (l. 874.) - - * * * * * - - Oh, let me strive to make the most - Of the poor stinted soul, I nipped - Of budding wings, else now equipped - For voyage from summer isle to isle! (ll. 867-870.) - -Here a direct reversal of the theory of Bishop Blougram, implied by his -censure of the traveller whose equipment was ever adapted to the needs of -the future to the neglect of existing requirements. This man, the -soliloquist of _Easter Day_, whose lot is now irrevocably confined to -earth, recognizes too late the fatal character of the mistake perpetrated -in "nipping the budding wings": realizes that, as an inevitable result, -the course of the race and the goal of the ambition are alike limited, -henceforth, by an earthly environment. That "the earth's best is but the -earth's best." The failure to look above is, in fact, here more disastrous -in its results than in either of the earlier instances: since here the -possibilities are also greater. Through the mind alone may come - - Those intuitions, grasps of guess, - Which pull the more into the less, - Making the finite comprehend - Infinity. (ll. 905-908.) - -To genius have been granted from time to time glimpses of the spiritual -world, made plain in moments of insight, yet not too plain. A world which, -during his sojourn on earth, is intended not for man's permanent -habitation. A world he must "traverse, not remain a guest in." Once -capable of continuing a denizen of the spiritual world, the uses of earth -as a training-ground would be for that man at an end. He who should so -live would become a Lazarus, as the Arabian physician presents him to us; -in Dr. Westcott's phrase, "not a man, but a sign." Brief visions of heaven -are vouchsafed, that he who has once seen may "come back and tell the -world," himself "stung with hunger" for the fuller light. As in Nature, as -in Art, so, too, here in a more purely intellectual sphere, the pledge is -not the plenitude, the symbol not the reality. - - Since highest truth, man e'er supplied, - Was ever fable on outside. (ll. 925-926.) - -This, too, left unrealized; hence failure also here. - -(_d_) The search for sensuous and for intellectual satisfaction having -alike failed, is there no refuge for him whose lot is earth in its -fulness? Yes, there is _Love_, Love which we saw the soliloquist of -_Christmas Eve_ recognizing as the "sole good of life on earth." So now -the wearied soul recalls to mind, in the past, - - How love repaired all ill, - Cured wrong, soothed grief, made earth amends - With parents, brothers, children, friends. (ll. 938-940.) - -Hence the appeal for "leave to love only," made in full confidence of the -divine approval. In place of approval, however, falls the reproof of -Section XXX: the warning that all now left to the petitioner is "the show -of love," since love itself has passed with the judgment. The "semblance -of a woman," "departed love," "old memories," now alone survive of that -which might have been all in all to the soul during its life's struggle. -And here we find the man who has failed through a too exclusive devotion -to things temporal taught, by this vision of the final judgment, the -truth, at first accepted in _Christmas Eve_ by the man who had looked -through Nature to the God of Nature, and refused to worship in the "narrow -shrines" of the temples made with hands. That love - - Shall arise, made perfect, from death's repose of it. - And I shall behold thee, face to face, - O God, and in thy light retrace - How in all I loved here, still wast thou![68] - -Thus the voice of judgment before the Easter dawn-- - - All thou dost enumerate - Of power and beauty in the world, - The mightiness of love was curled - Inextricably round about. - Love lay within it and without, - To clasp thee. (ll. 960-965.) - -But we saw the soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_ ultimately rejecting this -universal recognition of love in favour of the narrow shrine of Zion -Chapel: acting, as he believed, with the divine approval. Again proof of -the dramatic character of the poems. The lesson of life is variously -interpreted by its different students. - -Yet even here, where love is at length sought as the supreme good, the -Voice of _Easter Day_ proclaims once more--failure--and its cause, the -inability to recognize the divine Love: the object of search is even now -but human love. - - Some semblance of a woman yet, - With eyes to help me to forget, - Shall look on me. (ll. 941-943.) - -The love of "parents, brothers, children, friends": the seeker has stopped -short of Pippa's final decision,[69] "Best love of all is God's." Why has -he failed to realize this until Time has passed? Why, but because, with -Cleon, he deemed it "a doctrine to be held by no sane man," that divine -Love should prove commensurate with divine Power; that He "who made the -whole," should love the whole, should - - Undergo death in thy stead - In flesh like thine. (ll. 974-975.) - -But this scepticism, based upon the ground that in the Gospel story is -found "too much love," is illogical, since it suggests by implication the -belief of man that his fellow mortals, in whom he daily discerns abundant -capacity for ill-will, have been yet capable of inventing a scheme of -perfect love such as that involved in the history of the Incarnation. The -doctrine that this was the divine work is assuredly less difficult of -credence than that which assigns it to the invention of the human -imagination? Disbelief on this the ground of "too much love," revealed in -the Gospel story, is dealt with also by the Evangelist in _A Death in the -Desert_. There, too, is presented a position similar to that occupied by -the soliloquist of Easter Day. Through satiety, man - - Has turned round on himself and stands,[70] - Which in the course of nature is, to die. - -When man demanded proof of the existence of a God, the representative of -Power and Will, evidence of all was granted-- - - And when man questioned, "What if there be love - Behind the will and might, as real as they?"-- - He needed satisfaction God could give, - And did give, as ye have the written word. - -But when the written word no longer sufficed, when (following the argument -of this thirtieth Section of _Easter Day_) man believed himself to be the -originator of love, when - - Beholding that love everywhere, - He reasons, "Since such love is everywhere, - And since ourselves can love and would be loved, - We ourselves make the love, and Christ was not." - -Then, asks the Evangelist, - - How shall ye help this man who knows himself, - That he must love and would be loved again, - Yet, owning his own love that proveth Christ, - Rejecteth Christ through very need of Him? - The lamp o'erswims with oil, the stomach flags - Loaded with nurture, and that man's soul dies.[71] - -The soliloquist of _Easter Day_, experiencing practically the position -imagined by St. John, makes (with the opening of Section XXXI) a final -appeal to the Love of God, that he may be permitted to continue in that -uncertainty which, in the midst of "darkness, hunger, toil, distress," yet -allows room for hope. Better the sufferings of unending struggle than the -deadly calm of despair. To him who has experienced what satiety may bring, -the life of probation offers powerful attractions. Whether the Vision may -have been a reality or the creation of his own imagination, even this -uncertainty is preferable to the judgment that shall grudge "no ease -henceforth," whilst the soul is "condemned to earth for ever." - -Thus the poem closes with the inevitable demand of the soul for progress, -for growth; and the collateral recognition of its present life as a state -of probation, hence of essential uncertainty-- - - Only let me go on, go on, - Still hoping ever and anon - To reach one eve the Better Land! (ll. 1001-1003.) - -Feeble as is the hope at times, the dawn of Easter Day yet recalls the -boundless possibilities opening out for human nature. And, for the moment -at least, faith is paramount; no vague, impersonal belief, but that which -looks for its direct inspiration to a living Christ. - - Christ rises! Mercy every way - Is Infinite,--and who can say? - - - - -LECTURE VI - - -CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (iii) - - - - -LECTURE VI - -CHRISTMAS EVE AND EASTER DAY (iii) - - -The closer and more unprejudiced the study accorded it, the stronger -becomes the conviction of the essentially dramatic character of the -composition of both _Christmas Eve_ and _Easter Day_. And at first sight -it may, to many readers, be matter of regret that this is so: to those -readers more especially who had at first rejoiced to discover, in the -assertions of the soliloquists, what they held to be an immediate -assurance that Browning's faith was that form of dogmatic belief which was -also theirs. If, in all honesty, we are compelled to renounce our original -acceptance of the less complex nature of the poems, what is the worth, it -may be asked, of the arguments which would unquestionably, were they the -direct expression of the writer's feelings, stamp him as a devout -Christian, prepared to make even "doubt occasion still more faith"? -Nevertheless, further reflection minimizes the cause for regret. Although -we may not accept without question, as Browning's own, the criticisms of -the soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_, directed against the arguments of the -humanitarian Lecturer, or the reasoning of the concluding Sections of -_Easter Day_, in favour of belief in the Gospel story and in the -essentially probationary character of human life; yet that which we have -already had occasion to notice as true concerning all dramatic work, is -true also here. The expression of the author's own opinions is not -necessarily excluded, as it is not necessarily implied. Thus, in the -present instance, occur not a few passages in which it seems almost -impossible that we should be in error in discerning Browning's own -personality beneath the disguise of the speaker; the immediate expression -of his own vital belief, in the theories advanced. And the passages -seemingly thus directly inspired are those dealing with the permanent -truths of life, which find at once embodiment and limitation in the dogma -of various religious bodies. How far such passages may justly be accepted -as non-dramatic in character can only be ascertained by reference to and -comparison with treatment of these and similar subjects elsewhere in the -works. We may not judge from one poem alone as to the writer's intention; -evidence so obtained is insufficient. - -I. In both _Christmas Eve_ and _Easter Day_ the most prominent position in -the thoughts and dissertations of the soliloquist is necessarily--so the -title would suggest--afforded the Doctrine of the Incarnation. Its -introduction may not, in the single instance, be incontrovertibly -significant as to Browning's attitude towards Christianity. But, when we -find the same subject dealt with repeatedly from different points of view, -by speakers widely separated from one another by time, place, nationality, -and personal character; and when, in spite of the variety of external -conditions, we yet find the arguments employed ever converging towards the -same goal; here even the hypercritical student is surely bound to conclude -that Browning did, indeed, realize, and was anxious to make plain his -realization of, the value to the individual life of the belief involved, -and of the intelligibility and reasonableness of such belief. To notice a -few amongst the numerous aspects in which this Doctrine of the Incarnation -has been presented. In _Saul_, the logical inevitableness of its -acceptance by the seeker after God, as revealed, first in Nature, then in -His dealings with Humanity, is traced by the seer of a remote past before -the historic fact has been accomplished. In _Cleon_, the demand for a -direct revelation of God in man is the result of the cravings of a nature -unable to rest satisfied in the merely deistic creed hitherto responsible -for its theories of life. The very pagan character of the treatment of -subject by the soliloquist, in this instance, is so handled by the poet as -to lend additional force to the negative deductions from the suggestions -advanced. In _An Epistle of Karshish_, once more as in _Saul_, the -speaker, though an onlooker only where Christianity is concerned, is yet a -believer in a divine order of the universe, and in a personal God revealed -in His creation. The subject of which Karshish treats in his letter is no -longer, however, as with David, an expectation to be realized in a distant -future, but a matter comprehending a series of historic events recently -enacted. Nevertheless, he too, whilst nominally rejecting the evidence of -the witnesses as to fact, forces upon the reader the conviction that not -only is it possible, but inevitable, that the "All-Great" shall be "the -All-Loving too"; and must have revealed His love through the life lived by -the Physician of Galilee, whose deeds Lazarus reported. Later, when that -Life has become still further a thing of the past, when "what first were -guessed as points," have become known as "stars," in _A Death in the -Desert_ are put into the mouth of the dying Evangelist, St. John, -arguments which reach the final culmination towards which those of David -and of Cleon alike tended. And St. John, in imagination confronting -opponents of Christianity, sees not only his own contemporaries, but those -of Browning: his reasoning would refute not so much the heresy of the -Gnostics of the first and second centuries of the Christian era as the -criticisms of German literary men of the nineteenth. And here, too, is -attained the same result as that of the foregoing instances--proof of the -inevitableness of an Incarnation, and of such an Incarnation as that of -the Gospel story, in any definite and clearly formulated scheme of human -life. Thus then, when we turn to _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_ to find -again, in the conclusions reached, not only the outcome of the suggestions -and arguments of David, of Karshish, and of Cleon, but, further, a -position occupied by the speaker closely akin to that held in imagination -by the Evangelist; we can hardly fail to be justified in believing that -Browning cared sufficiently for the subject under consideration to wish to -present it to his public in those varying lights which should afford proof -of its universal import, and confirm, if possible, credence in its -absolute truth. To refuse, indeed, to allow due weight to the evidence -thus obtained, would be to neglect the best available opportunities for -estimating the true nature of the beliefs of a dramatic author; since it -is necessarily by such indirect and comparative methods alone that it is -possible to ascertain their character. In this exposition, then, of the -fundamental truths of Christianity, as set forth by the soliloquist in -either poem, we may reasonably believe ourselves to be listening to -authorized assertions and arguments. - -II. Again is the voice of Browning himself unmistakably heard in the -acceptance by both speakers in _Easter Day_ (although with different -practical results in each case) of the inevitable extinction of faith as a -necessary consequence of absolute certainty in matters spiritual. It is, -in fact, but another form of the constantly advanced theory of the -progressive character of human nature, involving a recognition of the -world as a training-ground, mortal life as a probation. A theory finding -expression in terms more or less pronounced throughout Browning's -literary career; from the suggestions, dramatic in form, of _Pauline_, -1833, to the direct personal assertions of the _Asolando Epilogue_ in -1889. Whether it be in the _individual_ aspiration of the lover of -_Pauline_, - - How should this earth's life prove my only sphere? - Can I so narrow sense but that in life - Soul still exceeds it? (ll. 634-636.) - -or in the final estimate of _the race_ by Paracelsus-- - - Upward tending all though weak, - Like plants in mines which never saw the sun, - But dream of him, and guess where he may be, - And do their best to climb and get to him. (_Par._, v, ll. 883-886.) - -The same belief, whilst it inspires the utterances of Pompilia and of Abt -Vogler, of the Grammarian and the lover of _Evelyn Hope_, is likewise -discernible as underlying, though possibly less consciously instigating -the reflections of Luria and of the organist of _Master Hugues of -Saxe-Gotha_, of Andrea del Sarto and of the victim of a prudence -outweighing love, in _Dîs Aliter Visum_. And progress is the recognized -law of Faith as of Life. The existence of Truth, absolute, does not -preclude its gradual revelation and realization. In the _Epilogue_ to the -_Dramatis Personae_, Browning, by the mouth of the "Third Speaker," would -point out that the lamentation of Rénan over a vanished faith is -unwarranted by fact since, Truth existing in its entirety, the peculiar -revelations of Truth are adapted to each successive stage of the -development of the human race. Hence "that Face," the vestige even of -which the "Second Speaker" held to be "lost in the night at last," - - That one Face, far from vanish, rather grows, - Or decomposes but to recompose, - Become my universe that feels and knows. - -A fuller realization of Truth has become possible in these later days than -in the past of Jewish ritual, when - - The presence of the Lord, - _In the glory of His cloud_, - Had filled the House of the Lord. - -Of _Easter Day_ it has been remarked in this connection, "If Mr. Browning -has meant to say ... that religious certainties are required for the -undeveloped mind, but that the growing intelligence walks best by a -receding light, he denies the positive basis of Christian belief."[72] -Comparing this criticism with the treatment in _A Death in the Desert_ of -the subject of faith in relation to the Incarnation, it becomes -sufficiently clear that an acceptance of "the positive basis of Christian -belief" was to Browning's mind perfectly compatible, not indeed with "a -receding light," but with that absence of certainty in matters spiritual -which the First Speaker of _Easter Day_ accepts as inevitable. And surely -the suggestion in _Easter Day_, as elsewhere in Browning, is that the -development of the "religious intelligence" is best advanced, not by _a -receding light_, but by that ever-increasing illuminative power which -shall effect gradually the revelation presented in the Vision of the -Judgment as the work of a moment. The revelation of the true relation -between things temporal and spiritual, between the divine and the human. -For, whilst St. John bases his arguments upon the central assurance that -"God the Truth" is, of all things, alone unchangeable, immediately upon -the assurance follows the assertion-- - - Man apprehends Him newly at each stage - Whereat earth's ladder drops, its service done.[73] - -Since "such progress" as is the peculiar characteristic of human nature - - Could no more attend his soul - Were all it struggles after found at first - And guesses changed to knowledge absolute, - Than motion wait his body, were all else - Than it the solid earth on every side, - Where now through space he moves from rest to rest.[74] - -Thus with Christianity itself - - Will [man] give up fire - For gold or purple once he knows its worth? - Could he give Christ up were His worth as plain? - Therefore, I say, to test man, the proofs shift, - Nor may he grasp that fact like other fact, - And straightway in his life acknowledge it, - As, say, the indubitable bliss of fire.[75] - -The effect on human nature and life of the change of "guesses" to -"knowledge absolute" is elsewhere exhibited in concrete form where -Lazarus, in _An Epistle of Karshish_, is represented, as Browning's -imagination would visualize him, in the years succeeding his resurrection -from the dead. There the need for faith is accounted as no longer -existing. During those four days of the spirit's sojourn beyond the limits -of the visible world, the unveiled light of eternity had thrown into their -true relative positions the things of time. Thenceforth, for him who had -once _known_, the hopes and fears attendant upon uncertainty were no -longer a possibility. In view of that which is eternal, temporal -prosperity or adversity had become of small moment. The advance of a -hostile force upon the sacred city, centre of the national life, was to -the risen nature an event trifling as "the passing of a mule with gourds." -Sickness, death, were alike met by the imperturbable "God wills." Yet -this apparently immovable serenity was at once overthrown by contact with -"ignorance and carelessness and sin." To the non-Christian onlooker, the -attitude thus attained was attributable to the peculiar condition of life -by which heaven was - - Opened to a soul while yet on earth, - Earth forced on a soul's use while seeing heaven. - -The man capable of this two-fold vision had indeed become but "a sign," -noteworthy it is true, yet of little value as a practical example to his -fellows, since what held good in this single and unprecedented case must -be of no avail as a criterion for the multitude. - -The importance, as an educative instrument, of the demands on faith made -by the absence of overwhelmingly conclusive and unalterable evidence in -matters spiritual, is again illustrated in that remarkable little poem -_Fears and Scruples_, following _Easter Day_ after an interval of more -than a quarter of a century (pub. 1876). The writer there declares his -personal preference for the condition of life ultimately the choice of the -First Speaker, in which uncertainty may admit of hope, even though the -future should prove such hope fallacious. The old theory is advanced -beneath the illustration of relationship to an absent friend, proofs of -whose affection, of whose very existence, rest upon the evidence of -letters, the genuineness of which has been called in question by experts. -Nevertheless, the friend at home, the soliloquist of the poem, refuses to -yield credence to calumny. His faith in the friend, if misplaced, has been -hitherto a source of spiritual elevation and inspiration. Even though the -truth be ultimately proved but falsehood, he is yet the better for those -days in which he deemed it truth. Therefore, - - One thing's sure enough: 'tis neither frost, - No, nor fire, shall freeze or burn from out me - Thanks for truth--though falsehood, gained--though lost. - - All my days, I'll go the softlier, sadlier, - For that dream's sake! How forget the thrill - Through and through me as I thought "The gladlier - Lives my friend because I love him still!" - -The parallel is enforced by the suggestion at the close-- - - Hush, I pray you! - What if this friend happen to be--God? (_F. and S._, viii, ix, xii.) - -III. In considering the position of the First Speaker in _Easter Day_, we -have already noticed the character of the final judgment, the nature of -the Hell designed for the punishment of him who had chosen the things of -the flesh in preference to the things of the spirit.--A Hell consisting in -absolute future exclusion from opportunities of spiritual satisfaction and -development.--A judgment which we remarked in passing, as peculiarly -characteristic in its conception of Browning's usual treatment of matters -relative to the spiritual life of man. In _Ferishtah's Fancies_, we are -able to obtain direct confirmation of this suggestion, with reference to -the subject actually in question. In reading this collection of poems, the -work of the author's later life (pub. 1884), we hardly need his warning -(or so at least we believe) to avoid the assumption that "there is more -than a thin disguise of a few Persian names and allusions." Sheltering -himself thus behind the imagined personality of the Persian historian, -Browning, in his seventy-second year, gave freer utterance than was -customary with him to his own opinions and beliefs touching certain -momentous questions of Life and Faith. _A Camel-driver_ is devoted to a -discussion of the doctrine of Judgment and Future Punishment of the sins -committed in the flesh. Ferishtah, as Dervish, submits that here, as in -all allied matters, man with finite capacities cannot conceive of the -infinite purpose. Knowing "but man's trick to teach," he does but reason -from the character of his own dealings, in this respect, with the animals, -as creatures of lower intelligence, employed in his service. The general -conclusions from the arguments thus deduced are, in brief: (1) The -punishment as regards the sufferer is not designed to be retributive only, -but remedial and reformatory in character. (2) With respect to the sinner -and his fellow mortals, it must be deterrent. (3) Hence, to be effective, -its infliction should be immediate rather than future. By postponement, -the exemplary effect of punishment is rendered void: the connection -between offence and penalty is obscured, and sympathy with the sufferer -will result, rather than avoidance of the offence for which the suffering -is inflicted. Such is the estimate by Ferishtah, or Browning, of the -punishment of a future Hell of fire. From a merely human point of view it -is illogical. For the purification of the sinner, or for the admonition of -the onlooker, it is alike useless. And the deduction? Man can but work -and, therefore, teach as man, and not as God. At best he may but see a -little way into the Eternal purpose: into that portion alone which is -revealed through the experiences of mortal life. Here he must be content -to rest without further speculation. - - Before man's First, and after man's poor Last, - God operated, and will operate, - -is the assertion of Reason. To which adds Ferishtah, - - Process of which man merely knows this much,-- - That nowise it resembles man's at all, - Teaching or punishing. - -For the character of the divine process:--as in _Easter Day_, so here the -penalty is immediately adjusted to the peculiar requirements of the nature -to be "taught or punished." To the man of spiritual discernment, of right -thought and purpose, but of imperfect performance, no hell is needed -beyond that to be found in the comparison of the Might-have-been with the -Has-been and the Is. And in this sadness of retrospect are to be -remembered, too, the sins of ignorance; even forgiveness is powerless to -efface wholly the misery of remorse. Thus shall Omnipotence deal with the -individual soul. Thus does the work of judgment and of education differ -essentially from that of man who "lumps his kind i' the mass," passing -upon the mass sentence, involving a uniformity of punishment, which must -fall in individual cases with varying degrees of intensity, by no means -proportionate to the magnitude of the offences committed. That which to -the sensitive soul is torture unfathomable, to the "bold and blind" is as -naught. By some other method must be forced on _him_ the recognition and -realization of past sin. Terror may "burn in the truth," where the -recollection of irremediable evil has failed to create remorse. Only a -mind incapable of spiritual discernment would award a similar penalty for -a life's faults of omission and commission to the several inmates of the -Morgue, and to the onlooker who would see, in the temporary despair which -had caused the end, failure apparent, not absolute. For his part he could -but deem that the misery which had resulted in an overwhelming abhorrence -of life had, in itself, been punishment sufficient; he could but think -"their sin's atoned."[76] Yet in his own case, even though he held that -"we fall to rise," those falls from which no human life may be wholly -exempt, were in themselves cause more than adequate for remorseful anguish -without the super-addition of external penalty: - - Forgiveness? rather grant - Forgetfulness! The past is past and lost. - However near I stand in his regard, - So much the nearer had I stood by steps - Offered the feet which rashly spurned their help. - That I call Hell; why further punishment?[77] - -IV. So far we have only treated of conclusions which, by comparison with -other poems obviously dramatic, and with his more avowedly confessed -opinions elsewhere, we have felt ourselves justified in accepting as -Browning's own. Turning to the questions yet remaining for consideration, -we are upon more debatable ground. But here, too, pursuing similar -methods, we may expect the results to be also decisive in so far as our -means of investigation will allow. To what extent did personal feeling -influence the criticism of Roman Catholic ritual contained in _Christmas -Eve_? In what degree may Browning be held to have sympathized with the -final decision in favour of the creed of Zion Chapel? An answer to the -first question involves at least a partial answer to the second. -Browning's attitude, could it be accurately estimated, towards Roman -Catholicism, might be decisive as to how far it was possible for him to -concur in the conclusions attributed to the soliloquist as the result of -his night's experience. - -With regard to external evidence touching Browning's opinions on any given -question, it is usually of so conflicting a character as to leave us still -in the condition of mental indecision in which we began the enquiry. In -the present instance we have the report to which reference has been -already made of the author's own assertion respecting _Bishop Blougram's -Apology_; that he intended no hostility, and felt none towards the Roman -Catholic Church. On the other side of the argument has to be reckoned the -reply to Miss Barrett's wish, expressed in the early days of their -acquaintance, that he would give direct utterance to his own opinions, not -sheltering himself behind his various _dramatis personae_. Whilst -promising to accede to the request, he adds, "I don't think I shall let -_you_ hear, after all, the savage things about Popes and imaginative -religions that I must say." This correspondence took place five years -before _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_ was published. To the year of -publication is to be referred the author's satirical observation on the -premature proclivities evinced by his infant son, during a visit to Siena, -towards church interiors and ritual. "It is as well," he remarked, "to -have the eye-teeth and the Puseyistical crisis over together." Of this -comment writes Professor Dowden, to whom we have been recently indebted -for so much valuable light on Browning's life and work: "Although no more -than a passing word spoken in play [it] gives a correct indication of -Browning's feeling, fully shared by his wife, towards the religious -movement in England, which was altering the face of the Established -Church. 'Puseyism' was for them a kind of child's play, which -unfortunately had religion for its playground; they viewed it with a -superior smile, in which there was more of pity than of anger."[78] It -was, indeed, as we have already had occasion to notice, in the nature of -things unlikely that Browning should have remained uninfluenced by the -spirit of anxiety and unrest, agitating the minds of English churchmen of -all grades of thought during the years which succeeded the Tractarian -movement. That this should have led him to assume an attitude of distrust -towards the Roman Catholic Church is hardly matter for surprise; that it -was one of hostility he himself denies. And it is a satisfaction to -believe that _The Pope_ section of _The Ring and the Book_ was the more -matured expression of his feeling in this connection. The most valuable -_internal_ evidence on the subject is probably to be derived from a -comparison of this poem and _Bishop Blougram's Apology_, with Section -X-XII, and XXII of _Christmas Eve_. - -In _Bishop Blougram's Apology_, as in _The Pope_, all direct reference to -the Church is made from _within_, not from _without_. The speaker is no -critical onlooker, but, as we have seen, a prelate noted alike for his -ultramontane tendencies, and for the breadth of his views with regard to -the adaptability of his Church to the developments of contemporary -intellectual life. This man is a leading member of the religious community -for which Browning is accused of having in _Christmas Eve_ expressed his -aversion. But, although a leading member, he is not therefore to be judged -as a typical representative; his marked individuality being doubtless a -main cause of the author's choice of subject. And what does this man say -in defence of his Church? He points out that a profession before the world -of faith, clearly defined and absolute, is essential to his influence and -authority. Whatever the searchings of heart, the doubts and questionings -inevitable to a keenly logical and analytic intellect, these must be -concealed, lest the priest should be accounted a pretender, his profession -a cloak of hypocrisy. His belief in the latest ecclesiastical miracle must -be as avowedly absolute as that in a God as Creator and Supreme Ruler of -the Universe. Thus he stands firm upon the ground which he has chosen. The -question is throughout a personal one, and the implication is clearly not -intended that the Roman Catholic Church would _necessarily_ demand of its -members this implicit credence, would thus closely fetter the intellectual -faculties. - -Turning to _Christmas Eve_, we find the case reversed, and the soliloquist -occupying the position of one of those outsiders to whom the Bishop -believed himself compelled to present an unquestioning and unquestionable -orthodoxy. For the Prelate is substituted the man of active critical -instinct, inclined to pass judgment with data insufficient to prove a -satisfactory basis for the decision: of perceptions readily responsive to -the glories of nature and their inspiration: but, we surely are not wrong -in adding, of imaginative faculty unequal to the realization of those -spiritual suggestions afforded to minds of different calibre by the -symbolism of a ritualistic worship. The solemn silence of the vast crowd -assembled in the cathedral makes stronger appeal to his sympathies than -does the gorgeous display of ritual following. Hence it is a not illogical -outcome of the position that he will but hear in the music of the service -"hog-grunts and horse-neighings" that he will but see in the ceremonial -observed "buffoonery--posturings and petticoatings." This man of spiritual -and intellectual capacity so far developed is yet numbered amongst the -congregation of the Calvinistic meeting-house, where the preacher is -without erudition, the flock of mental outlook metaphorically as limited -as the space bounded by the four walls within which they are assembled. -How is the presence of this presumably unsympathetic personality to be -accounted for in their midst? How otherwise than by the recognition of -this peculiar deficiency in the nature which, whilst leaving it capable of -looking directly upwards to the God of all creeds, yet renders it unable, -in looking downwards, to see below the surface, and realize the worth of -symbolism in worship where spiritual insight is not of the keenest. The -utterance of the _Third Speaker_ of the _Epilogue_[79] may well be his as -he awaits the coming of the Vision on the common without the Chapel: - - Why, where's the need of Temple, when the walls - O' the world are that? - -And in his anxiety to avoid the "narrow shrines" of man's erection, he is -ultimately driven to worship at one of the narrowest, chosen because the -veil of ritual there interposed between the worshipper and his God is of -the thinnest. The urgency of the desire to be freed from all outward -ceremonial causes him to overlook the real faults of spiritual pride and -exclusiveness characteristic of the Calvinistic congregation. True of -heart, he would reject all shows of things; but there is in his nature a -Puritanic strain which refuses to be eradicated, and this it is which -finally leads him to become a member of the religious community whose -failings he at first unsparingly condemned. - -V. No stronger proof of the dramatic power of the poem is, perhaps, to be -found than that afforded by the criticism quoted below, to which it has -seemed almost impossible to avoid reference, bearing as it does the -highest literary authority. Browning appears here to be regarded as -occupying the position assigned by him to the soliloquist, so completely -has he succeeded in identifying himself with his _dramatis persona_. "Of -English nonconformity in its humblest forms Browning can write, as it -were, from within" [the soliloquist has become a member of the Calvinistic -congregation when he narrates his experiences]; "he writes of Roman -Catholic forms of worship as one who stands outside" [the position -literally and metaphorically assigned to the critic on the threshold-stone -of St. Peter's]; "his sympathy with the prostrate multitude in St. Peter's -at Rome is of an impersonal kind, founded rather upon the recognition of -an objective fact than springing from an instinctive feeling" [May not the -sympathy capable of inspiring the closing lines of Section X be taken as -indicative of something deeper than this?]. "For a moment he is carried -away by the tide of their devout enthusiasms; but he recovers himself to -find, indeed, that love is also here, and therefore Christ is present, but -the worshippers fallen under 'Rome's gross yoke,' are very infants in -their need of these sacred buffooneries and posturings and -petticoatings.... And this, though the time has come when love would have -them no longer infantile, but capable of standing and walking, 'not to -speak of trying to climb.' Such a short and easy method of dealing with -Roman Catholic dogma and ritual cannot be commended for its intelligence; -it is quite possible to be on the same side as Browning without being as -crude as he is in misconception. He does not seriously consider the -Catholic idea which regards things of sense as made luminous by the spirit -of which they are the envoys and the ministers. It is enough for him to -declare his own creed, which treats any intermediary between the human -soul and the Divine as an obstruction or a veil." Then after quoting the -passage describing the soliloquist's final choice: "This was the creed of -Milton and of Bunyan; and yet with both Milton and Bunyan the imagery of -the senses is employed as the means, not of concealing, but revealing the -things of the spirit."[80] Was it not just this inability to seriously -consider the things of sense as made luminous by the spirit which Browning -wishes to represent as accounting for the otherwise unaccountable presence -of the man of culture and intellect in Zion Chapel? Surely to the -characteristic weaknesses of the soliloquist, not to the crude -misconception of the author, is attributable the intolerance of the -criticism, whether directed, as in the earlier Sections, against the -congregation of Zion Chapel, or, in the later, against that of St. -Peter's? - -This belief in the strength of the dramatic element in _Christmas Eve_ is -confirmed when we turn to _The Ring and the Book_, and the question -suggests itself--Would the critic of the earlier poem have been capable of -representing any member of the Church which he condemns in the light in -which Browning gives us Innocent XII? A nature to which is possible in age -the purity and simplicity of a childlike personal faith. - - O God, - Who shall pluck sheep Thou holdest, from Thy hand? - (_The Pope_, ll. 641-642.) - -Of a tenderness which yearns in memory over the defenceless member of his -flock, lately the victim of brutality and disappointed avarice. - - Pompilia, then as now - Perfect in whiteness.... (ll. 1005-1006.) - - ... My flower, - My rose, I gather for the breast of God. (ll. 1046-1047.) - -With tenderness is coupled that humility which can say to this child of -the Faith: - - Go past me - And get thy praise,--and be not far to seek - Presently when I follow if I may! (ll. 1092-1094.) - - * * * * * - - Stoop thou down, my child, - Give one good moment to the poor old Pope - Heart-sick at having all his world to blame. (ll. 1006-1008.) - -Yet, in spite of the heart-sickness, is present also the moral rectitude -which refuses to shrink from the task demanding fulfilment--the censure of -"all his world"--from the archbishop who repulsed the injured wife's -appeal for protection, "the hireling who did turn and flee," through the -entire list of offenders to the "fox-faced, horrible priest, this -brother-brute, the Abate," and the chief criminal, Guido, for whom also -his friends would claim clerical immunity from the penalty attaching to -his offence. Realizing to the full the character of his office, the weight -of authority and historical continuity lying behind, the old Pope might -well be tempted to grant to the miscreants that shelter which they crave. -But the very fact which leads him to magnify the dignity of his official -position, "next under God," leads him also to recognize the immensity of -personal responsibility attaching thereto. The sentence to be passed is -the outcome of a _personal_ decision. - - How should I dare die, this man let live? - -Yet whilst laying bare before his mental vision the evils existent in his -Church, obvious alike in the individual even though he should himself -"have armed and decked him for the fight"; and in the communal life of -convent and monastery; whilst rejoicing that Caponsacchi should have had -the necessary courage to break through ecclesiastical convention and - - Let light into the world - Through that irregular breach o' the boundary: (ll. 1205-1206.) - -he yet points to the strength of the Church as safeguarding, by her rule -as "a law of life," those whose natural impulses may not be relied on to -lead them to follow the course of Caponsacchi, and to whom it would not be -safe to grant the permission: "Ask _your_ hearts as _I_ asked mine." To -these and such as these the law of life laid down by the Church's rule is -essential. Whatever the traditions of the past, whatever the possibilities -of ecclesiastical modifications and developments in the future, in the -present no considerations of personal interest or compassion must be -permitted to warp the judgment of him who is armed - - With Paul's sword as with Peter's key. - -And it is to be remembered, that the man who could thus reason, thus -decide, was head of that Church which excited the mocking condemnation of -the soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_: and that Caponsacchi, "the -warrior-priest, the soldier-saint," bore likewise the title of Canon. To -so remember may serve to cast new light upon Browning's supposed attitude -towards Roman Catholicism. - -VI. The most important subject of discussion in relation to _Easter Day_ -is that touching its so-called asceticism. Here also, as in _Christmas -Eve_, two interdependent questions must be asked: (1) What is the _nature_ -of the asceticism advocated by the First Speaker? (2) How far may it be -regarded as the expression of Browning's own theory of life? A plain -answer to the first question is necessary in order that, by comparison -with the treatment of the same subject elsewhere, it may be possible to -determine the extent to which the opinions advanced are in agreement: -whether Browning was desirous of advocating renunciation even in the -degree held essential by the First Speaker. The key to the position seems -to be contained in two recorded comments on the poem by the poet and his -wife. When Mrs. Browning complained of the "asceticism," her husband -answered, that it stated "_one side_ of the question." Her supplementary -observation adds, "It is his way to _see_ things as passionately as other -people _feel_ them."[81] It was by the exercise of this exceptionally -powerful imaginative faculty that the author of _Easter Day_ has -dramatically stated the case which he perceived might be made out for -renunciation, as well as for grateful acceptance and enjoyment of the -gifts of life. If we admit the accuracy of the criticism which would -define the spirit of the poem as refusing to recognize, "in poetry or art, -or the attainments of the intellect, or even in the best human love, any -practical correspondence with religion,"[82] then indeed we are bound to -acknowledge that it stands absolutely alone in Browning's work and is in -direct opposition to his theory of life. I venture to think, however, that -a careful study of this particular aspect of the poem will result in the -conviction that the First Speaker is represented as realizing that, -desirable as is renunciation in his own case, it is not the highest course -possible to human nature. - -Sections VIII, XVI, XX, XXIV, XXX, are those which deal chiefly with this -question of asceticism. Taken in sequence, they present in outline the -history of the spiritual life of the First Speaker. This it is desirable -to notice very briefly before comparing the rule of life thus indicated -with that suggested by references to Browning's work elsewhere. In Section -VIII is depicted the attitude of the First Speaker towards the Gospel -story; the attitude of "the fighter" who would not only wrestle with evil, -but would search for any possibly existent danger and bring it to light -(Section XIV). To such a nature the intellectual belief in the -Incarnation--"the all-stupendous tale--that Birth, that Life, that Death!" -is productive of heartstruck horror: whilst for a practical acceptance of -the faith, life must be regulated in accordance with Scriptural teaching, -expressed in - - Certain words, broad, plain, - Uttered again and yet again, - Hard to mistake or overgloss--(_E. D._, viii, ll. 257-259.) - -words which declare that the loss of things temporal is the gain of things -spiritual and eternal. But the asceticism thus advocated does not find -full explanation until Section XXX. The gradual revelation begins with -Section XVI where, before judgment has been pronounced from without, -conscience passes sentence upon itself; realizing that that which it had -deemed in life a mere temporizing, had in fact been a final choice. That, -dallying with the good things of life, whilst believing renunciation the -higher course, had meant a practical decision in favour of things temporal -to the exclusion of things spiritual. In that exclusion lay the error. And -the recognition of failure here is in entire accordance with Browning's -usual attitude towards life. Condemnation is merited not on account of -indulgence, but because that indulgence had meant running counter to the -convictions of the man who held that, for him, renunciation was the higher -course. Not possessing the courage of his opinions, he had chosen that -which he recognized as the lower course, the path of compromise: enjoyment -in the present, renunciation before it was too late. Therefore for him who -had so chosen--the Hell of Satiety. - -Now, as we have already noticed,[83] the experience of the results of the -Judgment tended to exhibit the true worth, both absolute and relative, of -the things amid which life had been hitherto passed. Satiety checked -enjoyment of the beauties of Nature. Why should this be? In Section XXIV -is given the answer: - - All partial beauty was a pledge - Of beauty in its plenitude. - -But, engrossed in contemplation of the partial beauty the spectator had -found that "the pledge sufficed [his] mood." Therefore, the plenitude was -not for him, but for those only who had looked above and beyond the -pledge, seeking that of which it was a proof. And in each of the -successive attempts towards happiness by an appeal to art, and to the -exercise of the higher intellectual faculties, the same explanation of -failure is vouchsafed by the Judge. The symbol has been accepted for the -reality, the pledge for the fulfilment. After the final choice has been -made in favour of Love, "leave to love only," the fuller explanation -follows; the secret of life's success or failure. Failure through the -inability to recognize the Divine Love in the visible creation, or in the -more immediate revelation to man: in either case ample proof being -afforded to him who had eyes to see, intelligence to grasp, and heart to -respond to the Love so taught. Yet the soliloquist of _Easter Day_ had -proved himself incapable of such recognition of the highest truth. The -world of sense had been used not to subserve but to supersede the world of -spirit. To the nature which thus found in all externals a temptation to -rest content with "the level and the night," asceticism was as essential -to the preservation of the spiritual life as, under certain conditions, -amputation may be to the preservation of physical life. - -But it must not be overlooked that the necessity for amputation implies -the existence of mortal disease. Hence, whilst realizing this personal -necessity for renunciation, the speaker recalls the teaching of the divine -Judge of the Vision as pointing to a higher standard of life for him who -should be able to attain to it. A life in which all things should be not -avoided as a snare, but accepted as cause for thankfulness; the relation -of the gift to the Giver being recognized as constituting its primary -value. To the lover of the beautiful is pointed out how - - All thou dost enumerate - Of power and beauty in the world, - The mightiness of love was curled - Inextricably round about. - Love lay within it and without, - To clasp thee,--but in vain! (_E. D._, xxx, ll. 960-965.) - -In this passage may be found the solution to the whole question of the -asceticism advocated. When the love thus expressed had been realized, the -step was not a difficult one to the acceptance of the fuller revelation of -Love in the Incarnation. And in this realization the highest aspect of -life temporal would have been reached. Love, not abrogating the law would -have served as its fulfilment. As the statements of Bishop Blougram are -personal in relation to the treatment of doubt, so the speaker in _Easter -Day_ would make out a case for personal asceticism. Not advocating it as -the ideal universal course, he would yet claim for it highest value as -safeguarding his individual life. To him who is incapable of moderation, -renunciation may become a necessity; yet, through renunciation, may be -attained that higher life consisting in a grateful enjoyment and generous -communication of all gifts of the Divine Love. - -Of the other poems dealing with this subject indirectly or directly, -_Paracelsus_, 1835, _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, 1864, _Ferishtah's Fancies_, 1884, -are sufficiently representative of the different periods of the poet's -literary life to render them valuable as illustrations of his mode of -treatment. In the last, at least, we may be fairly confident that the -decision given is his own. - -In one aspect _Paracelsus_ may be regarded as the history of a man of -genius who marked out for himself a career of complete asceticism; of work -apart from human sympathy, love, and friendship, as well as from all -gratifications of the flesh. And the scheme was pursued -unflinchingly--for a time--until the inevitable reaction set in, spirit -and flesh alike avenging themselves for their temporary suppression. Not -only are love and friendship found claiming their own, but - - A host of petty wild delights, undreamed of - Or spurned before, (_Par._, iii, ll. 537-538.) - -offer themselves to supply the place of what the earlier ascetic, in a -moment of despairing self-contempt, terms his "dead aims." The declaration -at Colmar is made whilst the influence of reaction still prevails. - - I will accept all helps; all I despised - So rashly at the outset, equally - With early impulses, late years have quenched. - - * * * * * - - All helps! no one sort shall exclude the rest. (_Par._, iv, ll. 235-239.) - -Only when he has learned from experience that human nature is not to be -developed through suppression, that "its sign and note and character" are -"Love, hope, fear, faith"--that "these make humanity," only then can he -fearlessly, as in youth, "press God's lamp to [his] breast," assured of -the divine guidance and protection. - -_Sordello_, so closely allied to _Paracelsus_ in time of composition (pub. -1840, begun before _Strafford_, 1836), demands a brief reference since it -has been especially singled out for notice in this connection as -constituting "an indirect vindication of the conceptions of human life -which _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_ condemns."[84] In the _Sixth Book of -Sordello_ the question of renunciation has become imminent and practical. -It is the moment for decision. The imperial badge which he tells his soul -"would suffer you improve your Now!" must be accepted or rejected: and -with it the attendant temporal advantages. But the reflections occupying -the poet's mind, at this crisis of his fate, are akin to those following -the Vision of the Judgment in _Easter Day_. Why not enjoy life to the -full? Why treat it as a mere ante-room to the palace at the door of which -stands the Usher, Death? Even accepting the simile - - I, for one, - Will praise the world, you style mere ante-room - To palace. - - * * * * * - - Oh, 'twere too absurd to slight - For the hereafter the to-day's delight.[85] - -Yet the thought recurs, how often has the cup of life been set aside by -"sage, champion, martyr," to whom had been revealed the secret of that -which "masters life." To what causes is attributable the failure which he -recognizes in reviewing his own Past? The soul, true inhabitant of the -Infinite, has been unable to adapt itself to its lodgment in the body -fitted, by its constitution, for Time only. Sorrow has been the inevitable -result of the soul's attempts at subjecting the body to its use. Sorrow to -be avoided only when the employer shall - - Match the thing employed, - Fit to the finite his infinity.[86] - -Some solution of the difficulty there must assuredly be. The question of -_Sordello_ is in different form the question of the soliloquist of _Easter -Day_-- - - Must life be ever just escaped which should - Have been enjoyed?[87] - -And the answer?-- - - Nay, might have been and would, - Each purpose ordered right--the soul's no whit - Beyond the body's purpose under it.[88] - -Yet the struggle ends in _renunciation_, and Salinguerra arrives to find -Sordello dead, "under his foot the badge": but - - Still, Palma said, - A triumph lingering in the wide eyes.[89] - -In _Rabbi Ben Ezra_ a more material conception of life is to be expected -from the change in the personality of the soliloquist. The Jewish Rabbi of -the twelfth century takes the place of the Mantuan poet of the thirteenth. -The Rabbi also recognizes the limitations imposed by the body upon the -development of the soul. - - Pleasant is this flesh, - Our soul, in its rose-mesh - Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest. (_R. B. E._, xi.) - - * * * * * - - Thy body at its best, - How far can that project thy soul on its lone way? (viii.) - -Yet, since "gifts should prove their use," he would, in so far as may be, -utilize the body for the advancement of the soul. - - Let us not always say - "Spite of the flesh to-day - I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!" - As the bird wings and sings, - Let us cry "All good things - Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!" (xii.) - -In this complete co-operation of spirit and flesh--if attainable--might be -found a satisfactory answer to Sordello's question concerning the -possibility of that use of life which should prove a legitimate enjoyment -of its gifts, no mere avoidance of its snares. - -The parable of _The Two Camels of Ferishtah's Fancies_ is employed to -again introduce the subject of asceticism and its uses. The conclusions -there reached differ, perhaps, rather in degree than in kind from those -which have gone before. Not asceticism, but enjoyment develops best the -faculties of man. The perfect achievement of the work allotted him is the -object of his existence. Hence the admonition, - - Dare - Refuse no help thereto, since help refused - Is hindrance sought and found. - -The decision, however, goes a step further than that of _Easter Day_ where -it is noticeable that the professing Christian, who objects to an -examination of the basis of his faith, appears to have no anxiety -respecting the world at large. The salvation of his individual soul is -that which alone concerns him, and pretty well limits his outlook on life -temporal and eternal. In _The Two Camels_, Ferishtah, in rejecting -asceticism as a mode of life, looks not to its personal effects only, but -to those influences which he is bound to transmit to his fellow men. To -become a joy-giving medium, individual experience of joy is, he claims, -essential, and to be best acquired through a free and grateful acceptance, -and a reasonable enjoyment of the blessings of earth. - - Just as I cannot, till myself convinced, - Impart conviction, so, to deal forth joy - Adroitly, needs must I know joy myself. - Renounce joy for my fellows' sake? That's joy - Beyond joy; but renounced for mine, not theirs? - - * * * * * - - No, Son: the richness hearted in such joy - Is in the knowing what are gifts we give, - Not in a vain endeavour not to know![90] - -That, I believe, we must take as Browning's final word on the subject. -Does it differ so widely from the teaching of _Easter Day_? Surely not? -The man who feared to enjoy earth lest earth should prove a snare, was -taught by the final Judgment that, to a nature of higher capacity, might -be possible that full enjoyment of life comprehended in the use of all -good things as opportunities for soul-enlargement. An enjoyment following -immediately upon the discovery that in all - - Of power and beauty in the world, - The mightiness of love was curled - Inextricably round about. - - - - -LECTURE VII - -LA SAISIAZ - - - - -LECTURE VII - -LA SAISIAZ - - -The peculiar interest attaching to _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_ is -wholly absent from _La Saisiaz_; for here is no uncertainty as to the -identity of the speaker, no soliloquist interposed between the author and -his public. The dramatic interest absent, the personal interest is, -however, proportionately stronger. As in _Prospice_ the closing lines are -unmistakably the outcome of an overwhelming torrent of feeling, so in the -later poem the problems demanding consideration have been forced into -prominence by the events of the hour; and the mourner, who was "ever a -fighter," will not rest until he has confronted them, and has done all -that may be fairly and honestly done towards the settlement of tormenting -doubts and fears. Thus, in _La Saisiaz_, we get, perhaps, the sole example -in Browning's work of a direct attempt on his part to give to the world a -rational and sustained argument, resulting in his personal decision as to -the questions immediately involved; the immortality of the soul and the -relation of its future to its present phase of existence. It is to this -deliberate design that the striking difference in character of these two -similarly inspired poems may be mainly attributable: that the joyful -assurance of _Prospice_ is succeeded by the reasoned hope of _La Saisiaz_. -The mourner hesitates to launch himself upon the waves of faith until he -has argued the questions before him in so far as they are capable of -argument. For the confidence of _Prospice_ that - - The fiend-voices that rave - _Shall_ dwindle, _shall_ blend, - _Shall_ change, _shall_ become ... a peace out of pain: - -we have the hope of _La Saisiaz_, - - No more than hope, but hope--no less than hope. (l. 535.) - -In place of the triumphant certainty of future reunion, - - O thou soul of my soul! I _shall_ clasp thee again, - -is the answering query--sole response to the question as to mutual -recognition in another world - - Can it be, and must, and will it? (l. 390.) - -But the problems of _La Saisiaz_ are not capable of solution by argument; -there comes a stage at which it is inevitable that faith must supplement -and succeed the reasoning powers of the intellect. "Man's truest answer" -is, after all, but human: the finite may not grasp the Infinite; and, -looking upon the Infinite as revealed through Nature, man can but reflect - - How were it did God respond? - -It is the necessary failure in the attainment of a satisfactory conclusion -by ratiocinative methods alone which causes the apparent uncertainty: -apparent rather than actual, since, wherever in the course of the -discussion feeling is allowed free exercise, there faith--or -hope--prevails. In _Prospice_, reasoning offers no check to the emotions, -and faith holds complete sway. Though Faith and Reason are no antagonistic -forces, the ventures of Faith must yet transcend the powers of Reason, and -Reasoning, whilst it may define, is incapable of limiting the province of -Faith, since even "true doctrine is not an end in itself: it cannot carry -us beyond the region of the intellect.... All formulas are of the nature -of outlines: they define by exclusion as well as by comprehension; and no -object in life is isolated. Our premisses in spiritual subjects, -therefore, are necessarily incomplete, and even logical deductions from -them may be false."[91] - -But whatever the intellectual questionings and uncertainties occurring in -the course of the poem itself, the prologue is a pure lyric of spiritual -triumph. Though actually the outcome of the premises preceding and the -conclusions following the argument between Fancy and Reason, no suggestion -of effort is apparent in the joyous song of the soul freed from the -trammels of the body to "wander at will," in the fruition of its fuller -life. The reference to its mortal tenement recalls no painful element in -the process of material decay; only autumn woods, the glowing colours of -fading leaves and mosses. - - Waft of soul's wing! - What lies above? - Sunshine and Love, - Skyblue and Spring! - Body hides--where? - Ferns of all feather, - Mosses and heather, - Yours be the care! - -Of the circumstances immediately giving rise to this personal expression -of feeling the briefest notice will suffice, the bare facts being stated -beneath the title in the latest edition of the works; whilst for the -details necessary to fill in the outline, we have only to turn to the poem -itself, reading the first 140 lines. Miss Egerton-Smith was one of -Browning's oldest women friends, but it was not until many years after -their first meeting in Florence that their intercourse seems to have -become a really important factor in the lives of both: when, after the -return to England following his wife's death, the poet temporarily -established himself in London with his sister as housekeeper. Miss -Egerton-Smith would appear to have been of a nature not readily responsive -to the demands of ordinary social intercourse; a nature likely to make -special appeal to the man who saw in imperfection, perfection hid, and in -complete temporal adaptability the exclusion of possibilities of future -growth. Hence we find him writing in the moment of bereavement: - - You supposed that few or none had known and loved you in the world: - May be! flower that's full-blown tempts the butterfly, not flower that's - furled. - But more learned sense unlocked you, loosed the sheath and let expand - Bud to bell and out-spread flower-shape at the least warm touch of hand - --Maybe, throb of heart, beneath which,--quickening farther than it - knew,-- - Treasure oft was disembosomed, scent all strange and unguessed hue. - Disembosomed, re-embosomed,--must one memory suffice, - Prove I knew an Alpine-rose which all beside named Edelweiss? - (ll. 123-130.) - -At the time of the chief intercourse between the two friends, Browning's -health rendered it necessary for him to leave England during a part of -each year, and for four successive summers Miss Egerton-Smith had been the -companion of the brother and sister in their foreign sojourns, when that -of 1877 was interrupted by her sudden death from heart disease on the -night of September 14th. The villa "La Saisiaz" (in the Savoyard dialect -"the Sun"), at which the party was staying, was situated above Geneva, and -almost immediately beneath La Salève, the summit of which was the -destination of the expedition occupying Miss Egerton-Smith's thoughts at -the time of her death. The shock to her friends was wholly unexpected, as -she had been in better health than was usual to her during the days -immediately preceding. To Browning it would appear to have been at first -overwhelming. It was not long, however, before the emotional and -intellectual faculties were sufficiently under control to render the -arguments of _La Saisiaz_ a possibility. When he added the concluding -lines in "London's mid-November," only six weeks had elapsed since that -"summons" in the Swiss village which had meant for him temporary -bereavement of affection and friendship. - -_A._ The first 400 lines of the poem proper--exclusive of the -prologue--constitute a prelude to the formal debate conducted between -Fancy and Reason, designed as a rational and logical course of argument by -which the writer would assure himself of the immortality of the soul as a -no less reasonable hypothesis than is the self-evident fact of the -mortality of the body: that the assumption with which instinct forces him -to start is also the goal to which reason ultimately draws him. The -assumption-- - - That's Collonge, henceforth your dwelling. All the same, howe'er - disjoints - Past from present, no less certain you are here, not there. (ll. 24-25.) - -The conclusion--that even though - - O'er our heaven again cloud closes ... - Hope the arrowy, just as constant, comes to pierce its gloom. - (ll. 542-543.) - -Line 44 may be not unfitly taken as significant of the whole course of -thought - - What will be the morning glory, when at dusk thus gleams the lake? - -(i) The first part of the prelude (if we may so call it), occupying 139 -lines, calls for little more comment than that already necessitated by the -foregoing consideration of the circumstances giving rise to the poem. (ii) -In taking the solitary walk to the summit of La Salève five days after -Miss Egerton-Smith's death, the poet recalls the circumstances of their -last climb together; and as he stands looking down upon Collonge, that -final resting-place of the body, the question recurs-- - - Here I stand: but you--where? - -The heart has already assured itself that, in spite of the occupation of -that dwelling-place at Collonge, the certainty remains, "you are here, not -there." But this assurance has proved transitory as the feeling which -engendered it. No "mere surmise" will suffice concerning a matter "the -truth of which must rest upon no legend, that is no man's experience but -our own."[92] So to the author of _La Saisiaz_ the suggestion as to proofs -of spiritual survival presents itself only to be rejected. - - What though I nor see nor hear them? Others do, the proofs abound! - -Such second-hand evidence is inadmissible. - - My own experience--that is knowledge. (l. 264.) - - * * * * * - - Knowledge stands on my experience: all outside its narrow hem, - Free surmise may sport and welcome! (ll. 272-273.) - -Here, as with the uncompromising investigator of _Easter Day_, the fact -that credence in a certain tenet is desirable, is advantageous, proves -cause for rejection rather than acceptance. All evidence must be sifted -with the utmost care. Thus the question is stated in line 144, the -answer, or attempted answer to which, is to occupy the entire poem-- - - Does the soul survive the body? - -The second part of the question is on a different platform-- - - Is there God's self, no or yes? - -The existence of God is accepted at the outset of the enquiry as a premise -on which the subsequent argument may be based: as is also the existence of -the soul: it is the condition of immortality alone which is to be proved. -And the poet puts the question, determined to face the truth--whether it -meets his "hopes or fears." It would be difficult to find a more -characteristic assertion of Browning's usual attitude than that of lines -149-150. - - Weakness never need be falseness: truth is truth in each degree - --Thunderpealed by God to Nature, whispered by my soul to me. - -(iii) But the events of the preceding days have converted the abstract -enquiry, "Does the soul survive the body?" into one of vital personal -import. - - Was ending ending once and always, when you died? (l. 172.) - -Hence suggests itself the further question, a necessary sequel to the -first. If death is not the ending of the soul's life, what is the _nature_ -of that immortality, the actuality of which the speaker seeks to -establish? We have already seen Cleon emphatically repudiating the theory -of Protus as to the satisfaction afforded by a vicarious immortality, -"what thou writest, paintest, stays: that does not die." Equally -unsatisfactory to human nature is the suggestion in the present instance -of a prolongation and renewal of life by influences transmitted to -succeeding generations. And yet is the certainty of the thirteenth century -possible to the nineteenth? "Phrase the solemn Tuscan fashioned." - - I believe and I declare-- - Certain am I--from this life I pass into a better, there - Where that lady lives of whom enamoured was my soul. - -With this assurance all would be well. - -(iv) Now, the mere possibility of propounding questions such as the -foregoing, involves the existence of that which asks, and of that to which -the enquiry is addressed with at least an anticipation, however vague, of -obtaining an answer. In other words, the existence of an intelligent being -and an external source of intelligence to which its questionings are -directed. These are the only facts on which the speaker would insist as a -basis for subsequent argument: but of the certainty of these he is -absolutely assured. That their existence is beyond proof he holds as -testimony to their reality. - - Call this--God, then, call that--soul, and both--the only facts for me. - Prove them facts? that they o'erpass my power of proving, proves them - such: - Fact it is I know I know not something which is fact as much. - (ll. 222-224.) - -God and the soul. The primary fact of life and that which is dependent on -the primary. That the soul knows not whence it came nor whither it goes is -no argument against either its existence and immortality, or the existence -and omnipotent and omniscient control of a divine Being. The relative -positions of the rush and the stream lend themselves to the illustration -of this assertion. Whatever the purpose of life, it is yet possible that -man should exist without possessing assured knowledge concerning his -future destiny. All that the rush may conjecture of the course of the -stream is "mere surmise not knowledge": nevertheless, the existence of the -stream is a fact as self-evident to the onlooker as is that of the rush. -Therefore-- - - Ask the rush if it suspects - Whence and how the stream which floats it had a rise, and where and how - Falls or flows on still! What answer makes the rush except that now - Certainly it floats and is, and, no less certain than itself, - _Is_ the everyway external stream that now through shoal and shelf - Floats it onward, leaves it--may be--wrecked at last, or lands on shore - There to root again and grow and flourish stable evermore. - --May be! mere surmise not knowledge: much conjecture styled belief, - What the rush conceives the stream means through the voyage blind and - brief. (ll. 226-234.) - -Thus all man's conjecture as to his future existence is but conjecture: -surmise based upon probabilities deduced from the present conditions of -life and accumulated experience. - -(v) And is then this fact of the present existence of the soul cause -sufficient to demand belief in its immortality? The affirmative answer, -"Because God seems good and wise," proves inadequate when the eyes of the -enquirer are turned to a world in which evil is manifestly existent, and -not only existent, but frequently predominant. The possibility of -reconciling such conditions with the design of a beneficent omnipotence is -only attained through the acceptance of belief in a future life which -shall disentangle the complexities of the present; which shall render -perfect that which is imperfect; complete that which is incomplete. -Without such a prospect of the ultimate solution of its problems life -would be unintelligible, therefore impossible as the work of an -intelligent being: hence the existence of God is denied by implication, -and the premise originally accepted (l. 222) is rejected. This question is -treated more fully later in the poem (ll. 335-348). - -But, granted this possibility of a future, then - - Just that hope, however scant, - Makes the actual life worth leading. - -With hope the poet would rest satisfied, since certainty is neither -possible, nor, in view of the educative purpose which he claims for life, -desirable. Upon this recognition of "life, time,--with all their chances," -as "just probation-space," rests one of the main dogmas of Browning's -teaching--suggested or expressed in countless passages throughout his -works; embodied in most concise form perhaps in the concluding stanzas of -_Abt Vogler_. This life being the prelude to another, failure becomes "but -a triumph's evidence for the fulness of the days," when for the evil of -the present shall be "so much good more": when, indeed, all those -unfulfilled hopes which had "promised joy" to the author of _La Saisiaz_, -shall find soul-satisfying fulfilment. And all we have willed or dreamed -of good shall exist. So long as Eternity may be held to "affirm the -conception of an hour," all the seeming inconsistencies of life may admit -of solution. - -In this passage of _La Saisiaz_ recurs also that suggestion so -characteristic of Browning--introduced dramatically in _Easter Day_, to be -met with again later in the expositions nominally ascribed to -Ferishtah--the theory of the adaptation of the entire universe, as known -to man, to the needs and development of the individual soul. As in _Easter -Day_ is depicted by the Vision the work of - - Absolute omnipotence, - Able its judgments to dispense - To the whole race, as every one - Were its sole object; (_E. D._, ll. 662-665.) - -so again in _A Camel-driver_ is emphasized the individual character of the -final Judgment: - - Thou and God exist-- - So think!--for certain: think the mass--mankind-- - Disparts, disperses, leaves thyself alone! - Ask thy lone soul what laws are plain to thee,-- - Thee and no other,--stand or fall by them! - That is the part for thee: _regard all else - For what it may be--Time's illusion_. - -Similarly here the entire scheme of life is to be regarded from the -individual standpoint; all outside the "narrow hem" of personal experience -can be but the result of surmise. Therefore - - Solve the problem: "From thine apprehended scheme of things, deduce - Praise or blame of its contriver, shown a niggard or profuse - In each good or evil issue! nor miscalculate alike - Counting one the other in the final balance, which to strike, - Soul was born and life allotted: ay, the show of things unfurled - For thy summing-up and judgment,--thine, no other mortal's world!" - (ll. 287-292.) - -With the acceptance, however, of the doctrine, "His own world for every -mortal," recurs again the disturbing reflection inevitable to the -contemplation of that world whether in its personal relation, or as a -training-ground for "some other mortal." Were the extreme transitoriness -and the preponderance of pain indispensable factors in the scheme of -instruction? - - Can we love but on condition, that the thing we love must die? - Needs then groan a world in anguish just to teach us sympathy? - (ll. 311-312.) - -Certainly personal experience has resulted in the conclusion: - - Howsoever came my fate, - Sorrow did and joy did nowise,--life well weighed,--preponderate! - (ll. 333-334.) - -In the discussion which follows (ll. 335-348) the fact of the existence of -these evils is employed to enforce the admission of the necessity of a -future life. It is in fact the earlier argument (ll. 235, _et seq._) -repeated and elaborated. How are the existing conditions of life to be -reconciled with the belief in the over-ruling Providence of a God whose -name is synonymous with goodness, wisdom, and power? Here each attribute -is dealt with categorically--Was it proof of the divine Goodness that -within the limits of the poet's personal experience - - The good within [his] range - Or had evil in admixture or grew evil's self by change? (ll. 337-338.) - -Again could it be deemed a token of the divine Wisdom that - - Becoming wise meant making slow and sure advance - From a knowledge proved in error to acknowledged ignorance? - (ll. 339-340.) - -Finally, seeing that Power must within itself include the force known as -Will, could that indeed rank as omnipotence, which was incapable of -securing for man even the enjoyment of life possessed by the worm which, -on the hypothesis of the non-existence of a future world, becomes "man's -fellow-creature," man too being thus but the creature of an hour? Since -with the loss of his immortal destiny passes also the reason (according to -Browning's reiterated theory) of his imperfection as compared with the -more complete physical perfection of the lower world of animal life. If, -then, such a consummation is the sole outcome of the Creator's work the -conclusion is inevitable, that the Goodness, Wisdom, and Power ascribed to -Him must be limited in range and capacity. Thus again the premise -originally accepted as a basis of argument has to be rejected--a God -possessing merely human attributes is no God. But once more also, though -in stronger terms, the conclusion of ll. 242-243: - - Only grant a second life, I acquiesce - In this present life as failure, count misfortune's worst assaults - Triumph, not defeat, assured that loss so much the more exalts - Gain about to be. (ll. 358-361.) - -Thus all experience fairly considered goes to prove the necessity for a -future life; and with the hope of such a future is closely interwoven the -need also for reunion with those who have already tested the grounds of -their belief: - - Grant me (once again) assurance we shall each meet each some day. - - * * * * * - - Worst were best, defeat were triumph utter loss were utmost gain. - (ll. 387-389.) - -_B._ Nevertheless, the soul refuses even yet to accept, without that which -it deems reasonable proof, the justice of its intuitions and of its hopes -arising from experience. It will assume the position of arbitrator in the -debate which it permits between the sometime opposing forces of Reason and -Fancy, as to the results of an acceptance of that belief, for an assurance -of the truth of which it yearns. - -_Fancy._ To the facts already admitted as the basis of argument Fancy may, -therefore, add a third, "that after body dies soul lives again." - -_Reason._ In accepting the challenge to employ these three facts--God, the -soul, a future life--in a rational development of the present phase of -existence, Reason would reply that deductions from experience suggest that -the future life must necessarily prove an advance on the old. This being -so, the most prudent course is obviously that which would take, without -delay, the step leading from the lower to the higher; always allowing that -there is no existent law restrictive of man's free will in this matter. - - What shall then deter his dying out of darkness into light? (l. 441.) - -_Fancy._ The deterrent is to be found in the suggestion by Fancy of the -law rendering penal "voluntary passage from this life to that." - - He shall find--say, hell to punish who in aught curtails the term. - (l. 463.) - -_Reason._ And what influence upon life it must be asked will this new -knowledge exert? Life, says Reason, would thus be reduced to a condition -of stagnation. The absolute certainty involved in this exact knowledge of -the future would stultify action in the present. A result similar to that -which, according to Karshish, was attained in the case of Lazarus. The -things of this world matter not in view of an ever-present realization of -Eternity. The use of faith is at an end as "the substance of things hoped -for, the evidence of things not seen," since all is clear, definite and, -further still, unalterable to the inward vision. - -_Fancy._ Again Fancy interposes with the suggestion that this equal -realization of future and present must be accompanied by an appreciation -of the worth of life temporal and its opportunities, of the eternal import -of the deeds wrought in the flesh. Thus the future life completely -revealed would not, as Reason holds, supersede the uses of this, but would -serve rather as an incentive to action in the present, on the assumption -that the virtual reward of performance is reserved for the after-time. - -_Reason._ The final position is then examined by Reason. To the original -premises--the existence of the soul, an intelligent being, and of a God, -the author of an intelligible universe in which man's lot is cast--has -been added the certainty of a future world, but a world into which man may -not pass until his allotted term has been fulfilled on earth. Further, -that in this world to come are to be dealt out allotments of happiness or -misery in exact relative proportion to the deeds accomplished during the -period of mortal life. That by laws as unerring and relentless as those of -Nature's code, pain will follow evil-doing, pleasure will succeed acts of -self-devotion to that which is esteemed goodness and truth. Absolute -certainty in all things spiritual being thus established, free will -becomes but a name, and the probationary character of life is at an end. -Here again a reminiscence of the discussion contained in the early stanzas -of _Easter Day_ when the Second Speaker suggests that faith may be - - A touchstone for God's purposes, - Even as ourselves conceive of them. - Could he acquit us or condemn - For holding what no hand can loose, - Rejecting when we can't but choose? - As well award the victor's wreath - To whosoever should take breath - Duly each minute while he lived-- - Grant heaven, because a man contrived - To see its sunlight every day - He walked forth on the public way. (_E. D._, iv, ll. 59-70.) - -So _La Saisiaz_ - - Thenceforth neither good nor evil does man, doing what he must. - Lay but down that law as stringent "wouldst thou live again, be just!" - As this other "wouldst thou live now, regularly draw thy breath! - For, suspend the operation, straight law's breach results in death--" - And (provided always, man, addressed this mode, be sound and sane) - Prompt and absolute obedience, never doubt, will law obtain! - (ll. 497-502.) - -The difference between the sanction attaching to laws moral and spiritual, -and to those of Nature is not, Reason would hold, the result of defective -power on the part of the legislator. Some definite purpose is existent in -the scheme of the universe in accordance with which - - Certain laws exist already which to hear means to obey; - Therefore not without a purpose these man must, while those man may - Keep and, for the keeping, haply gain approval and reward. (ll. 515-517.) - -_C._ In short, the conclusion reached is that already propounded as the -outcome of experience--that uncertainty is one of the essential attributes -of life temporal. That in its probationary character lies its educative -influence. That since "assurance needs must change this life to [him]" -the author of _La Saisiaz_, no less than the soliloquist of _Easter Day_, -would willingly continue in that state of probation which fosters growth -and development; would cling to that uncertainty which allows of the -existence of hope. - -As employed by Reason, and generally throughout the poem, the word hope -possesses more than the comparatively vague significance commonly -attaching to it: it becomes practically synonymous with faith. In a -similar sense the term occurs in the _Epistle to the Romans_,[93] when the -writer asserts that "we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not -hope" (the argument which Browning is here using). "For what a man seeth, -why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we -with patience wait for it." It is further noticeable that here, as -elsewhere in Browning, is rejected the belief in a future which shall, in -the words of Paracelsus, reduce the present world to the position of "a -mere foil ... to some fine life to come."[94] The necessity for a future -life is throughout the argument based upon the fact that immortality is -needed to render intelligible the conditions attendant upon life temporal. -It is the _unintelligibility_ of life, if cut short by death, which -demands its renewal beyond the grave. - -The concluding lines of the poem proper (immediately preceding the -supplementary stanza), although not directly essential to the argument, -are especially interesting from the allusions contained in them and the -resulting inferences which have met with some diversity of interpretation. - - Thanks, thou pine-tree of Makistos, wide thy giant torch I wave. - (l. 579.) - -is thus explained by Dr. Berdoe in his _Browning Cyclopaedia_. - -"The reference to Makistos is from the _Agamemnon_ of Æschylus. The town -of Makistos had a watch-tower on a neighbouring eminence, from which the -beacon lights flashed the news of the fall of Troy to Greece. Clytemnestra -says - - Sending a bright blaze from Ide, - _Beacon did beacon send_, - Pass on--the pine-tree--to Makistos' watch-place." - -This pine tree, as "the brand flamboyant," which should replenish the -beacon-fire of Makistos, Browning takes as symbolic of fame. The Knowledge -and Learning of Gibbon constitute the trunk-- - - This the trunk, the central solid Knowledge - ... rooted yonder at Lausanne [where Gibbon's History was finished]. - -But Learning is hardly permitted "its due effulgence," being "dulled by -flake on flake of [the] Wit"--nourished at Ferney (sometime the home of -Voltaire). To the Learning of Gibbon, the Wit of Voltaire is added in "the -terebinth-tree's resin," the "all-explosive Eloquence" of Rousseau and of -Diodati:[95] whilst in the heights, above all "deciduous trash," climbs -the evergreen of the ivy, significant of the immortality of Byron's poetic -fame. Having lifted "the coruscating marvel," the watcher on La Salève -would likewise stand as a beacon to those millions who - - Have their portion, live their calm or troublous day, - Find significance in fireworks. - -That by his help they may - - Confidently lay to heart ... this: - "He there with the brand flamboyant, broad o'er night's forlorn abyss, - Crowned by prose and verse; and wielding, with Wit's bauble, Learning's - rod ... - Well? Why, he at least believed in Soul, was very sure of God." - -Of these three concluding lines Dr. Berdoe writes: "Many writers have -thought that ... the poet referred to himself. Of course, any such idea is -preposterous; the reference was to Voltaire. Mr. Browning, apart from the -question of the egotism involved, could not say of himself, 'he at least -believed in soul.' There was no minimizing of religious faith in the poet. -Still less could he speak of himself as 'crowned by prose and verse.'" -Whence arises Dr. Berdoe's misapprehension? Apart from the context the -significance might not be obvious; taken in connection with the passage -immediately preceding, it is valuable as adding emphasis to the -conclusions of the foregoing argument, and proclaiming in unmistakable -language the worth to Browning as a personal possession of that creed -which he has just declared himself to hold. Reflecting upon the widespread -influence of those literary men whose presence has rendered celebrated the -region lying before him, he attributes it to the "phosphoric fame" which -attended the path of each. "Famed unfortunates" all, yet "the world was -witched" and became enslaved by their pessimistic theories of life. Forced -to believe because "the famous bard believed!" because the renowned man of -letters could say, "Which believe--for I believe it." Such being the power -of fame as an agency for influencing the human mind, what might not the -author of _La Saisiaz_ achieve, were he, too, armed with this "brand -flamboyant!" No pessimistic creed is his, but that which involving an -absolute belief in God and in the soul would thence deduce a confidence in -"that power and purpose" existent throughout life, indicated and -recognized by the presence and revelations of "hope the arrowy." So would -he gather in one the fame of his predecessors in the literary world; would -become as Rousseau, "eloquent, as Byron prime in poet's power": - - Learned for the nonce as Gibbon, witty as wit's self Voltaire. - -Thus would he stand "crowned by prose and verse." And why? Because the -millions still take "the flare for evidence," and "find significance" in -the fireworks of fame. Only by wielding "the brand flamboyant" may he -succeed in impressing upon mankind his own supreme assurance. To this end -he would desire Fame. - -It remains to assign to _La Saisiaz_ the position which, as a declaration -of faith, it occupies in relation to the poems we have already considered. -In _Caliban_, dealing with a peculiar phase of "Natural Theology," we -found the suggestions of a deity those derived from the conceptions of a -semi-savage being, with whom the intellectual development would seem to -have outrun the moral. Passing to the reflections of Cleon, with the Greek -theory and practice of life there set forth, we reached the utmost heights -attainable by paganism. In _Bishop Blougram's Apology_ the unbelief -threatening was not that of paganism in the early interpretation of the -word, but of the paganism which would substitute authority for faith. With -_Christmas Eve_ came the individual choice of creed, the voluntary -acceptance of the position of worshipper at one of the narrow shrines of -human invention; but an acceptance which involved likewise a personal -faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ. The faith thus accepted received -fuller analysis and investigation through the questionings of _Easter -Day_. But all these poems are, as we have been forced to conclude, more or -less dramatic in character, the first three wholly, the two last to a -degree which we have attempted to define. Only with _La Saisiaz_ do we -reach the undisguised and definite expression of Browning's personal -faith, the basis, though not the culmination of which, is emphatically -asserted as a belief in the soul and in God. - -At first sight it may appear disappointing to many readers that the -irreducible minimum of the creed should contain but these two tenets. On -this ground, indeed, we might have been tempted, had such a transposition -been justifiable to place _La Saisiaz_ before, instead of after, -_Christmas Eve and Easter Day_, allowing the profession of faith on La -Salève to serve as a foundation for the superstructure supplied by the -arguments of the listener without the Lecture Hall at Göttingen. On -consideration, however, nothing is discoverable in the position occupied -by the author of _La Saisiaz_ to render untenable that held by the -soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_ or the First Speaker of _Easter Day_. There -is, as we have indeed noticed, a marked similarity between the arguments -employed in the two last cases (_La Saisiaz_ and _Easter Day_) and in the -conclusions reached: in both, the assurance that in the probationary -character of this present life, with its possibilities for spiritual -development through the exercise of faith, lies its main value. - -Mrs. Sutherland Orr admits that Browning "was no less, in his way, a -Christian when he wrote _La Saisiaz_ than when he published _A Death in -the Desert_ and _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_, or at any period -subsequent to that in which he accepted without questioning what he had -learned at his mother's knee. He has repeatedly written or declared in the -words of Charles Lamb: 'If Christ entered the room I should fall on my -knees'; and again in those of Napoleon: 'I am an understander of men, and -_He_ was no man.' He has even added: 'If he had been, he would have been -an imposter.'" But she has already remarked of the poem that "It is -conclusive both in form and matter as to his heterodox attitude towards -Christianity." And she continues: "The arguments, in great part negative, -set forth in _La Saisiaz_ for the immortality of the soul, leave no place -for the idea, however indefinite, of a Christian revelation on the -subject."[96] We may indeed regret that such criticism should result from -a study of the poem; but, after all, do the truths discussed in _La -Saisiaz_ involve any immediate question either of the acceptance or -rejection of a Christian revelation on this or on any subject? Do they not -go deeper, if we may so say, than Christianity itself? Until faith in -these fundamental truths has been unassailably established, no basis for -Christianity has been secured. To him who is not yet "sure of God," the -revelation of God in Christ can have little meaning. For whilst far more -than the belief necessarily implied in the confession on La Salève must be -held essential to the fulness of life, without it no superstructure of -faith is possible. Its very strength would seem to lie in the fact that, -avoiding the limitations of strictly defined dogma, it "leaves place" for -all subsequent revelations of spiritual truth. - -And what _is_ "the Christian revelation" on these matters? The questions -concerning death, immortality, and future recognition and reunion, ever -suggesting themselves in new form to the human heart and intellect, are -yet unanswered. Even that "acknowledgment of God in Christ" to which the -dying Evangelist points as to the solution of "all questions in the earth -and out of it,"[97] implies the acceptance of a creed not necessarily -involving a revelation of the future life. The teaching of the Gospel -serves as _present_ inspiration of a faith content to leave the future in -the confidence - - Our times are in His hand - Who saith "A whole I planned."[98] - -Life eternal is there defined, not with reference to a future state, but -as the knowledge of God, the beginnings of which are attainable here and -now, by present service and self-devotion: to him who should do the will -should the doctrine be made known.[99] The record of the intercourse -between the Master and His disciples during the forty days following the -resurrection is silent concerning any lifting of the veil before which -they so consciously stood. That Browning was a Christian in the broadest, -deepest, and possibly in the least conventional acceptation of the term, -it was the attempt of the last Lecture to demonstrate by a consideration -of the dramatic poems bearing reference to Christianity and its relation -to human life. And there is no word throughout _La Saisiaz_ which should -preclude belief in the conclusions of David in _Saul_ or of St. John in _A -Death in the Desert_. To the man who was "very sure of God"--who had -recognized the Divine revelation in Nature--an acceptance of the more -immediate and special revelation was but a natural sequence. "Ye believe -in God, believe also in me":[100] when the assertion holds good the -command is not difficult of fulfilment. Whilst extreme caution is -necessary in dealing with a matter in which the student is too readily -tempted to "find what he desires to find," the historical and logical -necessity for an Incarnation was, as we have seen, so favourite a theme -with Browning for dramatic treatment, that it is wellnigh impossible to -dissociate the personal interest. This subject the reflections of _La -Saisiaz_ do not directly approach. - - He at least believed in Soul, was very sure of God. - -The creed so expressed meant for the author a gain, once experienced, too -great to remain unshared. No mere abstract belief, but an assurance of -which he could assert - - Fact it is I know I know not something which is fact as much. (l. 224.) - -For him the power and the purpose which he beheld, "if no one else -beheld," ruling in Nature and in human life were alike Love. The last word -on the subject comes to us direct, unmodified by any dramatic medium-- - - Power is Love-- - - * * * * - - From the first, Power was--I knew. - Life has made clear to me - That, strive but for closer view, - Love were as plain to see. - - When see? Where there dawns a day, - If not on the homely earth, - Then yonder, worlds away, - Where the strange and new have birth, - And Power comes full in play.[101] - -The hope of _La Saisiaz_ has become the assurance of the _Reverie_. - -This recognition of "the continuity of life" is the main inspiration, the -invigorating principle of Browning's creed. Cleon _felt_ the necessity -which Reason demonstrated on La Salève. Yet again, eleven years later, the -author of _Asolando_ can speak with absolute confidence of the certainty -that death will afford no interruption to the energies, the activities, -the progress of the soul's life. That he who has _here_ "never turned his -back" will _there_ still continue the forward march. It is, in other -words, the faith of Pompilia which can look beyond the limitations of the -present to the boundless developments of which this life, with its -struggles and apparent failures, is but the beginning: and in the hour of -defeat can hold that "No work begun shall ever pause for death." - -It is in the midst of the "bustle of man's work-time" that "the unseen" is -to be greeted. Is it too much to say that Browning, in the admonition of -these closing lines of the _Asolando Epilogue_, makes confession of his -belief in the Communion of Saints? But it is characteristic that the -expression of faith (if such we may account it) is made in terms which -admit of no distinctly formulated definition. The command comes as an -inspiration to the seen and the unseen. - - Greet the unseen with a cheer! - Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, - "Strive and thrive!" cry "Speed,--fight on, fare ever - There as here!" - -The underlying confidence is beyond that of the reasoning of _La Saisiaz_, -but not far in advance of the joyful spontaneity of the _Prologue_ - - _Dying we live._ - Fretless and free, - Soul, clap thy pinion! - - * * * - - Body shall cumber - Soul-flight no more. - -And if--admitting that Browning, even when writing _La Saisiaz_, possessed -the assurance thus expressed--we ask why he should have rested satisfied -with the confession of faith contained in its concluding line, the answer -must be--that the author of _La Saisiaz_ is to be numbered amongst that -small minority of religious teachers for whom it may be claimed that "they -cannot fail to recognize that the formulas which express the Truth -suggested by the facts of their Creed are themselves of necessity partial -and provisional." It is impossible to doubt that with him the -consciousness was strongly present, that "Formulas do not exhaust the -Truth"; that "the character and expression of Doctrine ... is relative to -the age."[102] That in proportion as satisfaction is found in formula does -faith lose its life-giving power. Progress being the law of life, he -would, therefore, enforce upon no man as binding formulae of which the -comparative inelasticity might tend to fetter mental or spiritual -development. On the contrary, he would have the seeker after Truth -prepared to relinquish in due time definitions once essential, since -threatening to become restrictive to growth. Before all things, is to be -avoided the danger of resting on that which is not the Truth itself, but -merely a necessary introduction to the Truth. Hence, - - The help whereby he mounts, - The ladder-rung his foot has left, may fall, - Since all things suffer change save God the Truth.[103] - -Only through such employment of the means may the end be attained, since -whether it be concerning "God the Truth," "the eternal power," or "the -love that tops the might, the Christ in God," in all - - New lessons shall be learned ... - Till earth's work stop and useless time run out.[104] - - - - - - -INDEX - - - _Abt Vogler_, 52, 78, 153, 190. - - _Acts, The_, 31, 33, 39. - - Æschylus, 33, 196, 197. - - Alcestis, 41. - - _Andrea del Sarto_, 5, 74, 140, 141, 153. - - _Apparent Failure_, 159. - - Aratus, 39. - - Arnold, Matthew, 3, 4. - - Art, 11, 49-51, 55, 139-142, 171. - - Asceticism, 97, 130, 132-134, 168-177. - - _Asolando_, 7, 203. - - _Asolando, Epilogue_, 5, 11, 153, 204. - - Athenians, 31. - - Augustine, St., 105. - - - _Balaustion's Adventure_, 20. - - Barrett, Miss (_see_ Mrs. Browning), 160, 161. - - Berdoe, E., 12, 66, 67, 196-198. - - _Bishop Blougram's Apology_, 9, 55, 63-91, 127, 131, 134, 141, 160, 162, - 163, 172, 199. - - _Bishop orders his Tomb_, 64. - - _Book and the Ring, The_, 51. - - Brooke, A. Stopford, 13. - - Browning, Mrs., 168, 184. - - Byron, Lord, 197, 198. - - - Caliban, 5, 11-26, 29-31, 45, 63, 64, 102, 104. - - _Caliban upon Setebos_, 3-26, 31, 45, 199. - - Calvinism, 100-103, 160-166. - - _Camel-driver, A_, 157-160, 190, 191. - - Caponsacchi, 5, 167, 168. - - Chesterton, G. K., 12, 68. - - Christianity, 7-12, 33, 39, 58, 65, 67, 108, 109, 111-116, 121, 125-146, - 150-152, 154, 155, 200-202. - - _Christmas Eve_, 10, 11, 95-122, 199, 200. - - _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_, 8, 64, 95-177, 181, 200. - - _Cleon_, 8, 9, 11, 25, 29-59, 64, 65, 78, 140, 144, 151, 152, 187, 199, - 203. - - Clough, A. H., 3, 4. - - Collonge, 185, 186. - - Cross, J. W., 56. - - - David, 152 (_see_ _Saul_). - - _Death in the Desert_, 10, 11, 16, 17, 25, 26, 32, 47, 48, 52, 59, 78, - 144, 145, 151, 154, 200, 201, 202, 205. - - Dickens, C., 73, 97. - - Diodati, 197. - - Dionysius, 33. - - _Dîs Aliter Visum_, 78, 79, 153. - - Doubt, 4 (_see_ Faith and Doubt). - - Dowden, E., 12, 96, 161, 164, 165, 168. - - Dramatic power of Browning, 5-8, 15, 63, 64, 73, 74, 96-100, 132, - 149-177. - - _Dramatis Personae_, 7. - - _Dramatis Personae, Epilogue_, 9, 153, 154, 163, 164. - - - _Easter Day_, 6, 10, 23, 125-146, 186, 190, 195, 196, 199, 200 (_see_ - _Christmas Eve and Easter Day_). - - Egerton-Smith, Miss, 183-186. - - Eliot, George, 56. - - Emerson, 186. - - _Epistle of James_, 115. - - _Epistle of Karshish, An_, 10, 129, 151, 152, 155, 156, 194. - - _Epistle to the Romans_, 196. - - Euripides, 33, 89. - - _Evelyn Hope_, 153. - - Evil, 21. - - - Faith, 3, 5, 11, 109-111, 152-157, 182. - - Faith and Doubt, 76, 77, 80-91, 126-134, 145, 146, 149. - - Fancy, 183, 185, 193, 194. - - _Fears and Scruples_, 156, 157. - - _Ferishtah's Fancies_, 172, 190 (_see_ _Shah Abbas_, _A Camel-driver_, - _The Two Camels_). - - _Fra Lippo Lippi_, 51. - - Future Life, 23, 24, 47, 49, 53-58, 181-183, 185-205. - - - Geneva, 184, 197 (_note_). - - Gibbon, 197-199. - - Gissing, G., 97. - - Gladstone, W. E., 72. - - _Grammarian's Funeral_, 54, 55, 78, 153. - - Greece (Greeks), 29, 31-34, 37, 39, 43, 48, 49, 51-55, 57-59, 64, 65, - 199. - - Guido Franceschini, 5, 137, 167. - - - _Hamlet_, 12, 84, 88, 89. - - Hildebrand, 83. - - Homer, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38. - - Humanitarianism, 111-116. - - - Immortality, 47 (_see_ Future Life). - - Incarnation, The, 18, 25, 26, 39, 111-116, 144, 145, 150-152, 169, 205. - - _In Memoriam_, 4, 5, 53, 54, 88. - - Innocent XII (_see_ _The Pope_). - - - _Johannes Agricola in Meditation_, 101, 102. - - John, St., 5, 202 (_see_ _A Death in the Desert_). - - Judgment, 135-139, 143, 154, 157-160, 170, 171, 174, 177. - - - Lamb, C., 200. - - _La Saisiaz_, 3, 5, 7, 10, 24, 57, 64, 181-205. - - La Salève, 5, 184, 186, 197, 200, 201, 203. - - Lazarus, 11, 142, 151, 155, 156, 194 (_see_ _Epistle of Karshish_). - - Lewes, G. H., 56. - - Love, Divine and human, 10, 19, 48, 104, 105, 108-111, 142-145, 151, - 171-173, 203, 205. - - Lowell, J. R., 117. - - Luigi, 80. - - Luther, 79, 80, 85. - - - Makistos, 196, 197. - - Manning, Cardinal, 71. - - _Master Hugues of Saxe-Gotha_, 153. - - _Men and Women Series_, 7, 8, 49. - - Miracles, 70, 86. - - Morley, J., 72, 74. - - - Napoleon I, 83-85, 200. - - Napoleon III (_see_ _Prince Hohenstiel Schwangau_). - - Nature, 4, 11, 37, 85, 103-105, 119, 130, 132, 139, 140-143, 151, 170, - 182, 187, 194, 195, 202, 203. - - Newman, J. H., 71, 76. - - - Obscurity of Browning, 6. - - _Old Pictures in Florence_, 49-52, 59, 140. - - Orr, Mrs. Sutherland, 154, 169, 173, 200, 201. - - - _Paracelsus_, 23, 42-44, 47, 73, 74, 153, 172, 173, 196. - - Paul (Paulus), 31, 33, 34, 59. - - _Pauline_, 5, 7, 78, 79, 153. - - Phidias, 31, 32, 34, 36, 38. - - Pippa, 5. - - _Pippa passes_, 80, 144. - - Pompilia, 166, 203. - - _Pompilia_, 55, 203. - - _Pope, The_, 136, 137, 162, 166-168. - - Power, 19, 20, 25, 104, 105, 144, 145, 151, 192, 203. - - _Prince Hohenstiel Schwangau_, 74. - - Progress, Law of Life, 25, 34-39, 43-46, 49, 50, 52, 55, 78, 79, 87, 88, - 205. - - Prospero, 13, 14, 16, 19, 31, 102. - - _Prospice_, 11, 126, 181, 182. - - Protus, 31-34, 40-42, 48, 53-55, 64, 65, 187. - - Pugin, A. W., 69. - - - "Quiet, The," 21, 24-26, 45. - - - _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, 10, 36-38, 48, 79, 140, 172, 175, 201. - - Reason, 107, 110, 158, 182-185, 193-196, 203. - - _Reverie_ (_Asolando_), 105, 203. - - _Ring and the Book_, 73 (_see_ _Book and the Ring_, _Pompilia_, _The - Pope_). - - Roman Catholicism, 9, 70-72, 83, 86, 103, 106-111, 120, 121, 160-168. - - Rousseau, 197, 198. - - - Sacrifice, Doctrine of, 22, 23. - - _Saul_, 18, 19, 25, 26, 36, 151, 202. - - Setebos, 14-26, 29, 102, 104. - - Shakespeare, 6, 13, 16, 84, 85, 88, 89, 114. - - Sharp, W., 12. - - Shelley, P. B., 53. - - _Sordello_, 57, 58, 73, 173-175. - - Stanley, Dean, 72. - - _Strafford_, 173. - - Strauss, 80, 85. - - Sycorax, 14, 21, 29. - - - _Tempest, The_, 11-14. - - Tennyson, A., 4, 38 (_see_ _In Memoriam_). - - Terpander, 31, 32, 34, 35, 38. - - _The Two Camels_, 176. - - _Toccata of Galuppi's_, 40, 140. - - Tolerance, 117-120. - - Tractarian Movement, 161. - - _Tracts for the Times_, 71. - - Truth, 3, 4, 5, 17, 39, 44, 76, 119, 120, 153, 154, 204, 205. - - - Voltaire, 197-199. - - - Ward, W., 67, 86, 90, 91. - - Westcott, B. F., 33, 142, 182, 183, 204, 205. - - _Wisdom_, 102. - - Wiseman, Cardinal, 66-71, 74, 86, 90, 91. - - - Zeus, 8, 29, 39, 42. - - - CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] _La Saisiaz_, l. 604. _R. Browning_, vol. ii, Smith, Elder and Co. - -[2] _Self dependence._ Matt. Arnold. - -[3] _Say not the struggle nought availeth._ - -[4] _Easter Day_, vii. - -[5] _Browning_, E. Dowden, J. M. Dent and Co., p. 243. - -[6] _R. Browning_, W. Sharp (_Great Writers_), p. 207. - -[7] _Browning Cyclopaedia_, Berdoe, p. 91 (quoted). - -[8] _R. Browning_, G. K. Chesterton (_Eng. Men of Letters_), p. 135. - -[9] _Browning_, S. Brooke, Isbister, p. 288. - -[10] _Saul_, 268. - -[11] _Balaustion's Adventure_, vol. i, p. 660. - -[12] _Genesis_, xxviii, 20. - -[13] _Hosea_, vi, 6. - -[14] _Paracelsus_, 876-878, pt. v. - -[15] L. 390. - -[16] _A Death in the Desert_, ll. 474-476. - -[17] _Acts_, xvii, 21. - -[18] _A Death in the Desert_, 498. - -[19] _Religious Thought in the West._ - -[20] _Acts_, xvii, 34. - -[21] _Saul_, 295. - -[22] _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, xxiv, xxv. - -[23] _Ibid._, xix. - -[24] _Acts_, xvii, 24-28. - -[25] _A Toccata of Galuppi's._ - -[26] _Paracelsus_, v, 709-713. - -[27] _Caliban_, 101. - -[28] _Paracelsus_, i, 726-737. - -[29] _Ibid._, i, 759-762. - -[30] _A Death in the Desert_, 198-207. - -[31] _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, viii. - -[32] _Old Pictures in Florence_, xi. - -[33] _Ibid._, xix. - -[34] _The Book and the Ring_, 866-867. - -[35] _Fra Lippo Lippi._ - -[36] _Old Pictures in Florence_, xx. - -[37] _Old Pictures in Florence_, xv. - -[38] _Ibid._, xvi. - -[39] _A Death in the Desert_, 429-431. - -[40] _Abt Vogler_, xi. - -[41] _Adonais_, Shelley. - -[42] _In Memoriam_, xlvii. - -[43] _A Grammarian's Funeral._ - -[44] _Ibid._ - -[45] _Pompilia_, 1787. - -[46] _Life of George Eliot_, Cross. Letters to J. Blackwood and J. W. -Cross. - -[47] _La Saisiaz._ - -[48] _Sordello_, bk. iv. - -[49] _Ibid._, bk. v. - -[50] _Ibid._, bk. vi. - -[51] Cf. _St. Matthew_, xi, 11. - -[52] _Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman_, by Wilfrid Ward. 2 vols. 1897. - -[53] _Ibid._ - -[54] _Ibid._ - -[55] Incident related _Browning_. G. K. Chesterton. (_Eng. Men of -Letters._) - -[56] _Life of Gladstone._ J. Morley. Vol. i. - -[57] _Apologia pro vita sua._ J. H. Newman. - -[58] _Pippa passes_, iii, 1210-1215. - -[59] Quoted. _Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman._ W. Ward. - -[60] _In Memoriam_, xcvi. - -[61] _Browning_, Dent and Co., p. 124. - -[62] _Wisdom of Solomon_, xi, 24-26. - -[63] _Confessions_, bk. i, chap. iii. - -[64] Chapter ii, 14-20. - -[65] _Godminster Chimes._ J. R. Lowell. - -[66] _The Pope_, 2117-2128. - -[67] _Andrea del Sarto_, 83-87. - -[68] _Christmas Eve_, 360-363. - -[69] _Pippa passes_, 114-180. - -[70] _A Death in the Desert_, 498-499. - -[71] _A Death in the Desert_, 500-513. - -[72] _Life and Letters of Robert Browning_, Mrs. Sutherland Orr, Smith, -Elder and Co., p. 185. - -[73] _A Death in the Desert_, 431-433. - -[74] _A Death in the Desert_, 589-594. - -[75] _Ibid._, 292-298. - -[76] _Apparent Failure._ - -[77] _A Camel-driver._ - -[78] _Browning_, E. Dowden, J. M. Dent and Co., pp. 121, 123. - -[79] _Dramatis Personae._ - -[80] _Browning_, E. Dowden, pp. 128-129. - -[81] _Browning_, Dowden, p. 132. - -[82] _Life and Letters of Browning_, Mrs. S. Orr, p. 185. - -[83] _Supra_, pp. 135-145. - -[84] _Browning_, Mrs. S. Orr, pp. 185-186. - -[85] _Sordello_, Book the Sixth. - -[86] _Ibid._ - -[87] _Ibid._ - -[88] _Sordello_, Book the Sixth. - -[89] _Ibid._ - -[90] _The Two Camels._ - -[91] _Christian Aspects of Life_, Westcott, p. 30. - -[92] Emerson. - -[93] Chap. viii, 24, 25. - -[94] _Paracelsus_, iii, 1012-1013. - -[95] The reference in l. 555. "Is it _Diodati_ joins the glimmer of the -lake?" is to Byron's villa at Geneva. That of l. 590, to the Calvinistic -theologian (1576-1614) born at Lucca, famous through his work at Geneva as -a preacher, etc. - -[96] _Life and Letters of R. Browning_, pp. 318-319. - -[97] _A Death in the Desert_, 474-476. - -[98] _Rabbi Ben Ezra_, i. - -[99] _Gospel of St. John_, xvii, 3; vii, 17. - -[100] _Ibid._, xiv, 1. - -[101] _Reverie, Asolando._ - -[102] _Christian Aspects of Life_, Westcott, Macmillan, pp. 32-33. - -[103] _A Death in the Desert_, 429-431. - -[104] _Ibid._, 266-267. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Browning and Dogma, by Ethel M. 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