Browning and His Century

an race found itself in a position entirely different from that ever before occupied by it. Through the knowledge of cosmic, animal, and social evolution gradually accumulated by the

myth was to be tested in the laboratory of the intellect, even the intellect itself was to undergo dissection, with the result that, once for all, it has been decided what p

days of Christianity, nor, it may be said, is the harmony as yet complete, for there are to-day, and perhaps always will be, human beings whose cons

rocesses wonderfully akin to that later experimentally proved by the nineteenth century scientist, nor did he have a suspicion that such truth was in any way antagonistic to religious truth. On the contrary, he considered that, by it, the beauty and mystery of religion wa

as permeated with the idea, it having been derived by them perhaps from the Chaldeans through the Ph?nicians,

mpressed upon the minds of men that it was regarded as the orthodox view, rooted in divine revelation, and to question

such as a belief in witchcraft and in signs and wonders, as well as some myths, b

the spirit. The former, following intellectual guidance, found itself coming more and more into antagonism with the spirit, not yet freed from the trammels of imagination. The latter, guided by imagination, continued to exercise a mythop?ic faculty, which not only brought it more and more into antagonism with the mind, but set up

e protagonist is the mind struggling to free the spirit from its subjection to the evil aspects of the imagination. Great thinkers in the field of science, phil

purely human aspects of the struggle, heartrending, indeed, become the

fronted by an uproar in which monks, fellows, and students rushed about, their garments streaming in the wind, crying out, "Down with the magician!" And this was only the beginning of a persecutio

uch enticing titles as "The Book of the Great Key," "The Explanation of the Thirty Seals," "The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast," "The Threefold Minimum," "The Composition of Images," "The Innumera

he exclaimed, "Let us begin by doubt. Let us doubt till we know." Acting upon these principles, he began to unfold again that current of Greek thought whic

s the resultant of innumerable individuals; each species is the starting point for the next." F

sor extraordinary in the Sorbonne; three years in London, where he became the friend of Sir Philip Sidney, and influenced the philosophy of both Bacon and Shakespeare. Oxford, however, was unfriendly to his teachings and he was obliged to flee from England also. Then he wandered for five years from city to city in Germany-at one time warned to leave the town, at another excommunicated, at another not even permitted to lodge within the gates. Finally, he accepted the invitation of a noble Venetian, Zuane Mocenigo, to visit Venice and tea

r ago than 1889, when his statue was unveiled on the ninth of June, on the site of his burning, in full view of the Vatican, Pope Leo XIII, it is said, refused food and spent hours in an agony of prayer at the

ed to the demands of the Inquisition and recanted, saying that he no lon

re your Eminences, having before my eyes the Holy Gospel, which I touch with my hand

self. His persecution, however, continued to the end. He was exiled from his family and friends, and, even when he had become

logical principles, as firmly established to-day as that of the rotation of the earth upon its axis, was forced to write: "I declare that I had no intention to contradict the text of Scripture; that I believe most firmly a

ld be added the wholesale persecution of witches and magicians, for unusual knowledge of any sort ran the chance of

d out, but up to the nineteenth century, and well on through it, denunciation, excommunication, suppression, the loss of honorable positions have

nth century, with the advent in the field of such names in science as Spencer, Dar

y theology, the imperfect armor in which the spirit had been clothed, was attacked, but the very existence of spirit itself was to be questioned. The thinking world was to be divided into materialists and supernaturalists. Now, a

on, for no other English poet of the century has been so thoroughly aware of the intellectual tendencies of his cent

itten in 1835, Browning ventures into the arena and at once tackles the

ent of his time, though not a man to whom general historians have been in the habit of assigning much space in their pages. Browning, however, as Hall Griffin informs us, had been familiar with the name of Paracelsus from

s in this poem a solution of the problem. To mind he gives

houghts. In order, however, to put the situation clearly before readers not already

nd, when attained, it is to be devoted to enlarging the possibilities of man's life. The whole race is to be elevated at once. M

to bring about life's betterment, instead of hoping for salvation through the discovery of some magic secret by means of which life's laws might be overcome. Yet he is sufficiently of his own superstitious age to desire and expect fairly magical results from the laws he hopes to discover. The creed which spurs him to his quest is his belief that truth is inborn in the soul, but to set this truth free and make it of use to mankind correspondences in outer nature must be found. An intuitive mind li

educes his laws from careful and patient observation of nature, they go a step to

life. According to these he fluctuated between the systems of magic then prevalent and scientific observation, but always finally threw in the balance of his opinion on the side of scienti

ition of Aprile, scarcely a creature of flesh and blood, more the spirit of art who aspires to love infinitely and has found the attainment of such love as impossible as Paracelsus has found the attainment of knowledge. Both have desired to help men, but Paracelsus has desired

ily has his reward when he is turned against by those whom he would teach. Then the old ideal seizes upon him again, and still under the influence of Aprile he seeks in human experience the loves and passions of mankind which he learns through Ap

Browning criticism, a fact which was at least independently or, as far as I know, first pointed out by myself in an early essay upon Browning. At the time, I was reading bo

like to emphasize this fact that the doctrine of evolution can be found in the works of Paracelsus. Why not? Since,

sity of the Aryan mind as opposed to the Semitic idea of an outdwelling God and of supernaturalism. Thus, all down the ages the Aryan mind has revolted from time to time against the religious id

a period prior even to the emergence of the Aryan or the Semitic. Researches in mythology and folklore seem to indicate that no matter how far back one may go in the records of human thought there will be found these two orders of mind-one which naturally thinks of the universe as the outcome of law, and one which naturally thinks of it as the outcome of creation. There are primitive myths in which

ped in the great German philosophers we are certain, because he, himself, asseverated that he had never read the German philosophers, but it is hardly possible that he did not know something of it as it appears in the writings of the Greek philosophers, for Greek literature w

evolution, for instead of a gradual development of one form from another, he describes the process as a haphazard and chaotic one. "Many heads sprouted up without necks, and naked arms went wandering forlorn of shoulders, and solitary eyes were straying destitute of foreheads." These detached portions of bodies coming together by haphazard produce

f things issue from their union. Much, however, remains unmixed, in opposition to the mingling elements, and these, malignant strife still holds within his grasp. For he has not yet withdrawn himself altogether to the extremities of the globe; but part of his limbs still remain within its bounds, and part have passed beyond. As strife, howe

r suggested by crude observations of nature until by perfected methods of historical study

able power proof of the nebular hypothesis, which was later to be verified by Fraunhofer's discoveries in spectrum analysis. Lamarck had lived and died and had given to the world his theory of animal evolution. Lyall in England had shown that geological formations

osophy of evolution, which was to be applied in every department of cosmic, geologic, plant, animal and human activity, but (and this is of special interest) he was not to give to the world h

ific attitude of the time. In fact, he tells us as much himself, for when Doctor Wonivall asked him some questions as to his attitude toward Da

g is that he should have applied its principles in so masterly a fashion-namely, that he should have made a complete philosophical synthesis by bringing the idea of evolution to bear upon all natural, human

will make this clear. Paracelsus traces first

e heaves undern

changes like

e bursts up a

tone's heart, ou

es, spots bar

ine sand where

butes foreshadowing a being that will combine them. Then appears primitive man, only half enlightened, who gains knowledge through the slow, uncertain fruit of toil, whose love is not serenely pure, but strong from weakness, a love which endures and doubts and is oppressed. And out of the travail of the human soul as it proc

continues an evolution which is distinctively spiritual, a tendency to God. Browning was not content with the evolu

t. Paracelsus is therefore made wise to know even hate is but a mask of love, to see a good in evil, a hope in ill-success, to sympathize, even be pro

ncer and Browning are far more significant, for Browning seems intuitively to have perceived the fundamental truths of social an

egarded when they did know about them as unregenerate pagans. German thought was caviare to the general, and what new thought of a historical or scientific nature made its way into the strongholds of conservatism filled people with suspicion and dread. Such a sweeping synthesis, therefore, as Browning gives of dawning scientific theories in Paracelsus was truly phenomenal. That

e complete must have soul as well as form. Only in adding the soul side to his theory of life doe

simply as a negative conclusion. Spencer, however, having found this negation makes it the body of his philosophy-a body so shadowy that many of his critics consider it too ghostly to stand as a substantial basis for philosophical thought. He regards the fa

f his philosophy. Through the influence of Aprile he is led to a definite conception of the Infinite as a Being whose especial characteristic is that he feels!-feels unbounded joy in his own cre

he evil of pain, of decay, of de

until man appears, and is not only a joy to his Creator, but is the first in the order of creation to share in the joy of existence, the first to arrive at the full co

beth," "Brand" and "Peer Gynt," music like "Tristan and Isolde" or the "Pathetic Symphony," Rodin's statues, but actual, palpable realizations of the fact that hate is but a mask of love, or that human fallacies and human passions have with

ard to endless progression in the enjoyment of fresh phases of beauty-"a flying point of bliss remote." This is a universe in which the Prometheus of the old myths is indeed unbou

rely responsible for the soul of his Paracelsus theory of life or

osite of both Shelley and Keats, the poet of love and the poet of beauty? An examination of the greatest poems of these two writ

ized in the Greek idea of Jupiter. Prometheus is the revolting mind of mankind, enslaved by the tyranny of Jupiter, hating the tyrant, yet determined to endure all the tyrant can inflict upon him rather than admit his right to rule. The freeing of Prometheus and the dethronemen

rit of the Hour sound in a great city, it beholds all ugly human shapes and vi

that scattered

assed seemed mil

l disguise had

hanged, and aft

s of delight

heir slee

rit of the

nd had ceased wh

the sky and t

ange: the impa

cling sunlight

se of love di

elf around the

f Nature or emotion, from whom he has long been separated and together with Asia's sisters, Panthea and Ione-retire to the wonderful

age in "Hyperion," which poem was written as far back as 1820. Keats, like Shelley, deals with the dethronement of gods, but it is the older dynasty of Titans-Sa

ginning with crude Nature gods and ending with symbols of the most ideal human attributes, and at the same time that their thought leaned in the direction of interpreting nature as an evolutionary process. Seizing upon this, Keats has pr

rse of Nature's

er, or o

ast not the f

ot the last;

nd parental

fruits of that

rment, which f

n itself. The

ight, and lig

producer, for

ormous matte

ery hour, o

nd the Earth

t-born, and we

ruling new and

··

nd Earth ar

lank darkness, t

beyond that H

hape compact

action free,

other signs o

s a fresh perf

strong in bea

o excel us,

t old darkne

onquered than

haos. For 'tis

eauty should be

law, another

rs to mourn

new beauty he may have, himself, to offer, who yet disregards the beauty of Hyperion and calmly accepts the throne of the sun in his stead, does not satisfy us. What unreason it is that so splendid a being as Hyperion should be deposed! As a matter of fact, he was not deposed. He is left standing

that Shelley's emphasis is upon the conservation of beauty,

them, fashioned into form by human artists. Love is the ruling principle. Therefore all forms of beautiful art are immortal. Aprile,[1] as he first appears, is an elaboration upon this idea. He woul

irits c

each a sphere

h the various

its own pec

a world for t

heir beauty and

or new beauty, and there is not a hint that a coming beauty shall blot out the old until Aprile recognizes Paracelsus as his king. Then he awakes to the fac

et my ruin,

as thou! Let o

ugh the world a

h me o

all that is beautiful in Aprile's or Shelley's ideal and adds to it all that is beautiful of the Keats ideal. The form of his philosophy is evolutionary, and up to the time of his meeting with Aprile had expressed itself as the search

ch for beauty always inspired by love. The aim of the evolutionary process thus becomes the unfolding of ever n

ion as applied to universal activities, cosmic and human, prophetic, on the one hand, of the most advanced scientific thought of the century, but

in the two best beloved poets of his youth, they had sunk into his very being, and welled forth from his own subconsciousness, charged with personal emotion, partly

ace

ligion's being entirely relegated to intellectually unknowable regions of thought, spoke in his autobiography of the mysteries inherent in life, in the evolution of human b

, and fails the more, the more it seeks, I have come to regard with a sympathy based on community of need: feeling that di

could prove, he never permitted himself to come under the awakening influence of an Ap

e next chapter I shall attempt to show what elements in this solution the poet retained to the end of his life,

elationship, Browning is more the intuitionalist than the scientist. His convictions well forth with all the force of an inborn revelatio

lence of evolution-and finally, also, of course, on the objective side, to become an assured fact of science through the publication in 1859 of Darwin's epoch-mak

h the researches of Von Baer, and while Spencer had already formulated a philosophy of evolution, Darwin went out into the open and studied the actual facts in the domain of living beings. His studies made evolution a certainty. They rev

Intuition was but a handmaid whose duty was to formulate working hypotheses, to beco

trines of evolution. Battalions of determined men have held aloft the banner of uncompromising truth. Each battalion has stormed truth's citadel only to find that about its inmost reality is an impregnable wall. The utmos

were elaborated by Sir Isaac Newton, and by the great mind of Laplace were still f

ed with the name of Dalton, though it has undergone many modifications from other scientific thinke

physical constants, and tries to describe them by number and measurement. The atomic view is therefore at best only a provisional basis, a conven

al phenomena are all such hypotheses. They have been of incalculable value in helping to a larger knowledge of the appearances of things, and in the formation

ted in many divisions among the ranks. Some rest upon phenomena as the final reality; hence materialistic or mechanical views of life.

ed the scientists as the destroyers of religion; others like the good Bishop Colenso could write such words as these in 1873: "Bless God devoutly for the gift of modern science"; and who ten years earlier had expr

ll band of genuine philosophers who, like Browning's own musician, Abt Vogler, knew the very truth. No matter what disturbing facts may be brought to light by science, be it man's descent

time on to the end of his career he is the champion of the soul-side of existence with all that it implies of character development-"little

hough all the complex waves of the tempest of nineteenth

interest. Problems growing out of the marvelous developments of such sciences as astronomy, geology, physics, chemistry or biology do not enter into the main bod

Browning, especially upon the side of the problems connected with the supernatural bases of religious experien

little more than the content of the poem, and to those whose appreciation is that of the connoisseur in poetic art, is nevertheless an interpretation of the or

e hearing in England, for even as late as 1862 Bishop Colenso's enlightened book on the Pentateuch w

d succeeded in holding their own. At the end of the eighteenth and the dawn of the nineteenth century came the more systematic criticism of German scholars, echoes of whose theories found their way into Eng

aracteristic of what has been called the naturalistic school. Although Eichhorn agreed with the writer of the "Fragments" that the biblical narratives should be divested of all their supernatural aspects, he did not interpret the supernatural elements as simply frauds designed to deceive in order that personal ends might be gained. He re

school of Bible criticism became an assured fact, though Kant at this time developed an entirely different the

the naturalists and the rationalists, he put aside any idea of Divine revelation. It was the moral aspiration of the authors, themselves, which threw a supernatural glamour over their accounts of old traditions and

her hand he derived these thoughts only from himself and the cultivation of his age, and therefore could seldom assume that they had actually been laid down by the authors of these writings; and on the o

nds of myths: historical myths, philosophical myths, and poetical myths. The first were "narratives of real events colored by the light of antiquity, which confounded the divine and the human, the natural and the supernatural"; the second, "such as clothe in the garb of historical narrative a si

to the Old Testament, was later used in sif

in favor of some inherent truth or religious conception of which the historical semblance is merely the shell. On the other hand it agrees with the rationalistic view in the fact that it really gives a natura

cism based upon mythical and legendary interpretation. This was the "Life of Jesus, Critically Examined," by Dr. David Friedrich Strauss. This book caused a great stir in the theological world of Germany. Strauss was dismissed from his professorship in the University of Tübingen in consequence of it. Not only this, b

ginal. When the content and the thought of Browning's poems upon religious subjects are examined, it becomes certain that he was familiar with the whole trend of biblical criticism in the first half of the century and of its effect upon certain of the

id and Saul is not only entirely in sympathy with the creed of the German school of mythical interpreters, but the poet himself becomes one of the myth makers in the series of prophets-that is, he takes the idea, the Messianic idea, poetically embellish

eal in Abraham it passed on to being a tribal ideal with Jacob, and with the prophets it became a national ideal, an aspiration toward individual happiness and a noble national life. Not until the time of Isaiah is a special agent mentioned who is to be the instrument by means of which the blessing is to be fulfilled, and there we read this prophecy: "There shall sprout forth a shoot from the stem of Je

comes in the prophetic vision of Daniel a mystic being. "I saw in the visions of night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven came down as a likeness of the son of man. He stepped forward to th

d immortality to mankind. David in the poem essays to cheer Saul with the thought of the greatness that will live after him in the memory of others, but his own passionate desire to give something better than this to Saul awakens in him the assurance that God must be as full of love and compassion as he is. Thus Brownin

d he loved him greatly." In thus making David prophesy of an ideal which had not been evolved at his time, Browning indulges in what

ime-that is, the idea of internal instead of external revelation-one of the ideas about which has been waged the so-called conflict of Science and Religion as it was understood by some of the most prominent thinkers of the latter half of the century. In this, again, it will be seen that Browning was in the

e human spirit, but it distinctly repudiates the Comtian ideal of a religion of humanity, and of an immortality existing only in the memory of others. The Comte philosophy growing out of a material conception of the universe and a product of scientific thought has been one of the strong influences through the whole of the nineteenth century in sociology and religion. While it has worked much good in developing a deeper interest in the social life of man, it has proved altogether unsatis

e individual, and of a conception of life which demands that the individual shall have

language so poetic, that it seems like a spontaneous outburst of belief in which feeling alone had played a part. Certainly, whatever thoughts upon the subject may have been sto

e" and "Easter Day." Baffling they are, even misleading to any one who is desirous of finding out the exact attit

mes of thought in the more or less prescribed realm of theology, which largely through the influe

e different shades of opinion it is not needful to enter here. Outside of the Established Church were the numerous di

ies. In the first was inherent the ancient principle of authority, while the principle of

tottering to its fall. In this crisis the Roman Catholic Church exercised a peculiar fascination upon men of intellectual endowment who, fearing the direction in which their intellect might lead them, turned to that church where the principle of authority kept itself firmly rooted by s

and French materialism, but the large mass of common people fo

ts of industry and thrift, Methodism became a chief factor in building up a great, intelligent and industrious middle-class. Its influence has been felt even in the Established Church, and as its en

its constitution that after the death of Wesley it broadened out and differentiated in a way that made it adaptable to v

s to the past cause it to feel the need of some sectarian form of religion-a sort of inherited need to be orthodox in one form or another. This religious conscience has its artistic side; it can clothe its inborn religious instincts in exquisite imaginative vision. Also, it has its clear-sighted reasoning side. This is able unerringly to put its finger upon any flaw of doctrine or reasoning in the forms of religion it contemplates. Hence, Catholic doctrine, which was claiming the allegiance of t

ion, the rationalist is able still to conceive of Jesus as a

red by the judicious application of his intellectual powers and the conscientious use of all the aids within his reach; his moral greatness, by the zealous culture of his moral dispositions, the restraint of

lies in the fact that it is convincing only to those who experience i

w of the time possessing any genuine vitality. It represented the progressive, democratic religious force which was then in England bringing religion into the lives of the people with a positiveness long lost to

em, reflect most nearly the poet's personal attitude, on the other hand it is made clear that in his op

blical criticism are given more personal expression. The discussion turns principally upon the relation of the finite to the Infinite, a philosophical problem capable of much hair

all-sufficient, but that they are in the poet's speech but partial beauty, though through this very limitation they become "a pledge of beauty in its plenitude," gleams "meant to sting with hunger for full light." It is not, however, until this see-er of v

ion that the vision was merely such "stuff as dreams are made on."

y his mind asleep, and rest in the authority of a church, nor yet can he be satisfied with the unconscious anthropomorphism of the sectarian. He doubts his own reasoning attempts to formulate religious doctrines, he doubts even the revelations of his own mystic states of consciousness; hence there is nothing for

neralized type as in "Christmas Eve," nor an imaginary individual as in "Easter Day," but an actu

what he makes them mean to Blougram. The poet's aspiration would be toward a belief in Omniscient Love and Power, his doubts would grow out of his inability to make this ideal tally with the sin and evil he beholds in life. Blougram's consciousness is on a lower plane. His aspiration is to believe in the dogmas of the Church, his doubts arise from an intellectual fear that the dogmas may not be true. Where Browning seems to miss comprehension of such a nature as Blougram's is in failing to recognize that on his own plane of consciousness genuine feeling and the perception of beauty p

ever, as a delightful study of a type in which is depicted in passingly clever fashion me

of the poem is wonderfully beautiful, while the portrayal of the mystical quality of John's reasoning is so instinct with religious feeling that it must be a wary reader indeed who does not come from the reading o

, who had in his youth been contemporary with Christ-namely, that miracles had been performed when only by means of them faith was possibl

as a babe, yo

y and fit to

st must be spoon

at, babes'-nurt

be whether i

or feed hims

That ye may bel

nd man shall re

rgest thou, f

ries how John's

iracle and ta

miracle was

it no faith

ere wrought in the

ge came from our

e world so muc

for his purpo

e you, there wh

now not; such

, making void

h they would co

nowledgment of

hy reason, so

in the earth

r advanced th

rove this to re-

nute, with power

e and revert t

use it and for

the human soul. Whether the accounts of the exact means by which this faith arose were literally tr

, thus conditio

hat he knows no

ders that he

rrow, he will

e of knowledge,

ves, which is

ct himself by

brute, obliged b

ay, obliged by

ture, knowledge

hat man should c

gain it, catc

till he reach

negative criticism of the rationalists against the doctrines of the Church, he sought to retain the essential aspects of positive Christianity. He starts out from the consciousness of the Christian, "from that internal experience re

m of the consciousness was the only operative force within him." In other words, in Jesus was the supreme manifestation of God in human consciousness. This truth, first grasped by means which se

man, there is no reason why it should not frequently be possible. This is the orthodox objection, and it is voiced in the c

yses. How much this poem owes to hints derived from Strauss's book is further illustrated by the "Glossa of Theotypas," which is borrowed from Origen, whose theory is referred to by Strauss in his Introduction as follows: "O

against his thought, for John's own reasoning when his feelings are in abeyance might be deduced from more than one passage i

racle as an epileptic trance prolonged some three days, and Lazarus's interpretation of his cure as a supernatural event. Though absolutely skeptical, the Arab cannot but be impressed with the beliefs of L

e indifference as to the relations of life, his joy in a sense of freedom and ineffable beauty toward which he seemed to be flying through space, and his disinclination to be resuscitated, a process which his spirit was watching from its heights with fear lest his

s as such, or deny anything that our senses have immediately seized. It is the rationalistic critic rather who plays the part of denier in the controversy, and his denials have no strength, for there never can be a state of facts to which new meaning may not truthfully be added, provided the mind ascend to a more enveloping point of view. It must always remain an open question whether mystical states may not possibly be such superior points of view, windows through which the mind looks out upon a more extensive and inclusive world. The difference of the views seen from the different mystical windows need not prevent us from entertaining this supposition. The wider world would in

and the naturalistic Arab has a longing for similar

reat, were the

e thunder come

rt I made, a h

fashioned, se

wer nor mayst c

e thee, with m

ove me who have

at the same time, is shown the aspiration to something beyond, which has carried dogma through all the centuries, forward to ever purer and more spiritual conceptions of the absolute. In the second, though it be a purely romantic ballad, there seems to be symbolized the scientific knight-errant of the century, wh

slug-horn to

e Roland to the

the face of disillusionment of such men of

y and joy; now the poet himself is the artist experiencing as Aprile did, this beauty and joy in a boundless sympathy with many forms of mystical religious ecstasy. Every one of these poems presents a conflict between the doubts born of some phase of theological controversy and the exaltation of moments or periods of ecstatic vision, and though nowhere is dogmatic truth