An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry Part 58

208-209. See p. 62 of this volume. {In this etext, Part II, Section 3 in the Introduction. It is shortly before an excerpt from 'Christmas Eve'.}

221-225. See stanzas 9 and 10 of 'Rabbi Ben Ezra'.

227. an optic gla.s.s: perhaps anachronistic.

"For life, with all it yields of joy and woe, And hope and fear,--believe the aged friend,-- {245} Is just our chance o' the prize of learning love, How love might be, hath been indeed, and is; And that we hold thenceforth to the uttermost Such prize despite the envy of the world, And, having gained truth, keep truth: that is all. {250} But see the double way wherein we are led, How the soul learns diversely from the flesh!

With flesh, that hath so little time to stay, And yields mere bas.e.m.e.nt for the soul's emprise, Expect prompt teaching. Helpful was the light, {255} And warmth was cherishing and food was choice To every man's flesh, thousand years ago, As now to yours and mine; the body sprang At once to the height, and staid: but the soul,--no!

Since sages who, this noontide, meditate {260} In Rome or Athens, may descry some point Of the eternal power, hid yestereve; And, as thereby the power's whole ma.s.s extends, So much extends the ether floating o'er The love that tops the might, the Christ in G.o.d. {265} Then, as new lessons shall be learned in these Till earth's work stop and useless time run out, So duly, daily, needs provision be For keeping the soul's prowess possible, Building new barriers as the old decay, {270} Saving us from evasion of life's proof, Putting the question ever, 'Does G.o.d love, And will ye hold that truth against the world?'

Ye know there needs no second proof with good Gained for our flesh from any earthly source: {275} We might go freezing, ages,--give us fire, Thereafter we judge fire at its full worth, And guard it safe through every chance, ye know!

That fable of Prometheus and his theft, How mortals gained Jove's fiery flower, grows old {280} (I have been used to hear the pagans own) And out of mind; but fire, howe'er its birth, Here is it, precious to the sophist now Who laughs the myth of Aeschylus to scorn, As precious to those satyrs of his play, {285} Who touched it in gay wonder at the thing.

While were it so with the soul,--this gift of truth Once grasped, were this our soul's gain safe, and sure To prosper as the body's gain is wont,-- Why, man's probation would conclude, his earth {290} Crumble; for he both reasons and decides, Weighs first, then chooses: will he 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, {295} Nor may he grasp that fact like other fact, And straightway in his life acknowledge it, As, say, the indubitable bliss of fire.

Sigh ye, 'It had been easier once than now?'

To give you answer I am left alive; {300} Look at me who was present from the first!

Ye know what things I saw; then came a test, My first, befitting me who so had seen: 'Forsake the Christ thou sawest transfigured, Him Who trod the sea and brought the dead to life? {305} What should wring this from thee?'--ye laugh and ask.

What wrung it? Even a torchlight and a noise, The sudden Roman faces, violent hands, And fear of what the Jews might do! Just that, And it is written, 'I forsook and fled': {310} There was my trial, and it ended thus.

Ay, but my soul had gained its truth, could grow: Another year or two,--what little child, What tender woman that had seen no least Of all my sights, but barely heard them told, {315} Who did not clasp the cross with a light laugh, Or wrap the burning robe round, thanking G.o.d?

Well, was truth safe forever, then? Not so.

Already had begun the silent work Whereby truth, deadened of its absolute blaze, {320} Might need love's eye to pierce the o'erstretched doubt.

Teachers were busy, whispering 'All is true As the aged ones report; but youth can reach Where age gropes dimly, weak with stir and strain, And the full doctrine slumbers till to-day.' {325} Thus, what the Roman's lowered spear was found, A bar to me who touched and handled truth, Now proved the glozing of some new shrewd tongue, This Ebion, this Cerinthus or their mates, Till imminent was the outcry 'Save our Christ!' {330} Whereon I stated much of the Lord's life Forgotten or misdelivered, and let it work.

Such work done, as it will be, what comes next?

What do I hear say, or conceive men say, 'Was John at all, and did he say he saw? {335} a.s.sure us, ere we ask what he might see!'

-- 284. the myth of Aeschylus: embodied in his 'Prometheus Bound'.

295. the proofs shift: see pp. 37 and 38. {In etext, shortly before two excerpts from 'A Death in the Desert', Chapter II, Section 1 of Introduction.} Objective proofs, in spiritual matters, need reconstruction, again and again; and whatever may be their character, they are inadequate, and must finally, in the Christian life, be superseded by subjective proofs-- by man's winning his way to the kingdom of eternal truth within himself --the kingdom of the "what Is".

307-310. See Matt. 26:56; Mark 14:50; John 18:3.

326-328. what the Roman's lowered spear was found {to be, namely}, a bar, {etc.,} now proved {to be, etc.}.

329. This Ebion, this Cerinthus: see 'Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', Chaps. 15, 21, 47. And see, especially, the able articles, "Cerinthus" and "Ebionism and Ebionites", in the 'Dictionary of Christian Biography', etc., edited by Dr. William Smith and Professor Wace. "'Ebion' as a name first personified by Tertullian, was said to have been a pupil of Cerinthus, and the Gospel of St. John to have been as much directed against the former as the latter. St. Paul and St. Luke were a.s.serted to have spoken and written against Ebionites. The 'Apostolical Const.i.tutions' (vi. c. 6) traced them back to Apostolic times; Theodoret (Haer. fab. II. c. 2) a.s.signed them to the reign of Domitian (A.D. 81-96). The existence of an 'Ebion' is, however, now surrendered." From Art. Ebionism in 'Dict. of Christian Biography'.

And see Prof. George P. Fisher's 'Beginnings of Christianity', 1877.

"Cerinthus, a man who was educated in the wisdom of the Egyptians, taught that the world was not made by the primary G.o.d, but by a certain power far separated from him, and at a distance from that Princ.i.p.ality who is supreme over the universe, and ignorant of him who is above all. He represented Jesus as having not been born of a virgin, but as being the son of Joseph and Mary according to the ordinary course of human generation, while he nevertheless was more righteous, prudent, and wise than other men. Moreover, after his baptism, Christ descended upon him in the form of a dove from the Supreme Ruler, and that then he proclaimed the unknown Father, and performed miracles. But at last Christ departed from Jesus, and that then Jesus suffered and rose again, while Christ remained impa.s.sible, inasmuch as he was a spiritual being."

'The Writings of Irenaeus, transl. by Rev. Alexander Roberts, D.D., and Rev. W. H. Rambaut, A.B.', Edinburgh, 1868. Vol. I., Book I., Chap xxvi.

"Is this indeed a burthen for late days, And may I help to bear it with you all, Using my weakness which becomes your strength?

For if a babe were born inside this grot, {340} Grew to a boy here, heard us praise the sun, Yet had but yon sole glimmer in light's place,-- One loving him and wishful he should learn, Would much rejoice himself was blinded first Month by month here, so made to understand {345} How eyes, born darkling, apprehend amiss: I think I could explain to such a child There was more glow outside than gleams he caught, Ay, nor need urge 'I saw it, so believe!'

It is a heavy burthen you shall bear {350} In latter days, new lands, or old grown strange, Left without me, which must be very soon.

What is the doubt, my brothers? Quick with it!

I see you stand conversing, each new face, Either in fields, of yellow summer eves, {355} On islets yet unnamed amid the sea; Or pace for shelter 'neath a portico Out of the crowd in some enormous town Where now the larks sing in a solitude; Or muse upon blank heaps of stone and sand {360} Idly conjectured to be Ephesus: And no one asks his fellow any more 'Where is the promise of His coming?' but 'Was He revealed in any of His lives, As Power, as Love, as Influencing Soul?' {365}

-- 346. darkling: an old adverbial form; in the dark.

See 'Paradise Lost', III. 39. "O, wilt thou darkling leave me?"

Sh's 'M. N. D.', II. 2. 86; "So, out went the candle, and we were left darkling." 'Lear', I. 4. 237; also 'A. and C.', IV. 15. 10.

353. What is the doubt, my brothers?: He addresses his brothers of the far future. The eight following verses are very beautiful.

362-365. The question, "Where is the promise of His coming?"

asked in John's own day, gives place in the far future to which the ken of the dying Apostle extends, to the question whether G.o.d was indeed revealed in Christ, 'As Power, as Love, as Influencing Soul', or whether, man having already love in himself, Christ were not a mere projection from man's inmost mind (v. 383)? If so there is nothing to fall back on but force, or natural law. This antic.i.p.ated questioning and reasoning extends from v. 370 to v. 421.

"Quick, for time presses, tell the whole mind out, And let us ask and answer and be saved!

My book speaks on, because it cannot pa.s.s; One listens quietly, nor scoffs but pleads 'Here is a tale of things done ages since: {370} What truth was ever told the second day?

Wonders, that would prove doctrine, go for naught.

Remains the doctrine, love; well, we must love, And what we love most, power and love in one, Let us acknowledge on the record here, {375} Accepting these in Christ: must Christ then be?

Has He been? Did not we ourselves make Him?

Our mind receives but what it holds, no more.

First of the love, then; we acknowledge Christ-- A proof we comprehend His love, a proof {380} We had such love already in ourselves, Knew first what else we should not recognize.

'Tis mere projection from man's inmost mind, And, what he loves, thus falls reflected back, Becomes accounted somewhat out of him; {385} He throws it up in air, it drops down earth's, With shape, name, story added, man's old way.

How prove you Christ came otherwise at least?

Next try the power: He made and rules the world: Certes there is a world once made, now ruled, {390} Unless things have been ever as we see.

Our sires declared a charioteer's yoked steeds Brought the sun up the east and down the west, Which only of itself now rises, sets, As if a hand impelled it and a will,-- {395} Thus they long thought, they who had will and hands: But the new question's whisper is distinct, Wherefore must all force needs be like ourselves?

We have the hands, the will; what made and drives The sun is force, is law, is named, not known, {400} While will and love we do know; marks of these.

Eye-witnesses attest, so books declare-- As that, to punish or reward our race, The sun at undue times arose or set Or else stood still: what do not men affirm? {405} But earth requires as urgently reward Or punishment to-day as years ago, And none expects the sun will interpose: Therefore it was mere pa.s.sion and mistake, Or erring zeal for right, which changed the truth. {410} Go back, far, farther, to the birth of things; Ever the will, the intelligence, the love, Man's!--which he gives, supposing he but finds, As late he gave head, body, hands, and feet, To help these in what forms he called his G.o.ds. {415} First, Jove's brow, Juno's eyes were swept away, But Jove's wrath, Juno's pride continued long; At last, will, power, and love discarded these, So law in turn discards power, love, and will.

What proveth G.o.d is otherwise at least? {420} All else, projection from the mind of man!'

-- 367. And let us ask and answer: John's talk, it must be understood, is with future people, not with the attendants.

368. My book speaks on: that is, to people of all futures, because it cannot pa.s.s away.

371. What truth, etc.: that is, truth is soon perverted, obscured, and often turned into positive untruth.

372. Wonders, that would prove doctrine: that is, whose purpose was to prove.

385. Comes to be considered as something outside of, and distinct from, himself.

"Nay, do not give me wine, for I am strong, But place my gospel where I put my hands.

"I say that man was made to grow, not stop; That help, he needed once, and needs no more, {425} Having grown but an inch by, is withdrawn: For he hath new needs, and new helps to these.

This imports solely, man should mount on each New height in view; the help whereby he mounts, The ladder-rung his foot has left, may fall, {430} Since all things suffer change save G.o.d the Truth.

Man apprehends Him newly at each stage Whereat earth's ladder drops, its service done; And nothing shall prove twice what once was proved.

You stick a garden-plot with ordered twigs {435} To show inside lie germs of herbs unborn, And check the careless step would spoil their birth; But when herbs wave, the guardian twigs may go, Since should ye doubt of virtues, question kinds, It is no longer for old twigs ye look, {440} Which proved once underneath lay store of seed, But to the herb's self, by what light ye boast, For what fruit's signs are. This book's fruit is plain, Nor miracles need prove it any more.

Doth the fruit show? Then miracles bade 'ware {445} At first of root and stem, saved both till now From trampling ox, rough boar, and wanton goat.

What? Was man made a wheelwork to wind up, And be discharged, and straight wound up anew?

No!--grown, his growth lasts; taught, he ne'er forgets: {450} May learn a thousand things, not twice the same.

This might be pagan teaching: now hear mine.

-- 424. Here John's answer begins to the questioning and reasoning contained in vv. 370-421.

In vv. 424-434, is contained a favorite teaching of Browning.

It appears in various forms throughout his poetry. See the quotation from 'Luria', p. 38.