Browning and Dogma Part 16

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 const.i.tution, 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 a.s.suredly 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 ident.i.ty 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 a.s.surance 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 G.o.d 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 circ.u.mstances immediately giving rise to this personal expression of feeling the briefest notice will suffice, the bare facts being stated beneath the t.i.tle 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: