They feel

They get

spite of objection to subjects and style. in his work an ardent and potent mind. from him the impression of greatness. Even in poems they do not care about as a whole, they get the impulse of vital power; they feel the depths of thought and passion; they get a sense of mastery, force, and reality.

And this though it may be said that the personality of the poet is an unknown quantity, reserved, subtle, and elusive, “always self-asserting, yet never defined; probably as mysterious to the poet as to his readers," as Mrs. Orr finely wrote in the Contemporary Review. But this is not because the poet is not present in his work, or is withdrawn from his readers. It is because the man and his genius make a complex body of powers in very stable equilibrium. His nature is full, and it is well balanced-intellectual and passionate; idealistic, yet concrete and accurate; spiritual, but shrewd ; a "seer" and a "mystic," but also a humorist and a "man of the world;" capable of intense meditation, and also of keen activity and enjoyment; resolute of will and compact of soul, yet tender and brotherly.

Nor is it possible to say how you get all this and more; and another good critic, touching this point, speaks of it as quite inexplicable, comparing our poet, in this matter of personal communication and influence through his work, with Cardinal Newman, a great part of whose influence has been of this kind. But communication of the living spirit, of "the incom

municable qualities and secrets of the soul," is only partly explicable in any striking case of it. Poetic work is more finely adapted than any work for this expression and suggestion; and poetry like Browning's, everywhere in touch with men and with life, must be more living than most, conveying much of the poet through themes and tone, through what is said and what is reserved.

The poet is there, anyhow, to qualify and animate the work, and to give in subtle ways intercourse with his nature. And it is seldom in literature or in life that you find such substance and strength, warmed with such passion and kindled by such fire. And this, which is part of the power, is also part of the worth of this poetry. Its masculine quality, its intellectual force, its impartiality, its irony, yet spiritual tenderness and depth, reflect the mind and the poet.

And this poet's sense of personality is exceptionally strong, and has been so ever since he made himself known through literature. It is so in "Pauline." And this is not merely an aspect of his energy of will and force of brain; it is not always found with these it is a principle of his mind and of his genius, so intense that it seems a central idea, and has given his dramatic work its keen individualism. So marked and pervasive is this principle that some take it as the chief idea and quality of the work. All his " 'persons" have something of the intense personality of the poet; the greater figures among them have it in a degree that makes them unique in modern poetry.

The depth and power with which they realize themselves, with which they live and "illustrate" life, is extraordinary. And this principle, as it gives animation to his poetry, and enables the poet to give his persons in the full scope of passion and consciousness, is in striking agreement with his spiritual ideas. And if it be said that this intense consciousness and spiritual energy is so rare that Browning's art is untrue in this as in its tense passion and strong speech, the objection is met by reminding the critic that the persons are chosen in those moments and situations when, if ever, they throw themselves into keen self-expression, and realize themselves to the full.

CHAPTER V.

“PARACELSUS."

A poet's early work, whatever other value it may have, has much value with reference to the poet. His first ambitions and interests are in such work, the points at which he began in the freshness of his powers and early grasp of life.

And this is part of the interest of "Paracelsus.” The themes that drew Browning, the questions his mind was busy with in 1835, his early affinities of thought, his first quality in the study of man, are written at large in this poem. His faults and bias also, some would wish to add.

Now, as to these latter points, let me say at once I do not take "Paracelsus" because I defend the scheme and the manner of the poem. It has faults of structure and of style, and these are on the surface. Its merits are more involved, and require tolerance and study. It is easier to set it aside and give reasons for doing so than to read it with reason. The poem is long and often diffuse; the speeches

have a wonderful fluency and abundance, but they are too numerous and lengthy. Yet the merits of the poem are solid. It has so much poetry and thought, and leaves so many passages in the memory, that it is not only of interest in our study of the poet's art, but in itself.

"Paracelsus was the first work by which the poet was at all known. He was only twenty-three years of age when it was published, and when that is borne in mind, the merits and general power of the poem, its fulness and strength of thought and utterance, its moral breadth and wisdom, may well seem remarkable. The poet of "Paracelsus" might not win many readers, but his value and force were declared.

And in "Paracelsus" the poet found his theme, though not his form. He entered the province he was to make his own; for "Paracelsus" is "a study of a soul." It is the development of a life through inward growth and outward experience. It elicits and presents the crises, the, factors, the results, of a life through the mind of the man who lived it.

But the interest of the "soul" in this sense may be questioned. In other words, it may be matter of doubt how far this way of inward research brings out accurately the life of man. As thinker and as poet Browning has always affirmed its interest and value for him, and his poetry is his "apology."

But let us be quite clear what is meant. Many of us appear to think that conduct and outward