Another doctrine upon which the Nineteenth Century belief in progress as the law of life has set its seal is that of the pursuit of happiness, or the striving for the greatest good of the whole number including oneself. With this Browning shows himself in full sympathy in "Two Camels," wherein Ferishtah contends that only through the development of individual happiness and the experiencing of many forms of joyousness can one help others to happiness and joyousness, while in "Plot Culture," the enjoyment of human emotion as a means of developing the soul is emphasized.
The relations of good and evil have also had to be re-considered in the light of Nineteenth Century thought, the dualism of the past not being compatible with the evolutionary doctrine that good and evil are relative, a phrase which we sometimes forget must be understood in two ways:--first, that good and evil are relative to the state of society in which they exist, and what may be good in one phase of society, may become evil in a more developed phase. Second, were it not for evil, we should never be able to appreciate the superiority of good and so to work for good, and in working for it to bring about progress. To his pupil worried over the problem of evil Ferishtah points out in "Mihrab Shah" that evil in the form of bodily suffering has given rise to the beautiful sentiments of pity and sympathy. But though it be recognized that good comes of evil, shall evil be encouraged? No! Ferishtah declares, Man bound by man"s conditions is obliged to estimate as "fair or foul Right, wrong, good, evil, what man"s faculty adjudges such,"
therefore the man will do all he can to relieve the suffering of poor Mihrab Shah with a fig-plaster. The answers, then, that Browning gives to the ethical problems of the century growing out of the acceptance of modern scientific doctrines, are, in brief, that man shall use that will-power of which he feels himself possessed, and which really distinguishes him from the brute creation, in working against whatever appears to him evil; while the good for which he shall work is the greatest happiness of all.
What of the philosophical doctrines to which Browning gives expression in the remaining poems of the group? We find it insisted upon in "Cherries", "The Sun", in "A Bean Stripe also Apple Eating", and especially in that remarkable poem "A Pillar at Sebzevar" that knowledge fails. Knowledge the golden is but lacquered ignorance, as gain to be mistrusted. Curiously, enough, this contention of Browning"s has been the cause of most of the criticisms against him as a philosopher, yet as far as I have been able to discover, there has been no deep thinker of this century, and there have been many in other centuries, who has not held in some form or another the opinion that intellect was unable to solve the mysterious problems of the universe.
Even the metaphysicians who build very wonderful air castles on _a priori_ ideas declare that these ideas cannot be matters of mere intellectual perception, but must be intuitions of the higher reason.
Browning, however, does not rest in the a.s.sertion that the intellect fails. He draws immense comfort from this failure of knowledge. Though it is to be distrusted as gain, it is not to be mistrusted as means to gain. "Friend" quoth Ferishtah in "A Pillar at Sebzevar"
"As gain--mistrust it! Not as means to gain: Lacquer we learn by: cast in firing-pot, We learn,--when what seemed ore a.s.sayed proves dross-- Surelier true gold"s worth, guess how purity I" the lode were precious could one light on ore Clarified up to test of crucible.
The prize is in the process: knowledge means Ever-renewed a.s.surance by defeat That victory is somehow still to reach."
For men with minds of the type of Spencer"s, this negative a.s.surance of an infinite ever on before is sufficient, but human beings, as a rule, will not rest satisfied in such cold abstractions. Though Job said thousands of years ago "Who by searching can find out G.o.d," mankind still continues to search.
Now comes Browning and says that it is in that very act of searching that the absolute becomes most directly manifest. From the earliest times of which we have any record man has been aspiring toward G.o.d.
Many times he has thought that he had found G.o.d, but later discovered it to be only G.o.d"s image built up out of his own human experiences.
This search is very beautifully described in the Fancy called "The Sun," under the symbol of the man who seeks the prime giver that he may give thanks where it is due for a palatable fig. This search for G.o.d Browning calls Love, meaning by that the moving, aspiring force of the whole universe, and many are its manifestations, from the love that goes forth in thanks for benefits received, through the aspirations of the artist toward beauty, of the lover toward human sympathy, even of the scientist toward knowledge, to the lover of humanity like Ferishtah, who declares "I know nothing save that love I can boundlessly, endlessly."
The poet argues from this that if mankind has with ever increasing fervor aspired toward a G.o.d of Love, and has ever developed toward broader conceptions of human love, it is only reasonable to infer that in his nature G.o.d has something which corresponds to human love, though it transcend our most exalted imagining of it. In John Fiske"s recent book "Through Nature to G.o.d" he advances a theory identical with this, evidently unaware that Browning had been before him, for he claims it as entirely original. Fiske"s originality consists in his having based his proof upon a.n.a.logies drawn from the evolution of organic life in following out the law of the adjustment of inner to outer relations.
For example, since the eye has through aeons of time gradually adjusted itself into harmony with light, why should not man"s search for G.o.d be the gradual adjustment of the soul into harmony with the infinite spirit. Other modern thinkers have advanced the idea that love was the ruling force of the universe; nor need we confine ourselves to the moderns, for like nearly every phase of thought, it had its counterpart or at least its seed in Greek thought. Thus we find that Empedocles declared that the ruling forces of the universe were Love and Strife and that the conflict between these was necessary for the continuance of life. As far as I know, however, no other thinker or poet has emphasized with such power the thought that the only true basis of belief is the intuition of G.o.d that comes from the direct revelation of feeling in the human heart, and which has been at once the motive force of the search for G.o.d and the basis of a conception of G.o.d"s nature. A natural corollary of such a theory is that every conception man has had of the Infinite had its value as a partial image since it grew out of the divine impulse planted in man, but that in the Christian ideal, the highest symbolical conception was attained through the mystical unfolding of love in the human soul.
The thought of the "Fancies" is optimistically rounded out in "A Bean Stripe also Apple Eating" in which Ferishtah argues that life, in spite of the evil in it, seems to him on the whole good, and he cannot believe that evil is not meant for good ends since he is so sure that G.o.d is infinite in love.
From all this it will be seen that our poet accepts with Spencerians the negative proof of G.o.d growing out of the failure of intellect, but adds to it the positive proof derived from emotion.
It was a happy thought of the poet to present such problems in Persian guise, for Persia stands in Zoroastrianism for the dualism which Ferishtah denies in his recognition of the part evil plays in the development of good, and through Mahometanism for the Fatalism, Ferishtah learned to cast from him. The Persian atmosphere is preserved throughout not only by the introduction constantly of Persian allusions traceable to the great Persian epic the Shah Nameh, but by the telling of fables in the Persian manner to point the morals intended. With the exception of the first Fancy, which is derived from a fable of Bidpai"s, we have the poet"s own word that all the others are inventions of his own, but they are none the worse for this. These clever stories make the poems lively reading, and we soon find ourselves growing fond of the wise and clever Ferishtah, who like Socrates is never at a loss for an answer, no matter what bothersome questions his pupils may propound.
If we see the thoughtful and brilliant Browning in the "Fancies"
proper, we perhaps see even more clearly the emotional and pa.s.sionate Browning in the lyrics which add such variety and charm to the whole.
This feature is also borrowed from Persian form, a beautiful example of which has been given to English readers in Edwin Arnold"s "Gulistan" or "Rose Garden" of the poet Sa" di. In fact Sa" di"s preface to his "Rose Garden" evidently gave Browning the hint for his humorous prologue, in which he likens the poems to follow to an Italian dish made of ortolans on toast with a bitter sage leaf, symbolizing sense, sight and song
"Sage-leaf is bitter-pungent--so"s a quince: Eat each who"s able!
But through all three bite boldly--lo, the gust!
Flavor--no fixture-- Flies, permeating flesh and leaf and crust In fine admixture.
So with your meal, my poem masticate Sense, sight, and song there!
Digest these, and I praise your peptics" state, Nothing found wrong there."
Similarly Sa" di says "Yet will men of light and learning, from whom the true countenance of a discourse is not concealed, be well aware that herein the pearls of good counsel which heal are threaded on strings of right sense; that the bitter physic of admonition is constantly mingled with the honey of good humor, so that the spirits of listeners grow not sad, and that they remain not exempt from blessings of acceptance."
A further interest attaches to these lyrics because they form a series of emotional phases in the soul-life of two lovers whom I think, we may be justified in regarding as Mr. and Mrs. Browning themselves. I always think of them as companion pictures to "The Sonnets from the Portuguese." In these the sun-rise of a great love is portrayed with intense and exalted pa.s.sion while the lyrics in "Ferishtah"s Fancies"
reflect the subsequent development of such a love, through the awakening of whole new realms of feeling, wherein love for humanity is enlarged, criticism from the one beloved, welcome; all the little trials of life dissolved in the new light; and divine love realized with a force never before possible. Do we not see a living portrait of the two poets in the lyric "So the head aches and the limbs are faint"?
Many a hint may be found in their letters to prove that Mrs. Browning with just such a frail body possessed a fire of spirit that carried her constantly toward attainment while he, with all the vigor of splendid health could with truth have frequently said "In the soul of me sits sluggishness." These exquisite lyrics which, whether they conform to Elizabethan models or not, are as fine as anything ever done in that line, are crowned by the epilogue in which we hear the stricken husband crying out to her whom twenty years earlier he had called his "lyric love" in a voice doubting, yet triumphing in the thought that his optimism is the light radiating from the halo which her human love had irised round his head.
In "The Parleyings" the discussions turn princ.i.p.ally upon artistic problems and their relation to modern philosophy, four out of the seven being inspired by artist, poet, or musician. The forgotten worthies whom Browning rescued from oblivion, make their appeal to him upon various grounds that connect them with the present. Bernard de Mandeville evidently caught Browning"s fancy because in his satirical poem "The Grumbling Hive" he forestalled, by a defence of the Duke of Marlborough"s war policy, the doctrine of the relativity of good and evil. One might have imagined that this subject had been exhausted in "Ferishtah"s Fancies," but it seems to have had a great fascination for Browning, probably because the idea was a new one and he felt the need of thinking his way through all its implications. Fresh interest is added in this case because the objector in the argument was a contemporary of Browning"s--Carlyle, whose well-known pessimism over the existence of evil is graphically presented. Browning clenches his side of the argument with an original and daring variation upon the Prometheus myth led up to by one of the most magnificent pa.s.sages in the whole range of his poetry, and probably the finest example anywhere in literature of a description of nature as interpreted by the laws of cosmic evolution. He describes the effect of the sun-light in developing the life upon the earth, tracing it as far as the mind of man. But the mind of man is not satisfied with the purely physical and phenomenal.
"What avails sun"s earth-felt thrill To me? Mind seeks to see, Touch, understand, by mind inside me, The outside mind--whose quickening I attain To recognize--I only."
But Prometheus offered an artifice whereby man"s mind is satisfied. He drew Sun"s rays into a focus plain and true. The very sun in little: made fire burn and henceforth do man service. Denuded of its scientific and mystical symbolism Browning makes the Prometheus myth teach his favorite doctrine, namely that the image of love formed in the human heart by means of the burning gla.s.s supplied by sense and feeling is a symbol of infinite love.
Daniel Bartoli, an extremely superst.i.tious old Jesuit of the 17th century is set up by Browning in the next poem, simply to be knocked down again on the ground that all the legendary saints he worshipped could not compare with a real woman the poet knows. The romantic story of this lady is told in Browning"s most fascinating narrative style, so rapid and direct that it has all the force of a dramatic sketch. Her claim upon his admiration consists in her recognition of the sacredness of love which she will not dishonor for worldly considerations, and finding her betrothed love incapable of attaining her height of n.o.bleness, she leaves him free. This story only bears upon the poet"s philosophy as it reflects his att.i.tude toward human love, which he considers so clearly a revelation, that any treatment of it not absolutely n.o.ble and true to the highest ideals is a sin against heaven itself.
George Bubb Dodington is the black sheep of these later poems and gives the poet an opportunity to let loose all his subtlety and sarcasm; and the reader a chance to use his wits in discovering that the poet _a.s.sumes_ to agree with Dodington that when one is serving his state, he should at the same time have an eye to his own private welfare, that he _pretends_ to criticise only Dodington"s method of attaining this-- which is to disclaim that he works for any other good than the state"s, n.o.body would ever believe that. He then gives what purports to be his own opinion on the correct method of successful statesmanship--that is, to pose as a superior being with a divine right to rule, treating everybody as his puppet and entirely scornful of their opinion of him.
If he will adopt this att.i.tude he may change his tactics every year and the people instead of suspecting his sincerity will think that he has wise reasons beyond their insight for his changes. Browning is said to have had Lord Beaconsfield in mind when he described this proper method for the statesman. Be that as it may the type is not unknown in this day. Having discovered all this, the wit of the reader may now draw its inferences--which will doubtless be that the whole poem is a powerful, intensely cynical argument, against what we to-day call imperialism and in favor of liberal government which means the development of every individual so that he will be able to see for himself whether this or that policy be right instead of depending upon the leadership of the over-man, whose intentions are unfortunately too seldom to be trusted.
The poet Browning calls out from the shades is Christopher Smart, who was celebrated for having only once in his life composed a great poem, "The Song of David," that put him on a par with Milton and Keats.
Perhaps we might not altogether agree with this decision, but critics have loved to eulogize its great beauties and whether Browning actually agreed with their conclusions or not makes little difference, for the fact furnishes him with a text for discussing the problem of beauty versus truth in art. Should the poet"s province simply be to record his visions of the beauty and strength of nature and the universe, that come to him in moments of inspiration such as that which came once to Christopher Smart? "No," says Browning, whose feet are always firmly based upon the earth. These visions of poets should not be considered ends in themselves but the materials for greater ends. He asks such poets if they would
"Play the fool, Abjuring a superior privilege?
Please simply when your function is to rule-- By thought incite to deed? Ears and eyes Want so much strength and beauty, and no less Nor more, to learn life"s lesson by."
He goes on to insist that the poet should find his inspiration in the human heart and climb to heaven by its means, not investigate the heavens first. He evidently does not sympathize with Emerson"s att.i.tude that the poet has some mysterious connection with the divine mind which enables him to become at one bound a seer who may henceforth lead mankind. Rather must the poet diligently study mankind and teach as a man may through this knowledge. s.p.a.ce does not permit me to dwell on the beautiful opening of this poem which recalls the imaginative faculty of the visions in "Christmas Eve" and "Easter Day."
In "Francis Furini" the subject is the nude in art, and Browning vows he will never believe the tale told by Baldinucci that Furini ordered all his pictures of this description burned. He expresses his indignation vigorously at some length, showing plainly his own sympathies then makes Furini pray a very beautiful prayer, then deliver before a supposed cultured London audience a long and decidedly recondite speech containing an attack upon that species of agnosticism that allies itself with positivism and Furini"s refutation. The upshot of it all is that Furini declares the only thing he is certain of is his own consciousness and the fact that it had a cause behind it, called G.o.d.
"Knowledge so far impinges on the cause Before me, that I know--by certain laws Wholly unknown, what"ere I apprehend Within, without, me, had its rise: thus blend I, and all things perceived in one effect."
Readers of philosophy will recognize in this an echo from Descartes.
This fact of the human consciousness he further develops into an argument that the painter should paint the human body, just as it was argued the poet should study the human heart.
A Philippic against Greek art and its imitation is delivered by the poet in the "Parleying with Gerard de Lairesse" whom he makes the scape-goat of his strictures, on the score of a book Lairesse wrote in which was described a walk through a Dutch landscape transmogrified by cla.s.sic imaginings. To this good soul an old sepulchre, struck by lightning became the tomb of Phaeton, and an old cart wheel half buried in the sand near by, the Chariot of the Sun. In a spirit of bravado Browning proceeds to show what he himself could make of a walk provided he condescended to illuminate it by cla.s.sic metaphor and symbol, and a remarkable pa.s.sage is the result. It occupies from the eighth to the twelfth stanzas. It is meant to be in derision of the grandiloquent, cla.s.sically embroidered style but so splendid is the language, so haunting the pictures, the symbolism so profound that it is as if a G.o.d were showing some poor weakling mortal how not to do it--and through his omniscience must perforce create something wondrously beautiful.
The double feeling one has about this pa.s.sage only adds to its interest. After thus cla.s.sicizing in a manner that might make Euripides himself turn green with envy, he nonchalantly remarks--
"Enough, stop further fooling,"
and to show how a modern poet greets a landscape he flings in the perfectly simple and irresistible little lyric
"Dance, yellows, and whites and reds."
The poet"s strictures upon cla.s.sicism are entirely in line with his philosophy, placing as it does the paramount importance on living realities.
""Do and no wise dream," he exclaims "Earth"s young significance is all to learn; The dead Greek lore lies buried in its urn Where who seeks fire finds ashes.""
The "Parleying with Charles Avison" is more a poem of moods than any of the others. The poet"s love for music is reflected in his claiming it as the highest expression possible to man; but sadness comes to him at the thought of the ephemeralness of its forms, a fact that is borne in on him by the inadequateness of Avison"s old March styled "grand." He finally makes of music the most perfect symbol of the evolution of spirit of which the central truth remains always permanent, while the form though ever changing is of absolute value to the time when the spirit found expression in it.
Even this does not quite satisfy the poet"s desires for the supremacy of music, and his final conclusion is that if we only get ourselves into a proper historical frame of mind, any form will reveal its beauty, This is a truth which needs especially to be recognized in music, for we too often hear people objecting to Haydn or Mozart and even Beethoven because they are not modern, never realizing that each age has produced its distinctive musical beauty.
But Browning means it of course to have the largest significance in relation to all forms of truth and beauty of which every age has had its living example--thus--his last triumphant mood is, "Never dream that what once lived shall ever die."
I have been able to throw out only a few general suggestions as to these late masterpieces. There are many subtleties of thought and graces of expression which reveal themselves upon every fresh reading, and each poem might well be made the subject of a special study.
I have said nothing about the Prologue and Epilogue to the Parleyings, not because I love them less, but because I love them so much that I should never be able to bring this paper, already too long, to a close if I once began on them. I hope, however, I have said enough not only to prove the point that these poems give complete expression to the thought of the age, but that Browning appears in them, to borrow an apt term from Whitman, as the "Answerer" of the age. That he has unquestioningly accepted the knowledge which science has brought and recognizing its relative character, has yet interpreted it in such a way as to make it subserve the highest ideals in ethics, religion, and art, and that far from reflecting any degeneration in Browning"s philosophy of life, these poems put on a firmer basis than ever the thoughts prominent in his poetry from the first, and which constantly find ill.u.s.tration indirectly and sometimes directly in his dramatic poems.
I am just as unable to find any fault with their subject matter as with their form. The variety in both is remarkable. Religion and fable, romance and philosophy, art and science all commingled in rich profusion. Everything in language--talk almost colloquial, dainty lyrics full of exquisite emotion, and grand pa.s.sages which present in sweeping images now the processes of cosmic evolution, now those of spiritual evolution, until it seems as if we had indeed been conducted to some vast mountain height, whence we could look forth upon the century"s turbulent seas of thought, into which flows many a current from the past, while suspended above between the sea and sky like the crucifix in Simons" wonderful symbolistic picture of the Middle Ages, is the mystical form of Divine Love. _Helen A. Clarke._
SCHOOL OF LITERATURE.
GLIMPSES OF PRESENT DAY POETS: A SELECTIVE READING COURSE.