酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

Life and Letters of Robert Browning-Part39_Mrs.Sutherland Orr(1828-1903)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页
by a rational process based entirely on the fundamental facts



of his own knowledge and consciousness -- God and the human soul;

and while the very assumption of these facts, as basis for reasoning,



places him at issue with scientific thought, there is

in his way of handling them a tribute to the scientific spirit,



perhaps foreshadowed in the beautiful epilogue to `Dramatis Personae',

but of which there is no trace in his earlier religious works.



It is conclusive both in form and matter as to his heterodox attitude

towards Christianity. He was no less, in his way, a Christian



when he wrote `La Saisiaz' than when he published `A Death in the Desert'

and `Christmas Eve and Easter Day'; or at any period subsequent to that



in which he accepted without questioning what he had learned

at his mother's knee. He has repeatedly written or declared



in the words of Charles Lamb:* `If Christ entered the room

I should fall on my knees;' and again, in those of Napoleon:



`I am an understander of men, and HE was no man.' He has even added:

`If he had been, he would have been an impostor.' But the arguments,



in great part negative, set forth in `La Saisiaz' for the immortality

of the soul, leave no place for the idea, however indefinite,



of a Christian revelation on the subject. Christ remained for Mr. Browning

a mystery and a message of Divine Love, but no messenger of Divine intention



towards mankind.

--



* These words have more significance when taken with their context.

`If Shakespeare was to come into the room, we should all rise up



to meet him; but if that Person [meaning Christ] was to come into the room,

we should all fall down and try to kiss the hem of his garment.'



--

The dialogue between Fancy and Reason is not only an admission of certainty" target="_blank" title="n.不可靠；不确定的事">uncertainty



as to the future of the Soul: it is a plea for it; and as such

it gathers up into its few words of direct statement, threads of reasoning



which have been traceable throughout Mr. Browning's work.

In this plea for certainty" target="_blank" title="n.不可靠；不确定的事">uncertainty lies also a full and frank acknowledgment



of the value of the earthly life; and as interpreted by his general views,

that value asserts itself, not only in the means of probation



which life affords, but in its existing conditions of happiness.

No one, he declares, possessing the certainty of a future state



would patiently and fully live out the present; and since the future can be

only the ripened fruit of the present, its promise would be neutralized,



as well as actual experience dwarfed, by a definiterevelation.

Nor, conversely, need the want of a certified future depress the present



spiritual and moral life. It is in the nature of the Soul that it would

suffer from the promise. The existence of God is a justification for hope.



And since the certainty would be injurious to the Soul,

hence destructive to itself, the doubt -- in other words, the hope --



becomes a sufficient approach to, a workingsubstitute for it.

It is pathetic to see how in spite of the convictions thus rooted



in Mr. Browning's mind, the expressed craving for more knowledge,

for more light, will now and then escape him.



Even orthodox Christianity gives no assurance of reunion to those

whom death has separated. It is obvious that Mr. Browning's poetic creed



could hold no convictionregarding it. He hoped for such reunion

in proportion as he wished. There must have been moments in his life



when the wish in its passion overleapt the bounds of hope.

`Prospice' appears to prove this. But the wide range of imagination,






文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号