in the forthcoming work, and his son had the satisfaction of telling him

of its already realized success, while he could still receive
a warm, if momentary, pleasure from the intelligence.

The circumstances of its appearance place it beyond ordinary criticism;
they place it beyond even an impartialanalysis of its contents.

It includes one or two poems to which we would gladly assign
a much earlier date; I have been told on good authority that we may do this

in regard to one of them. It is difficult to refer the `Epilogue'
to a coherent mood of any period of its author's life.

It is certain, however, that by far the greater part of the little volume
was written in 1888-89, and I believe all that is most serious in it

was the product of the later year. It possesses for many readers
the inspiration of farewell words; for all of us it has their pathos.

He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets' Corner,
on the 31st of December, 1889. In this tardy act of national recognition

England claimed her own. A densely packed, reverent and sympathetic crowd of
his countrymen and countrywomen assisted at the consignment of the dead poet

to his historic resting place. Three verses of Mrs. Browning's poem,
`The Sleep', set to music by Dr. Bridge, were sung for the first time

on this occasion.
Conclusion

A few words must still be said upon that purport and tendency
of Robert Browning's work, which has been defined by a few persons,

and felt by very many as his `message'.
The definition has been disputed on the ground of Art.

We are told by Mr. Sharp, though in somewhat different words,
that the poet, qua poet, cannot deliver a `message'

such as directly addresses itself to the intellectual or moral sense;
since his special appeal to us lies not through the substance,

but through the form, or presentment, of what he has had to say;
since, therefore (by implication), in claiming for it

an intellectual -- as distinct from an aesthetic -- character,
we ignore its function as poetry.

It is difficult to argue justly, where the question at issue
turns practically on the meaning of a word. Mr. Sharp would, I think,

be the first to admit this; and it appears to me that, in the present case,
he so formulates his theory as to satisfy his artistic conscience,

and yet leave room for the recognition of that intellectual quality
so peculiar to Mr. Browning's verse. But what one member

of the aesthetic school may express with a certain reserve
is proclaimed unreservedly by many more; and Mr. Sharp must forgive me,

if for the moment I regard him as one of these; and if I oppose his arguments
in the words of another poet and critic of poetry, whose claim

to the double title is I believe undisputed -- Mr. Roden Noel.
I quote from an unpublished fragment of a published article

on Mr. Sharp's `Life of Browning'.
==

`Browning's message is an integral part of himself as writer;
(whether as poet, since we agree that he is a poet, were surely

a too curious and vain discussion;) but some of his finest things
assuredly are the outcome of certain very definite personal convictions.

"The question," Mr. Sharp says, "is not one of weighty message,
but of artistic presentation." There seems to be no true contrast here.

"The primary concern of the artist must be with his vehicle of expression"
-- no -- not the primary concern. Since the critic adds -- (for a poet)

"this vehicle is language emotioned to the white heat of rhythmic music
by impassioned thought or sensation." Exactly -- "thought" it may be.

Now part of this same "thought" in Browning is the message. And therefore
it is part of his "primary concern". "It is with presentment,"

says Mr. Sharp, "that the artist has fundamentally to concern himself."
Granted: but it must surely be presentment of SOMETHING. . . .

I do not understand how to separate the substance from the form
in true poetry. . . . If the message be not well delivered,

it does not constituteliterature. But if it be well delivered,
the primary concern of the poet lay with the message after all!'

==
More cogent objection has been taken to the character of the `message'

as judged from a philosophic point of view. It is the expression
or exposition of a vivid a priori religious faith

confirmed by positive experience; and it reflects as such
a double order of thought, in which totally opposite mental activities

are often forced into co-operation with each other. Mr. Sharp says,
this time quoting from Mr. Mortimer (`Scottish Art Review', December 1889):

==
`His position in regard to the thought of the age is paradoxical,

if not inconsistent. He is in advance of it in every respect but one,
the most important of all, the matter of fundamental principles;

in these he is behind it. His processes of thought are often scientific
in their precision of analysis; the sudden conclusion

which he imposes upon them is transcendental and inept.'
==

This statement is relatively true. Mr. Browning's positive reasonings
often do end with transcendental conclusions. They also start

from transcendental premises. However closely his mind might follow
the visible order of experience, he never lost what was for him

the consciousness" target="_blank" title="n.意识；觉悟；知觉">consciousness of a Supreme Eternal Will as having existed before it;
he never lost the vision of an intelligent First Cause, as underlying

all minor systems of causation. But such weaknesses as were involved
in his logical position are inherent to all the higher forms

of natural theology when once it has been erected into a dogma.
As maintained by Mr. Browning, this belief held a saving clause,

which removed it from all dogmatic, hence all admissible
grounds of controversy: the more definite or concrete conceptions

of which it consists possessed no finality for even his own mind;
they represented for him an absolute truth in contingent relations to it.

No one felt more strongly than he the contradictions involved
in any conceivablesystem of Divine creation and government.

No one knew better that every act and motive which we attribute
to a Supreme Being is a virtual negation of His existence.

He believed nevertheless that such a Being exists;
and he accepted His reflection in the mirror of the human consciousness" target="_blank" title="n.意识；觉悟；知觉">consciousness,

as a necessarily false image, but one which bears witness to the truth.
His works rarely indicate this condition of feeling; it was not often

apparent in his conversation. The faith which he had contingently accepted
became absolute for him from all practical points of view;

it became subject to all the conditions of his humanity.
On the ground of abstract logic he was always ready to disavow it;

the transcendental imagination and the acknowledged limits of human reason
claimed the last word in its behalf. This philosophy of religion

is distinctly suggested in the fifth parable of `Ferishtah's Fancies'.
But even in defending what remains, from the most widely accepted

point of view, the validity of Mr. Browning's `message',
we concede the fact that it is most powerful when conveyed

in its least explicit form; for then alone does it bear,
with the full weight of his poeticutterance, on the minds

to which it is addressed. His challenge to Faith and Hope imposes itself
far less through any intellectual plea which he can advance in its support,

than through the conscious" target="_blank" title="a.无意识的；不觉察的">unconscioustestimony of all creative genius
to the marvel of conscious life; through the passionate affirmation

of his poetic and human nature, not only of the goodness and the beauty
of that life, but of its reality and its persistence.

We are told by Mr. Sharp that a new star appeared in Orion
on the night on which Robert Browning died. The alleged fact is disproved

by the statement of the Astronomer Royal, to whom it has been submitted;
but it would have been a beautiful symbol of translation,

such as affectionate fancy might gladlycherish if it were true.
It is indeed true that on that twelfth of December,

a vivid centre of light and warmth was extinguished upon our earth.
The clouded brightness of many lives bears witness to the poet spirit

which has departed, the glowing human presence which has passed away.
We mourn the poet whom we have lost far less than we regret the man:

for he had done his appointed work; and that work remains to us.
But the two beings were in truth inseparable. The man is always

present in the poet; the poet was dominant in the man.
This fact can never be absent from our lovingremembrance of him.

No just estimate of his life and character will fail to give it weight.
Index

[The Index is included only as a rough guide to what is in this book.
The numbers in brackets indicate the number of index entries:

as each reference, short or long, is counted as one,