IS ruggedness arises mainly from his determination to say precisely what he wants to say. He allows no considera tion to deter him from expressing his thought with perfect exactness. He is ironical, but he is passionate. His demeanour is composed, yet fire burns below. No man is more capable of understanding the subtle abandonment and the subtle extravagance of love. SHIRLEY. It is given to some few writers to add to our sense of being; their pages are surcharged with soul, so that the soul of the reader becomes more vital, and his destiny seems deeper and larger. One remembers how this has been done often by a line of Shakespere or of Wordsworth, and to that great same soul-ascribing race of men Robert Browning belongs-To those rather who help us to see great truths, than to manipulate little ones. P. H. What I do And what I dream include thee, as the wine His highest glory is the unflinching zeal with which he has mastered and given to the world the results of human strife, toil, and achievement. JOHN T. NETTLESHIP. E. B. BROWNING. FUTURITY. ND O beloved voices, upon which Ye brake off in the middle of that song We sang together softly, to enrich The poor world with the sense of love, and witch The hills, with last year's thrush. God keeps a In heaven to hold our idols; and albeit He brake them to our faces, and denied That our close kisses should impair their white, 1 T 1 LYRIC Love, half angel and half bird, Boldest of hearts that ever braved Took sanctuary within the holier blue, Never may I commence my song, my due ROBERT BROWNING. I praised thee not while living; what to thee dead; I only loved thee,-love thee! oh! thou fled, Through wealth, through strength of thine, less Oh what hath death with souls like thine to do? HEN I consider how my light is spent And that one talent which is death to hide, That murmur, soon replies:-" God doth not need Either man's work, or his own gifts; who best Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state Is kingly thousands at his bidding speed : And post o'er land and ocean without rest; E image to ourselves the breathless silence in which we should listen to his slightest word, the passionate veneration with which we should kneel to kiss his hand, the earnestness with which we should endeavour to console him, if, indeed, such a spirit could need consolation, for the neglect of an age unworthy of his talents, and the eagerness with which we should contest with his daughters the privilege of reading Homer to him. MACAULAY. Here Milton's eyes strike piercing-dim; E. B. BROWNING. Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart : WORDSWORTH. In Milton only, first and last, is the power of the sublime revealed. In Milton only does this great agency blaze and glow as a furnace kept up to a white heat. DE QUINCEY. |