Page:Poet Lore, volume 1, 1889.djvu/142

126 ness of the days." In other words, what is the finite but a proof of the existence of the Infinite. Again, in "Ferishtah's Fancies," "A power confessed past knowledge, nay, past thought, thus thought, thus known." This is Spencer pure and simple.

One of the first appreciative critics of Spencer, M. Le Pasteur Grotz, of the Reformed Church of Nismes, said, that by standing on the ground of logic and psychology he has established the "legitimacy, the necessity, and the everlasting permanency of religion itself." Conversely, we might say that Browning, by standing on the ground of psychology and logic, has accomplished the same thing. Professor Dowden thinks that Browning is militant against scientific methods. Perhaps he does object to the scientist who has grown old among his experiments or his specimens to "die case-hardened in his ignorance," to the man who makes science the end and aim, to that curious abortion, who, though scientific, is yet materialistic. Unfortunately there are not a few of this calibre, men like Clifford, who wander about in a mathematical Elysium where no ordinary mind can follow, and who prove, at least to their own satisfaction, that space has four dimensions, and that there exists no mystery which they will not be able, finally, to reduce to atoms. Nevertheless, Browning has made use, in his poetry, of knowledge that has been piled up by just such men, and it is scarcely in keeping with his broad sympathies that he should scorn the usefulness of even those who, like the young Paracelsus, seek only to know. May we not conclude that in Browning we find realized the prophecy of Wordsworth:

It has already become evident to the minds of intellectual people that neither religion nor poetry has anything to fear from science. On the contrary, to that scientific thought, which views the present