Introduction to Robert Browning [143]
one soul: first, to wit, A soul of each and all the bodily parts, [85] Seated therein, which works, and is what Does, And has the use of earth, and ends the man Downward; but, tending upward for advice, Grows into, and again is grown into By the next soul, which, seated in the brain, [90] Useth the first with its collected use, And feeleth, thinketh, willeth, -- is what Knows: Which, duly tending upward in its turn, Grows into, and again is grown into By the last soul, that uses both the first, [95] Subsisting whether they assist or no, And, constituting man's self, is what Is -- And leans upon the former, makes it play, As that played off the first: and, tending up, Holds, is upheld by, God, and ends the man [100] Upward in that dread point of intercourse, Nor needs a place, for it returns to Him. What Does, what Knows, what Is; three souls, one man. I give the glossa of Theotypas.]
-- 82-104. The supposed narrator, Pamphylax, gives in these bracketed verses, on the authority of an imagined Theotypas, a doctrine John was wont to teach, of the trinal unity of man -- the third "person" of which unity, "what Is", being man's essential, absolute nature. The dying John is represented as having won his way to the Kingdom of the "what Is", the Kingdom of eternal truth within himself. In Luke 17:20-21, we read: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." In harmony with which, Paracelsus is made to say, in Browning's poem, "Truth is within ourselves; . . . there is an inmost centre in us all, where truth abides in fulness"; etc. See pp. 24 and 25 of this volume. {In this etext, see Chapter I, `The Spiritual Ebb and Flow, etc.', of the Introduction. Excerpt is shortly before the poem `Popularity'.} "Life, you've granted me, develops from within. But INNERMOST OF THE INMOST, MOST INTERIOR OF THE INTERNE, GOD CLAIMS HIS OWN, DIVINE HUMANITY RENEWING NATURE" (Mrs. Browning's `Aurora Leigh'). Mrs. M. G. Glazebrook, in her paper on `A Death in the Desert', read at the 48th meeting of the Browning Society, Feb. 25th, 1887, paraphrases these lines: "The first and lowest [soul] is that which has to do with earth and corporeal things, the animal soul, which receives primary sensations and is the immediate cause of action -- `what Does'. The second is the intellect, and has its seat in the brain: it is superior to the first, but dependent on it, since it receives as material the actual experience which the animal soul supplies; it is the feeling, thinking, willing soul -- `what Knows'. The third, and highest, is the spirit of man, the very principle of life, the divine element in man linking him to God, which is self-subsistent and therefore independent of sensation and knowledge, but nevertheless makes use of them, and gives them existence and energy -- `what Is'." --
And then, "A stick, once fire from end to end; [105] Now, ashes save the tip that holds a spark! Yet, blow the spark, it runs back, spreads itself A little where the fire was: thus I urge The soul that served me, till it task once more What ashes of my brain have kept their shape, [110] And these make effort on the last o' the flesh, Trying to taste again the truth of things" -- (He smiled) -- "their very superficial truth; As that ye are my sons, that it is long Since James and Peter had release by death, [115] And I am only he, your brother John, Who saw and heard, and could remember all. Remember all! It is not much to say. What if the truth broke on me from above As once and oft-times? Such might hap again: [120] Doubtlessly He might stand in presence here, With head wool-white, eyes, flame, and feet like brass, The sword and the seven stars, as I have seen -- I who now shudder only and surmise `How did your brother bear that sight and live?' [125]
-- 113. superficial truth: phenomenal, relative
-- 82-104. The supposed narrator, Pamphylax, gives in these bracketed verses, on the authority of an imagined Theotypas, a doctrine John was wont to teach, of the trinal unity of man -- the third "person" of which unity, "what Is", being man's essential, absolute nature. The dying John is represented as having won his way to the Kingdom of the "what Is", the Kingdom of eternal truth within himself. In Luke 17:20-21, we read: "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." In harmony with which, Paracelsus is made to say, in Browning's poem, "Truth is within ourselves; . . . there is an inmost centre in us all, where truth abides in fulness"; etc. See pp. 24 and 25 of this volume. {In this etext, see Chapter I, `The Spiritual Ebb and Flow, etc.', of the Introduction. Excerpt is shortly before the poem `Popularity'.} "Life, you've granted me, develops from within. But INNERMOST OF THE INMOST, MOST INTERIOR OF THE INTERNE, GOD CLAIMS HIS OWN, DIVINE HUMANITY RENEWING NATURE" (Mrs. Browning's `Aurora Leigh'). Mrs. M. G. Glazebrook, in her paper on `A Death in the Desert', read at the 48th meeting of the Browning Society, Feb. 25th, 1887, paraphrases these lines: "The first and lowest [soul] is that which has to do with earth and corporeal things, the animal soul, which receives primary sensations and is the immediate cause of action -- `what Does'. The second is the intellect, and has its seat in the brain: it is superior to the first, but dependent on it, since it receives as material the actual experience which the animal soul supplies; it is the feeling, thinking, willing soul -- `what Knows'. The third, and highest, is the spirit of man, the very principle of life, the divine element in man linking him to God, which is self-subsistent and therefore independent of sensation and knowledge, but nevertheless makes use of them, and gives them existence and energy -- `what Is'." --
And then, "A stick, once fire from end to end; [105] Now, ashes save the tip that holds a spark! Yet, blow the spark, it runs back, spreads itself A little where the fire was: thus I urge The soul that served me, till it task once more What ashes of my brain have kept their shape, [110] And these make effort on the last o' the flesh, Trying to taste again the truth of things" -- (He smiled) -- "their very superficial truth; As that ye are my sons, that it is long Since James and Peter had release by death, [115] And I am only he, your brother John, Who saw and heard, and could remember all. Remember all! It is not much to say. What if the truth broke on me from above As once and oft-times? Such might hap again: [120] Doubtlessly He might stand in presence here, With head wool-white, eyes, flame, and feet like brass, The sword and the seven stars, as I have seen -- I who now shudder only and surmise `How did your brother bear that sight and live?' [125]
-- 113. superficial truth: phenomenal, relative