Introduction to Robert Browning [150]
much: they would compel, not help. I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee [475] All questions in the earth and out of it, And has so far advanced thee to be wise. Wouldst thou unprove this to re-prove the proved? In life's mere minute, with power to use that proof, Leave knowledge and revert to how it sprung? [480] Thou hast it; use it and forthwith, or die!
-- 472. So faith grew, making void more miracles: the outward manifestations of spiritual powers (du/namis, `power', `act of power', and shmei^on, `sign', `token', are the original words in the N. T., which are translated `miracle') gave place to subjective proof. Christianity was endorsed by man's own soul. To this may be added, that even the historical bulwarks of Christianity may, ere long, be dispensed with.
474-481. These verses may be taken as presenting Browning's own conclusion as to the whole duty of man, in a spiritual direction. And see the quotation from `Christmas Eve' and the remarks which follow, on pp. 63 and 64. {In etext, Chapter II, Section 3 of Introduction.} --
"For I say, this is death and the sole death, When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, And lack of love from love made manifest; [485] A lamp's death when, replete with oil, it chokes; A stomach's when, surcharged with food, it starves. With ignorance was surety of a cure. When man, appalled at nature, questioned first `What if there lurk a might behind this might?' [490] He needed satisfaction God could give, And did give, as ye have the written word: But when he finds might still redouble might, Yet asks, `Since all is might, what use of will?' -- Will, the one source of might, -- he being man [495] With a man's will and a man's might, to teach In little how the two combine in large, -- That man has turned round on himself and stands, Which in the course of nature is, to die.
"And when man questioned, `What if there be love [500] Behind the will and might, as real as they?' -- He needed satisfaction God could give, And did give, as ye have the written word: But when, beholding that love everywhere, He reasons, `Since such love is everywhere, [505] And since ourselves can love and would be loved, We ourselves make the love, and Christ was not', -- How shall ye help this man who knows himself, That he must love and would be loved again, Yet, owning his own love that proveth Christ, [510] Rejecteth Christ through very need of Him? The lamp o'erswims with oil, the stomach flags Loaded with nurture, and that man's soul dies.
"If he rejoin, `But this was all the while A trick; the fault was, first of all, in thee, [515] Thy story of the places, names and dates, Where, when, and how the ultimate truth had rise, -- Thy prior truth, at last discovered none, Whence now the second suffers detriment. What good of giving knowledge if, because [520] O' the manner of the gift, its profit fail? And why refuse what modicum of help Had stopped the after-doubt, impossible I' the face of truth -- truth absolute, uniform? Why must I hit of this and miss of that, [525] Distinguish just as I be weak or strong, And not ask of thee and have answer prompt, Was this once, was it not once? -- then and now And evermore, plain truth from man to man. Is John's procedure just the heathen bard's? [530] Put question of his famous play again How for the ephemerals' sake, Jove's fire was filched, And carried in a cane and brought to earth: THE FACT IS IN THE FABLE, cry the wise, MORTALS OBTAINED THE BOON, SO MUCH IS FACT, [535] THOUGH FIRE BE SPIRIT AND PRODUCED ON EARTH. As with the Titan's, so now with thy tale: Why breed in us perplexity, mistake, Nor tell the whole truth in the proper words?'
-- 514-539. John anticipates another objection that will be made to his Gospel, namely, that so many things therein are not cleared up, that the whole truth is not told in the proper words, the sceptic claiming that everything should have been so
-- 472. So faith grew, making void more miracles: the outward manifestations of spiritual powers (du/namis, `power', `act of power', and shmei^on, `sign', `token', are the original words in the N. T., which are translated `miracle') gave place to subjective proof. Christianity was endorsed by man's own soul. To this may be added, that even the historical bulwarks of Christianity may, ere long, be dispensed with.
474-481. These verses may be taken as presenting Browning's own conclusion as to the whole duty of man, in a spiritual direction. And see the quotation from `Christmas Eve' and the remarks which follow, on pp. 63 and 64. {In etext, Chapter II, Section 3 of Introduction.} --
"For I say, this is death and the sole death, When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, And lack of love from love made manifest; [485] A lamp's death when, replete with oil, it chokes; A stomach's when, surcharged with food, it starves. With ignorance was surety of a cure. When man, appalled at nature, questioned first `What if there lurk a might behind this might?' [490] He needed satisfaction God could give, And did give, as ye have the written word: But when he finds might still redouble might, Yet asks, `Since all is might, what use of will?' -- Will, the one source of might, -- he being man [495] With a man's will and a man's might, to teach In little how the two combine in large, -- That man has turned round on himself and stands, Which in the course of nature is, to die.
"And when man questioned, `What if there be love [500] Behind the will and might, as real as they?' -- He needed satisfaction God could give, And did give, as ye have the written word: But when, beholding that love everywhere, He reasons, `Since such love is everywhere, [505] And since ourselves can love and would be loved, We ourselves make the love, and Christ was not', -- How shall ye help this man who knows himself, That he must love and would be loved again, Yet, owning his own love that proveth Christ, [510] Rejecteth Christ through very need of Him? The lamp o'erswims with oil, the stomach flags Loaded with nurture, and that man's soul dies.
"If he rejoin, `But this was all the while A trick; the fault was, first of all, in thee, [515] Thy story of the places, names and dates, Where, when, and how the ultimate truth had rise, -- Thy prior truth, at last discovered none, Whence now the second suffers detriment. What good of giving knowledge if, because [520] O' the manner of the gift, its profit fail? And why refuse what modicum of help Had stopped the after-doubt, impossible I' the face of truth -- truth absolute, uniform? Why must I hit of this and miss of that, [525] Distinguish just as I be weak or strong, And not ask of thee and have answer prompt, Was this once, was it not once? -- then and now And evermore, plain truth from man to man. Is John's procedure just the heathen bard's? [530] Put question of his famous play again How for the ephemerals' sake, Jove's fire was filched, And carried in a cane and brought to earth: THE FACT IS IN THE FABLE, cry the wise, MORTALS OBTAINED THE BOON, SO MUCH IS FACT, [535] THOUGH FIRE BE SPIRIT AND PRODUCED ON EARTH. As with the Titan's, so now with thy tale: Why breed in us perplexity, mistake, Nor tell the whole truth in the proper words?'
-- 514-539. John anticipates another objection that will be made to his Gospel, namely, that so many things therein are not cleared up, that the whole truth is not told in the proper words, the sceptic claiming that everything should have been so