stic
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 constitute literature. 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 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 contr