Browning's dramatic power is well exhibited in poems like _In a
Balcony_ or _Pippa Passes_, in which powerful individual scenes are
presented without all the accompanying details of a complete drama.
The great force of such scenes lies in his manner of treating moments
of severe trial. He selects such a moment, focuses his whole attention
upon it, and makes the deed committed stand forth as an explanation of
all the past emotions and as a prophecy of all future acts. _In a
Balcony_ shows the lives of three characters converging toward a
crisis. The hero of this drama thus expresses his theory of life's
struggles in the development of the soul:--

"...I count life just stuff
To try the soul's strength on, educe the man."

_Pippa Passes_ is one of Browning's most artistic presentations of
such dramatic scenes. The little silk weaver, Pippa, rises on the
morning of her one holiday in the year, with the intention of enjoying
in fancy the pleasures "of the Happiest Four in our Asolo," not
knowing, in her innocence, of their misery and guilt. She wanders from
house to house, singing her pure, significant refrains, and, in each
case, her songs arrest the attention of the hearer at a critical
moment. She thus becomes unconsciously a means of salvation. The first
scene is the most intense. She approaches the home of the lovers,
Sebald and Ottima, after the murder of Ottima's husband. As Sebald
begins to reflect on the murder, there comes this song of Pippa's,
like the knocking at the gate in Macbeth, to loose the floodgates of
remorse:--

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF MS. FROM PIPPA PASSES.]

His Optimistic Philosophy.--It has been seen that the Victorian age,
as presented by Matthew Arnold, was a period of doubt and negation.
Browning, however, was not overcome by this wave of doubt. Although he
recognized fully the difficulties of religious faith in an age just
awakening to scientific inquiry, yet he retained a strong, fearless
trust in God and in immortality.

Browning's reason demanded this belief. In this earthly life he saw
the evil overcome the good, and beheld injustice, defeat, and despair
follow the noblest efforts. If there exists no compensation for these
things, he says that life is a cheat, the moral nature a lie, and God
a fiend. In _Asolando_, Browning thus presents his attitude toward
life:--

"One who never turned his back but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,