end all that the human mind has conceived
of perfection, Browning, as we have already seen, declares that we _can_
know something of the nature of that Absolute through the love which we
know in the human heart as well as the power we see displayed in Nature.

In connection with this subject, which for lack of space can merely be
touched on in the present volume, it will be instructive to round out
Browning's presentations of his own contributions to nineteenth-century
thought with two quotations, one from "The Parleyings:" "With Bernard de
Mandeville," and one from a poem in his last volume "Reverie." In the
first, human love is symbolized as the image made by a lens of the sun,
which latter symbolizes Divine Love.

BERNARD DE MANDEVILLE

. . . . . . .

IX

Boundingly up through Night's wall dense and dark,
Embattled crags and clouds, outbroke the Sun
Above the conscious earth, and one by one
Her heights and depths absorbed to the last spark
His fluid glory, from the far fine ridge
Of mountain-granite which, transformed to gold,
Laughed first the thanks back, to the vale's dusk fold
On fold of vapor-swathing, like a bridge
Shattered beneath some giant's stamp. Night wist
Her work done and betook herself in mist
To marsh and hollow there to bide her time
Blindly in acquiescence. Everywhere
Did earth acknowledge Sun's embrace sublime
Thrilling her to the heart of things: since there
No ore ran liquid, no spar branched anew,
No arrowy crystal gleamed, but straightway grew
Glad through the inrush--glad nor more nor less
Than, 'neath his gaze, forest and wilderness,
Hill, dale, land, sea, the whole vast stretch and spread,
The universal world of creatures bred
By Sun's munificence, alike gave praise--
All creatures but one only: gaze for gaze,
Joyless and thankless, who--all scowling can--
Protests against the innumerous praises? Man,
Sullen and silent.

Stand thou forth then, state
Thy wrong, thou sole aggrieved--disconsolate--
While every beast, bird, reptile, insect, gay
And glad acknowledges the bounteous day!

X

Man speaks now:--"What avails Sun's earth-felt thrill
To me? Sun penetrates the ore, the plant--
They feel and grow: perchance with subtler skill
He interfuses fly, worm, brute, until
Each favored object pays lif