" in them, reach the
heaven above and take their place there although what they see
transcends the power of their art to tell. They miss the "unit" of an
adequate technique, but they gain the "million" of spiritual insight.

129. _Hoti ... Oun ... De._ Points in Greek grammar concerning which
there was much learned discussion.

"CHILDE ROLAND TO THE DARK TOWER CAME"

Mrs. Orr (_Handbook of Browning's Works_, p. 274) says of this poem: "We
can connect no idea of definite pursuit or attainment with a series of
facts so dream-like and so disjointed: still less extract from it a
definite moral; and we are reduced to taking the poem as a simple work
of fancy, built up of picturesque impressions which have, separately or
collectively, produced themselves in the author's mind." And she adds in
a note: "I may venture to state that these picturesque materials
included a tower which Mr. Browning once saw in the Carrara Mountains, a
painting which caught his eye years later in Paris; and the figure of a
horse in the tapestry in his own drawing-room--welded together in the
remembrance of the line from '_King Lear_,' which forms the heading of
the poem." The possible allegorical signification of the poem has been
the subject of much, and often of singularly futile discussion. Dr.
Furnivall said he had asked Browning if it was an allegory, and in
answer had on three separate occasions received an emphatic statement
that it was simply a dramatic creation called forth by a line of
Shakspere's. (Porter-Clarke, _Study Programmes_, p. 406.) Yet
allegorical interpretations continue to be made. According to one line
of interpretation the pilgrim is a "truth-seeker, misdirected by the
lying spirit" (the hoary cripple), and when he blows the slug-horn it is
as a warning to others that he has failed in his quest, and that the way
to the dark tower is the way of destruction and death. (Berdoe,
_Browning Cyclopaedia_, p. 105) According to other readings of the tale
the blast which the pilgrim blows at the end of his quest is one of
"spiritual victory and incitement to others." When the Rev. John S.
Chadwick visited the poet and asked him if constancy to an ideal--"He
that endureth to the end shall be saved"--was not a sufficient
understanding of the central purpose of the poem, Browning said: "Yes,
just about that." With constancy to an ideal as the central purpose, the
details of this poem, without being minutely interpreted, may yet serve