of life. We are made
imperfect; we are kept imperfect here; and we must do all our work
within the limits this natural imperfection makes. (2) We must,
nevertheless, not cease to strive towards the perfection unattainable on
earth, but which shall be attained hereafter. Our destiny, the God
within us, demands that. And we lose it, if we are content with our
earthly life, even with its highest things, with knowledge, beauty, or
with love.

Hence, the foundation of Browning's theory is a kind of Original Sin in
us, a natural defectiveness deliberately imposed on us by God, which
prevents us attaining any absolute success on earth. And this
defectiveness of nature is met by the truth, which, while we aspire, we
know--that God will fulfil all noble desire in a life to come.

We must aspire then, but at the same time all aspiring is to be
conterminous with steady work within our limits. Aspiration to the
perfect is not to make us idle, indifferent to the present, but to drive
us on. Its passion teaches us, as it urges into action all our powers,
what we can and what we cannot do. That is, it teaches us, through the
action it engenders, what our limits are; and when we know them, the
main duties of life rise clear. The first of these is, to work patiently
within our limits; and the second is the apparent contradiction of the
first, never to be satisfied with our limits, or with the results we
attain within them. Then, having worked within them, but always looked
beyond them, we, as life closes, learn the secret. The failures of earth
prove the victory beyond: "For--

what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence
For the fulness of the days? Have we withered or agonised?
Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence?
Why rushed the discords in but that harmony should be prized?
Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear.
Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and the woe:
But God has a few of us whom he whispers in the ear;
The rest may reason, and welcome: 'tis we musicians know."

_Abt Vogler_.

Finally, the root and flower of this patient but uncontented work is
Love for man because of his being in God, because of his high and
immortal destiny. All that we do, whether failure or not, builds up the
perfect humanity to come, and flows into the perfection of God in whom
is the perfection of man. This love, grounded on t