be traced directly to this
atmosphere of books, and their constant use and reference in his
childhood. Literature and life, are, indeed, so absolutely interpenetrated
and so interdependent that they can almost invariably be contemplated as
cause and effect, each reacting upon the other in determining sequences.
By the magic of some spiritual alchemy, reading is transmuted into the
qualities that build up character, and these qualities, in turn, determine
the continued choice of books, so that selection and result perpetuate
themselves, forming an unceasing contribution to the nature of life. If
with these qualities is united the kindling imagination, the gift that
makes its possessor the creative artist, the environment of books and
perpetual reference to them act as a torch that ignites the divine fire.
Browning's early stimulus owes much, not only to the book-loving father,
but to his father's brother, his uncle Reuben Browning, who was a
classical scholar and who took great interest in the boy. Preserved to the
end of the poet's life was a copy of the Odes of Horace, in translation,
given to him as a lad of twelve, with his uncle's autograph inscription on
the fly-leaf. This was the translation made by Christopher Smart, whose
"Song of David" soon became one of the boy's favorites, and it is curious
to trace how, more than sixty years later, Browning embodied Smart in his
"Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in their Day," as one with
whom

"... truth found vent
In words for once with you...."

Browning, with the poet's instant insight, read the essential story of his
boyhood into the lines:

"... Dreaming, blindfold led
By visionary hand, did soul's advance
Precede my body's, gain inheritance
Of fact by fancy...?"

No transcription of the poet's childhood could even suggest the fortunate
influences surrounding him that did not emphasize the rare culture and
original power of his father. The elder Browning was familiar with old
French and with both Spanish and Italian literature. "His wonderful store
of information might really be compared to an inexhaustible mine," said
one who knew him well.

It is easy to see how out of such an atmosphere the future poet drew
unconsciously the power to weave his "magic web" of such poems as the
"Parleyings," "Abt Vogler," "Ferishtah's Fancies," and was lured on into
that realm of marvelous creation out of which sprang his transcend