e of success that sustains its theory. The
young artist had now seriously entered on sculpture, under Rodin, with
much prestige and promise.

The first series of "Dramatic Idyls" was published in the autumn of 1872,
closely following "La Saisiaz" and the "Two Poets of Croisic." The devoted
student of Browning could hardly fail to be impressed by one feature of
his poetry which, though a prominent one, has received little attention
from the critics. This feature is his doctrine of the sub-self, as the
source of man's highest spiritual knowledge. He has given his fullest
expression of this belief in his "Paracelsus," and it appears in
"Sordello" (especially in the fifth book), in "A Death in the Desert," in
"Fifine," and in "Christopher Smart," and is largely developed in "The
Ring and the Book." Again, in "Beatrice Signorini," contained in
"Asolando," published only on the day of his death, this theory is again
apparent, and these instances are only partial out of the many in which
the doctrine is touched or elaborated, showing how vital it was with him
from the earliest to the latest period of his work. Another striking
quality in Browning is that of the homogeneous spirit of his entire poetic
expression. It is the great unity in an equally great variety. It is
always clear as to the direction in which Browning is moving, and as to
the supreme message of his philosophy of life.

CHAPTER XI

1880-1888

"Moreover something is or seems,
That touches me with mystic gleams,
Like shadows of forgotten dreams."

"Alas! our memories may retrace
Each circumstance of time and place,
Season and change come back again,
And outward things unchanged remain;
The rest we cannot re-instate;
Ourselves we cannot re-create;
Nor set our souls to the same key
Of the remembered harmony!"

"LES CHARMETTES"--VENETIAN DAYS--DR. HIRAM CORSON--THE BROWNING SOCIETY--
OXFORD HONORS BROWNING--KATHERINE DEKAY BRONSON--HONORS FROM
EDINBURGH--VISIT TO PROFESSOR MASSON--ITALIAN RECOGNITION--NANCIONI--
THE GOLDONI SONNET--AT ST. MORITZ--IN PALAZZO GIUSTINIANI--
"FERISHTAH'S FANCIES"--COMPANIONSHIP WITH HIS SON--DEATH OF MILSAND--
LETTERS TO MRS. BRONSON--DEVERE GARDENS--PALAZZO REZZONICO--SUNSETS
FROM THE LIDO--ROBERT BARRETT BROWNING'S GIFT IN PORTRAITURE.

Twenty-five years after Robert Browning had visited the famous haunts of
Rousseau with his wife, he again made a little sojourn with