point, Browning proceeds to argue out the question yet further, under
the form of a dialogue between "Fancy" (or the soul's instinct) and
"Reason." He here shows that not merely is life explicable only as a
probation, but that probation is only possible under our present
conditions, in our present uncertainty. If it were made certain that
there is a future life in which we shall be punished or rewarded,
according as we do evil or good, we should have no choice of action,
hence no virtue in doing what were so manifestly to our own advantage.
Again, if we were made certain of this future life of higher faculties
and greater happiness, should we hesitate to rush to it at the first
touch of sorrow, before our time? He ends, therefore, with a "hope--no
more than hope, but hope--no less than hope," which amounts practically
to the assurance that, as he puts it in the last line--

"He at least believed in Soul, was very sure of God!"

_The Two Poets of Croisic_ is a comedy in narrative, dealing mainly with
the true tale of Paul Desforges-Maillard, whose story furnished Piron
with the matter of his _Metromanie_. The first of the "two poets" is one
Rene Gentilhomme, born 1610, once page to the Prince of Conde,
afterwards court-poet to Louis XIII. His story, by an easy transition,
leads into the richer record of Desforges, which Browning gives with not
a few variations, evidently intentional, from the facts of the case.
Paul-Briand Maillard, self-surnamed Desforges, was born at Croisic,
April 24, 1699: he died at the age of seventy-three. His memory has
survived that of better poets on account of the famous hoax which he
played on the Paris of his day, including no less a person than
Voltaire. The first part of the story is told pretty literally in
Browning's pages:--how Desforges, unsuccessful as a poet in his own
person, assumed the title of a woman, and as Mlle. Malcrais de la Vigne
(his verses being copied by an obliging cousin, Mme. Mondoret) obtained
an immediate and astonishing reputation. The sequel is somewhat altered.
Voltaire's revenge when the cheat was discovered, so far from being
prompt and immediate, was treacherously dissimulated, and its
accomplishment deferred for more than one long-subsequent occasion.
Desforges lived to have the last word, in assisting at the first
representation of Piron's _Metromanie_, in which Voltaire's humiliation
and the Croisic poet's clever trick are perpetuated for as long as