Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VII. BROWNING, THE OPTIMIST. Browning may be spoken of as the apostle of hope. He seldom touches a note of sadness; and when he does, it is only that he may follow and complete it with the note of triumph and faith. His is the poetry that makes men, and having made them, makes them make the best of life. He never wraps our hearts in gloom, nor paralyzes our hands with fear, nor unnerves our footsteps with uncertainty. He is positive, valorous and trustful. His two verities are God and the soul : his key truth concerning the former—that God is love; and concerning the latter—that man is endlessly progressive. To Browning there are no such things as accidents, and no such things as failures. ' God's in His heaven : all's right wjth the world ;' and ' that which God counts blest can't prove accursed.' Nor are these mere assertions on the poet's part, as we shall see. He has fought for his foothold, and holds it not as the sinecure, but as the honest toiler; and, having gained this foothold, he seeks to raise others to his level, and to his range of vision. No charge is more baseless than the common one that Browning is ' an easy-going optimist.' 'Optimist he is—easy-going he is not. He has dug deep and found rock. Thereon, and therefrom, he builds—not wood, hay, and stubble—but gold, silver, and precious stones. And now let me try and discover to you the bottom rock which Browning has bared, and upon which he has built. It is this—'God is love.' You say—' Ah, everybody knows that' The question is, does everybody believe it? Is their knowledge proven in the attitude they preserve amid the dance of circumstance ? For they who have firm faith in God's love cannot doubt—cannot be despondent—cannot be craven-hearted ! It was this irremovable faith on Browning's part that made hi...