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There be not found, that day the world shall end,
Hundreds of souls, each holding by Christ's word
That He will grow incorporate with all,
With me as Pamphylax, with him as John,

Groom for each bride! Can a mere man do this?
Yet Christ saith, this He lived and died to do.
Call Christ, then, the illimitable God,

Or lost!"

But 'twas Cerinthus that is lost.]

680

685

683. That is, With me as with Pamphylax, with him as with John: See Gospel of John, xvii. 11, 21-23.

"In the critical examination of the evangelical records, the fourth Gospel suffered most. Strauss in this instance following his early master and later antagonist, Baur - denied that St. John had anything to do with its composition. The author, he held, was neither St. John nor any one else who had personally known Christ: nor, in accordance with a widely accepted theory, did he believe it to be the work of a pupil of St. John, who, after the death of his master, related, from memory or from fragmentary notes, traditions and sayings which had been taught him, and made out of them a continuous history. Strauss pronounced it to be a controversial work, written late in the second century after Christ, by a profound theologian of the Greek Gnostic and anti-Jewish school, whose design was not to add another to the existing biographies of Christ, not to represent him as a real man, nor to give an account of any human life, but to produce an elaborate theological work in which, under the veil of allegory, the Neo-platonic conception of Christ as the Logos, the realized Word of God, the divine principle of light and life, should be developed. With this purpose, the writer made a free selection from the sayings and doings of Christ as recorded in the three Gospels already written, and as freely invented others. All the events, all the words, of the Gospel thus composed, are subordinate to the main design, which was worked out by the author with an artistic completeness most ingeniously traced by his German interpreters. Each miracle symbolizes some important dogma, and its narration must be understood to mean that it embodies some deep spiritual truth, not, necessarily, that it ever actually took place. The author manifests, throughout, his ignorance of Jewish customs, and his antagonism to Jewish sentiments."

*

"The general purport of the poem can scarcely be doubted, as we look back upon it as a whole and consider its main conclusions. The tendency of the argu

ment is to diminish the importance of the original events-historical or traditional-on which the Christian religion is based. It is not worth while,' the writer seems to say to Strauss and his followers, 'to occupy ourselves with discussions about miracles and events which are said to have taken place a long time ago, and can now neither be denied nor proved. What we are concerned with, is, Christianity as it is now: as a religion which the human mind has through many generations developed, purified, spiritualized; and which has reacted upon human nature and made it wiser and nobler. Shall we give up this faith which has been so great a power for good in the world, and which, its whole past history justifies us in concluding, will continue its work of improvement, because our belief in certain events is shaken or destroyed? It would be vain, indeed, thus to build our religion on a foundation so unstable as material evidence. For human sensations are not infallible; they very often deceive us; we think we see objects, which are really the illusions of our own brain; others we see in part only, or distorted; others we fail to perceive at all. Our faith, essential as it is to the well-being of the deepest parts of our nature, must not be dependent on such controlling powers as these."

"He [Browning] was, we may suppose, offended by Strauss's ruthless attack on much that mankind has held sacred for ages. His religious sense was revolted by the assumption that there was nothing in Christianity which could survive the destruction of the miraculous and supernatural elements in its history. He desired to represent Christianity as an entirely spiritual religion, independent of external, material agencies. In order to make his argument as powerful as possible, he chose for his mouth-piece one of the personal followers of Christ, on whom, it might be supposed, the actual human life of his master had made a permanent and lively impression. With the details of Biblical criticism he had nothing to do; his principles were unaffected by discussions about the authenticity of the various parts of Gospels; so, in defiance of Strauss, the disciple he chose was that very John, whose personality, as recognized by long tradition, had been so much discredited. He showed how even in one of the disciples the recollection of wonders and signs could be transcended, and at last obliterated, by a spiritual faith which was sustained by the needs and faculties of the soul. The poem is, in effect, an eloquent protest in defence of the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge.'

From Mrs. M. G. Glazebrook's paper on A Death in the Desert, read before the London Browning Society.

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A LIST OF CRITICISMS OF BROWNING'S

WORKS.

(Selected from Dr. Frederick J. Furnivall's 'Bibliography of Robert Browning,' contained in 'The Browning Society's Papers,' Part I., with additions in Part II.)

1833. The Monthly Mag., N. S., V. 7, pp. 254–262: Review of Pauline, by W. J. Fox.

1835. The Examiner, Sept. 6, pp. 563-565: on Paracelsus, by John Forster.

1835. Monthly Repository, Nov., pp. 716–727: Review of Paracelsus, by W. J. Fox.

1836. New Monthly Mag., March, Vol. 46, pp. 289-308:

Evidences

of a New Genius for Dramatic Poetry. — No. 1.' On Paracel-
sus, by John Forster.

1837. Edinburgh Rev., July, Vol. 66, pp. 132–151: Strafford.
1848. N. A. Rev., April, Vol. 66, pp. 357-400: B.'s Plays and Poems,
by James Russell Lowell.

1849. Eclectic Rev., London, 4th S. V. 26, pp. 203-214: on I. the
Poems, 2 vols. 1849, and 2. Sordello, 1840. A sympathetic and
excellent review.

1850. Massachusetts Quarterly Rev., No. XI. June, Art. IV. 'Browning's Poems.' 1. Poems, 2 vols., Boston, 1850. 2. Christmas Eve and Easter Day, London, 1850.

1850. Littell's Living Age, Vol. 25, pp. 403-409: on Christmas Eve
and Easter Day.

1857. The Christian Remembrancer, N. S., Vol. 39, pp. 361–390.
1861. North British Rev., May, pp. 350-374: on The Poems and
Plays of R. B.,' by F. H. Evans.

1863. Fraser's Mag., Feb., pp. 240–256.

1863. The Eclectic Rev., No. 23, N. S., May, pp. 436–454.

1863. National Rev., Oct., Vol. 47, pp. 417-446. Poetical Works of

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R. B., 3 vols., 3d ed., by R. H. Hutton; republ. in Hutton's
Literary Essays, 1871.'

1864. The Eclectic and Congregational Rev., July, pp. 61–72: on Dramatis Personæ, by E. Paxton Hood.

1864. Edinburgh Rev., Oct., pp. 537-565: on Poems, 1863, and Dramatis Persona, 1864.

1864. National Rev., N. S., Nov., 1864; Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning; or Pure, Ornate, and Grotesque Art in English Poetry; republ. in ‘Literary Studies,' by Walter Bagshot.

1865. Quarterly Rev., July, Vol. 118, pp. 77-105: on Dramatis Personæ, 1864, and Poems, 3 vols., 1863.

1867. Contemporary Rev., Jan. and Feb., 1867, Vol. 4, pp. 1-15, 133– 148. Thoughtful and able articles.

1867. Fraser's Mag., Oct., pp. 518-530: Sordello, by Edward Dowden. 1868. Athenæum, Dec. 26, pp. 875, 876: The Ring and the Book, Vol. 1. by Robert Buchanan; revised and publ. in his 'Master Spirits,' 1873.

1868. Eclectic and Congregational Rev., Dec., Art. II. Poetical Works, 6 vols., 1868, by E. Paxton Hood. See under 1864. 1868. Essays on B.'s poetry, by J. T. Nettleship.

1869. Athenæum, March 20, pp. 399, 400: on The Ring and the Book, Vols. 2, 3, and 4.

1869. Fortnightly Rev., March, Vol. 5, N. S., pp. 331-343: on The Ring and the Book, by John Morley. An able and generous article.

1869. Quarterly Rev., April, pp. 328-359: on Mod. Eng. Poets; a few pages are on B.'s poems and The Ring and the Book.

1869. Edinburgh Rev., July, Vol. 130, pp. 164-186: on The Ring and the Book.

1869. London Quarterly Rev., July, on B.'s Poetry - all then published. 1869. N. Brit. Rev., Oct., pp. 97-128: B.'s Latest Poetry (The Ring

and the Book).

1871. Saint Paul's Mag., Dec., 1870, and Jan., 1871, Vol. 7, pp. 257– 276, 377-397: Poems and The Ring and the Book, by E. J. Hasell.

1871. Athenæum, Aug. 12, pp. 199, 200: on Balaustion's Adventure. 1871. Contemporary Rev., Sept., pp. 284-296, on Balaustion's Adventure, by Matthew Browne (pseudonym).

1871. The Times, Oct. 6: a long review of Balaustion's Adventure. 1871. 'Our Living Poets: an Essay in Criticism.' By H. Buxton

Forman. 4th chap. on B., pp. 103–152.

1871. Fortnightly Rev., Oct., Vol. 10, N. S., pp. 478-490: on Balaustion's Adventure, by Sidney Colvin.

1871. The Dark Blue Mag., Oct. and Nov., Vol. 2, pp. 171–184, 305319: Browning as a Preacher,' by Miss E. Dickinson West.

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An admirable essay.

1872. Edinburgh Rev., Jan., Vol. 135, pp. 221-249: on Balaustion's Adventure.

1872. Academy, Jan. 15: on Hohenstiel-Schwangau.

1872. Academy, July 1: on Fifine at the Fair, by F. Wedmore. 1873. Athenæum, May 10: on Red Cotton Night-Cap Country.

1873. Academy, June 2: on Red Cotton Night-Cap Country, by G. A. Simcox.

1873. 'Master Spirits,' by Robert Buchanan; contains, pp. 89–109, a revised reprint of the Athenæum reviews of The Ring and the Book, Dec., 1869, and March, 1870.

1875. Academy, April 17: on Aristophanes' Apology, by J. A. Symonds.

1875. Athenæum, April 17, pp. 513, 514: on Aristophanes' Apology. 1875. Athenæum, Nov. 27, pp. 701, 702: on The Inn Album.

1876. Academy, July 29: on Pacchiarotto, by Edward Dowden. 1876. Macmillan's Mag., Feb., Vol. 33, pp. 347-354: on Inn Album, by A. C. Bradley.

1876. 'Victorian Poets. By Edmund Clarence Stedman.' Boston: 1876. Chap. IX., pp. 292–341, devoted to Browning. 1877. Academy, Nov. 3: on The Agamemnon of Eschylus, by J. A. Symonds.

1878. Church Quarterly Rev., Oct., pp. 65-92: on B.'s Poems, by the Hon. and Rev. Arthur Lyttleton. An article to be read by all students of Browning.

1878. Academy, June 1: on La Saisiaz, and The Two Poets of Croisic, by G. A. Simcox.

1878. Athenæum, May 25, pp. 661–664: on La Saisiaz, by W. Theodore Watts.

1879. 'Studies in Literature, 1789-1877. By Edward Dowden, LL.D.' London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., pp. 191–239: ‘Mr. Tennyson

and Mr. Browning. A comparative study.' Ranks with the very best of Browning criticisms.

1879. Athenæum, May 10: on Dramatic Idyls, I., by Walter Theodore Watts.

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