But, as we have seen, there is a portion of this task in the discharge of which Browning is drawn beyond the strict limits of art.  Neither the magnificent boldness of his religious faith, nor the penetration of his artistic insight, although they enabled him to deal successfully with the worst samples of human evil, as in The Ring and the Book, could dissipate the gloom which reflection gathers around the general problem.  Art cannot answer the questions of philosophy.  The difficulties that critical reason raises reason alone can lay.  Nevertheless, the poet was forced by his reflective impulse, to meet that problem in the form in which it presents itself in the region of metaphysics.  He was conscious of the presuppositions within which his art worked, and he sought to justify them.  Into this region we must now follow him, so as to examine his theory of life, not merely as it is implied in the concrete creations of his art, but as it is expressed in those later poems, in which he attempts to deal directly with the speculative difficulties that crowd around the conception of evil.

To the critic of a philosophy, there is hardly more than one task of supreme importance.  It is that of determining the precise point from which the theory he examines takes its departure; for, when the central conception is clearly grasped, it will be generally found that it rules all the rest.  The superstructure of philosophic edifices is usually put together in a sufficiently solid manner—­it is the foundation that gives way.  Hence Hegel, who, whatever may be thought of his own theory, was certainly the most profound critic of philosophy since Aristotle, generally concentrates his attack on the preliminary hypothesis.  He brings down the erroneous system by removing its foundation-stone.  His criticism of Spinoza, Kant, Fichte, and Schelling may almost be said to be gathered into a single sentence.

Browning has made no secret of his central conception.  It is the idea of an immanent or “immundate” love.  And that love, we have shown, is conceived by him as the supreme moral motive, the ultimate essence and end of all self-conscious activity, the veritable nature of both man and God.

“Denn das Leben ist die Liebe,
Und des Lebens Leben Geist.”

His philosophy of human life rests on the idea that it is the realization of a moral purpose, which is a loving purpose.  To him there is no supreme good, except good character; and the foundation of that character by man and in man is the ultimate purpose, and, therefore, the true meaning of all existence.

            “I search but cannot see
  What purpose serves the soul that strives, or world it tries
  Conclusions with, unless the fruit of victories
  Stay, one and all, stored up and guaranteed its own
  For ever, by some mode whereby shall be made known
  The gain of every life.  Death reads the title clear—­
  What each soul for itself conquered from out things here: 
  Since, in the seeing soul, all worth lies, I assert."[A]