Nevertheless, in order to complete this statement, Browning, in his full idea of life, was not altogether a romantic.  He saw there was a great danger that the romantic mysticism might lead its pursuers to neglect the duties of life, or lessen their interest in the drama of mankind.  Therefore he added to his cry for eternity and perfection, his other cry:  “Recognise your limitations, and work within them, while you must never be content with them.  Give yourself in love and patience to the present labour of mankind; but never imagine for a moment that it ends on earth.”  He thus combined with the thirst of the romantic for eternity the full ethical theory of life, as well as the classic poet’s determination to represent the complete aspect of human life on earth.  At this point, but with many fantastic deviations due to his prevailing romanticism, he was partly of the classic temper.  The poem of Sordello is not without an image of this temper, set vigorously in contrast with Sordello himself.  This is Salinguerra, who takes the world as it is, and is only anxious to do what lies before him day by day.  His long soliloquy, in which for the moment he indulges in dreams, ends in the simple resolution to fight on, hour by hour, as circumstances call on him.

Browning’s position, then, is a combination of the romantic and classical, of the Christian and ethical, of the imaginative and scientific views of human life; of the temper which says, “Here only is our life, here only our concern,” and that which says, “Not here, but hereafter is our life.”  “Here, and hereafter,” answered Browning.  “Live within earth’s limits with all your force; never give in, fight on; but always transcend your fullest action in aspiration, faith and love.”

It amuses me sometimes the way he is taken by his readers.  The romantic and the Christian folk often claim him as the despiser of this world, as one who bids us live wholly for the future, or in the mystic ranges of thought and passion.  The scientific, humanitarian, and ethical folk accept that side of him which agrees with their views of human life—­views which exclude God, immortality, and a world beyond—­that is, they take as the whole of Browning the lesser part of his theory of life.  This is not creditable to their understanding, though it is natural enough.  We may accept it as an innocent example of the power of a strong bias in human nature.  But it is well to remember that the romantic, Christian, mystic elements of human life are more important in Browning’s eyes than the ethical or scientific; that the latter are nothing to him without the former; that the best efforts of the latter for humanity are in his belief not only hopeless, but the stuff that dreams are made of, without the former.  In the combination of both is Browning’s message to mankind.

FOOTNOTES: 

[9] He makes a simile of this in Sordello.  See Book iii. before his waking up in Venice, the lines beginning