374 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



He was convinced that these strivings for better things were 

 the much-needed disciphne of the soul. His poems illustrative 

 of this view are very suggestive of the higher aims of life, and 

 the necessity for them. 



Browning's idea of death is very characteristic, clear, and 

 pronounced. To him death was not extinction, but simply a 

 change from one form of life to another — progress being 

 essential to life, — 



Never dream 

 That what once lived shall ever die. 



To him it was growth or expansion of the spiritual portion of 

 our nature freed from the material elements of the body. 

 "There is no such thing as death," he exclaims. "Never 

 say of me that I am dead"; and this he repeats in ever- 

 varying measures. To all those who have derived spiritual 

 benefit and comfort from his poems, and all in whom they 

 raise pleasant thoughts of him, he adds, — 



Know my last state is happy, free from doubt 

 Or touch of fear. 



During the Victorian age science has made, beyond doubt, 

 great strides along man}' lines of research and inquiry ; the 

 human mind has expanded under the stimulus, and new 

 thoughts and views are opened up in every direction. The 

 world is under the greatest obligations to such men as Darwin 

 and Huxley, Spencer and Tyndall, Wallace, and others promi- 

 nent in the science roll, for their life-labours have conferred 

 manifold benefits on the human race. But the crowning 

 service rendered to the world by science is, so it seems to me, 

 the enlar^^ement of our conception of the universe. From the 

 days when men thought the earth an immense plain a^nd the 

 stars points of light shining through holes in the sky to our 

 present-day enlarged conception of the universe, with its 

 myriads of worlds around us, how vast, how marvellous the 

 change. The discoveries of science are frequently in advance 

 and in apparent contradiction of the religious faith of the day ; 

 but time rectifies that, enlightens the mind, disperses the 

 mists of superstition, purges away the idolatries of the world, 

 and leaves us with a greater and juster idea of the Supreme 

 Mind. But these benefactors of their race represent only one- 

 half of human nature and its order, the physical. The dual 

 nature of man is taken little notice of ; the mind, the con- 

 science, the spiritual portion are left without an effort being 

 made to interpret them. It is necessary, however, to consider 

 the other half, if we desire to obtain a just appreciation of the 

 whole. It is along this frequently neglected line of inquiry 

 that Browning's thoughts incessantly travelled. We cannot, 

 of course, form any conception of a soul — what it is like — for 

 no living mortal has seen one. It is only when it becomes 



