PoND.^O^i Tennyson and Broivning. 555 



form in which others dehghted were to him trammels and 

 fetters. And therefore in his method he has shown himself 

 not merely eccentric — eccentricity might be pardoned — but 

 actually perverse. And this perversity will bring its own re- 

 ward. To sin against a law of nature means destruction ; to 

 sin against a law of art means neglect, and to neglect a large 

 portion of Browning's work is doomed. He possesses a mighty 

 intellect, of a most original cast ; he owes allegiance to none, 

 and none can call themselves his sponsors in art. But he 

 lacks that restraint which has made Tennyson's art what it 

 is. He is mastered by his theme, and it runs away with him. 

 In working out that theme, the thought grows and ramifies in 

 his subtle intellect into infinite variety of detail, and not one 

 detail will he spare us. x^nd so he goes on involving one 

 parenthesis in another, until we are wearied by the con- 

 stant jerking of our attention from its proper track. This is 

 one element in his undoubted obscurity. The other main 

 element is due, I think, to his surprising alertness and quick- 

 ness of thought. The problem which we might solve in five 

 or six steps he completes in two, and is already off on another 

 train of thought before we quite realise that the first is 

 finished. Thus it is he ofi'ends in both ways : he is at times 

 tediously garrulous upon nothings, at other times wearingly 

 compressed and crabbed upon thoughts of the greatest import. 

 Just that sense of proportion which is so eminently character- 

 istic of Tennyson is entirely lacking in Browning. He insists 

 upon neglecting the expression for the thought, not perceiving 

 that it is the expression which gives, as it were, the stamp to 

 the blank gold of the thought, and makes it once for all cur- 

 rent coin. And yet he seems to have known this principle, 

 but to have refused to apply it. If only he would have accepted 

 for himself the words he addresses to another ! — 



Song's our art : 

 Whereas you please to speak these naked thoughts 

 Instead of draping them in sights and sounds. 



But here's j^our fault : grown men want thought, you think ; 



Thought's what they mean by verse, and seek in verse : 



Boys seek for images and melody, 



Men must have reason : so you aim at men 



Quite otherwise ! 



Thus it is, I think, that Browning is at his best in his 

 smaller pieces, where the theme is naturally limited. Here 

 his fine gifts show themselves to their best effect. And how 

 fine his gifts are ! Look at the fun and humour of " The Pied 

 Piper of Hamelin " ; or the magnificent stride of " The Eide 

 from Ghent to Aix " ; the passionate pathos of " The Lost 

 Leader," or the sweet pathos of "Evelyn Hope." What 



