THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 403 



In this poem Browning carries out the idea of Truth to 

 self to the extreme verge of its limit. He does not place the 

 given incident of the poem as a model of virtue nor one that 

 the highest living would contain; but he shows the hateful- 

 ness of subterfuge and indecision, and the soul-perjury of this 

 woman who could take an unmeaning nuptial vow. Even if 

 death followed her words, she had not courage to speak and 

 be true to herself. Browning does not advocate vice instead 

 of virtue; but the greater of the evils is the life wasted in 

 unliving resolutions. 



"Aspire, break bounds! I say, 

 Endeavor to be good, and better still, 

 And best! Success is naught, endeavor 's all." 



Sin, punishment, and the recognition of past sins and evils 

 which it is the lot of innumerable beings during their evo- 

 lutionary passage to experience, are the prelude to hope and 

 the eternal progressive translations of the soul. 



" Strive, mankind, though strife endure through endless obstruction 

 Stage after stage, each rise marred by as certain a fall!" 



but out of the wreck "to rise" where light is in aspiration and 

 hope. Thus it is in the long outlook when the false resolves 

 itself into the true. Falsehood, deceit, duplicity, and lies are 

 the weights and hindrances to character and soul building; 

 while open avowal, sincerity, and truthful action and speaking 

 under all circumstances to the degree of individual know- 

 ledge are the props to the higher planes. 



What may often be considered defects and the reverse of 

 virtue may indeed be but the accidents of character and 

 tolerable when combined with truthful action. The poet's 

 meaning in the preceding words is not distorted, for in his 

 schedule of true living, duty's place and share are fully ex- 

 pressed over and over again. In "Saint Martin's Summer" 

 he says 



"Give my frank word pardon! 



What if I somehow, somewhere 



Pledged my soul to endless duty 



Manv a time and oft?" 



