THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 405 



in comparison with right action, prompted by Truth! Even 

 words which poorly express our thoughts and are susceptible 

 of misunderstanding, when Truth is back of them, fire nearer 

 the bull's eye. 



"From truth 



Whate'er the force wherewith you fling your speech, 

 Be sure that speech will lift you, by rebound 

 Somewhere above the lowness of a lie!" 



In those forcible lines in Francis Furini to the "Bounteous 

 God, deviser and dispenser of all gifts " the poet exclaims, 



" True true all too true 

 No gift but, in the very plenitude 

 Of its perfection, goes maimed, misconstrued 

 By wickedness or weakness : still, some few 

 Have grace to see thy purpose, strength to mar 

 Thy work by no admixture of their own, 

 Limn truth not falsehood, bid us love alone, 

 The type untampered with, the naked star!" 



Browning is for Justice too. He is neither arrogant nor 

 falsely modest. He is Aristotelian in considering the aim of 

 man to be happiness, in its highest and purest sense, and he 

 believes that this aim can be reached only through virtue, 

 man being born with a natural capacity for virtue. He will 

 have nothing to do with those worldly philosophers who 

 would call Truth "the lancet of the heart " and say "not all 

 truths can be spoken and 't is dangerous, yet a good man 

 cannot avoid speaking the truth." 



He tells us of the liar being so from habit, lies being a part 

 of his stock in trade, and in harmony with a lying character 

 which can reason itself into believing its own lies; Browning 

 expresses a thought akin to Plato's of the romancing metier 

 of poets, "who sing how Greeks that never were, in Troy 

 which never was, did this or the other impossible thing!" 

 nor does he countenance good conduct and truthfulness 

 when these arise for the reward or praise of fellow men. 



Browning is in accord with Aristotle in denouncing abstract 

 falsehood as bad and blamable and in declaring truth as honor- 



