332 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



reveal the possibilities of a spiritual life. It is chiefly through 

 these that the mass of humanity is lifted in some small degree 

 above the plane of physical necessity into the freer air of liberty 

 and light. This is the way of life that Browning has so truth- 

 fully described: — 



* . . . Already you include 

 The multitude; then let the multitude 

 Include yourself; and the result were new. 

 Themselves before, the multitude turn to you. 

 This were to live and move and have, in them, 

 Your being, and secure a diadem 

 You should transmit (because no cycle yearns 

 Beyond itself, but on itself returns) 

 When, the full sphere in wane, the world is o'erlaid 

 Long since with you, shall have in turn obeyed 

 Some orb still prouder, some displayer, still 

 More potent than the last, of human will, 

 And some new kind depose the old.' " 



