Cunliffe—Browning’s Idealism. 
663 
sus fails equally when he seeks the infinite love of Aprile and 
when he follows his own aspirations after infinite knowledge; 
he says himself of Aprile’s message: 
I learned this, and supposed the whole was learned. 
What he had not learned was 
To see a good in evil, and a hope 
In ill-success: to sympathize, be proud 
Of their half reasons, faint aspirings, dim 
Struggles for truth, their poorest fallacies, 
Their prejudice and fears and cares and doubts; 
All with a touch of nobleness, despite 
Their error, upward tending all though weak, 
Like plants in mines which never saw the sun, 
But dream of him, and guess where he may be, 
And do their best to climb and get to him. 
All this I knew not, and I failed. 
But he dies, knowing that he has “done well, tho’ not all well,” 
and re-asserting his hope for the future: 
If I stoop 
Into a dark tremendous sea of cloud, 
It is but for a time; I press God’s lamp 
Close to my breast; its splendor, soon or late, 
Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge one day. 
Evidently this is a recollection and assured re-iteration of his 
earlier aspiration: 
I go to prove my soul! 
I see my way as birds their trackless way, 
I shall arrive! what time, what circuit first, 
I ask not: but unless God send his hail 
Or blinding fireballs, sleet or stifling snow, 
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive: 
He guides me and the bird. In his good time! 
Upon this passage Professor Boyce has the following remark¬ 
able comment:— 
“The heroic speech of Paracelsus consists of tenders and not 
of true pay. It is vainglorious boasting; and must be regarded 
as such. Or, to speak less bluntly, it is a pathetic fallacy. 
Paracelsus does not see his way as birds their trackless way. 
On the contrary, his instinct is false, and his way, before one 
