Cunlijfe — Browning’s Idealism. 
665 
It was undoubtedly as a “strong and true” soul, in spite of bis 
human weaknesses and limitations, that Browning wished 
Paracelsus to be known to his readers. 
'■There is an almost equal danger of misunderstanding Sor- 
dello, who is again one of the heroic souls, “foremost in the 
regal class,” aspiring to the infinite and inevitably failing, 
whom Browning thought worthy of sympathetic study. Un¬ 
like Paracelsus, Sordello does not, until the very last, attempt to- 
realize his aspirations; the poet, when he is half way through? 
the first book, really lets the secret of his story escape: 
Ah, but to find 
A certain mood enervate such a mind, 
Counsel it slumber in the solitude 
- Thus reached nor, stooping, task for mankind’s good 
Its nature just as life and time accord. 
Sordello, the idealist who cannot act, is contrasted with Tau- 
rello Salinguerra, the man of action without ideals: 
Remark 
Why schemes wherein cold-blooded men embark 
Prosper, when your enthusiastic sort 
Fail: while these last are ever stopping short— 
(So much they should—so little they can do!) 
The careless tribe see nothing to pursue 
If they desist; meantime their scheme succeeds. 
Thoughts were caprices in the course of deeds 
Methodic with Taurello. 
(IV. 848-856.) 
.Not only is this contrast implicit in Browning’s conception 
of the two characters, and carefully worked out in the latter 
half of the poem, but it is • plainly stated by him in one of the 
earlier books (III. 916-924): 
Alack, 
Not so unwisely does the crowd dispense 
On Salinguerras praise in preference 
To the Sordellos: men of action, these! 
Who, seeing just as little as you please, 
Yet turn that little to account,—engage 
With, do not gaze at,—carry on, a stage, 
The work o’ the world, not merely make report 
The work existed ere their day. 
But it would be a capital error to suppose that Browning 
commends the man of action for his limited aims. The ex- 
