680 'Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , and Letters. 
, the slight dramatic element does not veil his obvious preference 
for the beliefs of English puritanism, even when alloyed with 
crudity and ignorance. A Death in the Desert. though it also 
has the dramatic setting, is hardly less direct: 
I say, the acknowledgement of God in Christ 
Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee 
All questions in the earth and out of it, 
And has so far advanced thee to be wise. 
(474-7) 
No less significant is the twist in favor of the Christian faith 
given to the speculations of Browning’s unbelieving characters 
—the Arab physician Karshish, the Greek poet-philosopher 
Cleon, the Boman of <e Imperante Augusto N\atus Est ” in which 
a legend of the twelfth century is treated as if it were already 
current at the beginning of the Christian era. Yet Mrs. Orr, 
who ought to know, says explicitly that the poet “rejected or 
^questioned the dogmatic teachings of Christianity.” It has 
; already been suggested that La Saisiaz , which Mrs. Orr re- 
. garded as “conclusive both in form and matter as to his hetero- 
<dox attitude towards Christianity,” is not really so conclusive 
tas she seems to think; but she is no doubt speaking from per¬ 
sonal knowledge as well, and she appears to be right in her view 
that while Browning believed in the divinity of Christ, Christ 
remained for him “a mystery and a message of Divine Love, 
but no messenger of Divine intention towards mankind.” Pro¬ 
fessor Boyce, who agrees with Mrs. Orr that “Browning was 
certainly no orthodox believer,” makes still clearer the dis¬ 
tinction between the Christian doctrines Browning accepted 
and those he rejected. It was only the doctrine of the Incar¬ 
nation that “immediately and personally appealed to Brown¬ 
ing;” it is the leading idea of Karshish, Saul and Cleon , and 
he returns to it again and again to the very end of his work, as 
in The Sun of Feristah’s Fancies. He conceives of it, not 
as a historic fact, but as an abiding relation: 
That one Face, far from vanish, rather grows, 
Or decomposes but to recompose, 
Become my universe that feels and knows. 
(Epilogue to Dramatis Personae.) 
