THE GREEKS AND BROWNING 
401 
So it is in the consideration of phases of life which may 
be classified among those opposed to the customs of society, 
convention, or morals. Under all these conditions the poet 
teaches, be true to ourselves, no matter if this trueness is in 
conflict with all outside. This truthfulness to ourselves may 
not be rightful action as we may some day see when we have 
journeyed farther on; but it is the right course for us if in all 
conscience we cannot see anything better and truer at the 
moment. And such a thought should inspire in all hearts 
toleration, pity, and love towards our fellow beings slower than 
ourselves in the upward climb. 
Perhaps it is not well to hurry the climber too rapidly in 
his climb. The head must be steady and the pulse-beats 
strong. Browning gives this warning: — 
“Are you adventurous and climb yourself? 
Plant the foot warily, accept a staff, 
Stamp only where you probe the standing-point, 
Move forward, well assured that move you may. 
Where you mistrust advance, stop short, there stick 1 
This makes advancing slow and difficult?” 
He also tells us, — 
“Weakness never needs be falseness: truth is truth in each degree, 
Thunder pealed by God to Nature whispered by my soul to me.” 
“It was not strange I saw no good in man, 
To overbalance all the wear and waste 
Of faculties, displayed in vain, but born 
To prosper in some better sphere; and why? 
In my own heart love had not been made wise 
To trace love’s faint beginnings in mankind, 
To know even hate is but a mask of love’s, 
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, 
