Part 9 (1/2)

Oh, whose foot shall I see emerge? (l. 400.)

Then follow Sections VII and VIII, revealing the vision.

The too-much glory, as it seemed, Pa.s.sing from out me to the ground, Then palely serpentining round Into the dark with mazy error.

All at once I looked up with terror.

He was there.

He himself with his human air.

On the narrow pathway, just before.

But the writer keeps strictly within the bounds of reverence:

I saw the back of him, no more. (ll. 424-432.)

This treatment in itself may, I believe, be not unjustly taken as indicative of Browning's devotional att.i.tude towards the subject. When, in Section IX, the face is turned upon the narrator, he but records

So lay I, saturate with brightness. (l. 491.)

Where, in _Easter Day_, the description of the Divine Presence is given (xix, l. 640, _et seq._), it is suggested with an awe and vagueness which certainly narrow the conception to no material presentation.

In addition to this vividness of contrast between the first three and the following Sections, the realistic force with which the poem opens has a yet further result. The uncompromising character of the realism opens the way for a more readily accorded credence in the subsequent events of the night. He who describes the vision has likewise seen the congregation in Zion Chapel. When he ”flung out” of the meeting-house, his mood was certainly not indicative of imaginative idealism or mystic contemplation.

He is in a frame of mind little likely to prove unduly susceptible to supernatural influences. A realization of this mental att.i.tude is essential to a fair estimate of the line of argument throughout the poem.

I. Sections I, II, and III are thus occupied with the description of the Chapel and the congregation gathered within its walls, of the preacher and the spiritual food whereby he proposes to sustain the members of his flock. And notice: the speaker has entered perforce, driven within the sacred precincts by the violence of the elements. He is an outsider, and, as such, prepared to a.s.sume the att.i.tude of critic rather than of sympathizer. And the severity of the criticism is intensified by physical and intellectual repulsion at the scene before him. Hence he recognizes all that is peculiarly objectionable in the special aspect of non-conformity presented within the Chapel. He perceives at once (1) ”the trick of exclusiveness,” and the consequent self-satisfaction induced; and (2) the ”fine irreverence” of the preacher in presenting the ”treasure hid in the Holy Bible” as ”a patchwork of chapters and texts in severance, not improved by [his] private dog's-ears and creases.” He perceives ”the trick of exclusiveness” which causes the congregation to hold itself to be

The men, and [that] wisdom shall die with [them], And none of the old Seven Churches vie with [them].

And, taking G.o.d's word under wise protection, Correct its tendency to diffusiveness. (ll. 107-112.)

Later, when freed from the physical irritation attendant on proximity to this special collection of representatives of humanity, his prejudices are sufficiently modified to allow of the perception that some explanation of this exclusiveness is possible.

These people have really felt, no doubt, A something, the motion they style the Call of them; And this is their method of bringing about

The mood itself, which strengthens by using. (ll. 238-245.)

The speaker is quite willing (when at a distance from the Chapel) to admit this right of attempting a reproduction of that mood in which the original conversion may have been effected. Nevertheless, he will _not_ admit the right of the flock to shut the gate of the fold in the face of any outsider seeking entrance. Still

Mine's the same right with your poorest and sickliest Supposing I don the marriage vestiment. (ll. 119-120.)

In _Johannes Agricola in Meditation_ this personal satisfaction of the Calvinist is presented in a still more extreme form.

Ere suns and moons could wax and wane, Ere stars were thundergirt, or piled The heavens, G.o.d thought on me his child; Ordained a life for me, arrayed Its circ.u.mstances every one To the minutest.

And this pre-ordained object of the Divine Love may a.s.sert with confidence--

I have G.o.d's warrant, could I blend All hideous sins, as in a cup, To drink the mingled venoms up; Secure my nature will convert The draught to blossoming gladness fast.