Part 16 (1/2)

Yet the thought recurs, how often has the cup of life been set aside by ”sage, champion, martyr,” to whom had been revealed the secret of that which ”masters life.” To what causes is attributable the failure which he recognizes in reviewing his own Past? The soul, true inhabitant of the Infinite, has been unable to adapt itself to its lodgment in the body fitted, by its const.i.tution, for Time only. Sorrow has been the inevitable result of the soul's attempts at subjecting the body to its use. Sorrow to be avoided only when the employer shall

Match the thing employed, Fit to the finite his infinity.[86]

Some solution of the difficulty there must a.s.suredly be. The question of _Sordello_ is in different form the question of the soliloquist of _Easter Day_--

Must life be ever just escaped which should Have been enjoyed?[87]

And the answer?--

Nay, might have been and would, Each purpose ordered right--the soul's no whit Beyond the body's purpose under it.[88]

Yet the struggle ends in _renunciation_, and Salinguerra arrives to find Sordello dead, ”under his foot the badge”: but

Still, Palma said, A triumph lingering in the wide eyes.[89]

In _Rabbi Ben Ezra_ a more material conception of life is to be expected from the change in the personality of the soliloquist. The Jewish Rabbi of the twelfth century takes the place of the Mantuan poet of the thirteenth.

The Rabbi also recognizes the limitations imposed by the body upon the development of the soul.

Pleasant is this flesh, Our soul, in its rose-mesh Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest. (_R. B. E._, xi.)

Thy body at its best, How far can that project thy soul on its lone way? (viii.)

Yet, since ”gifts should prove their use,” he would, in so far as may be, utilize the body for the advancement of the soul.

Let us not always say ”Spite of the flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!”

As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry ”All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!” (xii.)

In this complete co-operation of spirit and flesh--if attainable--might be found a satisfactory answer to Sordello's question concerning the possibility of that use of life which should prove a legitimate enjoyment of its gifts, no mere avoidance of its snares.

The parable of _The Two Camels of Ferishtah's Fancies_ is employed to again introduce the subject of asceticism and its uses. The conclusions there reached differ, perhaps, rather in degree than in kind from those which have gone before. Not asceticism, but enjoyment develops best the faculties of man. The perfect achievement of the work allotted him is the object of his existence. Hence the admonition,

Dare Refuse no help thereto, since help refused Is hindrance sought and found.

The decision, however, goes a step further than that of _Easter Day_ where it is noticeable that the professing Christian, who objects to an examination of the basis of his faith, appears to have no anxiety respecting the world at large. The salvation of his individual soul is that which alone concerns him, and pretty well limits his outlook on life temporal and eternal. In _The Two Camels_, Ferishtah, in rejecting asceticism as a mode of life, looks not to its personal effects only, but to those influences which he is bound to transmit to his fellow men. To become a joy-giving medium, individual experience of joy is, he claims, essential, and to be best acquired through a free and grateful acceptance, and a reasonable enjoyment of the blessings of earth.

Just as I cannot, till myself convinced, Impart conviction, so, to deal forth joy Adroitly, needs must I know joy myself.

Renounce joy for my fellows' sake? That's joy Beyond joy; but renounced for mine, not theirs?

No, Son: the richness hearted in such joy Is in the knowing what are gifts we give, Not in a vain endeavour not to know![90]

That, I believe, we must take as Browning's final word on the subject.

Does it differ so widely from the teaching of _Easter Day_? Surely not?

The man who feared to enjoy earth lest earth should prove a snare, was taught by the final Judgment that, to a nature of higher capacity, might be possible that full enjoyment of life comprehended in the use of all good things as opportunities for soul-enlargement. An enjoyment following immediately upon the discovery that in all

Of power and beauty in the world, The mightiness of love was curled Inextricably round about.