Growth here and growth hereafter are the essential elements of
Browning's creed. And there is no other poet in whom all kinds of
thinking and doing are so uniformly tested by their outcome in the
growth of the soul. Does joy stimulate to fuller life; does suffering
bring out moral qualities; do obstacles develop energy; do sharp
temptations become a source of strength and assured soldiership; does
knowledge of evil lead to a new exaltation of good; does sin lead to
self-knowledge and so to regeneration? Then all these are ministers of
grace, for through them the soul has reached greater heights and fuller
life. Whatever bids the soul "nor stand nor sit, but go" is to be
welcomed. The cost of this growth may be great, but the advances of
spirit are represented as worth any sacrifice. The lady in "The Flight
of the Duchess" goes from splendor and ease to hardship and obscurity,
but she wins freedom of thought and of act and the opportunity to test
the qualities of her soul. In _Pippa Passes_ Sebald might have had love
and wealth, Jules might have attained fame along the conventional path
marked out for him by the Monsignor, Luigi had the prospect of an easy
life and happy love, the Monsignor might have had enhanced honor from
the church into whose coffers he could have turned great revenues. But
instead each responds in turn to Pippa's songs; Sebald gains a true view
of sin, Jules gets a new conception of service and attainment, Luigi's
wavering purpose of self-sacrifice for his country's good is
strengthened, the Monsignor is held back from connivance at a crime. In
all these cases the external loss is as nothing compared to the gain in
spiritual knowledge and energy.
Contact with magnetic and superior personalities is a way of growth
particularly noted by Browning. There are men, he says, who bring new
feeling fresh from God, and whose life "reteaches us what life should
be, what faith is, loyalty and simpleness." Pompilia says of
Caponsacchi:
Through such souls alone
God stooping shows sufficient of his light
For us i' the dark to rise by.
The highest souls are "seers" in the noblest sense and they "impart the
gift of seeing to the rest." But the helpful personality need not be
great in knowledge or rank. In Pippa Browning emphasizes the power of
unconscious goodness in clarifying the spiritual vision of others and in
thus stimulating to right action. And in David he shows the power of
poetic charm, innocence, and eager love to drive away from another heart
a mood of black despair.
But outside influences are, after all, says Browning, of secondary
importance. They can, at best, do no more than stimulate and guide. When
Andrea del Sarto attributes his general lowering of ideals and power to
the influence of Lucrezia, he evades the real issue. Incentives must
come from the soul's self. Growth is dependent on personal struggle. Man
is, by his very nature,
forced to try and make, else fail to grow--
Formed to rise, reach at, if not grasp and gain
The good beyond him--which attempt is growth.