(SELECTED VERSES)
To some people success is everything, and the easier it is gained the
better. To Browning success is nothing unless it is won by painful
effort. What Browning values is struggle. Throes, rebuffs, even failure
to achieve what we wish, are to be welcomed, for the effects of vigorous
endeavor inweave themselves into our characters; moreover through
struggle we lift ourselves from the degradation into which the indolent
fall. In the intervals of strife we may look back dispassionately upon
what we have gone through, see where we erred and where we did wisely,
watch the workings of universal laws, and resolve to apply hereafter
what we have hitherto learned.
Then, welcome each rebuff
That turns earth's smoothness rough,
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go!
Be our joys three-parts pain!
Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!
For thence,--a paradox
Which comforts while it mocks,--
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail:
What I aspired to be,
And was not, comforts me:
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale.
So, still within this life,
Though lifted o'er its strife,
Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last,
"This rage was right i' the main,
That acquiescence vain:
The Future I may face now I have proved the Past."
For more is not reserved
To man, with soul just nerved
To act to-morrow what he learns to-day:
Here, work enough to watch
The Master work, and catch
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play.
_Robert Browning._