vault of heaven. See King's Ovid, "Metamorphoses," iv. 744. 323. Old hunter talking with gods: possibly Peleus, who went on the Calydonian Hunt, and at whose wedding to the sea-nymph Thetis all the gods were present. Thetis afterwards made him an immortal god. See Euripides, "Andromache.' 324. High-crested chief sailing with troops of friends to Tenedos: after the fall of Troy many of the Greek chiefs, among them Nestor, set sail for home, while others, at the desire of Agamemnon, remained behind to sacrifice to Pallas. Those who set sail went to the island of Tenedos, where they made offerings to the gods. Bryant's Odyssey of Homer," iii. 200. See 331. Dim clustered isles in the blue sea: the clusters of islands in the Ægean Sea, east of Greece. 334. Who stood beside the naked Swift-footed: Hermes, son of Zeus and Maia, herald of the gods, whose office it was to carry the shades of the dead to Hades, and who had winged sandals. See schylus, "Choephora," 136; Ovid, "Metamorphoses," ii. 862. 335. Who bound my forehead with Proserpine's hair: Proserpine, or Persephone, death-bringer, the queen of Pluto, with whom she reigned over the lower world. Homer, "Odyssey,” x. 608. See 403. White Way: the broad, irregular, luminous zone in the heavens, supposed to be made up of innumerable fixed stars, called the Milky Way, or the Galaxy. 404. Not so much on a system as a man: a reference, according to Mrs. Orr, to Plato, to whom there is another reference at line 436. The description, however, appears to fit Shelley better than Plato, both as to the personality described and from the fact that the speaker "gathers sense" from words " song inwoven." It also chimes in well with Browning's estimate of the noblest characteristic of Shelley's poetry, as "a presentment of the correspon dency of the universe to Deity, of the natural to the spiritual, and of the actual to the ideal," explained in his essay on Shelley, and there is also a close accordance with the closing passage of that essay where Browning speaks of "the signal service it was the dream of [his] boyhood to render to [Shelley's] fame and memory. 435. Who lived with Plato and who had the key to life: Plato, a celebrated Greek philosopher (429-347 B.. C.). In his "" Republic" he presents an ideal State which is supposed to solve the problem of perfect living. Plato's "system" seems to have been a secondary influence following that of the "man," Shelley. 479. As Arab birds float sleeping in the wind: the pelican, which is one of the birds to be found in Arabia, frequently, in latitudes far from land, continues its flight all night, often floating for a long time without moving its wings. Or, perhaps, the Birds of Paradise, which were fabled to have no legs, and which therefore never settled. They were regarded as aerial sylphs, whose home was the bright expanse of sky where all the functions of life were carried on; they never touched the earth, and their food was the morning's dew. 527. One branch from the gold-forest, etc. in the Æneid it is described how Æneas found a golden bough which the Cumæan Sibyl told him he would have to bring as an offering to Proserpine if he wished to be admitted to visit Hades. Perhaps Browning had this in mind. See Book vi. 567. That king treading the purple calmly to his death: Agamemnon, King of Mycene and Argos and commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in the Trojan war. After the ruin of Troy, Cassandra fell to his lot, and in vain warned him that he would be murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra. See Potter's Eschylus, "Agamemnon,' 1017; also Browning's translation of "Agamemnon.' 572. And him sitting alone in blood while friends are hunting far in the sunshine: possibly Acteon, who was torn to pieces by his own dogs in a hunt as a punishment for having accidentally come upon Diana bathing. See Ovid, "Metamorphoses," 3. 573. And the boy with his white breast and brow and clustering curls, etc.: Orestes, who avenged the death of his father, Agamemnon, by killing his mother, ClytemSee Potter's Æschylus, “Choephoræ,” 1073. nestra. 656. Andromeda : Cepheus was ordered by an oracle to sacrifice his daughter Andromeda to a sea-monster, in order to appease the sea-nymphs, who were offended at her mother, Cassiopea, because she strove to set her beauty above theirs. She was rescued by Perseus. The Andromeda described, says Mrs. Orr, is that of Polidoro di Caravaggio, of which Browning possessed an engraving which was always before his eyes as he wrote his earlier poems. The original was painted on the wall of a garden attached to the Palazzo Bufalo, or del Bufalo, in Rome. The wall has been pulled down since Browning was last there. See also Ovid, "Metamorphoses," iv. 792. 761. Lymph: water. 964. The fair pale sister, went to her chill grave: Antigone, who preferred the sentence of being buried alive to obeying Creon's decree forbidding her to bury her brother. See Sophocles, "Antigone," 760. PARACELSUS. Paracelsus. Broadly speaking, the figure of Paracelsus stands for a transitional stage in the search for knowledge between the magical methods of the Middle Ages and the scientific methods of the present. He hopes to find through the study of phenomena the principles and sources of phenomena. Though his desire to reach ultimate causes could not be realized, his methods open the way to a more accurate study of phenomena. Part I. In loving converse with his two friends, Paracelsus talks, on the eve of his departure in quest of knowledge, of his boundless aspirations, and justifies himself for his course against the doubts and discouragements of Festus. It appears from the conversation that Paracelsus had in his youth eagerly sought the knowledge of the schools until he becomes aware of its futility as having any end beyond itself, or as contributing in any way to the welfare of mankind. He is possessed by the idea that he has been chosen by God to attain true knowledge by methods different from theirs, and in that knowledge find the good of man. He would dispense with the wisdom of the past and the lore of the adepts in magic and the black arts, and, wandering up and down the world, would, For God-directed, wrest from nature the secret of life. this service he would take no reward of praise or love, Festus is in sympathy with his high hopes, but mistrusts his methods. He would have Paracelsus trust to the wisdom of the sages rather than upon knowledge he can individually gain from nature. He questions whether Paracelsus has not rather a wild desire for the distinction of being thus chosen by God than any certainty that he has been chosen, and declares that the throwing off of human aid and the indifference to love is a blotch for To all these which strange punishments will follow. doubts Paracelsus replies with the assurance of one convinced of the sacred character of his intuition, and ends the discussion with the statement of his belief that truth is indwelling in all human souls, and knowledge the setting free of the truth, rather than the breaking in of light from without. To discover how by means of the sacred knowledge dispersed about the world the truth within the soul of all alike may be set free and the whole $ race elevated at once, is the aim of Paracelsus. II. Paracelsus is discovered at the house of a Greek conjurer, in whose book he has written down his life. Having devoted himself steadily to his chosen aim, he has accumulated much knowledge, but the secret, the source of knowledge, remains as far off as ever, and in despair he has begun to consult with jugglers and He astrologers, though scorning himself for so doing. wishes he might discover some secret such as the alchemists sought, gold or the elixir of life, in order that he might prove the purity and supremacy of his aim bv casting it from him. Yet he begs God to kill him rather than let him lose faith in the power of his own mind. Then the poet Aprile appears, tells Paracelsus he has aspired to love infinitely, -to be the artist, the musician, the poet, who would transmute all life and nature int beautiful forms of art for love of mankind. He, too, had failed, because beauty in its completeness being heyond his human power to grasp, he wavered between gling out some one form to present in fulness to mar kind, and his love for all the other forms of beauty, peers of any he might choose, and ends in doing nothing. He hails Paracelsus as king, unconscious evidently of his failure, and Paracelsus realizes that his schemes for the welfare of mankind have lacked the quality of love. It does not seem clear that Aprile attributed his own failure, as Paracelsus does, to the fact that he did not recognize knowledge in his ideal. He seems rather to attribute it to his attempt to love with a completeness only possible to God. III. Paracelsus has become a professor at Basel whe he meets and talks again with Festus, who glories in the success, as it appears to him, of his friend. After muc talk, Paracelsus makes Festus understand that he has failed utterly in his ultimate aim, the discovery of absclute truth. He has decided, influenced by Aprile, to give what he can to men in the learning he has gained, though his scorn of his hearers precludes the idea that he is really actuated by love. He will live his life as if it were a task to be fulfilled, expecting at any time that his followers will turn against him because of his innovations upon the old methods. In spite of the fact that he is convinced of the futility of his search for absolute knowledge, the ideal has taken such hold of him that he feel he may return to the search since he has lost all part in the human qualities of love, hope, fear, faith. IV. The expected reaction against him having come, Paracelsus declares to Festus his intention of again going |