The man who believes in the future life, he seems to say, may enjoy
whole-heartedly and enthusiastically the positive pleasures of this
world, and may endure with a firm mind its evils and its terrible
sufferings. Take Christianity out of Browning, and his whole
philosophy, with its cheerful outlook, falls to the ground. Of all
true English poets, he is the most definitely Christian, the most
sure of his ground. He wrote out his own evangelical creed in
_Christmas-Eve_ and _Easter Day_; but even if we did not have
these definite assurances, poems like _A Death in the Desert_ and
_Gold Hair_ would be sufficient.
Sequels are usually failures: the sequel to _Saul_ is a notable
exception to the rule. The first part of the poem, including the
first nine stanzas, was published among the _Dramatic Romances_ in
1845: in 1855, among the _Men and Women_, appeared the whole work,
containing ten additional stanzas. This sequel is fully up to the
standard of the original in artistic beauty, and contains a quite
new climax, of even greater intensity.
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