7. Christianity—Finally, I must not fail to note, as one of the most remarkable characteristics of his genius, his profound, passionate, living, triumphant faith in Christ, and in the immortality and ultimate redemption of every human soul in and through Christ. For the last point I need but cite " Apparent Failure," where, referring to the three suicides whose corpses he once gazed upon in the Paris Morgue, he declares:—
"I thought, and think, their sin's atoned; "
and concludes:—
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;
That, after Last, returns the First,
Though a wide compass round be fetched;
That what began best, can't end worst,
Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst."
Thoroughly familiar with all modern doubts and disbeliefs, he tramples them all under foot, clinging to the Cross; and this with the full co-operation of his fearless reason, not in spite of it and by its absolute surrender or suppression. A most interesting and valuable essay might be written by an impartial and competent student on the problem, How can Browning be a Christian? but this is scarcely the place for such a discussion. I am not here to argue matters of religion; I am simply taking account of an indubitable and in the highest degree noteworthy fact. It may be objected that if the processes by which he attains and justifies his belief are essential to the belief, there can be but very few real Christian
