141, 142. “Browning has drawn the portraiture of one to whom the eternal is sensibly present, whose spirit has gained prematurely absolute predominance: . . .and the result is. . .a being ‘Professedly the faultier that he knows God’s secret, while he holds the thread of life’ (vv. 200, 201). Lazarus therefore, while he moves in the world, has lost all sense of proportion in things about him, all measure of and faculty of dealing with that which sways his fellows. He has no power or will to win them to his faith, but he simply stands among men as a patient witness of the overwhelming reality of the divine: a witness whose authority is confessed, even against his inclination, by the student of nature, who turns again and again to the phenomenon which he affects to disparage.
“In this crucial example Browning shows how the exclusive dominance of the spirit destroys the fulness of human life, its uses and powers, while it leaves a passive life, crowned with an unearthly beauty. On the other hand, he shows in his study of Cleon that the richest results of earth in art and speculation, and pleasure and power, are unable to remove from life the desolation of final gloom. . . . The contrast is of the deepest significance. The Jewish peasant endures earth, being in possession of heaven: the Greek poet, in possession of earth, feels that heaven, some future state,
‘Unlimited in capability
For joy, as this is in desire for joy’,
is a necessity for man; but no,
‘Zeus has not yet revealed it; and alas,
He must have done so, were it possible!’
But we must not pause to follow out the contrast into details. It is enough to see broadly that flesh and spirit each claim recognition in connection with their proper spheres, in order that the present life may bear its true result.”—Rev. Prof. Westcott on ‘Browning’s View of Life’ (‘B. Soc. Papers’, IV., pp. 401, 402).
166. object: offer in opposition; see v. 243.
167. our lord: some sage under whom they had learned; see v. 254.
174. Thou and the child have: i.e., for him, Lazarus.
177. Greek fire: see Gibbon, chap. 52. {a flammable liquid, kept so secret that its exact constitution is still unknown.}