under the attack on his old conceptions, but he never yielded to it. He
was angry with himself for every doubt that beset him, and angry with
the Science and Criticism which disturbed the ancient ideas he was
determined not to change. Finally, he rested where he had been when he
wrote _In Memoriam_, nay more, where he had been when he began to write.

There were no such intervals in Browning's thought. One could scarcely
say from his poetry, except in a very few places, that he was aware of
the social changes of his time, or of the scientific and critical
movement which, while he lived, so profoundly modified both theology and
religion.[2] _Asolando_, in 1890, strikes the same chords, but more
feebly, which _Paracelsus_ struck in 1835.

But though, in this lofty apartness and self-unity, Browning and
Tennyson may fairly be said to be at one, in themselves and in their
song they were different. There could scarcely be two characters, two
musics, two minds, two methods in art, two imaginations, more distinct
and contrasted than those which lodged in these men--and the object of
this introduction is to bring out this contrast, with the purpose of
placing in a clearer light some of the peculiar elements in the poetry
of Browning, and in his position as a poet.

1. Their public fate was singularly different. In 1842 Tennyson, with
his two volumes of Collected Poems, made his position. The _Princess_,
in 1847, increased his reputation. In 1850, _In Memoriam_ raised him,
it was said, above all the poets of his time, and the book was
appreciated, read and loved by the greater part of the English-speaking
world. The success and popular fame which now followed were well
deserved and wisely borne. They have endured and will endure. A host of
imitators, who caught his music and his manner, filled the groves and