And man appears at last."[10]

[Footnote 10: Readers interested in Browning's inspiration from, and
treatment of, Science, should consult the excellent essay on him as "A
Scientific Poet" by Mr. Edward Berdoe, F.R.C.S., and, in particular,
compare with the originals the references given by Mr. Berdoe to the
numerous passages bearing upon Evolution and the several sciences, from
Astronomy to Physiology.]

There are lines, again, which have a magic that cannot be defined. If it
be not felt, no sense of it can be conveyed through another's words.

"Whose memories were a solace to me oft,
As mountain-baths to wild fowls in their flight."

"Ask the gier-eagle why she stoops at once
Into the vast and unexplored abyss,
What full-grown power informs her from the first,
Why she not marvels, strenuously beating
The silent boundless regions of the sky."

There is one passage, beautiful in itself, which has a pathetic
significance henceforth. Gordon, our most revered hero, was wont to
declare that nothing in all nonscriptural literature was so dear to him,
nothing had so often inspired him in moments of gloom:--

"I go to prove my soul!
I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive! What time, what circuit first,
I ask not: but unless God send His hail