he had no time to think of what tones called them up, and now
all is past and gone. His magic palace, unlike that of Solomon,
has `melted into air, into thin air', and, `like the baseless fabric
of a vision', only the memory of it is left. . . . And, depressed by
this saddest of human experiences, . . .he turns away impatient from
the promise of more and better, to demand from God the same --
the very same. Browning with magnificent assurance answers,
`yes, you shall have the same'.

"`Fool! all that is at all,
Lasts ever, past recall.'

"`Ay, what was, shall be.'

". . .the ineffable Name which built the palace of King Solomon,
which builds houses not made with hands -- houses of flesh
which souls inhabit, craving for a heart and a love to fill them,
can and will satisfy their longings; . . .I know no other words
in the English language which compresses into small compass
such a body of high and inclusive thought as verse nine.
(1) God the sole changeless, to whom we turn with passionate desire
as the one abiding-place, as we find how all things suffer loss
and change, ourselves, alas! the greatest. (2) His power and love
able and willing to satisfy the hearts of His creatures --
the thought expatiated on by St. Augustine and George Herbert
here crystallized in one line: -- `Doubt that Thy power can fill the
heart that Thy power expands?' (3) Then the magnificent declaration,
`There shall never be one lost good' -- the eternal nature of goodness,
while its opposite evil. . .is a non-essential which shall one day
pass away entirely, and be swallowed up of good. . . .