he has no affinities. The poetry of despair and poets with the dumps
he cannot away with.

Perhaps the most comprehensive passage in Browning's poetry,
expressive of his ideal of a complete man under the conditions
of earth-life, is found in `Colombe's Birthday', Act IV.
Valence says of Prince Berthold: --

"He gathers earth's WHOLE GOOD into his arms, standing, as man, now,
stately, strong and wise -- marching to fortune, not surprised by her:
one great aim, like a guiding star above -- which tasks strength,
wisdom, stateliness, to lift his manhood to the height
that takes the prize; a prize not near -- lest overlooking earth,
he rashly spring to seize it -- nor remote, so that
he rests upon his path content: but day by day, while shimmering
grows shine, and the faint circlet prophesies the orb,
he sees so much as, just evolving these, the stateliness, the wisdom,
and the strength to due completion, will suffice this life,
and lead him at his grandest to the grave."

Browning fully recognizes, to use an expression in his
`Fra Lippo Lippi', fully recognizes "the value and significance
of flesh." A healthy and well-toned spiritual life is with him
the furthest removed from asceticism. To the passage from
his `Rabbi Ben Ezra' already quoted, "all good things are ours,
nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul",
should be added what David sings to Saul, in the poem entitled `Saul'.
Was the full physical life ever more beautifully sung?

"Oh! our manhood's prime vigour! no spirit feels waste,