freshest hours of mind and spirit, that she has done something to
help her author in the achievement of his, however discouraged still
irrepressible, desire, by giving additional currency to a book which
the best sort of readers will recognize as an excellent and certainly
very versatile companion, not to be forgotten.

17th March 1886





III. BROWNING





An Introduction to the Study of Browning.
By Arthur Symons. Cassells.


[41] WHETHER it be true or not that Mr. Browning is justly chargeable
with "obscurity"--with a difficulty of manner, that is, beyond the
intrinsic difficulty of his matter--it is very probable that an
Introduction to the study of his works, such as this of Mr. Symons,
will add to the number of his readers. Mr. Symons's opening essay on
the general characteristics of Mr. Browning is a just and acceptable
appreciation of his poetry as a whole, well worth reading, even at
this late day. We find in Mr. Symons the thoughtful and practised