so rapt in his ecstasy over the solemn sweep of the Biblical music that
he did not observe a small following consisting of several eager children,
expectant of thrilling stump-oratory. He was just the man, however,
to accept an anti-climax genially, and to dismiss his disappointed auditory
with something more tangible than an address.

The poet-precursor of scientific knowledge is again and again manifest:
as, for example, in

"Hints and previsions of which faculties
Are strewn confusedly everywhere about
The inferior natures, and all lead up higher,
All shape out dimly the superior race,
The heir of hopes too fair to turn out false,
And man appears at last."*

--
* 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."