first book, commonly called the _Pons Asinorum_ (though now that
so many ladies read Euclid, it ought, in common justice to them, to be
at least sometimes called the _Pons Asinarum_), will agree that
though it may be more difficult to prove that the angles at the base
of an isosceles triangle are equal, and that if the equal sides be
produced, the angles on the other side of the base shall be equal,
than it was to describe an equilateral triangle on a given finite
straight line; yet no one but an ass would say that the fifth
proposition was one whit less intelligible than the first. When we
consider Mr. Browning in his later writings, it will be useful to bear
this distinction in mind.

Our first duty, then, is to consider Mr. Browning in his whole scope
and range, or, in a word, generally. This is a task of such dimensions
and difficulty as, in the language of joint-stock prospectuses, 'to
transcend individual enterprise,' and consequently, as we all know, a
company has been recently floated, or a society established, having
Mr. Browning for its principal object. It has a president, two
secretaries, male and female, and a treasurer. You pay a guinea, and
you become a member. A suitable reduction is, I believe, made in the
unlikely event of all the members of one family flocking to be
enrolled. The existence of this society is a great relief, for it
enables us to deal with our unwieldy theme in a light-hearted manner,
and to refer those who have a passion for solid information and
profound philosophy to the printed transactions of this learned
society, which, lest we should forget all about it, we at once do.

When you are viewing a poet generally, as is our present plight, the
first question is: When was he born? The second, When did he (to use a
favourite phrase of the last century, now in disuse)--When did he