ABSTRACT
The introduction to La Saisiaz bulks somewhat largely when compared with the main body of the poem, occupying twenty-two or, by another computation, thirty-two pages out of eighty, and ought not therefore to be passed by without reference. It would have been my wish, had I been able to accomplish it, to have discoursed upon La Saisiaz as a work of art, and not merely as a contribution to the study of a problem of philosophy. La Saisiaz closes with the judgment that future life is, and can only fulfil its disciplinary function by remaining, a hopea hope; no less, no more. La Saisiaz Mr. Browning appears to me to subordinate, if not indeed to sacrifice, the poetic and prophetic elements to the ratiocinative. Limitation of power is a note of all human effort: to say that Mr. Browning has limitations is only to say that he has what no man has ever been without.
