ic or philosophical fashion in the fables. In the
first fable, "The Eagle," the Dervish observes an eagle feeding some
deserted ravens. His first inference is that men will be cared for as
the ravens, without effort of their own; later he sees that men should
be as eagles and provide for the weak. The Dervish at once seeks the
largest sphere of human usefulness with the words

"And since men congregate
In towns, not woods--to Ispahan forthwith!"

The lyric protests against the temptation to self-centered seclusion on
the part of those who are entirely satisfied in each other's love.

PROLOGUE TO ASOLANDO

The volume of poems entitled _Asolando_ was, by a strange chance,
published on the day of Browning's death. Most of these poems were
written in 1888-1889. The book was dedicated to Mrs. Arthur Bronson. The
"Prologue" should be compared with Wordsworth's "Ode on Intimations of
Immortality."

13. _Chrysopras._ The ruby and the emerald of this passage stand for
rich red and green. The chrysopras is also green (an apple green variety
of Chalcedony), but the first part of the word is from the Greek
[Greek: chrysos], "gold," and that may be the color intended
here.

SUMMUM BONUM

The title means, The Chief Good. The poem came out in _Asolando_ in
1889.

EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO

In the _Pall Mall Gazette_, Feb. 1, 1890 the following incident is given
concerning the third stanza of this poem:

"One evening just before his death illness, the poet was reading this
from a proof to his daughter-in-law and sister. He said: 'It almost
looks like bragging to say this, and as if I ought to cancel it; but
it's the simple truth; and as it's true, it shall stand.'"

Compare this poem and Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar."

PIPPA PASSES

Mrs. Sutherland Orr writes that while Browning was one day strolling
through Dulwich Wood "the image flashed upon him of someone walking ...
alone through life; one apparently too obscure to leave a trace of his
or her passage, yet exercising a lasting though unconscious influence at
every step of it; and the image shaped itself into the little
silk-winder of Asolo, Felippa, or Pippa."

INTRODUCTION

_Asolo in the Trevisan._ Asolo, a fortified medieval town at the foot of
a hill surmounted by the ruins of a castle, and situated in the center
of the silk-growing and silk-spinning industries, is in the province of
Treviso about thirty-three miles northwest o