a lie to set it going, and thinks it likely enough
that God allows him to imagine he is wielding a sham power, because he
would die of fright if he knew it was a real one. He adds one or two
somewhat irrelevant items to his defence; then finding his patron
unconvinced, discharges on him a volley of abuse, and decides to try his
luck elsewhere. "There must be plenty more fools in other parts of the
world."

ARGUMENTATIVE POEMS CONTINUED.

(REFLECTIONS.)

To the second class of these poems, which are of the nature of
reflections, belong--taking them in the order of their importance:--

"Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day." (1850.)
"La Saisiaz." (1878.)
"Cleon." ("Men and Women.") (1855.)
"An Epistle containing the strange medical experience of Karshish,
the Arab physician." ("Men and Women.") (1855.)
"Caliban upon Setebos; or Natural Theology in the Island."
(Dramatis Personae.) (1864.)

CHRISTMAS-EVE AND EASTER-DAY are two distinct poems, printed under this
one head: and each describing a spiritual experience appropriate to the
day, and lived through in a vision of Christ. This vision presents
itself to the reader as a probable or obvious hallucination, or even a
simple dream; but its utterances are more or less dogmatic; they contain
much which is in harmony with Mr. Browning's known views; and it is
difficult at first sight to regard them in either case as proceeding
from an imaginary person who is only feeling his way to the truth. This,
however, they prove themselves to be.

The first poem is a narrative. Its various scenes are enacted on a
stormy Christmas Eve; and it opens with a humorous description of a
little dissenting chapel, supposed to stand at the edge of a common; and
of the various types of squalid but self-satisfied humanity which find
their spiritual pasture within its walls. The narrator has just "burst
out" of it. He never meant to go in. But the rain had forced him to take
shelter in its porch, as evening service was about to begin: and the
defiant looks of the elect as they pushed past him one by one, had
impelled him to assert his rights as a Christian, and push in too. The
stupid ranting irreverence of the pastor, and the snuffling satisfaction
of the flock, were soon, however, too much for him, and in a very short
time he was again--where we find him--out in the fresh night air.

Free from the constraint of the chapel, he takes a more tolerant view of