uctive purpose; and thus becomes the centre of another small
division of Mr. Browning's poems, which for want of a less ugly and
hackneyed word we may call "didactic."

DIDACTIC POEMS.

The poems contained in this group are, taking them in the order of their
importance,

"A Death in the Desert." Dramatis Personae. 1864.
"Rabbi Ben Ezra." Dramatis Personae. 1864.
"Deaf and Dumb: a group by Woolner." Dramatis Personae. 1864.
"The Statue and the Bust." Dramatic Romances. Published in "Men and
Women." 1855.

"A DEATH IN THE DESERT" is the record of an imaginary last scene in the
life of St. John. It is conceived in perfect harmony with the facts of
the case: the great age which the Evangelist attained: the mystery which
shrouded his death: the persecutions which had overtaken the Church: the
heresies which already threatened to disturb it; but Mr. Browning has
given to St. John a foreknowledge of that age of philosophic doubt in
which its very foundations would be shaken; and has made him the
exponent of his own belief--already hinted in "Easter Eve" and "Bishop
Blougram:" to be fully set forth in "The Ring and the Book" and "La
Saisiaz"--that such doubt is ordained for the maturer mind, as the test
of faith, and its preserver.

The supposed last words of the Evangelist, and the circumstances in
which they were spoken, are reported by loving simplicity as by one who
heard them, and who puts forward this evidence of St. John's death
against the current belief that he lingers yet upon earth. The account,
first spoken, then written, has passed apparently from hand to hand, as
one disciple after the other died the martyr's death; and we find the
MS. in the possession of an unnamed person, and prefaced by him with a
descriptive note, in which religious reverence and bibliographical
interest are touchingly blended with each other.

St. John is dying in the desert, concealed in an inmost chamber of the
rock. Four grown disciples and a boy are with him. He lies as if in
sleep. But, as the end approaches, faint signs of consciousness appear
about the mouth and eyes, and the patient and loving ministrations of
those about him nurse the flickering vital spark into a flame.

St. John returns to life, feeling, as it were, the retreating soul
forced back upon the ashes of his brain, and taxing the flesh to one
supreme exertion. But he lives again in a far off time when "John" is
dead, and there is