mit
diesem Glauben wird nichts so sproede und hart seyn, das
sich ihm nicht eroeffnete. Das zuerst verborgene und
verschlossene Wesen des Universums hat keine Kraft, die
dem Muthe des Erkennens Widerstand leisten koennte: es muss
sich vor ihm aufthun, und seinen Reichthum und seine
Tiefen ihm vor Augen legen und zum Genusse geben."[A]

[Footnote A: _Hegel's Inaugural Address at Heidelberg_.]

Before entering upon a criticism of Browning's theory, as represented in
the last chapter, it may be well to give a brief summary of it.

The most interesting feature of Browning's proof of his optimistic faith
is his appeal from the intelligence to the moral consciousness. To show
theoretically that evil is merely phenomenal is, in his view, both
impossible and undesirable. It is impossible, because the human
intellect is incapable of knowing anything as it really is, or of
pronouncing upon the ultimate nature of any phenomenon. It is
undesirable, because a theoretical proof of the evanescence of evil
would itself give rise to the greatest of all evils. The best thing in
the world is moral character. Man exists in order to grow better, and
the world exists in order to help him. But moral growth is possible only
through conflict against evil, or what seems to be evil; hence, to
disprove the existence of evil would be to take away the possibility of
learning goodness, to stultify all human effort, and to deprive the
world of its meaning.

But, if an optimistic doctrine cannot be reached by way of speculative
thought, if the intellect of man cannot see the good in things evil, his
moral consciousness guarantees that all is for the best, and that "the
good is all in all." For, in distinguishing between good and evil, the
moral consciousness sets up an ideal over against the actual. It
conceives of a scheme of goodness which is not realized in the world,
and it condemns the world as it is. Man, as moral being, is so
constituted that he cannot but regard the evil in the world as something
to be annulled. If he had only the power, there would be no pain, no
sorrow, no weakness, no failure, no death. Is man, then, better than the
Power which made the world and let woe gain entrance into it? No!
answers the poet; for man himself is part of that world and the product
of that Power. The Power that made the world also made the moral
consciousness which condemns the world; if it is the source of the evil
in the wor