fe, on the side of morals; but
he has missed the corresponding truth on the side of knowledge. If he
acknowledges that the highest revealed itself to man, on the practical
side, as love; he does not see that it has also manifested itself to
man, on the theoretical side, as reason. The self-communication of the
Infinite is incomplete love is a quality of God, intelligence a quality
of man; hence, on one side, there is no limit to achievement, but on the
other there is impotence. Human nature is absolutely divided against
itself; and the division, as we have already seen, is not between flesh
and spirit, but between a love which is God's own and perfect, and an
intelligence which is merely man's and altogether weak and deceptive.

This is what makes Browning think it impossible to re-establish faith in
God, except by turning his back on knowledge; but whether it is possible
for him to appeal to the moral consciousness, we shall inquire in the
next chapter.

CHAPTER X.

THE HEART AND THE HEAD.--LOVE AND REASON.

"And though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to
play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do
injuriously by licensing and prohibiting to misdoubt her
strength. Let her and falsehood grapple; who ever knew
truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter."[A]

[Footnote A: Milton's _Areopagitica_.]

It has been shown that Browning appeals, in defence of his optimistic
faith, from the intellect to the heart. His theory rests on three main
assumptions:--namely (1) that knowledge of the true nature of things is
impossible to man, and that, therefore, it is necessary to find other
and better evidence than the intellect can give for the victory of good
over evil; (2) that the failure of knowledge is a necessary condition of
the moral life, inasmuch as certain knowledge would render all moral
effort either futile or needless; (3) that after the failure of
knowledge there still remains possible a faith of the heart, which can
furnish a sufficient objective basis to morality and religion. The first
of these assumptions I endeavoured to deal with in the last chapter. I
now turn to the remaining two.

Demonstrative, or certain, or absolute knowledge of the actual nature of
things would, Browning asserts, destroy the very possibility of a moral
life.[A] For such knowledge would show either that evil is evil, or that
evil is good; and, in both cases alike, the benevolent a