“I say, that as the babe, you feed awhile, Becomes a boy and fit to feed himself, So, minds at first must be spoon-fed with truth: {455} When they can eat, babe’s nurture is withdrawn. I fed the babe whether it would or no: I bid the boy or feed himself or starve. I cried once, ‘That ye may believe in Christ, Behold this blind man shall receive his sight!’ {460} I cry now, ‘Urgest thou, FOR I AM SHREWD, AND SMILE AT STORIES HOW JOHN’S WORD COULD CURE-- REPEAT THAT MIRACLE AND TAKE MY FAITH?’ I say, that miracle was duly wrought When, save for it, no faith was possible. {465} Whether a change were wrought i’ the shows o’ the world, Whether the change came from our minds which see Of shows o’ the world so much as and no more Than God wills for His purpose,--(what do I See now, suppose you, there where you see rock {470} Round us?)--I know not; such was the effect, So faith grew, making void more miracles Because too much: they would compel, not help. I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ Accepted by thy reason, solves for thee {475} All questions in the earth and out of it, And has so far advanced thee to be wise. Wouldst thou unprove this to re-prove the proved? In life’s mere minute, with power to use that proof, Leave knowledge and revert to how it sprung? {480} Thou hast it; use it and forthwith, or die! -- 472. So faith grew, making void more miracles: the outward manifestations of spiritual powers (du/namis, ‘power’, ‘act of power’, and shmei^on, ‘sign’, ‘token’, are the original words in the N. T., which are translated ‘miracle’) gave place to subjective proof. Christianity was endorsed by man’s own soul. To this may be added, that even the historical bulwarks of Christianity may, ere long, be dispensed with. 474-481. These verses may be taken as presenting Browning’s own conclusion as to the whole duty of man, in a spiritual direction. And see the quotation from ‘Christmas Eve’ and the remarks which follow, on pp. 63 and 64. {In etext, Chapter II, Section 3 of Introduction.} --