he yet points to the strength of the Church as safeguarding, by her rule as "a law of life," those whose natural impulses may not be relied on to lead them to follow the course of Caponsacchi, and to whom it would not be safe to grant the permission: "Ask _your_ hearts as _I_ asked mine." To these and such as these the law of life laid down by the Church's rule is essential. Whatever the traditions of the past, whatever the possibilities of ecclesiastical modifications and developments in the future, in the present no considerations of personal interest or compassion must be permitted to warp the judgment of him who is armed With Paul's sword as with Peter's key. And it is to be remembered, that the man who could thus reason, thus decide, was head of that Church which excited the mocking condemnation of the soliloquist of _Christmas Eve_: and that Caponsacchi, "the warrior-priest, the soldier-saint," bore likewise the title of Canon. To so remember may serve to cast new light upon Browning's supposed attitude towards Roman Catholicism. VI. The most important subject of discussion in relation to _Easter Day_ is that touching its so-called asceticism. Here also, as in _Christmas Eve_, two interdependent questions must be asked: (1) What is the _nature_ of the asceticism advocated by the First Speaker? (2) How far may it be regarded as the expression of Browning's own theory of life? A plain answer to the first question is necessary in order that, by comparison with the treatment of the same subject elsewhere, it may be possible to determine the extent to which the opinions advanced are in agreement: whether Browning was desirous of advocating renunciation even in the degree held essential by the First Speaker. The key to the position seems to be contained in two recorded comments on the poem by the poet and his wife. When Mrs. Browning complained of the "asceticism," her husband answered, that it stated "_one side_ of the question." Her supplementary observation adds, "It is his way to _see_ things as passionately as other people _feel_ them."[81] It was by the exercise of this exceptionally powerful imaginative faculty that the author of _Easter Day_ has dramatically stated the case which he perceived might be made out for renunciation, as well as for grateful acceptance and enjoyment of the gifts of life. If we admit the accuracy of the criticism which would define the spirit of the poem as refusing to recognize, "in poetry or art, or the attainments of the intellect, or even in the best human love, any practical correspondence with religion,"[82] then indeed we are bound to acknowledge that it stands absolutely alone in Browning's work and is in direct opposition to his theory of life. I venture to think, however, that a careful study of this particular aspect of the poem will result in the conviction that the First Speaker is represented as realizing that, desirable as is renunciation in his own case, it is not the highest course