Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) BROWNING AND HIS CENTURY BY THE SAME AUTHOR BROWNING'S ITALY BROWNING'S ENGLAND A GUIDE TO MYTHOLOGY ANCIENT MYTHS IN MODERN POETS LONGFELLOW'S COUNTRY HAWTHORNE'S COUNTRY THE POETS' NEW ENGLAND [Illustration: BROWNING AT 23 (LONDON 1835)] Browning and His Century BY HELEN ARCHIBALD CLARKE Author of "_Browning's Italy_," "_Browning's England_," etc. ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1912 _Copyright, 1912, by_ DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ To THE BOSTON BROWNING SOCIETY IN COMMEMORATION OF THE BROWNING CENTENARY--1812-1912 CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I THE BATTLE OF MIND AND SPIRIT 3 CHAPTER II THE CENTURY'S END: PROMISE OF PEACE 77 CHAPTER III POLITICAL TENDENCIES 118 CHAPTER IV SOCIAL IDEALS 174 CHAPTER V ART SHIBBOLETHS 217 CHAPTER VI CLASSIC SURVIVALS 277 CHAPTER VII PROPHETIC VISIONS 342 ILLUSTRATIONS Browning at 23 (London 1835) _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Paracelsus 38 Herbert Spencer 94 David Strauss 112 Cardinal Wiseman 120 William Ewart Gladstone 160 William Morris 196 John Burns 208 Alfred Tennyson 250 A. C. Swinburne 260 Dante Gabriel Rossetti 266 George Meredith 272 Euripides 296 Aristophanes 306 Walter Savage Landor 330 Browning at 77 (1889) 360 BROWNING AND HIS CENTURY PROLOGUE TO ROBERT BROWNING