Another interesting instance of Browning's presenting a line of reasoning which resembles very strongly one phase of present-day philosophy is to be found in "Bishop Blougram's Apology." The worldly Bishop gives voice to good pragmatic doctrine, which in a nutshell is, "believe in, or rather follow, that ideal which will be of the most use to you, and if it turns out not to be successful, then try another one." The poet declares that Blougram said good things but called them by wrong names. If the ideal is a high one there is no great danger in such reasoning, but it can very easily be turned into sophistical arguments for an ideal of living to thoroughly selfish ends, as Blougram actually did. The poem might almost be taken as a prophetic criticism of the weak aspects of pragmatism. The belief in immortality which pervades Browning's work often comes out in a form suggesting the idea of reincarnation. His future for the human soul is not a heaven of bliss, but life in other worlds full of activity and aspiration. This note is struck in "Paracelsus," where life's destiny is described to be the climbing of pleasure's heights forever the seeking of a flying point of bliss remote. In his last volume the idea is more fully brought out in "Rephan." In this it is held that a state of perfect bliss might grow monotonous, and that a preferable state would be to aspire, yet never attain, to the object aimed at. The transmigration is from "Rephan," where all was merged in a neutral Best to Earth, where the soul which had been stagnating would have an opportunity to strive, not rest. The most beautiful expression, however, of the idea of a future of many lives is found in "One Word More": "So it seems: I stand on my attainment. This of verse, alone, one life allows me; Verse and nothing else have I to give you. Other heights in other lives, God willing: All the gifts from all the heights, your own, Love!" Though the theory of reincarnation is so ancient a one, and one entirely discredited by Christianity, Browning was again expressing an ideal which was to be revived in our own day. Oriental thought has made it almost a commonplace of talk. Many people doubtless speak of what they mean to do in their next incarnation without having the thought very deeply imbedded in their consciousness, yet the mere fact that one hears the remark so often proves what a hold the theory has on the imagination of mankind. As Browning gives it in "One Word More," the successive incarnations take one on to higher heights--"other lives in other worlds." Thus regarded, it is the final outcome of evolution and progress, a process to be carried forward in other worlds than our own, and has no degrading suggestion of a degenerating, because of sin, into lower forms of existence. The movement is always upward. Thus it has been effected by the idea that progress is the law of life, and that evolution means, on the whole, progress.