chances upon Eckhart's image of the "spark" in the centre of the soul, and gives it a new turn in accordance with his own Mysticism-- "It would not be because my eye grew dim Thou could'st not find the love there, thanks to Him Who never is dishonoured in the spark He gave us from His fire of fires, and bade Remember whence it sprang, nor be afraid While that burns on, though all the rest grow dark.[397]" Our language has no separate words to distinguish Christian love ([Greek: agapê]--_caritas_) from sexual love ([Greek: erôs]--_amor_); "charity" has not established itself in its wider meaning. Perhaps this is not to be regretted--at any rate Browning's poems could hardly be translated into any language in which this distinction exists. But let us not forget that the _ascetic_ element is as strong in Browning as in Wordsworth. Love, he seems to indicate, is no exception to the rule that our joys may be "three parts pain," for "where pain ends gain ends too.[398]" "Not yet on thee Shall burst the future, as successive zones Of several wonder open on some spirit Flying secure and glad from heaven to heaven; But thou shalt painfully attain to joy, While hope and fear and love shall keep thee man.[399]" He even carries this law into the future life, and will have none of a "joy which is crystallised for ever." Felt imperfection is a proof of a higher birthright:[400] if we have arrived at the completion of our nature as men, then "begins anew a tendency to God." This faith in unending progress as the law of life is very characteristic of our own age.[401] It assumes a questionable shape sometimes; but Browning's trust in real success through apparent disappointments--a trust even _based_ on the consciousness of present failure--is certainly one of the noblest parts of his religious philosophy.