The double rhymes are not used here. Later on, after the English victory and the storm, they are used again, for the purpose of additional force. The address is to the Spaniards and to their gods. Lords of _night_, who would breathe your _blight_ on April's morning and August's _noon_, God your _Lord_, the condemned, the _abhorred_, sinks hell-ward, smitten with deathlike _swoon_, Death's own _dart_ in his hateful _heart_ now thrills, and night shall receive him _soon._ God the _Devil_, thy reign of _revel_ is here forever eclipsed and _fled_; God the _Liar_, everlasting _fire_ lays hold at last on thee, hand and _head._ Page after page of constantly varying measures of this kind will be found in the poem--a poem which notwithstanding its strong violence at times, represents the power of the verse-maker better than almost any other single piece in the work of his later years. From what extracts we have already made, I think you will see enough of the value and beauty of Swinburne's diction to take in it such interest as it really deserves. We might continue the study of this author for a much longer time. But the year is waning, the third term, which is very short, will soon be upon us; and I wish to turn with you next week to the study of Browning. CHAPTER IV STUDIES IN BROWNING Robert Browning very much reminds us in some respects of the American thinker, Emerson. The main doctrine of Emerson is Individualism; and this happens also to be the main doctrine of Browning. By Individualism, Emerson and Browning mean self-cultivation. Both thought that the highest possible duty of every man was to develop the best powers of his mind and body to the utmost possible degree. Make yourself strong--that, is the teaching. You are only a man, not a god; therefore it is very likely that you will do many things which are very wrong or very foolish. But whatever you do, even if it be wrong, do it well--do it with all your strength. Even a strong sin may be better than a cowardly virtue. Weakness is of all things the worst. When we do wrong, experience soon, teaches us our mistake. And the stronger the mistake has been, the more quickly will the experience come which corrects and purifies. Now you understand what I mean by Individualism--the cultivation by untiring exercise of all our best faculties, and especially of the force and courage to act.