"And how dieth the wise man?
As the fool.

Therefore I hated life; yea, I hated all my labour that I had taken under the sun." The poem is, indeed, an Ecclesiastes of pagan religion.

The assurance of extinction is the worm which gnaws at the heart of the rose: It is so horrible I dare at times imagine to my need Some future state revealed to us by Zeus, Unlimited in capability For joy, as this is in desire for joy.
But this is no better than a dream; Zeus could not but have revealed it, were it possible.

Browning does not bring his Cleon, as Pater brings his Marius, into the Christian catacombs, where the image of the Shepherd bearing his lamb might interpret the mystery of death, nor to that house of Cecilia where Marius sees a new joy illuminating every face.

Cleon has heard of Paulus and of Christus, but who can suppose that a mere barbarian Jew Hath access to a secret shut from us?
The doctrine of Christ, preached on the island by certain slaves, is reported by an intelligent listener to be one which no sane man can accept.