The author of the _Phoedrus_ saw in the ecstasy of Love one of the avenues to the knowledge of the things that indeed are.

To Dante the supreme realities were mirrored in the eyes of Beatrice.

For Shelley Love was interwoven through all the mazes of Being; it was the source of the strength by which man masters his gods.

To all these masters of idealism Browning's vision of Love owed something of its intensity and of its range.

With the ethical Love of Jesus and St Paul his affinities were more apparent, but less profound.