Two conceptions, in fact, of the life after death, corresponding to divergent aspects of his thought, contend in Browning's mind.

Now it is a state of emancipation from earthly limits,--when the "broken arcs" become "perfect rounds" and "evil" is transformed into "so much good more," and "reward and repose" succeed the "struggles"[125] by which they have been won.

But at times he startles the devout reader by foreshadowing not a sudden transformation but a continuation of the slow educative process of earth in a succession of preliminary heavens before the consummate state is reached.

"Progress," in short, was too deeply ingrained in Browning's conception of what was ultimately good, and therefore ultimately real, not to find entrance into his heaven, were it only by some casual backdoor of involuntary intuition.

Even in that more gracious state "achievement lacked a gracious somewhat"[126] to his indomitable fighting instinct.
[Footnote 125: _Saul_, xvii.] [Footnote 126: _One Word More_.] "Soul resteth not, and mine must still advance," he had said in _Pauline_, and the soul that ceased to advance ceased for Browning, in his most habitual mood, to exist.