The white light was "blank" until shattered by refraction; and Browning is less Browning when he glories in its unbroken purity than when he rejoices in the prism, whose obstruction alone "shows aright The secret of a sunbeam, breaks its light Into the jewelled bow from blankest white."[128] [Footnote 128: _Deaf and Dumb_.] We have now to watch Browning's efforts to interpret this profound and intimate persuasion of his in terms of the various conceptions at his disposal.[129] [Footnote 129: On the matter of this section cf.

Mr A.C.

Pigou's acute and lucid discussions, _Browning as a Religious Teacher_, ch.viii.

and ix.] III.
Beside the soul, there was something else that "stood sure" for Browning--namely, God.

Here, too, a theological dogma, steeped in his ardent mind, acquired a new potency for the imagination, and a more vital nexus with man and nature than any other poet of the century had given it.