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It is because I have long held these opinions in assurance and gratitude, that I catch at the opportunity offered to me of expressing them here; knowing that the alacrity to fulfil an humble office conveys more love than the acceptance of the honour of a higher one, and that better, therefore, than the signal service it was the dream of my boyhood to render to his fame and memory, may be the saying of a few, inadequate words upon these scarcely more important supplementary letters of SHELLEY.

PARIS, Dec. 4th, 1851.

THE BROWNING SOCIETY.

THIS Society is founded to gather together some, at least, of the many admirers of ROBERT BROWNING, for the study and discussion of his works, and the publication of Papers on them, and extracts from works illustrating them. The Society will also encourage the formation of Browning Reading-Clubs, the acting of Browning's dramas by amateur companies, the writing of a Browning Primer, the compilation of a Browning Concordance or Lexicon, and generally the extension of the study and influence of the poet.

Without entering on the vext question of who is the greatest living poet, Mr. Browning's admirers are content to accept the general verdict that he is both one of the greatest, and the most thought-full. They find as his leading note, that which Prof. Spalding declared was Shakspere's:

"The presence of a spirit of active and inquiring thought through every page of his writings, is too evident to require any proof. It is exerted on every object which comes under his notice; it is serious when its theme is lofty; and when the subject is familiar, it is content to be shrewd. He has impressed no other of his own mental qualities on all his characters; this quality colours every one of them... Imagination is active, powerfully and unceasingly, but she is rebuked by the presence of a mightier influence; she is but the handmaid of the active and piercing understanding; and the images which are her offspring serve but as the breeze to the river, which stirs and ripples its surface, but is not the power which impels its water to the sea."—Letter on the Authorship of the Two Noble Kinsmen': 1833, p. 20-1. (Reprinted by the New Shakspere Society.)

That this very fullness of thought in Mr. Browning, with its lightning darts, abrupt transitions, is hard to take in, difficult to follow, is matter of course. That the thought is more worthful to him than its expression, the heart of oak than its bark, has made some men refuse to try and penetrate through the rough covering to the strength beneath. But Eschylus is often obscure; some passages in Shakspere still puzzle the best critics. Browning's themes are the development of Souls, the analysis of Minds, Art, Religion, Love, the relation of Man and Nature to God, of Man to Man and Woman, the Life past, present, and to come. If on some of these great themes Browning's thoughts have not been easily apprehended, may this not come from want of faithful study, default of deadend minds? At any rate the Browning student will seek the shortcoming in himself rather than in his master. He will wish, by conference with other students, by recourse to older scholars, to learn more of the meaning of the poet's utterances; and then, having gladly learnt, "gladly wol he teche," and bring others under the same influence that has benefited himself. To this end The Browning Society has been founded.

The Society will consist of all Subscribers of 218. a year. It will meet once a month from October to June (except in December) at 8 p.m. on the 4th Friday of every such month at University College, Gower St., W.C., for the hearing and discussion of a Paper or Address on some of Browning's poems or his characteristics. The Society's best Papers, and Reports of its Discussions, will be printed either in full or in a Monthly Abstract sent to all members, as funds allow. Till June 23, 1882, the Society will be managed by a Committee of its Founders and Promoters. At that day's Meeting, after the experience of the first Session, the Constitution of the Society will be settled, and its Officers elected for the ensuing year.

The Committee are anxious to add to their number those students of Browning in or out of London who will undertake to get up Browning Reading-Clubs in their respective districts, after the example of Prof. Corson, who has directed one in his University (Cornell) for the last four years.

It appeals only to thought-
It exists, and will begin

The Society may not be a large or permanent one. ful men and women willing to study Browning's works. its Meetings next autumn. It has promises of some Papers for its first Session, but desires more. Its few present Members hope that some, at least, of the many to whom Browning's works have been a help and strength, will join them in their endeavour to know him better, and bring more minds under his influence. To remove misunderstandings that have arisen, the Committee state that any one joining the Society is not in any way pledgd to indiscriminate admiration of BROWNING, but is only supposed to hold that the poet is profound enough in thought, noble enough in character and feeling, eloquent and interesting enough in expression, to deserve more thorough study, and a far wider circle of readers, than he has yet had. The Committee wish for frankness of expression in all Papers, &c.; and they give notice from the first that every writer in the Society's publications is to be held as speaking for himself or herself alone, without any responsibility whatever on the Committee's part.

Names of persons willing to join the Society should be sent, with or without subscriptions, to F. J. FURNIVALL, 3, St. George's Square, Primrose Hill, London, N.W., or to the Honorary Secretary MISS E. H. HICKEY, Clifton House, Pond Street, Hampstead, N.W., or to any Member of the Committee. The Inaugural Meeting of the Society will be held at University Coll., Gower St., W.C., at 8 p.m., on Friday, Oct. 28, 1881, when an Address "On the Characteristics of Browning's Philosophy and Poetry" will be deliverd by the Rev. J. Kirkman, M.A.

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Hon. Sec.: MISS E. H. HICKEY, Clifton House, Pond Street, Hampstead, N.W.

Bankers: THE NATIONAL BANK, High St., Camden Town, London, N.W. Publishers: N. TRÜBNER & Co., 57 and 59, Ludgate Hill, London, E.C. Agents for America: HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & Co., Boston, Mass., U. S. A.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

OF

ROBERT BROWNING,

FROM 1833 TO 1881.

COMPILED BY

FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL.

THIRD EDITION.

PUBLISHT FOR

The Browning Society

BY N. TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL,

LONDON, 1881.

DEDICATED

(THO' WITHOUT HIS LEAVE ASKT)

ΤΟ

ROBERT BROWNING

"A MAN"

TRUE AS STEEL,

A POET

SEARCHER OF MEN'S MINDS AND SOULS.

F. J. F.

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