[Illustration: EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FERDINANDO DE' MEDICI,
IN THE PIAZZA DELL' ANNUNZIATA, FLORENCE.
"_There's a palace in Florence the world knows well,_ _And a statue watches it from the square._"
The success of "Aurora Leigh" was immediate, a second edition being called for within a fortnight, and edition after edition followed. This work, of which, twelve years before, she had a dim foreshadowing, as of a novel in verse, has the twofold interest of a great dramatic poem and of a philosophic commentary on art and life. To estimate it only as a social treatise is to recognize but one element in its kaleidoscopic interest. Yet the narrative, it must be confessed, is fantastic and unreal. When the conception of the work first dawned upon her, she said she preferred making her story to choosing that of any legend, for the theme; but the plot is its one defect, and is only saved from being a serious defect by the richness and splendor of thought with which it is invested. The poem is to some degree a spiritual autobiography; its narrative part having no foundation in reality, but on this foundation she has recorded her highest convictions on the philosophy of life. Love, Art, Ethics, the Christianity of Christ,--all are here, in this almost inexhaustible mine of intellectual and spiritual wealth. It is a poem peculiarly calculated to kindle and inspire. What a passage is this:
"... I can live At least my soul's life, without alms from men, And if it be in heaven instead of earth, Let heaven look to it,--I am not afraid."
A profound occult truth is embodied in the following:
"Whate'er our state we must have made it first; And though the thing displease us,--aye, perhaps, Displease us warrantably, never doubt That other states, though possible once, and then Rejected by the instinct of our lives, If then adopted had displeased us more.
What we choose may not be good; But that we choose it, proves it good for us."
No Oriental savant could more forcibly present his doctrine of karma than has Mrs. Browning in these lines. Her recognition of the power of poetry is here expressed:
"And plant a poet's word even deep enough In any man's breast, looking presently For offshoots, you have done more for the man Than if you dressed him in a broadcloth coat, And warmed his Sunday pottage at your fire."