PROMISE  OF  PEACE  101

"Everywhere
Did  earth  acknowledge  Sun's  embrace  sublime
Thrilling  her  to  the  heart  of  things :  since  there
No  ore  ran  hquid,  no  spar  branched  anew,
No  arrowy  crystal  gleamed,  but  straightway  grew
Glad  through  the  inrush  —  glad  nor  more  nor  less
Than,  'neath  his  gaze,  forest  and  wilderness.
Hill,  dale,  land,  sea,  the  whole  vast  stretch  and  spread.
The  universal  world  of  creatures  bred
By  Sun's  munificence,  alike  gave  praise. "

Man  alone  questions.  His  mind  reaches
out  for  knowledge  of  the  cause;  he  would
know  its  nature.  Man's  mind  will  not  give
any  definite  answer  to  this  question.  But
Prometheus  offered  an  artifice  whereby  man's
mind  is  satisfied.  He  drew  sun's  rays  into  a
focus  plain  and  true.  The  very  sun  in  little:
made  fire  burn  and  henceforth  do  man  service.
Denuded  of  its  scientific  and  mystical  sym-
bolism, Browning  thus  makes  the  Prometheus
myth  teach  his  favorite  doctrine,  namely,
that  the  image  of  love  formed  in  the  human
heart  by  means  of  the  burning  glass  supplied
by  sense  and  feehng  is  a  symbol  of  infinite
love.
