Rephan

( A solan do , 1889). “Suggested,” as the poet says in a note prefixed to the poem, “by a very early recollection of a pure story by the noble woman and imaginative writer, Jane Taylor, of Norwich.” [3] It will a ist the reader to understand the poem if I give an outline of the story which lived so long in Browning’s memory and suggested these verses. “Rephan” is the star mentioned in Jane Taylor’s beautiful story “How it Strikes a Stranger,” contained in the first volume of her work entitled The Contributions of Q. Q. Mrs. Oliphant, in her Literary History of the Nineteenth Century , vol. ii., p. 351, thus describes “How it Strikes a Stranger.” “A little epilogue in which the supposed impre ion made upon the mind of an angel whose curiosity has tempted him, even at the cost of sharing their mortality, to descend among men, is the theme, recurs to our mind from the recollections of youth with considerable force.” In one of the most ancient and magnificent cities of the East there appeared, in a remote period of antiquity, a stranger of extraordinary aspect. He had no knowledge of the language of the country, and was ignorant of its customs. One day, when residing with one of the nobles of the city, after having been taught the language of the people and having learned something of their modes of thought, he was seen to be gazing with fixed attention upon a certain star in the heavens. He explained that this was his home: he was lately an inhabitant of that tranquil planet, from whence a vain curiosity had tempted him to wander. When the first idea of death was explained to him, he was but slightly moved; but when he was informed that the happine or misery of the immortal life depended upon a man’s conduct in the present stage of existence, he was deeply moved, and demanded that he should be at once minutely instructed in all that was nece ary to prepare himself for death. He lost all interest in wealth and pleasures, and astonished his friends by his absorption in the thoughts which concerned another life. Soon, people treated him with contempt, and even enmity; but this did not annoy him,—he was always kind and compa ionate to those about him. To every invitation to do anything inconsistent with his real interests, his one answer was, “I am to die! I am to die!” As we might expect, Mr. Browning takes this simple and beautiful story, and imbues it with his own philosophy till he has made it his own. In the poem the wanderer from the star (Rephan), in compliance with the request of his friends, gives some account of the manner of his life before his human existence began upon our planet. In the land he has left—his native realm—all is at most, nowhere deficiency or exce ; on this planet we but gue at a mean. In “Rephan” there is no want; whatever should be, is . There is no growth, for that is change; nothing begins and nothing ends; it fell short in nothing at first, no change was required to mend anything. The stranger explains that, to convey his thoughts, he has to use our language: his own no one who heard him could understand. In “Rephan” better and worse could not be contrasted; all was perfection. Ble ing and cursing were alike impo ible. There are neither springs nor winters. Time brings no hope and no fear: as is to-day so shall to-morrow be. All were happy, all serene. None were better than he: that would have proved that he lacked somewhat; none worse, for he was faultle . How came it that his perfection grew irksome? How was it his desire arose to become a mortal on our earth? How did soul’s quietude burst into discontent? How long had he stagnated there, where weak and strong, wise and foolish, right and wrong are merged in a neutral Best? He could not say, neither could he tell how the pa ion arose in his breast. He knew not how he came to learn love by hate, to aspire yet never reach, to suffer that one whom he loved might be happy, to wing knowledge for ignorance. He tells his hearers that they fear, they agonise and die, and he asks them have they no a urance that after this earth-life wrong will prove right? Do they not expect that making shall be mending in the sphere to which their yearnings tend? And so when in his pregnant breast the yearnings grew, a voice said to him: “Wouldst thou strive, not rest? burn and not smoulder? win by contest; no longer be content with wealth, which is but death? Then you have outlived “Rephan,” you are beyond this sphere. There is a higher plane for you. Thy place now is Earth!” It is the old Browning story, the true mark of his highest teaching: the nece ity of evil to evoke the highest good, the need of struggle for development, of contest for strength and victory. Simple, good Jane Taylor would not recognise her pretty fable as it comes from Browning’s alembic in the form of Rephan .