Fifty-two years afterwards he wrote _Parleyings with certain Persons of Importance in their Day_, the last poem published in his lifetime; and any reader of that remarkable work will perceive that the common characteristic of all these persons is not so much that they were of importance in their day as that they are of no importance in ours.

The same eccentric fastidiousness worked in him as a young man when he wrote _Paracelsus_ and _Sordello_.

Nowhere in Browning's poetry can we find any very exhaustive study of any of the great men who are the favourites of the poet and moralist.

He has written about philosophy and ambition and music and morals, but he has written nothing about Socrates or Caesar or Napoleon, or Beethoven or Mozart, or Buddha or Mahomet.

When he wishes to describe a political ambition he selects that entirely unknown individual, King Victor of Sardinia.