_THE RING AND THE BOOK_ When we have once realised the great conception of the plan of _The Ring and the Book_, the studying of a single matter from nine different stand-points, it becomes exceedingly interesting to notice what these stand-points are; what figures Browning has selected as voicing the essential and distinct versions of the case.

One of the ablest and most sympathetic of all the critics of Browning, Mr.
Augustine Birrell, has said in one place that the speeches of the two advocates in _The Ring and the Book_ will scarcely be very interesting to the ordinary reader.

However that may be, there can be little doubt that a great number of the readers of Browning think them beside the mark and adventitious.

But it is exceedingly dangerous to say that anything in Browning is irrelevant or unnecessary.

We are apt to go on thinking so until some mere trifle puts the matter in a new light, and the detail that seemed meaningless springs up as almost the central pillar of the structure.