This then was the first of the doctrines or opinions of Browning: the hope that lies in the imperfection of man.

The second of the great Browning doctrines requires some audacity to express.

It can only be properly stated as the hope that lies in the imperfection of God.

That is to say, that Browning held that sorrow and self-denial, if they were the burdens of man, were also his privileges.

He held that these stubborn sorrows and obscure valours might, to use a yet more strange expression, have provoked the envy of the Almighty.