If man has self-sacrifice and God has none, then man has in the Universe a secret and blasphemous superiority.

And this tremendous story of a Divine jealousy Browning reads into the story of the Crucifixion.

If the Creator had not been crucified He would not have been as great as thousands of wretched fanatics among His own creatures.

It is needless to insist upon this point; any one who wishes to read it splendidly expressed need only be referred to "Saul." But these are emphatically the two main doctrines or opinions of Browning which I have ventured to characterise roughly as the hope in the imperfection of man, and more boldly as the hope in the imperfection of God.

They are great thoughts, thoughts written by a great man, and they raise noble and beautiful doubts on behalf of faith which the human spirit will never answer or exhaust.