Each of these poems is a concentrated, accurate piece of art-history, with the addition to it of the human soul.
Periods and phases of religious history are equally realised.

_Caliban upon Setebos_ begins the record--that philosophic savage who makes his God out of himself.

Then follows study after study, from _A Death in the Desert_ to _Bishop Blougram's Apology_.

Some carry us from early Christianity through the mediaeval faith; others lead us through the Paganism of the Renaissance and strange shows of Judaism to Browning's own conception of religion in the present day contrasted with those of the popular religion in _Christmas-Day and Easter-Day_.
Never, in poetry, was the desire of the historical critic for accuracy of fact and portraiture, combined with vivid presentation of life, so fully satisfied.

No wonder Browning was not read of old; but it is no wonder, when the new History was made, when he was once found out, that he passed from a few to a multitude of readers.
6.