Browning had been drawn away by a Fifine of humanity.

He never succeeded in living happily again with Elvire; and while our intellectual interest in his work remained, our poetic interest in it lessened.

We read it for mental and ethical entertainment, not for ideal joy.
No; if poetry is to _be_ perfectly written; if the art is to be brought to its noblest height; if it is to continue to lift the hearts of men into the realm where perfection lives; if it is to glow, an unwearied fire, in the world; the love of Nature must be justly mingled in it with the love of humanity.

The love of humanity must be first, the love of Nature second, but they must not be divorced.

When they are, when the love of Nature forms the only subject, or when the love of Man forms the only subject, poetry decays and dies.
FOOTNOTES: [5] Creatures accordant with the place?
[6] Browning, even more than Shelley, was fond of using the snake in his poetry.