Book VI., l. 614:--

"_The old fable of the two eagles._" They--

"Went two ways About the world: where, in the midst, they met, Though on a shifting waste of sand, men set Jove's temple."

The story is referred to in Pindar's "Fourth Pythian Ode," where he speaks of "Jove's golden eagles." These were placed near the Delphic tripod, and probably gave rise to the story of the two birds sent by Jupiter, one from the east and the other from the west, and which met at Pytho or Delphi. Mr. Browning seems to be in error here. Delphi was not "on a shifting waste of sand," but on a mountain; and the temple was not that of Jove, but of Apollo. The poet appears to have sent the eagles to the oasis of Ammon, which was in the middle of a sandy desert and had a most famous oracle of Zeus.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] One of the most remarkable instances of the use made of antithesis I ever heard was at Friern Barnet Church, into the porch of which I strolled when walking one summer day some twenty-five years ago. I was just in time to hear the preacher use words which I have never forgotten. The antithesis of the sentence was perfect:

"If _thou_ wouldst _hereafter be_ where _Christ_ is, see _thou_ be not found _now_ where _He_ is _not_, lest _when He come_ he say to _you_, what _now_ by your conduct you say to _Him_ 'Depart from Me--where _I_ am _you_ cannot come!'" If any one would investigate this principle of antithetic reading further, let him take Macaulay's "Essay on Von Ranke's Popes," vol. ii., p. 128, and beginning at the words, "There is not, and there never was," see how to place the correct emphasis by observation of the opposed ideas. This is the one great secret of good reading. Printers' punctuation is horribly misleading, and should usually be disregarded.

[2] See _Browning Society's Papers_, Pt. XII., p. 81.

[3] This is a mistake: it should be Ongar, not Norwich.

[4] The name Druses is generally, but not universally, believed to be derived from this Darazi.--E. B.

[5] By means of riddles, as related in the Bible.

[6] The above sonnet, by Robert Browning, is copied from _The Monthly Repository_ (edited by W. J. Fox) for 1834, New series, vol. viii., p. 712.

[7] For the above suggestions I am indebted to the _Notes of the Browning Society_, Part VII., p. 42*.

[8] Browning stopped his work on _Sordello_ to write _Strafford_.

[9] Compare this use of the Light metaphor with Browning's frequent use of it in his poems, as I explain in the article on "Browning as a Scientific Poet" in my _Browning's Message to his Time_.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Passages in bold are indicated by =bold=.

Superscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.

Punctuation has been corrected and standardized without note.

Some quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors have been silently closed while those requiring interpretation have been left open.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

The original text includes Hebrew characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

The original text includes several circles. This is noted in this text as [circle].

The following misprints have been corrected: "his" corrected to "this" (first ad page) "hnsband" corrected to "husband" (page 34) "Chöephoræ" standardized to "Choëphoræ" (page 43) "Lacedemonians" corrected to "Lacedæmonians" (page 47) "sly, mutething" corrected to "sly, mute thing" (page 67) "jeu d esprit" corrected to "jeu d'esprit" (page 71) "indiffererence" corrected to "indifference" (page 112) "Idylls" corrected to "Idyls" (page 115) "whree" corrected to "where" (page 130) "sink's" corrected to "sinks" (page 138) "Deminus" corrected to "Dominus" (page 138) "Muleykeh" standardized to "Muléykeh" (page 141) "hat" corrected to "that" (page 142) "seeks" corrected to "seek" (page 169) "eceived" corrected to "received" (page 190) "thi" corrected to "this" (page 193) "yuor" corrected to "your" (page 201) "resouces" corrected to "resources" (page 241) "Hooa's" corrected to "Hood's" (page 243) "gras" corrected to "grass" (page 249) "s" corrected to "is" (page 249) "stragner" corrected to "stranger" (page 274) "o" corrected to "of" (page 354) "particulary" corrected to "particularly" (page 429) "repa" corrected to "repay" (page 463) "savation" corrected to "salvation" (page 473) "o" corrected to "of" (page 500) "tryanny" corrected to "tyranny" (page 505) "interual" corrected to "interval" (page 547) "Personae" standardized to "Personæ" (page 570) "loosley" corrected to "loosely" (page 574)

Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Browning Cyclopædia, by Edward Berdoe