Thy pardon for this long and tedious case,
Which, now that I review it, needs must seem
Unduly dwelt on, prolixly set forth! 
Nor I myself discern in what is writ
Good cause for the peculiar interest
And awe indeed this man has touched me with. 
Perhaps the journey’s end, the weariness
Had wrought upon me first.  I met him thus:  290
I crossed a ridge of short sharp broken hills
Like an old lion’s cheek teeth.  Out there came
A moon made like a face with certain spots
Multiform, manifold and menacing: 
Then a wind rose behind me.  So we met
In this old sleepy town at unaware,
The man and I. I send thee what is writ. 
Regard it as a chance, a matter risked
To this ambiguous Syrian—­he may lose,
Or steal, or give it thee with equal good. 300
Jerusalem’s repose shall make amends
For time this letter wastes, thy time and mine;
Till when, once more thy pardon and farewell!

The very God! think, Abib; dost thou think? 
So, the All-Great, were the All-Loving too—­
So, through the thunder comes a human voice
Saying, “0 heart I made, a heart beats here! 
Face, my hands fashioned, see it in myself! 
Thou hast no power nor mayst conceive of mine,
But love I gave thee, with myself to love, 310
And thou must love me who have died for thee!”
The madman saith He said so:  it is strange.

NOTES

“An Epistle” gives the observations and opinions of Karshish, the Arab physician, writing to Abib, his master, upon meeting with Lazarus after he has been raised from the dead.  Well versed in Eastern medical lore, he tries to explain the extraordinary phenomenon according to his knowledge.  He attributes Lazarus’ version of the miracle to mania induced by trance, and the means used by the Nazarene physician to awaken him, and strengthens his view by describing the strange state of mind in which he finds Lazarus—­like a child with no appreciation of the relative values of things.  Through his renewal of life he had caught a glimpse of it from the infinite point of view, and lives now only with the desire to please God.  His sole active quality is a great love for all humanity, his impatience manifests itself only at sin and ignorance, and is quickly curbed.  Karshish, not able to realize this new plane of vision in which had been revealed to Lazarus the equal worth of all things in the divine plan, is incapable of understanding Lazarus; but in spite of his attempt to make light of the case, he is deeply impressed by the character of Lazarus, and has besides a hardly acknowledged desire to believe in this revelation, told of by Lazarus, of God as Love.  Professor Corson says of this poem:  “It may be said to polarize the idea, so often presented in Browning’s poetry, that doubt is a condition of the vitality of faith.”

17.  Snakestone:  a name given to any substance used as a remedy for snake-bites; for example, some are of chalk, some of animal charcoal, and some of vegetable substances.