To be a temperature
On the occasion of the centenary of Robert Browning's birth, Henry James gave a talk under the auspices of the Academic Committee of the Royal Society of Literature. In the talk "The Novel in The Ring and the Book " James described the sense of place--Tuscany and Rome--in Shelley, Swinburne and Browning: Shelley, let us say in the connection, is a light, and Swinburne is a sound--Browning alone is a temperature. I think that is a mighty fine way of putting things. It makes me want to be a temperature too, with its associations of temper, temperament, tempered. To be a temperature is to touch the whole skin, and through the skin, to get under it, and not just appeal to the eyes or ears. It is to be a whole climate.