In a state of madness the patient knows not physical suffering, his mental powers are so coiled within, that he is impervious to feeling the vicissitudes of nature. The storm may howl, the thunder may roar, yet the elements disturb not, nor can they overpower the cankerworm which gnaws within and which shuts out all other fears, hopes and pains. In depicting insanity, the wonderful truthfulness of Shakspere is pre-eminent. He appears to have grasped the whole range of mental phenomena without effort, and to have truly understood and pourtrayed the workings of insanity. The madness of Lear and Ophelia is singularly true to nature, and its truthfulness is shown in his faultlessness of treatment. When the aged monarch appears, he never alludes to his physical suffering, he is completely overpowered by mental sorrows, and he has no recollections of peril, nor has he any feeling of pain. This disregard of physical suffering is also shown in the Queen's description of the death of Ophelia. The fair girl floats down the stream undisturbed by her impending fate,

"Her clothes spread wide,

And mermaid like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time, she chaunted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress.”

The gloom of winter, the joy of spring, the warmth of summer, and the ripeness of autumn, pass away, for such is the course of nature's action, yet they each leave behind their silent lessons, full of meaning for the benefit of humanity. The trees and flowers bloom, and have their being, and though like the seasons, their lessons are silent, yet are they pregnant with meaning to the true observer of nature. He fails not to read the

lessons which they teach, and he garners it up with true wisdom, till broadcast he scatters his knowledge to the advantage of humanity. Shakspere is a brilliant example of this power to read and understand the silent lessons of nature. He neglected nothing that he came in contact with; all things he observed; saving and hoarding up all he saw and heard, illustrating his own words, "Let us cast away nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse.

Shakspere had no respect for hypocrisy, the "serpent heart hid with a flowering face." With nerveless hand he exposes "the goodly apple rotten at the core." The evil results which flow from the practice of hypocrisy, the bane of political and social life, he unsparingly points out. The "holy leer," the "wolf in sheep's array, ," he most unflinchingly condemns, and he unmasks the hypocrite tongue which speaks without the heart. He never holds back nor fails to apply the lash to this most "cunning sin," which is but "a sort of homage that vice pays to virtue.” Bigotry had no terrors for him: free in spirit and endowed with unlimited charity, he vindicated the rights of man and woman both fearlessly and lovingly. Shakspere studied both men, nature and books, and fortunately for humanity, he read them all with advantage.

SHAKSPERE'S MORALITY.-The morality of Shakspere is built upon nature and reason, independent of all religious considerations, for as Bacon banished religion from science, so Shakspere has done the like in the

Troilus and Cressida, Act IV. S. 4.

development of his art. He never attempts at preaching morals by direct precept, for he seems to write without moral aim, thus showing the highest development of his art, which consists, not in direct teaching, but by living, acting impulses, by illustration and example. The relation of Shakspere's poetry to morality and moral influence upon men, is most perfect, and nothing higher has been asked of poetry than that which Shakspere rendered. One noble impulse does more towards the ennobling of men, than a hundred good precepts, and a bad passion is best subdued by the excitement of a better. Shakspere differs from most other poets, especially those of modern times. His powers of self-command were unquestionably of the highest order, and the strong development of this power prevented him from committing the fault so prevalent among many poets, of inventing passions and bestowing upon them such attractions, so that we are apt to be led morally astray. The constant aim of the Shaksperean drama is the purification of the passions, and this is the true aim and action of tragedy. Fear and sympathy are both excited, and this excitement serves to purify these and similar emotions of the brain. Shakspere's poetry is moral; he took up life as a whole, and he, into himself absorbed more of the moral element of life than any other poet has ever done.

SHAKSPERE'S RELIGION.-No definite religious creed can be assigned to Shakspere. Both Protestant and Catholic claim him as their own, yet he belongeth to neither. His religion could not be bounded by any church, for it was like his genius, universal. The

clearness of Shakspere's perceptive and the great strength of his reflective powers, prevented him from doing homage to any form of superstition, whether coarse or refined. He acknowledged no particular form of faith, but lived in the belief of the goodness of humanity, of which he was, and is, the most powerful exponent. He set aside all religious consideration and took a complete secular view of life,* pointing out the consequences of immoral acts, and above all things doth he extol the love of humanity, as the true law for the guidance of human kind, the love of whom pervades the whole of his works, and it is the development of this love, that marks him as the poet of humanity, which is the sentiment of sympathy universally applied. When we seek to elevate the human race, when we experience pleasure in seeing and striving to make others happy, and when our feelings compel us to share their pains and sorrows, we are carrying out the law of humanity. All this is constantly taught by the poet, and this teaching fails not to beget that due reverence and love for the author which can never die. To the lines of Shakspere can we turn for guidance and solace, resting assured there is more real knowledge of humanity and a truer love of humankind to be found in his pages, than in any of the sermons ever delivered

* Men and women are made to drain the cup of misery to the dregs; but as from the depths into which they have fallen, by their own weakness or the wickedness of others, the poet never raises them in violation of the inexorable laws of nature, so neither does he "put a new song" into their mouths, or any expression of confidence in God's righteous dealing. With as precise and hard a hand as Bacon did he sunder the celestial from the terrestial globe, the things of earth from those of heaven; resolutely and sternly refusing to look beyond the limits of this world, to borrow comfort, in suffering and injustice, from the life to come."-The Quarterly Review, No. 261, p. 46.

by clerical men, or in any other volume that has ever been written, the bible not excepted.

SHAKSPERE'S CONTEMPORARIES.-Coleridge speaks of Shakspere's contemporaries, as contemporaries, as "giants," but this opinion, I conceive, to be an erroneous one. Not any of the dramatic poets of Shakspere's time, nor any of the those that preceded or followed him, can in any way be compared with the incomparable master. Marlowe, evidently the greatest among the contemporaries of Shakspere, is not of lofty stature. The great besetting fault among the dramatists of the period, was a love of the horrible, and in the display of this coarse taste, Marlowe, Massinger, and most others revelled.. No single work can be adduced which approaches the great master either in power, invention, skill of handling, sweetness and knowledge of humanity. It is only in isolated scenes, or in scattered passages, that any of Shakspere's contemporaries has reached the Shaksperean height, and that rarely. No instance can be furnished of any of their flights of power or grandeur being sustained beyond mere passages. Their works have been, and still are considerably over-rated. This is demonstrated in the fact, that none of their phrases have ever become familiar in our mouths "as household words," like those of Shakspere. Not a passage, not a line, not a single happy expression took root among those with whom they lived, nor have they took root with any generation since their time. This failing to secure a lasting place in the common utterances of the English people, affirms the position, that they did not possess those gigantic proportions which have been so frequently claimed for and ascribed to them. The