454 THE POEMS OP SHAKSPEARE. 



concur*. The writer says, " if Shakspeare had written a book on the 

 motives of human actions, it is by no means certain that it would have 

 been a good one : it is extremely improbable, that it would have con- 

 tained half so much able reasoning on the subject, as is to be found in 

 Mandeville's Fable of the Bees." Had Shakspeare, either in prose or 

 verse, written a work of the kind, never would so much of the mystery 

 of motive been cleared up, or the causes of action developed. It is true, 

 no necessary connection exists, between the metaphysical and poetical 

 faculty. The mere strength of imagination, will enable the poet to ex- 

 press the sentiments of his personages, without necessarily understand- 

 ing the nature of their motives. The magic power just serves to trans- 

 port his mind into the bodies he has moulded ; in which new abode, it 

 may continue as ignorant of its operations, as it generally is in its original 

 one. But the mind of Shakspeare appears to have been of no such par- 

 tial strength. The philosopher every- where stands forth, with as marked 

 a firmness as the poet, and, in keen observations, of more than Baconian 

 strength, he analyses, from time to time, those rich creations he has 

 combined. To the accurate observer, it must appear that his mind's eye 

 was as piercing into the nature of things as his body's eye was rapid in 

 catching their forms. It is true, that from this combination of powers, 

 his mode of conveying his ideas in the supposed work would have been 

 different from that of the man who should possess but the systematizing 

 faculty. He would have taught by pictures, rather than architectural 

 drawings, and instead of leaving an armoury of general rules, to be fitted, 

 as they best might, to individuals, he would have sufficiently hinted 

 those general rules in vigorous, extempore, individual portraits. 



Let this one instance exemplify our meaning and his sagacity. Junius 

 notices among the peculiarities of the Scotch, "the everlasting profes- 

 sion of a discreet and moderate resentment." Here we have the general 

 rule of the nation that has begotten Blackwood that was but is now 

 defunct, admirably expressed. Shakspeare, in a repartee, marks the 

 same trait several years before Blackwood was born. " What think you 

 of the Scottish Lord, his neighbour ? That he has a neighbourly charity 

 in him, for he borrowed a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore 

 he would pay him when he was able." What a masterly breadth of 

 observation gleams through this sally, and hpw accordant with Junius's 

 remark ! 



But we have wandered strangely from our theme, the Poems of Shak- 

 speare and, like Morgan, in his treatise on FalstafFs courage, have 

 digressed upon his general merits. Would that the produce of our ram- 

 ble were as worthy of its object ; that little pamphlet contains more of 

 the expressed juice of the mulberry than all the brewings of the critics. 

 Morgan has caught the outline of Shakspeare's features more finely than 

 any other artist, we will not except Schlegel ; and it is, perhaps, from 

 some such elevated spot on his surface, that we can take the truest chart 

 of the entire ; as Sinbad might climb the back fin of the crachen, to take 

 in the whole body at a view. 



* We bav,e since bethought us of our favourite Ludlow. If honesty that was 

 never daunted, and sagacity that was never duped, deserve the epithets, he was 

 ' very foolish and violent." 



