40 



PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE ATHEN^UM. 



The Committee, actuated by a laudable desire of allowing the 

 public more generally to benefit by the talent of this institution, 

 have determined on the delivery of a summer course of lectures in 

 the Athenaeum, to v^hich ladies, as well as gentlemen, are admit- 

 ted ; the course will consist of fourteen lectures, as follow : — 



June 



July 



Sept. 



June 5th. — Mr. Wightwick's Lecture on Shakspeare. 

 The lecturer commenced his paper in the following words: — 

 What a subject is before me I how bestirring in interest I how 

 boundless in extent ! how diversified in feature ! how august in 

 celebrity ! Like to the Pontic sea, which feels no ebb, but flows 

 right onward to the Hellespont, so Shakspeare's fame proceeds, 

 with course uninterrupted, and amplitude ever augmenting — pro- 

 gressing with the progress of time, and increasing with the increase 

 of knowledge. The most imaginative of English poets ; the most 

 genial of our wits ; the most profound of moral philosophers ; 

 he has left us in the possession of a treasure, which '* age cannot 

 wither, nor custom stale its infinite variety." If pride be ever 

 justifiable J Englishmen have indeed just reason to exalt them- 



