436 LITERARY AND SCrENTIFlC. 



ness of our views regarding the character of Hamlet, we should then, indeed, feel 

 assured, that our conception of the motives which influence the conduct of the 

 Prince, would stand the test of time and the severity of criticism. But as the 

 Lecturer and ourselves?entertain different views at present, we cannot but imagine 

 that Mr. Walter himself is undecided respecting Hamlet's madness. Thus in one 

 place he would endeavour to prove it real, and in another imply that the conduct 

 of the Prince is only tinged with insanity. In one place he quotes passages to 

 show the wisdom, the virtue, the religion, the philosophy of the Prince ; and in 

 another place he brings forward proofs, as he supjioses them to be, of Hamlet's 

 undeniable insanity. There cannot be, we think, a stronger evidence of the admi- 

 rable knowledge of human nature possessed by our immortal Shakspeare, than the 

 uncertainty which so strong and so enlightened a mind as that of Mr. Walter's, 

 seems to labour under respecting the motives of Hamlet's conduct, and the incon- 

 sistencies by which it is distinguished. For the same doubts are entertained in the 

 every-day occurrences of life, even by the most discriminating men, of the motives 

 and actions of the most prominent characters on the world's high stage. The 

 statesman, vacillating in his politics, — the ecclesiastic, ambiguous in his doctrines, 

 — the general, whose military combinations, though successful, are mysterious to 

 the many skilled only in "the bookish theoric," — the man of the world, who affects 

 extreme sensibility, while his heart is callous as the rock, — the man of reserve, 

 who exhibits no outward sign of sympathy, but whose breast is a volcano of the 

 fiercest emotions, — the friend, who stretches out a helping hand to save, without 

 waiting for the expression of gratitude from the man he rescues, — the mere 

 professor of Platonics, who makes many declarations without meaning anything, 

 —the enemy who would strike a poignard into his antagonist to-day, and to-morrow 

 oppose his own person to defend him — and last of all, but not the least known 

 amid the group, the lover, whom his lady-love cannot satisfactorily comprehend 

 in all the variations of his sentiments, — these characters, and many others might 

 have led our learned Lecturer, conversant as he is with the philosophic lore of the 

 ancients, the extensive literature of the moderns, the customs of many countries, 

 and the varied conduct of mankind in general, to pause ere he pronounced Hamlet 

 in a state of mental aberration ; however cogent may have been the arguments 

 which have presented themselves to his observation, and however ably and 

 clearly he may have advanced the same in the admirable lecture which has been the 

 subject of our notice — a lecture remarkable for eloquence of diction, as for profound 

 mataphysical inquiry into the operations of the human mind. 



At the conclusion of the lecture, a vote of thanks to Mr. Walter was proposed 

 by Dr. Streeten, and seconded by Mr. Lees, amidst the applause of a very 

 numerous auditory. 



• 



WORCESTER LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION. 



LECTURE "on THE ELOQUENCE OP THE PULPIT," &C. 



Mr. Ball's lecture on the Eloquence of the Pulpit, which was the fourth of the 

 course, was of a character to_sustain, with undiminished effect, his reputation as a 

 rhetorician, elocutionist, and critic. 



In an early part of his discourse, the lecturer combatted the objection so generally 

 advanced, that the subjects on which the preacher must dilate are too trite to admit 

 of new conceptions which can arrest and enchain the attention of a congregation. 

 This he did ably and eloquently, with arguments derived from religion and 

 philosophy, until he drew his conclusion on this point in the following terms— 

 " Away then, I say, with the argument which is founded on the want of variety 

 in subjects for religious dissertation ! That which is common to the generation 

 about to pass away, is novel to that which is but entering on its course : nor can 

 the old be too often reminded of the gracious, the sublime, the awful matters 

 which the sacred word unfolds ; for if age and impiety be unhappily united, 

 there will still be hope, that the flinty obduracy of the heart may in time be 

 softened by the ceaseless dropping of the waters of redemption." 



