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and perfection, and whether an artistic zeal alone would 

 have secured the unity of the moral form of his later plays. 

 Charges have been frequently made which impugn 

 their purity, charges against scenes and speeches as 

 eminently immoral and unnecessary, and thus stibject to 

 the severe imputation, that a love of impurity had prompted 

 their introduction for impurity's sake, in violation of 

 the exigencies of the play. A crime against artistic 

 as well as moral propriety. These if proved would wholly 

 hinder a belief in the moral purity of the author, or in 

 the sanctity or consecration of his works. But, imfortu- 

 nately for those opposed to the dramatic form of litera- 

 ture, these objections and charges can be easily explained 

 away. The question remains not whether such enormities 

 were systematically introduced, but the larger one, 

 whether many seeming incongruities and imperfections, 

 cannot similarly be traced, and referred back to a spirit of 

 order, and arrangement, and to a grander unity of form, 

 than is at first sight apparent. Some persons have 

 assumed to discover a certain thread of order and form 

 running through several of the later plays which has no 

 reference to the necessities of the dramatic construction. 

 To such a vital principle as circulates in a tree or plant, 

 and sustains its vigour, health, symmetry, and perfection. 

 If such a force exists, and the suggestion is not a fanciful 

 one, the question remains, what is the crystallising law 

 ruling these atoms, what the larger law of growth, regula- 

 ting the form of these seemingly irregular creations ? Or, 

 in other words, are there considerations of a purely moral 

 nature which have imposed restrictions of design on the 

 poet, superior to the mere order and arra,ngement incum- 

 bent on dramatic composition ? Is the fire, which " lends 

 the light which ne'er Avas seen by sea or land," the ulti- 

 mate grace and perfection of all art, indeed, " the conse- 

 cration," which must be supperadded to the poet's dream. 



