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at all. But his aim is nevertheless the servant of his 

 hope, which is, that he will be appreciated and under- 

 stood, if not to-day, to-morrow ; if not to-morrow, why 

 then by those who come after. If he be a true artist he 

 cannot make a sacrifice for mere temporary or present 

 success. He renders the truth as it is to him for the 

 truth's sake : if no one listen he is disappointed, that's 

 all ; but he will regard unpopularity as a possible defect. 

 He will not attempt to suppress his intentions, but rather 

 to overlay them, and give them superficially the popu- 

 lari^-y necessary to their efficacy. If Shakspere's plays 

 had not been externally popular, they would never have 

 been our wealth and possession, for they would not have 

 been transmitted. The popularity was as necessary to 

 their form as their form to the populai'ity; and it has 

 been one of the problems of the German critics to discover, 

 by scientific and careful analysis, how so profound a play 

 as "Hamlet," of so much philosophic subtlety, founded at 

 such depths, and amid the very shoals and quicksands of 

 man's secret nature, should still stand serene and beauti- 

 ful, popular to the j)ub]ic eye. They saw the stone, cut 

 and polished, a gem admired by all, and they paused to 

 inquire what was the power which so harmoniously 

 blended ingredients so heterogeneous into such a com- 

 pact mass? what the inherent force that gave weight 

 and lustre to this diamond of light, and fused its flinty 

 incoherent material into a pure and perfect chrysolite? 

 Our reviewer is troubled with no such romantic sj)ecula- 

 tions. He has a good wholesome contempt for refined 

 motives and taste, and presumes that, as he has 

 never gone to the theatre to acquire morality, therefore 

 the artist has never been constrained by any moral 

 purpose. This is not perfectly sequential. It would be 

 hard to say that diamonds were fashioned with their 

 specific qualities of density, hardness, and indestructi- 



