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illumines, the wealth it diffuses, the forces it generates, 

 the vitality it quickens, the colour it imparts, we perceive 

 more the value of what he taught, in his teaching, than in 

 its direct manifestation and simplicity. That as the sun 

 veiled, the sun reflected, refracted, broken into dazzling 

 rays, shed abroad in polarized effulgence, scattered and 

 diffused in mellow and subtle tints, is most beautiful to 

 the eye and to the heart of man; the doctrines which 

 Shakspere teaches and illustrates are best seen in their 

 beauty, their delicacy, gradation, and tint, in his exposi- 

 tion ; and of Him, finally, I would say, with the poet : — 

 " In my mind's eye a temple like a cloud, 

 Slowly surmounting some invidious hill. 

 Rose out of darkness. The bright work stood still, 

 And might of its own beauty have been proud. 

 But it was fashioned, and to God was vowed 

 By virtues that diffused in every part, 

 Spirit divine, through forms of human art." 



In an animated discussion which followed, it was re- 

 marked by Mr. Brooke, that the most beautiful touches 

 of truth and morality pervaded Shakspere's works from 

 one end to the other. They contained, certainly, expres- 

 sions which would not be tolerated in any writer of 

 the present day; but allowance must be made for the 

 language of the age, and the usages of society in the 

 reign of Elizabeth. They must also recollect another 

 thing — there were no insidious recommendations of vice 

 in Shakspere. It was seen in its naked deformity ; no 

 voluptuousness of language was visible. Shakspere's 

 originality and knowledge of human nature were the ad- 

 miration of all readers. Two illustrations might be 

 given : in " King Lear," while the pretended madman, 

 Edgar, rambled on, the real madman, Lear, was always 

 recurring to his cause of grief. The other was the admi- 

 rable introduction of a pause. A writer it was remarked, 



