On Spade Cultivation. 



414 



analysing, a mortal endued wifh pod- 

 like might, produced bj' a veiy differ- 

 ent emjiloynieut of the inost opposite 

 materials, the same effects, JTcar and 

 Pity, and bolh to a degree to whicli tLc 

 former employment of the ancient 

 materials had hardly been able to bring 

 them. Ileaven-born enterprizer, thon 

 hast succeeded ; and thy newness, thy 

 originality, thy total difference, proves 

 the irauiediat(!ness of tliy vocation. 



No Chorus but farces and puppet- 

 shows lay before Shakespeare— and froni 

 these farces and ))iippet-shows, from 

 this bad class, lie formed that fine cre- 

 ation, that slands living before us. So 

 simple a ualinnal or popular character 

 he did not meet with, but a multiplicity, 

 a variety of rank?, stations, ways of 

 life, and manners of thinking, people 

 and dialects. — To pine for "the past 

 w-ould liave be(-n fruitless. lb; did 

 better — he united people and dialects, 

 kings and fools, and fools and kings, 

 intothisexcellent wi-.ole. Hefonnduo 

 such simplicity in the spirit of histoiy, 

 fal)le, or action — he t;)ok history as he 

 found it, and with creative spirit made 

 out of tlie most heterogeneous things 

 that wondrous whole, wliich, if not to 

 be named action in the Greek sense of 

 the word, may be called so in the lan- 

 guage of the middle ages, or in onr's 

 be named evrnf. O ! Aristotle weit 

 thou to appear, how wnuldst thou Ho- 

 merise this new Sophocles ! and invent, 

 with regard to him, such an original 

 theory as none of liis countrymen, 

 either Home, Hard, Pope, or Johnson, 

 have invented. Thou wouldst rejoice 

 in drawing fiora eacli of his pieces, 

 action, character, sentiments, expres- 

 sions, as lines from tlie points of a tri- 

 angle, which \\ould meet above in one 

 point, that of perfection. Thou wouldst 

 say unto Sophocles: Paint this sacred 

 altar-piece ; and thou, Nortliern Bard, 

 all the sides and walls of the temple 

 with thy immortal fresco. 



I must go on with my rhapsodical 

 comments; for to Shakespeare I am 

 nearer than to the Greeks. If in tliese 

 we meet with unity of f7c//o« with him 

 we find totality of eve?if. If in these 

 one tone of character reians, with him 



[June I, 



in different ways, both are tiie favourit«'s 

 of one divinity. If Sophocles paints to 

 the Greeks, instructs, affects, and in- 

 forms them, Shakespeare affects, in- 

 structs, informs a northern race of men. 

 AVhen I read him — farewell stag(!, ac- 

 tors, scenery, — I need lliem not ; I 

 fancy myself coutempliiling single 

 leaves fluttering in the storm of time, 

 torn from (he great book of event, Ilie 

 register of Providence. In his hands 

 the distinct impressions of nations, 

 souls, conditions, become what we 

 are in those of the world's creator, 

 different sejiarately animated machines, 

 blind, ignorant, yet A'oluntaiy contri- 

 butors to the whdleofasingle vast dra- 

 matic imasre, of one majestic event, 

 only compreheud(!d in its progress by 

 the poet himself. Who can imagine 

 the idea of a greater poet to northern 

 men and to such an age ? 



As before an ocean of event, where 

 wave roars upon wave—advance towards 

 his stage. The scenes come forward and 

 withdraw, and contribute toeachother's 

 effect, however heterogeneous tiiey may 

 appear. Tiiey pro<luce, traverse, anni- 

 hilate one anotiier, until the object of 

 their creator — tiiongh he may seem to 

 have planned them in dninkennessand 

 confusion — be accomplished ; until the 

 chaotic fragments arrange themselves 

 info an orderly and beauteous world. 



Then follow specific sketches of tlie 

 leading- characters in Shakespeare's plays, 

 but as other such have recently been given 

 to the Enn^lisli public by Mr. Hazlilt, wish 

 an eloquence not interior to Herder's, the 

 translation of them would be superfluous. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



AS IMr. Doucaster and other corres- 

 pondents of your Magazine have 

 repeatedly treated on the imi)orfaut 

 subject of spade cultivation, which if 

 more generally adopted would not only 

 give employment to many persons who 

 are out of work, but would increase 

 the produce of the soil and prove highly 

 profitable to individuals, I beg leave 

 to request your inserting what may 

 considerably facilitate that oi>eration. 



Spades are at present made of the 

 same form that they have been proba- 



all characters, ranks, and occupations, i,] f^,. these thousand years. The 



concur to form the stately harmony of oj^iest machines or utensils or tools are 



ins_ concert. If m these a polished, generallv the last of being improved, 



lyric, musical language vibrates as it because i)eing always used to see them 



were m a purer ether with him the we never think of any alteration. The 



languageof every age, of all mankind,is appearance of any tlung new sets the 



spoken; he IS the common interpreter of ^^^mA at ^^•olk immcxliaiely, and when 



each of nature's tongues. Thus, though ,1,^ ,„i„ds of all that sec an object an: 



