156 Shakspeare 



swift undulations, subconsciously active, of nascent 

 thought and feeling ; ease himself by bringing 

 forth the perfected products of his mental gesta- 

 tion. Having done diligently the work which it 

 came in his way to do for a livelihood and fulfilled 

 his life-function in the sincere utterance of him- 

 self, Shakspeare left his productions, good and 

 bad, with cool equanimity to the fate of time and 

 events, well knowing that, when all is said — 



Thought is the slave of life and life the fool of time, 

 And time that takes survey of all the world 

 Will have a stop. 



What did it matter in the end when the end 

 was " silence and eternal sleep " ? The Destinies 

 above all would in no case fail to make the right 

 use of all that he had done in their service ; 

 might be trusted to pursue their fated course of 

 compensating good and ill in unceasing alterna- 

 tions and balances of production and destruction 

 through time until time itself was at an end. At 

 any rate, it was their affair through the length 

 of times, not his within the brief length of a 

 single life. Having the wonderful imagination he 

 had, it is not likely that he lacked the imagination 

 to picture a present proceeding always by rigor- 

 ous law from a past and preparing a future essen- 

 tially consistent with it ; no wiser nor worthier, 

 perhaps, not really much different on the whole 



I in the long run of its human course. 



Is it not a little naive to suppose that one who 

 showed such insight into the springs and move- 



