His Life and Genius 187 



learn of his own mind, be it great or small, by 

 introspection ? And, more strange still, to think 

 he can by such poor means sound the depths of 

 a subconscious mind which has at last thrust 

 itself on his unwilling notice and he would fain 

 away with ? 



On the one hand, then, we have the smoothly 

 shrewd, hard-working, thrifty, self-contained man 

 of the world able to take excellent care of him- 

 self and not much unlike other men in daily life ;* 

 caring so little to distinguish himself from them 

 that he might not have astonished or entertained 

 gladly, might indeed have vastly disappointed, 

 the gushing interviewer ; on the other hand, the 

 great poet and dramatist whose rare and rich 

 faculties have given him a distinction above all 

 men : the former with his merits and his faults, 

 his frailties and his virtues, a subject of eager 

 interest to the curious inquirer but of no lasting 

 consequence, the latter a momentous event and 

 agent in the process of human evolution, likely 

 to be an enduring inheritance so long as nature, 

 " sovereign mistress over wrack," continues its 

 human progress towards a far-off end, when at 

 last 



Her audit, though delayed, answered must be. 



* In 1604 he sued Philip Rogers in the Borough Court at 

 Stratford for 35s. iod. for corn delivered, the delivery of the 

 corn being stated to have taken place at several times. 



