SHAKESPEARE AND PSYCHOGNOSIS 235 



than he would be. If not strictly omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, he yet 

 has power to do all, knowledge to answer all, and ubiquity to be where his wise 

 master desires, and Prospero's requirements surpass those of any ordinary mortal. 

 Ariel is not a disembodied spirit, but his body is ethereal, changes its form, renders 

 itself invisible, has attributes and powers not possessed by the ordinary "vesture of 

 decay." Mentally the spirit displays powers of reasoning and remembering; his 

 will is manifest in a persistent desire for freedom. Social opinion, affection, interest, 

 purpose, he has none. He is not, like Caliban in scene ii, below social interests, and 

 content in ignorant solitude; he is rather above social interests, more god than beast. 

 If he cannot feel social interests as those who live among them, he nevertheless sees 

 them and knows all their bearings and relations. What argument can be used with 

 such a spirit to interest him in social affairs ? A being who sees in death only a 

 phase of progress, in sorrow only a purification of spirit, in life only the necessary' 

 experience of the soul, looks down with infinite calm upon moral affairs as one who 

 had been through all and proved that all temporal affairs are nothing but a useful 

 illusion. 



There is only one argument that avails: It is the work of mortals that has set 

 this spirit free; he must repay this debt; if not, an inexorable law enables his liberator 

 to imprison him again. The gods dare not do wrong. And, in spite of his stubborn 

 desire for freedom, Ariel's fine intelligence makes him an obedient, though at first 

 moody, servant of the general weal of the little state. 



As a spirit, Ariel is playful and devoted to pure beauty freed from any sense of 

 utility, pure, and averse from the bondage of ignorance and the fatal senses that 

 dominate Caliban. The strongest differentiating feature of Ariel is the note of calm 

 super-mortal joy which seems to say: "I know all that, but everything is quite right; 

 a mortal is a fool who does not understand." There are spirits and spirits, according 

 to Prospero; some spirits being Ariel's "meaner fellows," the rabble, "over whom 

 I give thee power;" all these have superhuman powers. But there is no evidence 

 that Ariel is an absolute or perfectly developed spirit; he is a "chick." This imma- 

 nent power upon whom Prospero has laid fetters, after freeing him by the exertion 

 of his own learning and sympathy, is the power that Prospero can control : he is 

 not absolute, infinite, final; but merely better than his meaner fellows. To Pros- 

 pero he is known immediately; to others, rather through his works. His services 

 are: (i) he wrecks the ship, disperses the fleet, conducts the nobles into the island; (2) 

 he leads Ferdinand to Miranda and is the cause of their romantic meeting; (3) he 

 rouses from lethargy that best prop of his state, the honest counselor Gonzalo; (4) 

 he acts as detective and informer for Prospero; (5) he preaches to the "three men 

 of sin" a most convincing sermon, full of power and terror, with just a spice of mercy 

 at the conclusion; (6) he performs a masque illustrative of the blessings following 

 upon a true love marriage; (7) he assists in punishing the citizens of the island who 

 rebel against a just and wise ruler; (8) he conducts the king and his followers to 



