Tortive and errant from his course of growth.-
Nor, Princes, is it matter new to us

That we come short of our suppose so far,

That, after seven years siege, yet Troy's walls stand :
Sith every action that hath gone before,
Whereof we have record, trial did draw
Bias and thwart, not answering the aim,
And that unbodied figure of the thought

That gave it surmis'd shape. Why, then, you Princes,
Do you with cheeks abashed behold our works;
And think them shames, which are indeed nought else
But the protractive trials of great Jove
To find persistive constancy in men ?
The fineness of which metal is not found

In Fortune's love; for then, the bold and coward,
The wise and fool, the artist and unread,
The hard and soft, seem all affin'd and kin;
But, in the wind and tempest of her frown,
Distinction, with a broad and powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light away;
And what hath mass or matter by itself
Lies, rich in virtue and unmingled.

In the reproof of chance *
The sea being smooth,

Lies the true proof of men.

How many shallow, bauble boats dare sail

Upon her patient breast, making their way
With those of nobler bulk!

But, let the ruffian Boreas once enrage

The gentle Thetis, and anon, behold

The strong-ribb'd bark through liquid mountains cut,
Bounding between the two moist elements,

Like Perseus' horse: where's then the saucy boat,
Whose weak, untimber'd sides but even now

* Misfortune.

Co-rival'd greatness?-Either to harbour fled,
Or made a toast for Neptune. Even so

Doth valour's show, and valour's worth, divide
In storms of fortune!

Troilus and Cressida. Act i. Scene 3.

PHILOSOPHERS and poets, in all ages, have made "the ills of life and the way to bear them a favorite subject of

their discourse; but, amongst the many who have "discoursed eloquent music" on this topic-a topic of deep interest to all that are "born of woman "-it would be difficult to select a human author who has treated it more justly or more beautifully than Shakspere.

Classical readers, indeed, with the hosts of fine passages on adversity, contained in the Latin and Greek writers of antiquity, crowding on their memories, may for a moment hesitate to allow him such a towering pre-eminence; but, it appears to me, their hesitation can be but for a moment.

It should never be forgotten that the ancients, notwithstanding all their wisdom, possessed in fact but a glimmering of the true character of human life in all its bearings; indeed their views of it were little more than sufficient to "make darkness visible." Amongst the heathen writers of old, it is confessed, one may here and there be met with, whose reason, discarding the monstrosities of the received Mythology, led him to a dim sort of notion of an Almighty Providence, and to some cold calculations as to the possibility or even probability of a future existence beyond the grave; but the notion was vague, the calculations and speculations as such, like every thing human, were liable to error, and they wanted besides that certainty and definitiveness necessary to weave them into the chords of the heart; they were moreover, after all, confined to the learned, and if indulged in, would have failed to meet with a warm response in the feelings of the

multitude. Exquisite, therefore, as their reflections on fortitude under adversity may be, they must needs exhibit a deficiency inherent and inevitable-ignorance of the real end of adversity; without a knowledge of which, it were vain to preach to mortals the way to bear it. How vain, indeed, such preachings were, may be gathered from the simple circumstance that suicide, as a remedy for misfortune, was in those times accounted a virtue! But of that anon.

But Shakspere enjoyed a light that was denied to your Platos and Aristotles; viz. the Christian Revelation ! Only once attain a certain knowledge of the existence of an all-wise, all-powerful, and all-beneficent Providence ; and of the fact, that the present state of existence is merely a state of probation and preparation for another of infinite duration, the happiness of which will depend upon the formation of character in the present one-then the grand enigma of the origin and permission of evil is at once and satisfactorily solved. And in that inestimable knowledge we have an inspiring energy and support under temporary ills, that could not otherwise by any possibility be supplied to us. Then and then alone, can we feel in our innermost heart, the full truth and beauty of our Poet's remark that

"There is some soul of goodness in things evil,

Would men observingly distil it out."

And when disheartened by unavoidable hardships, we may console ourselves with the persuasion that

"In the reproof of chance,

Lies the true proof of men:"

And that disappointments and afflictions are

"But the protractive trials of great God,
To find persistive constancy in men !

AMBITION.

DESCRIBED.

Macbeth Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself.

Macbeth. Act i. Scene 7.

Rosse. Thriftless ambition, that wilt raven up

Thine own life's means.

Ibid. Act ii. Scene 4.

ITS UNIVERSALITY.

K, Hen. VI. But what a point, my lord, your falcon madeAnd what a pitch she flew above the rest!—

To see how God in all his creatures works!

Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high.

2nd part King Hen. VI. Act ii. Scene 1.

ITS DANGERS.

Wolsey. Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me.
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;
By that sin fell the angels; how can man then,

The image of his Maker, hope to win by't?

King Henry VIII. Act iii. Scene 2,

Brutus.

ITS INGRATITUDE.

But 'tis a common proof,
That lowliness is young ambition's ladder,
Whereto the climber-upward turns his face;
But when he once attains the upmost round,
He then unto the ladder turns his back,
Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
By which he did ascend.

Julius Cæsar. Act ii. Scene 1.

ITS UNSUBSTANTIAL CHARACTER.

Guilderstern.

The very substance of the ambitious

is merely the shadow of a dream.

Hamlet. A dream itself is but a shadow.*

Rosencrantz. Truly, and I hold ambition of so light and airy a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow,

Hamlet. Act ii. Scene 2.

It must be admitted that ambition has in all times been pretty copiously abused. Has it always been with discrimination? For, are all its elements essentially evil? Does it not, in truth, contain in it some yearning after the wonderful and sublime? Is there not in its composition a spark of the infinite? Though this spark do mostly blaze, and explode, and scorch like the lightning's flash; mày it

Vide" dreams" post.