  He knew the conditions of success—of happiness—the relations that men, sustain to each other, and the duties of all. He knew the tides and currents of the heart—the cliffs and caverns of the brain. He knew the weakness of the will, the sophistry of desire—and "That pleasure and revenge have ears more deaf than adders to the voice of any true decision." He knew that the soul lives in an invisible world—that flesh is but a mask, and that "There is no art to find the mind's construction In the face." He knew that courage should be the servant of judgment, and that "When valor preys on reason it eats the sword It fights with." He knew that man is never "master of the event, that he is to some extent the sport or prey of the blind forces of the world, and that "In the reproof of chance lies the true proof of men." Feeling that the past is unchangeable, and that that which must happen is as much beyond control as though it had happened, he says: "Let determined things to destiny Hold unbewailed their way." Shakespeare was great enough to know that every human being prefers happiness to misery, and that crimes are but mistakes. Looking in pity upon the human race, upon the pain and poverty, the crimes and cruelties, the limping travelers on the thorny paths, he was great and good enough to say: "There is no darkness but ignorance." In all the philosophies there is no greater line. This great truth fills the heart with pity. He knew that place and power do not give happiness—that the crowned are subject as the lowest to fate and chance. "Within the hollow crown That rounds the mortal temples of a king Keeps death his Court, and there the antic sits Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp, Allowing him a brief and little scene To monarchize by fear and kill with looks, Infusing him with self and vain conceit— As if this flesh that walls about our life Were brass impregnable; and humored thus, Comes at the last and with a little pin Bores through his castle wall—and farewell king!" So, too, he knew that gold could not bring joy—that death and misfortune come alike to rich and poor, because: "If thou art rich thou art poor; For like an ass whose back with ingots bows Thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey, And death unloads thee." In some of his philosophy there was a kind of scorn—a hidden meaning that could not in his day and time have safely been expressed. You will remember that Laertes was about to kill the king, and this king was the murderer of his own brother, and sat upon the throne by reason of his crime—and in the mouth of such a king Shakespeare puts these words: "There's such divinity doth hedge a king." So, in Macbeth "How he solicits Heaven himself best knows; but strangely visited people All swollen and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despairs of surgery, he cures; Hanging a golden stamp about their necks. Put on with holy prayers; and 'tis spoken To the succeeding royalty—he leaves The healing benediction. "With this strange virtue He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne, That speak him full of grace." Shakespeare was the master of the human heart—knew all the hopes, fears, ambitions, and passions that sway the mind of man; and thus knowing, he declared that "Love is not love that alters When it alteration finds." This is the sublimest declaration in the literature of the world. Shakespeare seems to give the generalization—the result—without the process of thought. He seems always to be at the conclusion—standing where all truths meet. In one of the Sonnets is this fragment of a line that contains the highest possible truth: "Conscience is born of love." If man were incapable of suffering, the words right and wrong never could have been spoken. If man were destitute of imagination, the flower of pity never could have blossomed in his heart. We suffer—we cause others to suffer—those that we love—and of this fact conscience is born. Love is the many-colored flame that makes the fireside of the heart. It is the mingled spring and autumn—the perfect climate of the soul. |
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