uttered by Prospero after the disappearance of the spirits in the fourth act, discovers no limited amount of taste and judgment. It runs thus:

Be cheerful, sir:

Our revels now are ended.

These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself;
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a wreck behind.

The following beautiful passage, sanctioned by the highest authority, and for its wisdom and simple eloquence, not any where excelled, is found in the second part of the Play of King Henry the Fourth; its admission will gratify the judicious reader.

When we mean to build,

We first survey the plot, then draw the model:
And when we see the figure of the house,

Then must we rate the cost of the erection;
Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist

To build at all?

In the Fourth Act of the Winter's Tale, we are presented with an instance of rural simplicity, wherein

is involved a statement in harmony with Scripture language, and our daily experience:

I was not much afeard; for once or twice
I was about to speak, and tell him plainly,
The self-same sun that shines upon his court
Hides not his visage from our cottage, but
Looks on alike.

In the Second Act of the play of 'King Henry the Eighth,' the blessings of a low station are not inaptly set forth in the language annexed

'Tis better to be lowly born,

And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perk'd up in a glistering grief,
And wear a golden sorrow.

Passages occur in the Comedy of Measure for Measure,' the sentiments of which harmonize with those that are of the highest authority.-Witness the following:

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do; Not light them for themselves for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd,
But to fine issues; nor nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.

In the annexed passage is perhaps comprised either directly or indirectly, the substance of the Sacred Canon. It appeals with great power and eloquence to the hearts of all men, more especially to those who are unmindful of the divine precept, "Judge not, that ye be not judged." In so few words, perhaps, no one of our Sacred Poets has produced a passage of equal importance and interest. It is spoken by Isabella, who, in pleading for her brother's life, which has become "a forfeit of the law," thus proceeds :

Alas! Alas!

Why all the souls that were, were forfeit once;
And He, that might the 'vantage best have took,
Found out the remedy: how would you be,
If He, who is the top of judgment, should
But judge you as you are? O think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
Like man new made.

Such passages, as those we have already cited, deriving their perfection from the oracles of truth and purity, will well repay the study of those engaged in sacred offices;* nor indeed with our knowledge of

* Since we wrote the above, indeed very lately, we heard a discourse on behalf of the Cotton Operatives in Lancashire, wherein the Minister, with no small amount of taste and judgment, introduced a quotation from Shakspere, naming too his authority, for which we will not regard him as amenable to censure or excommunication. In the Play of " Antony and Cleopatra," the latter, in beautiful language, refers to Antony's unlimited charity. In

these, and similar laudable utterances, can we be surprised by the relation of the following anecdote : "Mr. Speaker Onslow in a note to 'Burnet's History of his Own Times,' says of Archbishop Sharp, 'He was a great reader of Shakspere.' Docter Mangey, who had married his daughter, told me that he used to recommend to young divines the reading of the Scriptures and Shakspere. And Doctor Lisle, Bishop of Norwich, who had been chaplain at Lambeth to Archbishop Wade, told me that it was often related there, that Sharp would say that the Bible and Shakspere made him Archbishop of York."

Mr. Addison, on one occasion, when the silence and darkness of the night disposed him to be more than ordinarily serious, and when, amidst the stillness of that night, he was occupied by the consideration of the most momentous questions, was reminded, not

urging the duty of compassion and liberality to the distressed, the Minister quoted the following as illustrative of this virtue ⚫ "For his bounty,

There was no winter in't."

Very appropriate indeed for such an occasion, We will quote the passage at length:

"For his bounty,

There was no winter in't; an autumn 'twas
That grew the more by reaping: His delights
Were dolphin-like; they shew'd his back above

The element they lived in: In his livery

Walk'd crowns and coronets; realms and islands were
As plates dropp'd from his pocket."

only by the temper in which he found himself, but also by the time of the year, of those lines in Shakspere, wherein, according to his agreeable wildness of imagination, the poet has wrought a country tradition into a beautiful piece of poetry.

In the Tragedy of "Hamlet," says Mr. Addison, "where the ghost vanishes upon the cock's crowing, Shakspere takes occasion to mention its crowing all hours of the night about Christmas time, and to insinuate a kind of religious veneration for that season."

It faded on the crowing of the cock.

Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes,
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long;
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad:
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm;
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

"This admirable author, as well as the best and greatest men of all ages, and of all nations, seems to have had his mind throughly seasoned with religion, as is evident by many passages in his plays, that would not be suffered by a modern audience; and are therefore certain instances that the age he lived in had a much greater sense of virtue than the present."

It is thus, that at the commencement of the last century, the illustrious Addison bears witness to the spirit of Shakspere's writings, and amongst others,