SOLITUDE AND SOCIETY. Old Belarius. Oh, this life Is nobler, than attending for a check ;† Guiderius. Out of your proof you speak; we, poor unfledg'd, Have never wing'd from view o' the nest, nor know not That have a sharper known; well corresponding Cymbeline. Act iii. Scene 3. THE subject of monachism is one of no small interest, but one that cannot very well be enlarged upon in these pages. I believe, however, the world is pretty well agreed, that man is a social animal, and not intended by Providence to live alone; and that a solitary life is neither favourable to his attainment of the highest knowledge, or the highest virtue, or the highest happiness. * Meaning retired and solitary life. + Commentators have not settled the precise meaning of these two lines, but it is plain that the first alludes to the restraint of attending and guarding the great, and the second to the empty honours of court life. STUDIES. ALL WORK AND NO PLAY, ETC., ETC. Biron. Why, universal plodding prisons up As motion, and long during action tires Love's Labour's lost. Act iv. Scene 3. Tranio. While we do admire This virtue, and this moral dicipline, Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray; As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd: Talk logic with acquaintance that you have, The mathematics, and the metaphysics, Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you: In brief, Sir, study what you most affect.* Taming of the Shrew. Act i. Scene 1. MAN has not yet learnt wisdom on this subject, either from proverbs or experience. He still sees the necessity of giving his body food and repose, but still continues to tax the powers of the mind as if they needed no relaxation or nourishment. How many a noble intellect do we see in miserable ruins for want of such precaution! * "Affect" here means, "have a liking or disposition for." SUPERSTITION. GHOSTS. Antigonus. I have heard (but not believ'd) the spirits of the dead May walk again. Winter's Tale. Act iii. Scene 3. OMENS. Glendower. At my nativity, The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, Hotspur. Why, so it would have done At the same season, if your mother's cat had Glendower. I say, the earth did shake when I was born. If you suppose, as fearing you it shook. Glendower. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble. Hotspur. Oh, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, And not in fear of your nativity. Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth By the imprisoning of unruly wind Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving, Steeples and moss-grown towers. 1st part King Henry IV. Act iii. Scene 1. MIRACLES. Lafeu. They say miracles are past; yet* we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless. Ilence is it, that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves into seeming knowledge, when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear. All's well that ends well. Act ii. Scene 3. Archbishop of Canterbury. . Miracles are ceas'd; And therefore we must needs admit the means, King Henry V. Act i. Scene 1. SHAKSPERE'S superiority to the superstitious times in which he lived is absolutely amazing, especially when we consider that such a mind as Sir Matthew Hale's succumbed to them. Read the speech of Antigonus on ghosts, the reasoning of Hotspur on omens, the reflexion of Canterbury's archbishop on miracles, and then admire a genius that was centuries in advance of its own age. "And" in the text. SUSPICION. ITS READINESS OF DIVINATION. Northumberland. See what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He that but fears the thing he would not know, Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others' eyes That what he fear'd is chanced. 2nd part King Henry IV. Act i. Scene 1. SOMETIMES MISLEADS. K. Henry VI. The bird that hath been limed in a bush, With trembling wings, misdoubteth every bush. 3rd part King Henry VI. Act v. Scene 6. SUSPICION A VICE OF OLD AGE. Polonius. It seems it is as proper to our age To lack discretion. Hamlet. Act ii. Scene 1. Iago. SUSPICION EASILY EXCITED IN THE JEALOUS. Trifles light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ. Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons, Burn like the mines of sulphur. Othello. Act iii. Scene 3. Dr. Johnson observes, that men long accustomed to the wiles of life commouly "cast beyond themselves," that is to say, "let their cunning go farther than reason can attend it." |