The age-herald., 1898-10-23

type of the woman of the north, the other of the south. Her Interpretation of the character of Opheha, her sincerity and constancy and depth of soul, of how pa- .tiently she bore cruel fortune until reason is dethroned was pathetic
 Robert Ingersoll disclaims Shakespeare historian. He says of him that he lived in the days of the greatest events in the worlds history-the days of religious wars, of American discovery of the Arma- da--yet he has made not reference to any of these things. That he knew nothing of kings and queens, because he made them speak great thoughts, and not in any of his plays is single contemporary of his mentioned directly. Yet he says humanity owes great debt to genius and to no one was so great a debt due as to Shakespeare, and that there had not been written in any language a great play since Shakespeare died. There was nothing French in him. It never occurred to him to write play in which a woman's lover becomes jealous of her husband. He had nothing of the real ist for realism degrades. His plots were not abundant in surprises, for in such wealth of thought plot became immaterial. He belonged to all lands. He was the in- tellectual spendthrift of the world. His plays had dramatic incident which others lacked. He used the ideas of others, but what he took was ragged stone; what he turned over to his readers was a finished statue. It was not who owned the marble quarry or who dug the stone: it was who
 carved the beautiful statue. When you find nothing new in Shakespeare, it Is not Shakespeare's fault, your mind is leaving you He wrote the greatest compliment
 ever paid woman: Eyes that do mislead the worn." He was the greatest delineator
 of human character that ever lived on
 earth He drew no perfect men; he knew
 too much But what women! Isabella, Cor
 della, Imogen, Miranda, Hermolne, Desde- mona, Perdita- Shakespeare did more for women than all the other dramatistS. MT.
 Ingersolll says the humand mind, he be-
 lieved, had reached its top in three things the marbles of Greece, the plays of Shake | speare and the music of Bach.
 Shakespeare makes one of his clowns | say, "There is no darkness but ignorance"
 There is in all philosophy no greater line. 1 He knew what love is, for he says, 'Love 1 is not love that alters when it alteration | finds"
 l Dr. Ten Brink says of Shakespeare that | he was the most remarkable man in human
 history, man whose mind easily reached
 the highest line of earthly genius, and
 whose most notable product was the wo- 1 men of his plays
 | Dr. Hudson in his life of Shakespeare 1 says "It would be very interesting to | be let into the domestic life and character | of the poets mother. That both her na- | ture and her discipline entered largely into | his composition and had much to do in l making him what he was, can hardly be l questioned. Whatsoever of woman's beau 1 ty and sweetness and wisdom was express- | ed in her life and manners could not but 1 be caught and repeated in his susceptive l and fertile mind. He must have grown | familiar with the noblest parts of woman- 1 hood somewhere, and can scarce conceive l how he should have learned them so well, l but the light and glory of them beamed
 upon him from his mother.
 ALMA RITTENBERRY. 1