The San Francisco call., 1899-10-16

for the elements of which body is COM
posed and the proportions in which those
elements enter into the constitution of the
body. In psychology it is looking for
the traits which go to make up human
nature. In painting it is looking for the
secrets of color of beautiful line of at
mosphere, of composition, Of tone. AS all
study is a search. the question Of how to
study Shakespeare is best approached
through the question, What shall we look
for in Shakespeare?
/ shall of course not attempt to enum-
crate all the things which one may rea-
onably hope to find In the dramas, which,
by common consent, stand at the summit
of English literature, If not OF the
worlds. but shall content myself with
mentioning a few of the more obvious, If
at the same time they represent funda-
mental aspects of the poets work and are
profitable subjects for prolonged consid-
Grafton.
/ It is related by ST Augustine that,
upon the recitation in the theater of the
famous line of Terence, Il am a man, and
1 consider naught that is human beneath
nv regard" the whole audience broke out
into thunderous acclamation. Shakes
peare might have adopted the line as his
motto Beyond any other writer he has
exemplified Pope's sentiment, THE proper
study of mankind is man" He was
a hero-worshiper when hero-worship
was possible; when he could not
approve. he yet loved; and when
he could not love- he scrutinized, he an
alvzed. he revealed. The individual soul
is to him infinitely attractive nay, en-
crossing: he is appreciative of its virtues
and aspirations, tolerant of it's foibles
and amused by It's harmless or delightful
eccentricities; he sounds Its deepest pas
sions comprehends the mainsprings of
its activity and, while watching how it
is impelled by desire or precipitated by
circumstance toward an inescapable fu-
ture. he is touched by it's pathos and it's
tragedy or exults in its attainment and
its iov. Partake Ghakespeare's delight in
life, and in the play of life upon life, if
YOU would derive impulse and instruction
from the vast spectacle of man, if you
would find a village rife with momentous
mystery. and make the circle of your ac-
ouaintance a theater replete with the Gu
rious and the wonderful. Begin this study
in any play of Shakespeare. Count up
its distinct characters: note their indi-
yidual traits; see to what types they sew
erally belong and to what classes of So
ciety: observe how they behave in diff
ferent situations and how they react one
resemble the men and women that you
know or that you have read about When
Won have done this with half a dozen
dramas try to form some conception of
the range of interests, the closeness of
and the quickness and versa
tiIty of sympathy of the man who could
imagine and create this world of human
beings. You will thus have begun to
study Shakespeare, and perhaps to find
new meaning in the world about you.
2. Notwithstanding Shakespeare's alb
sorption in the individual soul, notwith-
standing his sympathetic Interpretation
of the beggar, the serving man, the thief,
the drunkard, or the monster lower than
man-if any monster can be lower than
degraded man-yet he is never at a loss
to exhibit a scale of values for his per-
They are not equal in spiritual
rank, and he never pretends they are. We
feel with Calban, as more righteous be-
ing than ourselves would feel with In
dians and other barbarians. when he says:
When thou camest first
Thou strokest me and made much of me;
wouldst give
Water with berries in t. and teach me how
To name the bigger light and how the less.
That burn by day and night, and then 1 loved
thee.
And showed thee all the qualities o the isls-