The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1899-08-10
Ingersoll on Shakespeare


In all the newspaper talks about the
dead man the narrator has failed to no
tice any reference to that poetic part of
his nature which was most thoroughly
revealed by his lecture upon Shakes
peare, yet that production Of his brain
contained net hundreds but thousands
of jeweled thoughts. He was pro-
found Student If the grrat poet, ma
fist, and SAID of him:
civilian Shakespeare was the great
est genius of our world. He left to us
the richest legacy Of all the dead the
treasures of the rarest soul that ever
lived and loved and wrought of words
the statues, pictures, robes and gems
of thought. He was the greatest man
that ever touched this grain of-sand
and tears we call the world. 1t is hard
to overstate the debt we owe to the
men and women of genius.
Take from our world what they
have given, and all the inches would be
empty, all the walls naked meaning
aud connection would fall from words
of poetry and fiction, music would &c
back to common air, and all the forms
of subtle and enchanting art would lose
proportion, and become the unmeaning
waste and shattered spoil of thought.
less Chance.
Shakespeare is too great theme
feel as though endeavoring to grasp 3
globe SO large that the hand obtains nc
hold. He who would worthily speak
of the great dramatist should be in
spired by a muse Of fire, should ascend
the brightest heaven of lnvention-ht
should have "a kingdom for stage
and monarchs to behold the swelling
scene.
This is what he said of the never
ceasing marvel that Shakespeare, with
out education, lives today and will eyel
live as the inspirer of the most highly
educated thought of the civilized world
"Ihis babe became the wonder O
mankind. Neither Of his parents coult
read or write. He grew up in a small
and Ignorant village on the banks o
the Avon, in the midst of the common
people Of 300 years ago. There wa
nothing in the peaceful, quiet
on which he looked, nothing in the Low
hills, the cultivated and undulatin,
fields, to excite the imagination
nothing, so far as We can see, calculated
to SOW the seeds of the subtlest ant
sublimist thought.
$50 there is nothing connected will
his education, or his lack Of education
that in any way accounts for what h
did. 1t is supposed that he attende,
school in his native town-but of thi
we are not certain. Many have trie,
to show that he was, after all, 0
gentle blood, but the fact seems to b
the other way. Some of his biographer
have sought to do him honor by show
ing that he was patronized by Queel
Elizabeth, but Of this there is not tn
slightest proof.
''As matter of fact, there never 50
on any throne king, queen or EN-
peror who could have honored William
|, Shakespeare.
Ignorant people are apt to overrat
4 the value of poverty, think of wealt
as the mother of JOY. On the othe
hand, the children of the rich, indinI
that gold does not produce happiness
are apt to underrate the value of wealth
SO the children of the educated ofte,
care but little for books, and hold al
culture in contempt The children O
great authors do not, as rule, beeom
writers.
mature is filled with tendencies an,
distinctions. Extremes beget limita
tions, even as river by its own swift
ness creates obstruction for itself.
Possibly many generations of cul
ture breed desire for the rude joys o
savagery, and FOSSIL ~ generations O
ignorance breed a longing for knowl
edge that Of this desire, of this hunge