The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-28

TO some dirty boy who writes obscene
words in a public place or the sly
n runs away to escape punishment.
But Shakespeare, like Jesus, had in
finite tolerance for the sins of the
flesh: the greatest Of ethical teachers
said, "Much shall he forgiven her, for
she loved much" and Shakespeare
through the old Countess of Rousillon
insists that desire and youth are i'm
separablc. He might have gone fur
Their, one feels. and justified what Is at
once natural and beautiful. Here are
the words which I have shown else
whore are to he taken as his own
ripcst Judgment:
this thurn
Doth to our rose of youth rightly belong
Our blood to us, this 10 our blood is
born;
II is the show and seal of natures truth.
Where loves strong passion is Impressed
in youth
Now II one considers the large TOD
erance of these passages and then puts
side 10y side with them the saying Of
Jesus:
Let him that is without sin among
you cast the first stone,"
and Shakcspeare's,
"CH' w "f
it becomes clear that Shakespeare
must have been very like Jesus.
Strange it is to me, and infinitely
touching, that both were continually
called gentle; strange. too, that
Shakespeare, coming sixteen centuries
later. and having shed off the super
stitious belief in a personal life after
death. should still hold practically the
same faith: the two greatest men Of
whom time has any record in close
agreement IN the ESSENTIALS of faith
and practice.
1t seems to mo eXquisitely charac-
teristic that whereas the George Eliot
Emersons and all thu puritans
cling To the childish morality If Paul
inc Christianity and discard as useless
the intense religious emotion, the for
givencss and sympathy ami pity. the
true IIety which Jesus brought to mon
in HIS gospel of glad tidinrs. Shake
speare with a finer instinct discards
the pucrile morality while keeping the
sacred emotion.
] have said much of this before. but
! feel that | owe THE SUN and its read
ers a further reach of thought on this
subject II a more complete sincerity.
In some respects it seems 10 m,
that Shakespeare had a finer mind
than Jesus. If not so deep a soul he
appears to have lived longer and -
have had a more varied experience.
There is perhaps no single word in
Shakespeare of such ideal challenge ~
tn" BE " perfect aS your Father IN
heaven is perfect" with which Jesus
concluded the sermon on the Mpum,
Shakespeare's "Ripeness Is all" 3
neither SO fine nor So true.
There are. however, dozens Of
phrases in the poet, the fruit of a
wide experience. which appeal to all
classes. Take hut two:
There is some SOU Of goodness in
things evil"
And the phrase Of the clown in
Twelfth Night:
Pleasure must be paid one time or
another"
Both of these far sighted ones ex-
press their belief in Gods prov!dence:
Jesus says:
Not a sparrow falls on the ground
without your Father . The
very hairs Of your head are all num-
bered."
Shakespeare has the same vision,
nut lends 1t at one and the same time
scientific accuracy ana a poetic splen-
dor of expression:
There's a divinity that shapes our
end rough hcw them as We WILL
Goethe and Napoleon, too. held the
same belief, but more vaguely
Shakespeare seems to have felt tho
Shaping influence more strongly than
any other son Of a And this is
doubly strange, for he does not dream
as Goethe dreamed of a life after the
grave; To him the Beyond was the m
discovered country from whose bourne
no traveller returns and this in spite
OF the fact that Hamlet has Just talked
with his father, who had returned
from the last resting place.
II Is possible for us then to-day To
believe in "A divinity that shapes our
ends without cozening ourselves with
any dream of an ecStatic Hereafter.
Inc influence eNertcd on us is con-
ieSsed ny the very nature of our spirit:
IN spite of ourselves We love beauty. in
spite OF ourselves We are drawn not
H. by the true and the good. as
Goethe said. but also by unsolis1
IDEAS and the attraction exercised on
us ny all the "steeps of Sudlike hard.
ship
'ui spul Is 10 the luture set hN IN
visible springs"
And the desire of our hearts is tho
forecast Of fulhlment. Humanity is
being guided to u]nimagined heights.
The best word of a Shakespeare or a
Jesus makes it possible for us L. find
a better word still: their limitations
inspire the next genius TO a larger I'M
folding and so the shining Ones hand
on the tuTcl.
Shakespeare had a strong mystical
strain in him too. If he could never
have believed as Jesus did that he
would be succured in his extremity by
hosts of angels, ne certainly did see
that the mind of a man was a Door in
with which to try to fathom
the ~unsounded depths of being or the
mysteries of this unintelligible world:
There are more things In heaven and
earth, Horatio, than are dreamt OF in
your philosophy.
II is possible her for us 20 see the
limitations Of Jesus and Shakespeare
II 50 divine how they Will be sur
passed? If "" consider historic evolu-
ton II bring before the mirror OF
our minds the souls and striving of
Goethe, SChoprnhaucr, Darwin and
Nietzsche, II Will appear, | think, at
once that neither Jesus nor Shake
ne y a lll GfAIn nT,ntsTl, 80, .-ng .....