ne another he loves to
display upon a background of political life. Then we follow him from
the cloudy North into sunny Italy. Shakspeare is one of the
intellectual powers of nature; he takes away the veil by which the
inward springs of action are hidden from the vulgar eye. The extension
of the range of human vision over the mysterious being of things which
his works offer constitutes them a great historical fact.

We do not here enter upon a discussion of Shakspeare's art and
characteristics, of their merits and defects: they were no doubt of a
piece with the needs, habits, and mode of thought of his audience; for
in what case could there be a stronger reciprocal action between an
author and his public, than in that of a young stage depending upon
voluntary support? The very absence of conventional rule made it
easier to put on the stage a drama by which all that is grandest and
mightiest is brought before the eyes as if actually present in that
medley of great and small things which is characteristic of human
life. Genius is an independent gift of God: whether it is allowed to
expand or not depends on the receptivity and taste of its
contemporaries.

It is certainly no unimportant circumstance that Shakspeare brought
out King Lear soon after the accession of James I, who, like his
predecessor, loved the theatre; and that Francis Bacon dedicated to
the King his work on the Advancement of Learning in the same year
1605.

Of these two great minds the first bodied forth in imperishable forms
the tradition, the poetry, and the view of the world that belonged to
the past: the second banished from the domain of science the analogies
which they offered, and made a new path for the activity displayed by
succeeding centuries in the conquest of nature, and for a new view of
the world.

Many others laboured side by side with them. The investigation of
nature had already entered on the path indicated by Bacon, and was
welcomed with lively interest, especially among the upper classes.
Together with Shakspeare the less distinguished poets of the time
have always been remembered. In many other departments works of solid
value were written which laid a foundation for subsequent studies.
Their characteristic feature is the union of the knowledge of
particulars, which are grasped in their individuality, with a
scientific effort directed towards the universal.

These were the days of calm between the storms; halcyon days, as they