l and Tacitus, for one part Sophocles or Seneca. In this
writer's estimate of the powers of the mind, the understanding must
have held a most tyrannical preeminence. Whether we look into his
plays or his most passionate love-poems, we shall find all frozen and
made rigid with intellect. The finest movements of the human heart,
the utmost grandeur of which the soul is capable, are essentially
comprised in the actions and speeches of Caelica and Camena.
Shakspeare, who seems to have had a peculiar delight in contemplating
womanly perfection, whom for his many sweet images of female
excellence all women are in an especial manner bound to love, has not
raised the ideal of the female character higher than Lord Brooke, in
these two women, has done. But it requires a study equivalent to the
learning of a new language to understand their meaning when they
speak. It is indeed hard to hit:

"Much like thy riddle, Samson, in one day
Or seven though one should musing sit."

It is as if a being of pure intellect should take upon him to express
the emotions of our sensitive natures. There would be all knowledge,
but sympathetic expressions would be wanting.

* * * * *

BEN JONSON.

_The Case is Altered_.--The passion for wealth has worn out much of
its grossness in tract of time. Our ancestors certainly conceived of
money as able to confer a distinct gratification in itself, not
considered simply as a symbol of wealth. The old poets, when they
introduce a miser, make him address his gold as his mistress; as
something to be seen, felt, and hugged; as capable of satisfying two
of the senses at least. The substitution of a thin, unsatisfying
medium in the place of the good old tangible metal, has made avarice
quite a Platonic affection in comparison with the seeing, touching,
and handling pleasures of the old Chrysophilites. A bank-note can no
more satisfy the touch of a true sensualist in this passion, than
Creusa could return her husband's embrace in the shades. See the Cave
of Mammon in Spenser; Barabas's contemplation of his wealth, in the
Rich Jew of Malta; Luke's raptures in the City Madam; the idolatry
and absolute gold-worship of the miser Jaques in this early comic
production of Ben Jonson's. Above all, hear Guzman, in that excellent
old translation of the Spanish Rogue, expatiate on the "ruddy cheeks
of your golden ruddocks, your Spanish pistolets, your plump and
full-faced Portuguese,