in whose eye the nobilities of Nature are always sure of recognition.

Shakespeare evidently delighted in a certain natural harmony of
character wherein virtue is free and spontaneous, like the breathing
of perfect health. And such is Orlando. He is therefore good without
effort; nay, it would require some effort for him to be otherwise; his
soul gravitating towards goodness as of its own accord: "In his proper
motion he ascends; descent and fall to him is adverse." And perhaps
the nearest he comes to being aware of his virtue is when his virtue
triumphs over a mighty temptation; that is, when he sees his unnatural
brother in extreme peril;

"But kindness, nobler ever than revenge,
And nature, stronger than his just occasion,"

made him risk his own life to save him; and even in this case the
divine art of overcoming evil with good seems more an instinct than a
conscious purpose with him. This is one of the many instances wherein
the Poet delivers the highest results of Christian discipline as
drawing so deeply and so creatively into the heart, as to work out
with the freedom and felicity of native, original impulse.

I must dismiss Orlando with a part of his tilt of wit with Jaques, as
that very well illustrates the composition of the man:

"_Jaq_. I thank you for your company; but, good faith, I had as
lief have been myself alone.

_Orlan_. And so had I; but yet, for fashion's sake, I thank you
too for your society.

_Jaq_. God b' wi' you: let's meet as little as we can.

_Orlan_. I do desire we may be better strangers.

_Jaq_. I pray you, mar no more trees with writing love-songs in
their barks.

_Orlan_. I pray you, mar no more of my verses with reading them
ill-favouredly.

_Jaq_. Rosalind is your love's name?

_Orlan_. Yes, just.

_Jaq_. I do not like her name.

_Orlan_. There was no thought of pleasing you when she was
christened.

_Jaq_. What stature is she of?

_Orlan_. Just as high as my heart.

_Jaq_. You have a nimble wit: I think it was made of Atalanta's
heels. Will you sit down with me? and we two will rail against
our mistress the world and all our misery.

_Orlan_. I will chide no breather in the world but myself,
against whom I know most faults."

The banished Duke exemplifies the best sense of nature as thoroughly
informed and built up with Christian discipline and religious
effi