THE

PROGRESS OF HUMAN LIFE.

1

ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE;
AND ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN MERELY PLAYERS:
THEY HAVE THEIR EXITS, AND THEIR ENTRANCES,
AND ONE MAN IN HIS TIME PLAYS MANY PARTS,
HIS ACTS BEING SEVEN Ages ! AT FIRST THE INFANT,
MEWLING AND PUKING IN THE NURSE'S ARMS;
AND THEN THE WHINING SCHOOL BOY, WITH HIS SATCHEL
AND SHINING MORNING FACE, CREEPING LIKE SNAIL
UNWILLINGLY TO SCHOOL : AND THEN THE LOVER;
SIGHING LIKE FURNACE, WITH A WOFUL BALLAD
MADE TO HIS MISTRESS' EYEBROW : THEN A SOLDIER ;
FULL OF STRANGE OATHS, AND BEARDED LIKE THE PARD,
JEALOUS IN HONOUR, SUDDEN AND QUICK IN QUARREL,
SEEKING THE BUBBLE REPUTATION
EVEN IN THE CANNON'S MOUTH :

AND THEN, THE JUSTICE;
IN FAIR ROUND BELLY, WITH GOOD CAPON LIN'D,
WITH EYES SEVERE, AND BEARD OF FORMAL CUT,
FULL OF WISE SAWS AND MODERN INSTANCES,
AND SO HE PLAYS HIS PART : THE SIXTH AGE SHIFTS
INTO THE LEAN AND SLIPPER'D PANTALOON;
WITH SPECTACLES ON NOSE, AND POUCH ON SIDE;
HIS YOUTHFUL HOSE WELL SAV'D, A WORLD TOO WIDE
FOR HIS SHRUNK SHANK; AND HIS BIG MANLY VOICE,
TURNING AGAIN TOWARD CHILDISH TREBLE, PIPES
AND WHISTLES IN HIS SOUND: LAST SCENE OF ALL,
THAT ENDS THIS STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY,
IS SECOND CHILDISHNESS AND MERE OBLIVIOX;
SANS TEETH, SANS EYES, SANS TABTE, SANS EVERY THING!

INTRODUCTION.

O YOUTHS and VIRGINS! O declining Eld!
O pale Misfortune's slaves! O ye who dwell
Unknown with humble quiet: Ye who wait
In Courts and fill the golden seat of Kings;
O sons of sport and pleasure! O thou wretch
That weep'st for jealous law, and the sore wound
Of conscious guilt, or Death's rapacious hand,
That left thee void of Hope! O ye who mourn
In exile! Ye who through the embattled field
Seek bright renown, or who for nobler palms
Contend the leaders of a public cause!

Hath not His faithful tongue

Told you the fashion of your own estate,

The secrets of your bosom!

AKENSIDE,

WITH respect to the works of SHAKSPEARE, the young reader of reflection may ask, what is it that renders them so universally pleasing? wherein consists that charm that interests the affections, and overpowers the heart of almost every person who sits down to the perusal of them? There must be some reason for this fascination. There are causes

to be assigned for this universal approbation.

It has been remarked, that SHAKSPEARE has excelled in the first and greatest characteristics of

genius; the power of moving the passions, and enchaining the attention; the faculty of inventing and portraying characters; the beauty and energy of his style, diction, and imagery; and the power of numbers, as well as the facility and felicity of his versification. These are all of them deserving of attention.

To these exemplifications of the superiority of Shakspeare's writings above all others, may be added the sentiments and maxims of MORALITY with which they are impregnated, Hence a selection has been made at various times, and on differeut occasions, well adapted to engage the affections, and interest the heart.

I shall subjoin a character of SHAKSPEARE by the judicious Dr. Aikin, in his Letters to his Son.

“By means of his nervous and highly figurative language, rather aided than injured in its effect by a turn to quaintness and bombast, SHAKSPEARE presents even trite sentiments and descriptions in so impressive a form, that they are seized with avidity by the imagination; and through it, act with irresistible force on the heart. But in addition to this, a fund of strong sense and sagacity suggested to him an uncommon variety of just and curious observations on mankind, which he has copiously introduced, sometimes with little dramatic propriety, but so as to furnish an almost inexhaustible store of moral precept and reflection. These choice products of his genius are culled by the

English reader with scarcely any interruption from the gross matter, in which, like pure gold in its matrix, they are often imbedded! His detached beauties shine in all collections, and even regular systems of morality have been fabricated from his works alone. Considering the universal familiarity with SHAKSPEARE's best pieces acquired among us, either from the stage or in the closet, and the adoption of so much of his phraseology by many of our popular writers, I do not think it is exaggerating the effect of poetry to suppose, that the characteristic English manliness of thought has been greatly indebted to him for its preservation, amid prevailing luxury and fashionable frivolity."

A proper close of this eulogium on the genius of SHAKSPEARE will be a few remarks on the character of the melancholy, moralizing, and satirical JACQUES, whose representation of Human Life under SEVEN Ages, is illustrated in the following pages.

The character of JACQUES is altogether singular, and of a very eccentric complexion. We meet with this personage in SHAKSPEARE's As YOU LIKE IT; (published, according to Malone, in 1600) there we thus find it delineated.

Lord. To-day, my Lord of Amiens, and myself,
Did steal behind him, as he lay along
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood:
To the which place a poor sequester'd stag,
That from the hunters' aim had ta'en a hurt,