far from being of equal utility with the passion exactly imitated." And again: "Compare a soliloquy of Hamlet, with one of the descriptions of Roderigue in the Cid. Nothing can be more natural in the circumstances and with the temper of Hamlet, than the fol lowing reflections: O that this too, too solid flesh would melt, etc. In the Cid, Roderigue, who is the hero of the tragedy and deeply enamoured of Climene, is called upon to revenge a heinous insult done to his father by the father of his mistress; and he delineates the distress of his situation in the following manner, certainly with great beauty of expression and versification, but not as a real sufferer. Perc jusque au fond du coeur D'une atteinte imprevue aussi bien que mortelle This harangue would better suit a descriptive novelist or narrator of the story, than the person actually concerned. Let us make the experiment. Let us change the verbs and pronouns from the first person into the third; and instead of supposing Rcderigue speaks, let us imagine the state of his mind is described by a spectator: 'pierced even to the heart, by an unforeseen as well as mortal stroke, the miserable avenger of a just quarrel and the unhappy object of unjust severity, he remains motionless, and his broken spirit yields to the blow that destroys him' — Il demeure immobile, et son aine abattue Cede au coup qui le tue Try the soliloquy of Hamlet by the same test; and without the words he should,' which render it dramatic, the change will be impossible." This distinction between imitating a passion and describing it, must become almost instinctive to the diligent student of Shakespeare. Now we venture to say that no distinction can be more impor tant to the man who hopes to grasp the true spirit of revelation. The Psalms are, most of them, PICTURES of devotion, perplexity, sorrow, penitence, trust, gratitude. The whole book of Ecclesi A Philosophical Analysis and Illustration of some of Shakespeare's Remarkable Characters, by W. Richardson, Professor of Humanity, Glasgow, Introduction, p. 17. 1847.] Biblical Interpretation taught by Shakespeare. 539 astes, has scarcely a direct sentiment in it. It is the utterance of the feelings of a man wandering without faith, and disappointed in the pursuit of the world. Dr. Dwight was surely no mean man, and moreover he was a poet; and yet if the reader will look into his first volume of Miscellaneous Sermons, sermon XVII, he will see how totally at a loss he was from not understanding this great principle of interpretation. He supposes Ecclesiastes 3: 12 to be a formal proposition, having all the authority of inspiration; and if so, why not take one step more, and say, we must believe that somehow the 19th verse is true: "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast." The other lesson, taught us by Shakespeare, is, the wisdom of certain rules in restoring a copy which, to a man not familiar with the subject, appears very perverse and paradoxical. One of Griesbach's rules is, that the harsher reading is often to be preferred, to the more easy and obvious one; and this appears very strange to some, as having no other tendency than to fill the Bible with ungrammatical structures and unauthorized sentiments. No doubt the principle may be pushed too far; but its necessity and wisdom are abundantly confirmed by studying the text of Shakespeare. Thus in Othello, Act I, Scene 1, Iago says of Cassio: A fellow almost damned in a fair wife. As it appears afterwards that Cassio was not married, it has been proposed to read for wife, life, supposing the poet to allude to Luke 6: 26, "Wo unto you when all men shall speak well of you." I am, however, inclined to the old reading. For first, Shakespeare seldom alludes to the Bible; secondly, the difficulty arises from not understanding the pregnant meaning of the word almost. We find from the play that Cassio was connected with Bianca, and that it was rumored that he was going to marry her, though the rumor was "the monkey's own giving out. She is persuaded I will marry her, out of her own love and flattery, not out of my promise." The phrase, therefore, "almost damned in a fair wife," means, he is on the verge of being married to a harlot. This use of the word almost, however unusual in other writers, is exquisitely Shakespearean, and is no doubt the true reading. So in Macbeth, we have these lines: I quote from memory. I forget how Griesbach expresses it; but it is something to this effect. I have lived long enough: my way of life Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not.1 In some of the copies it is "my MAY of life is fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf." Here I should be inclined to the new reading, if it were Dryden, Lee, or Rowe. "May of life," would be far more natural and easy; or perhaps Spring of life—vernal season. But not so Shakespeare. He hates to be prescriptive, and loves to be specific; and "May of life," for its vernal season, would not be unnatural in a poet whose diction is always his own. The genius of Shakespeare, is like a vast pile of buildings, lighted up by the midnight conflagration; where the splendor of the fire meets the smoking rafters-astonishing sublimity and meanness, conjoined and reconciled in the blazing ruin. ARTICLE VI. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN PROFESSOR VOIGT AND THE BISHOP OF ROCHELLE. Translated by Professor Emerson. [The following letters are taken from the last edition of Prof. Voigt's Life and Times of Hildebrand.2 Before presenting the letters, it is needful to give some ac count of the work itself by which they were occasioned and to which they so frequently refer. On its own account, too, the work is well worthy of a more extended notice than can here be given, being one of the most interesting and important productions of the kind. It everywhere bears marks of a thorough acquaintance with the original sources, and of a vigorous and inde 1 Macbeth, Act V, Scene 3. 2 Hildebrand als Papst Gregorius der Siebente, und sein Zeitalter, aus den Quellen dargestellt von Johannes Voigt, Geheimer Regierungsrath, ordent licher Professor der Geschichte an der Universität zu Königsberg, u. s. w. Zweite, vielfach veränderte Auflage.—Weimar, 1846, SS. 625. 1847.1 Prof. Voigt and the bishop of Rochelle. 541 pendent mind. The events portrayed are exceedingly numerous and well arranged, and cast so strong a light on that profoundly dark and eventful period, as to bring the eleventh century almost as near to us as the fifteenth. According to Prof. Voigt, the grand object of Hildebrand (Gregory VII.), was, to purify the church from simony, to enforce the celibacy of the clergy, and to elevate the papal above the imperial throne. All three of these objects were intimately connected together. In order to suppress what he called simony, the pope must be able to punish the princes as well as the clergy for practising it-the sellers as well as the buyers of benefices. And in order to remove from the clergy the temptation to simony, and to emancipate them from a sordid dependence on the State, they must abandon their wives and families and live on nothing. Thus detached from servility to the civil power, the clergy would unite harmoniously with their head in subjecting the princes to his sway. This threefold object was the grand effort of Gregory's life. To its accomplishment he devoted all the energies of his mighty mind, both before and after his elevation to the throne. A more complicated and arduous task was never assumed by a mortal. For in achieving it, he had to subjugate, not only the kings, but also his own clergy, and to encounter, not only the worst, but also the best as well as the strongest passions of our nature-ambition, avarice, luxury, and likewise the fondness for the domestic relations. Nothing but a concurrence of the most favorable circumstances could have enabled even a Hildebrand to succeed at all in such a crusade against human nature. And even he, after a twelve-year's struggle and after the most wonderful successes, fell at last in the conflict, uttering, as his last words, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and therefore I die in banishment." To him, the exaltation of the papacy was the perfection of righteousness. Prof. Voigt, however, does not indulge in remarks of this kind. Most of his censure is bestowed on the vicious antagonist of Gregory, the emperor Henry IV; and the entire work is fitted to give a more favorable view of that pope, if not of popery itself, than the one generally entertained by Protestants. This feature of the work has given it a rare popularity in papal countries, and subjected the author for a while, to the suspicion, both among papists and protestants, of being a covert papist. And hence, as will be seen, the occasion for the ensuing correspond. ence. To himself and those best acquainted with him, these suspicions were as amusing as they were baseless. And his book together with his correspondence, instead of fixing on him. the base charge of treachery to the good cause of Protestantism, has only led, from step to step, to the present high offices he holds under a government so watchfully Protestant as that of Prussia. The first edition of the work appeared in 1815 when the au thor was a young man. He had spent four years in preparing it. Several impressions were subsequently printed, but no improved edition before the recent one here noticed. In 1819, the work was printed by the papists in Austria, and widely read by the clergy. The report was circulated from Austria, that pope Pius VII had even hired Prof. Voigt to write it. In 1840, an Italian translation was published in Milan, and circulated in Italy. Previously, in 1838, a French translation was published in Paris, of which three impressions were soon called for. These translations appear to have been made by papists, and without the knowledge of the author. The French translation was made by the Abbe Jager, accompanied by notes. A copy of this translation came into the hands of the bishop of Rochelle, and induced him to address his first very artful letter to the author,-doubtless a fair specimen of many a proselyting epistle to other men from kindred sources. A complete collection of such letters if practica. ble, would doubtless afford much instruction as well as amusement, and might cast an important light on the mysterious conversion of many a proselyte to the papal or the semi-papal faith. -TR.] "Clement Villecourt, by the divine compassion and the favor of the apostolical see, bishop of Rochelle, to the renowned Professor J. Voigt, of the University of Halle. "Most illustrious Professor,-Wonder and admiration have attended me while reading the equally learned and pious pages you have written on the Life and Pontificate of Gregory VII. For since I had read the posthumous works of the celebrated Leibnitz, I had nowhere found among the Reformed, a more candid mind or more perfect wisdom. "Who is this? I said (while day and night holding in my hand such a work); who, this writer, of such admirable judgment? Is he a follower of Luther, or of Calvin? But how a Lutheran, or a Calvinist? But to whichever standard he belongs, who is less hostile to the church of Rome, nay, equally friendly? "At all events, this epistle shall be the interpreter and the wit |