with the prayer expressed in Garrick's words: "And may no sacrilegious hand Near Avon's banks be found, To dare to parcel out the land, And limit Shakespere's hallowed ground. For ages free, still be it unconfined, As broad and general as thy boundless mind.” As foon as the fympathy of the public for the object in queftion was exhibited, the ambition of its promoters expanded as the fubfcriptions increased; and nothing lefs than the full and entire recovery of the eftate once poffeffed by Shakespere at New Place, would fatisfy thefe ardent and enthufiaftic individuals. Goldsmith complained (to DodЛley after dinner) that his was an "unpoetic "age." There are many chatterers of the prefent day who repeat the complaint, which feems to have become ftereotyped for all time. It was a foolish thought mite at jatt as interefted in, e juft as With Sinted care every of the highteft produced, as here been. Cir g his works The who had never Sithon that has had strative feel Has Halt ostidance, and sted with him ased upon by of taste for architecture, and nce for mediæval art, which r to the reign of Victoria, and ter signalise it. The historian >w, from the fixteenth to the century, the ecclesiastical archiEngland univerfally, and the enerally, became baser and still ; until, towards the clofe of the era, it reached a depth of de(land-marked by the introducComan Cement and Cockney n which nothing could be more The fame hiftorian will tell of work that Pugin did, of the t refufcitation of tafte, and of rchitectural beauty becoming a part of polite education. He ow (as the legitimate accompaf such regenerated refinement) h people awoke to the convicthe fabrics of their churches had Goldsmith's thought to fay "an unpoetic age," for every age must seem to the men of the day matter of fact and unpoetic. To-day always appears profaic; yesterday and tomorrow-fubjects of retrofpection and anticipation, not objects in poffeffion—are the fit themes for poetry. age, however prosaic it may have seemed, gave him good proof of its poetic appreciation; and fo our age (iron age though it may be) gives equally good proof of its admiration for the real poet and for genuine poetry, wherever it finds the one, or reads the other. If the true poet lives in the hearts and memories of his countrymen, how much more the Prince of all the Bards? There are those who will boldly affert that Shakespere's works do not attract, and that people generally, care little or nothing about Shakefpere himself. It is not to the purpose in this place to enter into any difcuffion upon fuch topics. It might, however, be argued that the ftudents of his works have found themfelves compelled (unless contented with being guilty of ignorance) to make the Poet's plays the companions of the closet ; and that from the ftudent's clofet the most valuable interpretations of his text have iffued of late years. Such an argument would infer that the marvellous creations of the Poet's mind command peculiar respect at the present time; and it may be unhesitatingly afferted, that abundant evidence is forthcoming to prove that this is a fact. There has not been an era in English literature more fruitful in labours of critical comment upon the text of Shakefpere, and more inquiring into every fort of evidence likely to throw light upon his life and hiftory. It might also be argued, that the people of England are juft |