but his gratitude is not a natural virtue (we might almost add not an airy virtue); therefore he must (like man be sometimes reminded of his debt, and held in check. Only the promise of his freedom in two days restores him again to his amiability, and he then finds pleasure in executing the plans of his master with a delightful activity.

"We noticed in passing the featureless angel,' and it requires no further indication where to find such beings; for no one will deny that these immortal winged children (so charming in many old German pictures), with their somewhat dull immortal harps, and, if possible, their still more dull and immortal anthems, cause a not less immortal tediousness in the works of many poets. Shakspere did not fall into this error, and it is in the highest degree attractive to observe the various and safe modes in which he manages the marvellous. In the storm he achieves his object by the simplest means, while, as has been already indicated, he represents Nature herself, and certainly justly, as the greatest miracle. When he has once in his own gentle way led us to believe that Prospero, through his high art, is able to overrule Nature—and how willingly do we believe in these higher powers of man!-how completely natural and, to a certain degree, only pleasant trifles, are all the wonders which we see playing around us! These higher powers, also, are not contined to Prospero alone; Ferdinand and Miranda are, without any enchanted wand or any prolix instruction, completely superior to the wonders of Nature, and they allow them to pass around them merely as a delightful drama; for the highest wonder is in their own breasts, love, the pure human, and, even on that account, holy love.

"Even the pure mind and the firm heart, as they are shown in old Gonzalo, are armed with an almost similar power. With our poet, a truly moral man is always amiable, powerful, agreeable, and quietly wards off the snares laid for him. This old Gonzalo is so entirely occupied with his duty, in which alone he finds his pleasure, that he scarcely notices the gnat-stings of wit with which his opponents persecute him; or, if he observes, easily and firmly repels them. What wit indeed has he to fear, who, in a sinking ship, has power remaining to sustain himself and others with genuine humour? Shakspere seems scarcely to recognise a powerless virtue, and he depicts it only in cases of need; so everything closes satisfactorily. The pure poetry of nature and genius inspires us; and when we hear Prospero recite his far too modest epilogue, after laying down his enchanted wand, we have no wish to turn our minds to any frivolous thoughts, for the magic we have experienced was too charining and too mighty not to be enduring."

END OF COMEDIES, VOL. II.

London: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES and SONS, Stamford Street.