destroyer of his country.

And what shall I say of Julia, constant against the fickleness of a
lover who is a mere wicked child?--of Helena, against the petulance
and insult of a careless youth?--of the patience of Hero, the
passion of Beatrice, and the calmly devoted wisdom of the
"unlessoned girl," who appears among the helplessness, the
blindness, and the vindictive passions of men, as a gentle angel,
bringing courage and safety by her presence, and defeating the worst
malignities of crime by what women are fancied most to fail in,--
precision and accuracy of thought.

Observe, further, among all the principal figures in Shakespeare's
plays, there is only one weak woman--Ophelia; and it is because she
fails Hamlet at the critical moment, and is not, and cannot in her
nature be, a guide to him when he needs her most, that all the
bitter catastrophe follows. Finally, though there are three wicked
women among the principal figures--Lady Macbeth, Regan, and Goneril-
-they are felt at once to be frightful exceptions to the ordinary
laws of life; fatal in their influence also, in proportion to the
power for good which they have abandoned.

Such, in broad light, is Shakespeare's testimony to the position and
character of women in human life. He represents them as infallibly
faithful and wise counsellors,--incorruptibly just and pure
examples--strong always to sanctify, even when they cannot save.

Not as in any wise comparable in knowledge of the nature of man,--
still less in his understanding of the causes and courses of fate,--
but only as the writer who has given us the broadest view of the