of vice and virtue which are the chief stock-in-trade of such modern
authors as we may call 'degenerates,'--makes his Hamlet exclaim:--

"What a piece of work is man!--how noble in
reason!--how infinite in faculty!--in form and moving
how express and admirable!--in action how like an
angel!--in apprehension how like a god!"

Let us consider two of these designations in particular: 'How
infinite in faculty!'--and 'In apprehension how like a god!' The
sentences are prophetic, like so many of Shakespeare's utterances.
They foretell the true condition of the Soul of Man when it shall
have discovered its capabilities. 'Infinite in faculty'--that is to
say--Able to do all it shall WILL to do. There is no end to this
power,--no hindrance in either earth or heaven to its resolute
working--no stint to the life-supplies on which it may draw
unceasingly. And--'in apprehension how like a god!' Here the word
'apprehension' is used in the sense of attaining knowledge,--to
learn, or to 'apprehend' wisdom. It means, of course, that if the
Soul's capability of 'apprehending' or learning the true meaning and
use of every fact and circumstance which environs its existence,
were properly perceived and applied, then the 'Image of God' in
which the Creator made humanity, would become the veritable likeness
of the Divine.

But, as this powerful and infinite faculty of apprehension is seldom
if ever rightly understood, and as Man generally concentrates his
whole effort upon ministering to his purely material needs, utterly
ignoring and wilfully refusing to realise those larger claims which
are purely spiritual, he presents the appearance of a maimed and