for the public to say whether my countrywoman has proved her theory.
In the worst event, if she has failed, her failure will be more
honorable than most people's triumphs; since it must fling upon the
old tombstone, at Stratford-on-Avon, the noblest tributary wreath that
has ever lain there.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.


THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAYS OF SHAKSPERE.

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

THE PROPOSITION.


'One time will owe another.'--_Coriolanus_.

This work is designed to propose to the consideration, not of the
learned world only, but of all ingenuous and practical minds, a new
development of that system of practical philosophy from which THE
SCIENTIFIC ARTS of the Modern Ages proceed, and which has already
become, just to the extent to which it has been hitherto opened, the
wisdom,--the universally approved, and practically adopted, Wisdom of
the _Moderns_.