support from the vigorous and masculine Atticism of the old comedian.

But human nature, in every stage of its development and every variety of
its operation, is as distinctly pronounced on the pages of Scripture as
in the scenes of the dramatist. Of Shakespeare it is said, "He turned
the globe round for his amusement, and surveyed the generations of men,
and the individuals as they passed, with their different concerns,
passions, follies, vices, virtues, actions, and motives." He has been
called the "thousand-minded," the "oceanic soul." The Bible creates the
world and peoples it, and gives us a profound and universal insight into
all its concerns.

Another peculiarity of Shakspeare is his self-forgetfulness. In reading
what is written, you do not think of him, but of his productions. "The
perfect absence of himself from his own pages makes it difficult for us
to conceive of a human being having written them." This remark applies
with obvious force to the Bible. The authors of the several books do not
thrust themselves upon your notice, or interfere with your meditations
on what they have written; indeed, to such an extent is this
self-abeyance maintained, that it is impossible, at this period of time,
to determine who are the authors of some of the books. The narrative of
events proceeds, for the most part, as if the author had never existed.
How _naively_ and perspicuously everything is told, without the
colouring of prejudice, or an infusion of egotism on the part of the
writer!

Coleridge says, Shakspeare gives us no moral highwaymen, no sentimental
thieves and rat-catchers, no interesting villains, no amiable
adulteresses. The Bible even goes farther than this, and is faithful to
the foibles and imperfections of its favorite characters, and describes