To this end is all art. Exquisite vocalism, beautiful statuary,
and painting, and all true literature, have not for their great object
to employ the ingenuity of prying critics, or furnish the world with a
set of new ideas, but to move the whole nature by the perfection and
truthfulness of their appeal. There is a certain atmosphere exhaled from
the inspired page of genius, which gives vitality to the sentiments, and
through these, quickens the mental powers. And this is the chief good of
books.
* * * * *
=_H.N. Hudson, 1814-._= (Manual, pp. 480, 501.)
From "Preface to the Works of Shakespeare."
=_224._= Shakespeare's Works Instructive.
It is true, he often lays on us burdens of passion that would not be
borne in any other writer. But whether he wrings the heart with pity, or
freezes the blood with terror, or fires the soul with indignation, the
genial reader still rises from his pages refreshed. The reason of which
is, instruction keeps pace with excitement: he strengthens the mind
in proportion as he loads it. He has been called the great master of
passion: doubtless he is so; yet he makes us think as intensely as he
requires us to feel; while opening the deepest fountains of the heart,
he at the same time unfolds the highest energies of the head.
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