Prize Essays Chiefly Shaksperean Studies

lU't Dream. Act V. i. 13?17. THE SUPERNATURAL IN SHAKSPERE. There are many agencies at work which influence the character of a man's life?agencies external and internal, visible and invisible, manifest and mysterious. But amongst them all the supernatural is perhaps the most powerful. There is an inherent tendency in man to believe in that which exceeds the terms of his own nature. His soul will rise above itself in search of some higher, some ruling power, to guide it through the vicissitudes of this life. The most barbarous savage is conscious that there is something in the universe which demands his recognition. He has no real knowledge of it, nor of its attributes, but obeying instinct he sets up some visible object, some likely symbol of that higher power, and gives it his adoration. It is true that civilization has produced men who have denied the existence of any such Divine angency; men who have believed in their own self-sufficiency to measure and to comprehend all things; -but the higher feelings of our nature rebel against such assumption. The philosophy of the Ancients supported this theory, but at the same time they peopled the universe with celestial powers, who presided over their actions and over the workings of nature. Jove is seated on the summit of " cloud-capped Olympus," while the minor gods charioteer in the sun, rule the tempests, and rage in the storms. They wage war with each other; mixwith their chosen people in th...