opinion, am ready to ſink down in reverential ſilence; as Æneas withdrew from the defence of Troy, when he ſaw Neptune ſhaking the wall, and Juno beading the beſiegers.
Thoſe whom my arguments cannot perſuade to give their approbation to the judgment of Shakeſpeare, will eaſily, if they conſider the condition of his life, make ſome allowance for his ignorance.
Every man’s performances, to be rightly eſtimated muſt be compared with the ſtate of the age in which he lived, and with his own particular opportunities; and though to a reader a book be not worſe or better for the circumſtances of the author, yet as there is always a ſilent reference of human works to human abilities, and as the enquiry, how far man may extend his deſigns, or how high he may rate his native force, is of far greater dignity than in what rank we ſhall place any particular performance, curioſity is always buſy to diſcover the inſtruments, as well as to ſurvey the workmanſhip, to know how much is to be aſcribed to original powers, and how much to caſual and adventitious help. The palaces of Peru or Mexico were certainly mean and incommodious habitations, if compared to the houſes of European monarchs; yet who could forbear to view them with aſtoniſhment, who remembered that they were built without the uſe of iron?
The Engliſh nation, in the time of Shakeſpeare, was yet ſtruggling to emerge from barbarity. The philology of Italy had been tranſplanted hither in the
