Had he been a fiery Italian, instead of a doubting, deliberating Dane; had he been of a passionate, or yellow complexion, instead of a calm blonde; had he possessed a wiry, high-strung, and nervous constitution; had he, in a word, proved himself a man of action, and not a man of metaphysical tendencies, his sword would have soon cut the perplexing meshes which surrounded him, and he would have executed instant vengeance upon the authors of his misfortune and disgrace.  Else he would have put an end to a life too wretched to be endured.

The conventional critic may smile at the conceit of a fat Hamlet, but I am satisfied that my theory is amply sustained by the text, as well as by the true solution of the alleged knotty points of Shakspeare’s mental character, over which the ponderous but inflated brain of Dr. Johnson stultified itself.  He accuses the Avon bard of introducing spirits, ghosts, myths, and fairies; of being guilty of exaggerations, absurdities, vulgar expressions, and other naughtiness. (Boswell’s Johnson, Vol.  IV. pp. 258, etc.) All of which proves that the Doctor was sometimes prejudiced, ill-natured, jealous, and ponderously silly on certain points.

But they who have cracked the kernel of this grand tragedy, and formed a just conception of the real disposition and peculiarities of the true hero, must admire and appreciate the marvelous skill of the great bard who understands the relations between physiology and the passions, and can analyze the temperament physical, as well as dissect the soul immortal.

* * * * *

THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.

Within a very few years, the friends of Emancipation in the North and West, as well as all opposed to the increase of ‘Southern power’ in our national policy, have been from time to time interested by rumors of a secret association termed that of the Knights of the Golden Circle, or as it is familiarly described, ‘the K.G.C.’  It was understood to be a secret society, instituted for the purpose of extending, by the most desperate means and measures, the institution of slavery, and with it, of Southern Secession and all those social and political principles which have been of late years so unscrupulously advocated by Southern statesmen.  It is, however, only of late that any thing definite relative to this order has been published.

In July, 1861, the Louisville Journal gave a full expose of the order, which has been recently republished in a pamphlet, by ’the U.S.  National U.C.,’ a copy of which now lies before us.  ’Of the authenticity of this exposition,’ says the introduction, ‘there can be no doubt.’  George D. Prentice, Esq., the editor of the Journal, gives his solemn assurance, as an editor and as a man, that the documents from which he derived his information are authentic.  He asserts, moreover, that he received them from a prominent Knight of the