from the worthy.  I did expect to see the day, and although I shall not see it, it must come at last, when he shall be treated as a madman or an impostor who dares to claim nobility or precedency and cannot shew his family name in the history of his country.  Even he who can shew it, and who cannot write his own under it in the same or as goodly characters, must submit to the imputation of degeneracy, from which the lowly and obscure are exempt.

“’He alone who maketh you wiser maketh you greater; and it is only by such an implement that Almighty God himself effects it.  When he taketh away a man’s wisdom he taketh away his strength, his power over others and over himself.  What help for him then?  He may sit idly and swell his spleen, saying,—­who is this?  Who is that? and at the question’s end the spirit of inquiry dies away in him.  It would not have been so if, in happier hour, he had said within himself, who am I?  What am I? and had prosecuted the search in good earnest.

“’When we ask who this man is, or who that man is, we do not expect or hope for a plain answer; we should be disappointed at a direct, or a rational, or a kind one.  We desire to hear that he was of low origin, or had committed some crime, or been subjected to some calamity.  Whoever he be, in general we disregard or despise him, unless we discover that he possesseth by nature many qualities of mind and body which he never brings into use, and many accessories of situation and fortune which he brings into abuse every day.  According to the arithmetic in practice, he who makes the most idlers and the most ingrates is the most worshipful.  But wiser ones than the scorers in this school will tell you how riches and power were bestowed by Providence that generosity and mercy should be exercised; for, if every gift of the Almighty were distributed in equal portions to every creature, less of such virtues would be called into the field; consequently there would be less of gratitude, less of submission, less of devotion, less of hope, and, in the total, less of content.’”

Here he ceased, and Sir Thomas nodded, and said, —

“Reasonable enough! nay, almost too reasonable!”

“But where are the apostles?  Where are the disciples?  Where are the saints?  Where is hell-fire?”

“Well! patience! we may come to it yet.  Go on, Will!”

With such encouragement before him, did Will Shakspeare take breath and continue:-

“’We mortals are too much accustomed to behold our superiors in rank and station as we behold the leaves in the forest.  While we stand under these leaves, our protection and refuge from heat and labour, we see only the rougher side of them, and the gloominess of the branches on which they hang.  In the midst of their benefits we are insensible to their utility and their beauty, and appear to be ignorant that if they were placed less high above us we should derive from them less advantage.’”