cannot sever his relations to this world, cannot be freed from his own self, cannot abjure mammon, without God in him gaining life even though in his own mind he may not recognise the fact. We have to take this whole existence for what it is, a passing conception of an unfree state, serving only as a correlate, a contrast with the actual and eternal existence of God. As soon as we attribute an absolute value to this present life we allow the conception of multiplicity - a conception which only finds justification as a contrast with the reality of the unity of divine nature - to acquire a significance to which it can lay no claim.

"Les extrèmes se touchent,' the saying of a man of genius, is at the same time characteristic of the nature of genius in general. The most perfect self-abnegation and disinterestedness is here coincident with the greatest self-dependence and originality, for precisely he who is so disinterested that personal relations lose all value for him, is at the same time self-dependent in the highest sense, since no personal interest can fetter him. Hence we can understand how such a man can master a world; for himself unmoved and uninfluenced, he is enabled to move and influence everything. The man of genius does not even seek like other, insignificant beings, to play the part of Providence. Calm to his very heart's core, he is content to go his way, weighing only the 1 The same thought is expressed by Matthew Arnold in his poem "SelfDependence" (Selected Poems. 1886, pp. 170-1):

Weary of myself, and sick of asking

What I am, and what I ought to be,

At this vessel's prow I stand, which bears me
Forwards, forwards, o'er the starlit sea.

And a look of passionate desire

O'er the sea and to the stars I send:

"Ye who from my childhood up have calm'd me,
Calm me, ah, compose me to the end!

main chances in his calculations, and leaving all else to fate. Full of trust in his star, he succeeds where the man who is anxious about his success, and afraid of overlooking any chance that may possibly turn the scale, misses the most essential of all, because he is too much occupied with secondary matters. The philistine attempts to play the part of Providence, to gather all the threads of events into his own hands, and therefore fails ignominiously. In our actions we are always outwardly unfree, since they are invariably influenced by outward factors. The man of genius, therefore, whose nature aims only at freedom, cannot treat his affairs with real, deep gravity; for how could he who values only what is self-centred and self-dependent attach any positive value to what is so altogether conditioned and dependent as our actions,

"Ah, once more," I cried, "ye stars, ye waters,
On my heart your mighty charm renew;

Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you,

Feel my soul becoming vast like you!"

From the intense, clear, star-sown vault of heaven,
Over the lit sea's unquiet way,

In the rustling night-air came the answer:

"Wouldst thou be as these are? Live as they.

"Unaffrighted by the silence round them,
Undistracted by the sights they see,

These demand not that the things without them
Yield them love, amusement, sympathy.

"And with joy the stars perform their shining,
And the sea its long moon-silver'd roll;
For self-poised they live, nor pine with noting
All the fever of some differing soul.

"Bounded by themselves, and unregardful
In what state God's other works may be,
In their own tasks all their powers pouring,
These attain the mighty life you see."

O air-born voice! long since, severely clear,
A cry like thine in mine own heart I hear:
"Resolve to be thyself; and know, that he
Who finds himself, loses his misery!"

our success and failure? Only in desiring, in striving are we free, not in attaining.

'Plunge we in Time's tumultuous dance,

In the rush and roll of Circumstance!
Then may delight and distress,
And worry and success,

Alternately follow, as best they can:
Restless activity proves the man!' 1

"To sum up: we have traced the nature of the man of genius and the whole manner in which his personality produces its effect to his complete disinterestedness and freedom of soul. We have seen how this freedom finds expression according to the various mental processes, firstly, in thought as the effort to grasp phenomena in their connection with one another and to bring them under general laws, secondly, in sensation as an æsthetic perception which regards the object as something free, existing for itself, lastly, in volition as a complete surrender to higher aims, the soul of the man of genius nevertheless remaining continually free from the object of his activity, free from care about the result, be it success or failure."

1 Goethe, Faust. Translated by Bayard Taylor. Part I, sc. 4.

IV.

SHAKESPEARE'S CONCEPTION
OF THE NATURE OF GENIUS
IN HAMLET.

GENIUS, objectivity, disinterestedness can be displayed in three directions, corresponding to the threefold attitude of man towards the outer world surrounding him. For firstly, man receives the impressions of the outer world; he perceives. Secondly, he mentally converts these impressions into ideas which he fits into the picture he has conceived of the world; he thinks. And thirdly, as a result of the impressions received and of the ideas he has obtained from them, he forms his resolutions and carries them out; he acts. Genius, objectivity, or disinterestedness in perception leads to the conception of the beautiful. Genius in thought leads to truth, and genius in action leads to the accomplishment of what is good, great, and of solid worth.

To those geniuses among humanity, in whom this perfection of æsthetic, intellectual, and moral feeling was developed in the highest degree, William Shakespeare, the greatest dramatic poet of all times, undoubtedly belongs. But the character into which he has infused his deepest and most personal sensations, thoughts, and aspirations, is his Hamlet. Shakespeare's genius has raised an everlasting monument to itself in "Hamlet." In the character

of the Danish prince, which is delineated with such marvellous and delicate skill, let us now attempt to bring to light those features in which a conformity is shown with the nature of genius, that is, those features in which objectivity or disinterestedness of sensation, thought, and will are clearly exhibited.

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According to the order of our researches, let us first consider the nature of Hamlet's sense-impressions. How does the outward appearance of persons and things affect his perceptive faculties? With what eyes does he regard the world? The answer must evidently be with the eyes of love, as in keeping with his nature. With what admiration, for instance, does he speak of his father's noble and heroic appearance; in what magnificent words does he clothe his enthusiasm and delight when referring to the grand figure of the old king! It is impossible for him to conceive that the difference in the mere outward aspect of the two brothers, of the old king, his mother's former husband, and of King Claudius, her present consort, did not suffice to keep her from exchanging a precious jewel for a pebble, a god for a monkey. In his mother's apartment, in the fourth scene of the third act, he in fiery words attempts to impress the characteristic difference in the outward appearance of the two brothers upon her. Pointing to the portraits of the two kings he addresses these words to her:

"Look here, upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
See what a grace was seated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls, the front of Jove himself,
An eye like Mars, to threaten and command;
A station like the herald Mercury

New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill;