Now, we meet with the same sentiment in the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom :

For the foolish devices of their wickedness wherewith being deceived they worshipped serpents void of reason and wild beasts, THOU didst send a multitude of wild beasts upon them for vengeance, that they might know that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished. xi. 16.

And though I cannot now remember any passage of a profane author* that comes fully up to the same sentiment, or nearer to it than what we read in Eschylus (Agam.† v. 170, sq.) and Juvenal (Sat. i. 142, sqq.), yet I have little doubt that such a passage may be found. But with regard to the remark itself, the truth, I believe, is that Shakspeare does, for the most part, make a difference between his Heathen and his Christian characters. For instance, in the very play upon which Johnson's remark is made, King Lear, we find the following sentiment, which I very much doubt whether our poet would have allowed any but a Heathen character to utter:

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods ;

They kill us for their sport:

lines which Mr. Bowdler has omitted, instead of

* We have it in St. Chrysostom upon the third Psalm, with a play upon the words, which must be lost in a translation. öv ŋŋyù τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἐκεῖθεν ἡ πληγὴ τῆς τιμωρίας.—Vol. v. p. 3.

† Compare the sentiment in K. Lear, Act ii. Sc. 4.

suggesting in a note that they are spoken by one who was not a Christian. Again, I am inclined to think, that in Coriolanus, it is purposely left a doubtful point whether mercy was an attribute of the Deity or no. I allude to the following dialogue between Menenius and Sicinius, respecting Coriolanus, towards the close of the play:

Menenius. What he bids be done, is finished with his bidding. He wants nothing of a god but eternity and a heaven to throne in. Sicinius. Yes, mercy, if you report him truly. Menenius. I paint him in the character.* Mark what mercy his mother shall bring from him. There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger. Act v. Sc. 4.

At the same time I must admit that in Titus Andronicus, of which the characters are Heathen also, mercy is undoubtedly recognized as a divine attribute, where Tamora, Queen of the Goths, says to Titus:

Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods?
Draw near them, then, in being merciful.

Act ii. Sc. 2.

In regard to this passage, however, it may be observed, first, that the play in which it occurs is generally allowed not to be Shakspeare's; secondly, that the date of the action belongs to a period almost as many centuries after, as Coriolanus was before, the commencement of the Christian era; and, thirdly, that in the interval are to be found, even in heathen authors, passages which fall little, if at

* That is, to the life, as he is.

all, short of the same sentiment. Take, for example, what Cicero had said in addressing Cæsar on behalf of Ligarius-a passage partly quoted by Mr. Whalley

Homines

Nihil est tam populare quam bonitas; nulla de virtutibus tuis plurimis nec admirabilior nec gratior misericordiâ est. enim ad Deos nullâ re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando.-Orat. pro Ligario, c. 12.

There is, however, one play of Shakspeare to which it must, I think, be admitted, the remark of Johnson is justly applicable, at least in some degree. I allude to Cymbeline, where Jupiter is made to say :

Whom best I love,* I cross.

Act v. Sc. 4.

And again, in the 1st Scene of the same Act, where Posthumus exclaims :

Gods! if you

Should have ta'en vengeance on my faults, I never
Had lived to put on † this: so had you saved

The noble Imogen to repent, and struck

Me wretch, more worth your vengeance. But, alack!

You snatch some hence for little faults; that's love,
To have them fall no more; you some permit

To second ills with ills, each elder worse.

Compare Isaiah lvii. 1,

Merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

There is also a passage in Othello, too painful to be quoted, where it has been remarked that reference is made to the doctrine of Scripture. Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.'-See Act v. Sc. 2.

ti. e. to incite, instigate.

Upon the whole, then, while I cannot deny altogether the justice of Dr. Johnson's censure, still I would remark that to draw any very broad lines of distinction in the case referred to would have been impossible without giving certain and perhaps just cause for offence; and therefore to bring an accu-sation of negligence' for not doing so, may not unfairly be regarded as somewhat captious and unreasonable:

SECT. 2. Of the Holy Angels, and of the Fallen.

A devout invocation for the ministering help of the Holy Angels is not to be confounded with the impiety of addressing them in prayer. The one is encouraged, the other is forbidden in Holy Scripture. Such invocations abound in Hamlet, and though the story of that play refers to a period long before the Reformation, and though, on that account, Shakspeare would seem to have intended to represent the characters as tinged, to some extent, with the errors of Romanism,* yet I am not sure that upon

*Thus the Ghost of Hamlet's father speaks of his being

'Confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purged away ;'

that is, the doctrine of purgatory; and again, of being

'Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin,
Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd;'

that is, without the sacrament of extreme unction.

Act i. Sc. 5.

And Hamlet, in

the point now before us he has transgressed the limits which a sound theology would impose. For instance, there is nothing to object to in the exclamation of Hamlet, at the sight of the GhostAngels and ministers of grace, defend us ! Act i. Sc. 4.

for,

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation? Heb. i. 14.

And again, when the Ghost reappears in Act iii. Sc. 4:
Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings,
You heavenly guards!

Nor is the exclamation of the guilty king, when struggling to repent, and to betake himself to prayer, less appropriate :

Help, Angels, make assay !

Bow, stubborn knees! and, heart with strings of steel,

Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe!

All may be well.

Act iii. Sc. 3.

And how pious and touching is the farewell of
Horatio when Hamlet dies:-

Now cracks a noble heart: Good night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! Act v. Sc. 2.

The singing of angels, and their loving attendance upon the good at all times, but especially in their last moments, have furnished our poet with beautiful

addressing the players, Act ii. Sc. 2, swears By 'r Lady!' and again in Act iii. Sc. 4. ' By the rood.' Of which oaths Mr. Bowdler omits the former, but not the latter. On the other hand, however, also in the last-named scene, Hamlet says to the Queen :

'Confess yourself to Heaven.'