Page:A study of Shakespeare (IA cu31924013158393).pdf/25

 intelligence devoted to matters of such keen interest to us all, it must be our own fault and our own loss if we fail to carry away any sense of profit or impression of enjoyment. And this we may do while guarding ourselves against the temptation to assume or to accept as matter of established fact any theory, though never so ingenious, which has no evident footing on the solid ground of proof.

The aim of the present study is simply to set down what the writer believes to be certain demonstrable truths as to the progress and development of style, the outer and the inner changes of manner as of matter, of method as of design, which may be discerned in the work of Shakespeare. The principle here adopted and the views here put forward have not been suddenly discovered or lightly taken up out of any desire to make a show of theoretical ingenuity. For years past I have held and maintained, in private discussion with friends and fellow-students, the opinions which I now submit to more public judgment. How far they may coincide with those advanced by others I cannot say, and have not been careful to inquire. The mere fact of