Page:The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 19.djvu/733

1867.] you go on in the way jrou 're now go- ing," was the reply, " it 's twenty-four thousand miles ; if you turn back, it *s only five." But though some critics since Goethe have not been so elabo- rately wrong as he, Hamlet is still out- side of the largest thought in the right direction. A distinguished thinker has said that there are moods of the mind in which Hamlet appears little, for what be suggests is infinitely more than what he is. This is true as to Shakespeare, but not true as to other minds ; for un- til we have grasped the conception that Shakespeare has embodied, we have no right to suppose ourselves capable of going beyond it into that vastness of contemplation of which, from Shake- speare's height of vision, the character was an inadequate expression. Again, it is a common remark, that the school of philosophic critics, especially in their attempts to dive into the meaning of Hamlet, are continually giving Shake- speare the credit of their own thoughts. Giving Shakespeare the credit I Well might he reply, if such were the case, " Poor am I even in thanks I " Shakespeare, then, as regards his most gigantic conceptions, has proba- bly never been adequately conceived. He must be tried by his peers; and where are his peers? We know that he grows in mental stature as our minds enlarge, and as we increase in our knowledge of him ; but he has never been included by criticism as other poets have been included. The great- est and most interpretative minds which have made him their study, though they may have commenced with wielding the rod, soon found themselves seduced into taking seats on the benches, anx- ious to learn instead of impatient to teach ; and have been compelled to ad- mit that the poet who is the delight of the rudest urchin in the pit of the play- house, is also the poet whose works defy the highest £eiculties of the phi- losopher thoroughly to comprehend. THE FOUNDERS OF MONTREAL. IF the chief city of New England owes its existence to a principle of religion, so too docs the chief city of Canada. The founders of the one were the advance guard of Protestant dis- sent ; those of the other represented the extreme of reactive Catholicity. At La Fl^che, in Anjou, dwelt one J(5r6me le Royer de la Dauversi^e, re- ceiver of taxes. His portrait shows us a round, bourgeois face, somewhat heavy perhaps, decorated with a slight mus- tache, and redeemed by bright and earnest eyes. On his head he wears a black skull-cap, and over his ample shoulders spreads a stiff white collar, of wide expanse and studious plainness. Thouj;h he belonged to the nobUssfy his look is that of a grave burgher, of good renown and sage deportment. Dauvcrsi^re was, however, an enthusi- astic devotee, of mystical tendencies, who whipped himself with a scourge of small chains till his shoulders were one wound, wore a belt with more than twelve hundred sharp points, and invented for himself other torments, which filled his confessor with admira- tion. One day, while at his devotions, he heard an inward voice commanding him to become the founder of a new order of hospital nuns ; and he was further ordered to establish, on the ishmd called Montreal, in Canada, a hospital, or H6tel-Dieu, to be conduct- ed by these nuns. But Montreal was a wilderness, and the hospital would have no patients. Therefore, in order to supply them, the island must first be colonized. Dauversi^re was greatly perplexed. On the one hand, the voice of Heaven must be obeyed; on the