Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/49

Rh ; the incumbrances of his fortune were haken from his mind, as dew-drops from a lion’s mane.

Though he had o many difficulties to encounter, and o little aitance to urmount them, he has been able to obtain an exact knowledge of many modes of life, and many cats of native dipoitions; to vary them with great multiplicity; to mark them by nice ditinctions; and to hew them in full view by proper combinations. In this part of his performances he had none to imitate, but has been himelf imitated by all ucceeding writers; and it may be doubted, whether from all his ucceors more maxims of theoretical knowledge, or more rules of practical prudence, can be collected, than he alone has given to his country.

Nor was his attention confined to the actions of men; he was an exact urveyor of the inanimate world; his decriptions have always ome peculiarities, gathered by contemplating things as they really exit. It may be oberved, that the oldet poets of many nations preerve their reputation, and that the following generations of wit, after a hort celebrity, ink into oblivion. The firt, whoever they be, mut take their entiments and decriptions immediately from knowledge; the reemblance is therefore jut, their decriptions are verified by every eye, and their entiments acknowledged by every breat. Thoe whom their fame invites to the ame tudies, copy partly them, and partly nature, till the books of one age gain uch authority, as to tand in Rh