Page:The Psychology of Shakespeare.pdf/210

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But now the time of reckoning approaches in which it is prophesied that,

He is beset with the clamorous demands of creditors, and turns with reproachful enquiry to the one honest man who has been seeking so long to check the ebb of his estate, and this great flow of debts; and when he at length gives ear to the importunity that can no longer be avoided, his debts double his means, and all his vast lands are engaged or forfeited. No estate could support his senseless prodigality,

Flavius, like Apemantus refers the motive of Timon's profusion to vanity and the love of compliment.

This however is not quite the whole truth. There is doubtless much vanity in Timon's ostentation, but there is also a magnanimous disregard of self, and a false judgment of others founded upon it. His bounty,

Now comes the real trial, the test of man's value. Riches are