to bring out the full meaning of the
text; they are our perpetual teach-
ers, because they are the most com-
plete expressions, in that concrete
form which we call art, of the
thoughts, acts, dispositions, and pas-
sions of humanity. There is no
getting to the bottom of Shake-
speare, for instance, or to the end of
his possibilities of enriching and in-
teresting us, because he deals habit-
ually with that primary substance
of human life which remains sub-
stantially unchanged through all the
mutations of racial, national, and
personal condition, and which is al-
ways, and for all men, the object of
supreme interest. Time, which is
the relentless enemy of all that is
partial and provisional, is the friend
of Shakespeare, because it continu-
ally brings to the student of his

[[9]]

p008 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p009w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p010

v?