Each is in, by, and of the other; particularised by the other. I do
not find this quality, at least in anything like the same degree, in
Beaumont and Fletcher.
Note the way in which Shakespeare's characters--Macbeth, for
example--unfold themselves by new circumstances, what
unconjecturable development takes place.
When a serious defect presents itself in a living friend it seems to
obtrude itself, press upon us, and affect our judgment more than if
we see it in a play of Shakespeare's. In the play the background of
counterbalancing virtue is not obscured and forgotten. In actual
life we lose sight of it.
FINIS
'He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others
will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by
himself. While we see multitudes passing before us, of whom perhaps
not one appears to deserve our notice, or excite our sympathy, we
should remember that we likewise are lost in the same throng; that
the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him
that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope or
fear, is to fill a vacant hour with prattle, and be forgotten.
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