8. The second way in which such a discipline will prove salutary is
this: it will prevent the student from straying too far afield in his
reading. The number of "classical" authors whose works will repay such
severe study is extremely limited. However much enthusiasm he may throw
into his studies, he will find that nine-tenths of our older literature
yields too small a harvest of instruction to attract any but the pedant
to expend so much labour upon them. The two great vices of modern
reading will be avoided--flippancy on the one hand, and pedantry on the
other.
9. The object, therefore, which I have had in view in the compilation of
the following pages, is to attempt to throw some additional light upon a
condition of thought, utterly different from any belief that has firm
hold in the present generation, that was current and peculiarly
prominent during the lifetime of the man who bears overwhelmingly the
greatest name, either in our own or any other literature. It may be
said, and perhaps with much force, that enough, and more than enough,
has been written in the way of Shakspere criticism. But is it not better
that somewhat too much should be written upon such a subject than too
little? We cannot expect that every one shall see all the greatness of
Shakspere's vast and complex mind--by one a truth will be grasped that
has eluded the vigilance of others;--and it is better that those who can
by no possibility grasp anything at all should have patient hearing,
rather than that any additional light should be lost.
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