Keeping this principle of Shakespere's in view, we proceed with our task. In our aim, confessedly a high one, we hope to be aided by our fair friends themselves, who will assist us where we have neglected an apt illustration, and yield us their indulgence where we may have differed from them in the assumed intention of the poet. They may be assured that our sole desire is, that the world should give Woman her true positionand that she herself-not mistaking in her many advisersrefinement for delicacy, or sentiment for principle-should, in the pages of Shakespere, see her true path to honor, usefulness or happiness.

Our first illustration is from the "MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM," a play in its description of Faerie-land so rich in fancy, so full of poetical beauty, that the characters of Hermia and Helena have for this reason been somewhat neglected. And yet in all Shakespere's works we have no truer or more beautiful creations.

The passion here pourtrayed is the one most frequently professed amongst women-that of Friendship, and the Dramatist shews us how this passion, even in its greatest force and strength, gives way under the ordeal of the other-Love--which

"Kills the flock of all affections else."

We will not carry the reader through all the intricacies of the plot, but will merely tell him, briefly, that the old story of "Cross Purposes" is told. Hermia is prevented from marrying her lover, is admired by another to whose proposals her father has consented, and who in his turn is beloved by Helena. Puck, the wonder-worker in this Faerie Tale, involves the lovers in still worse dilemmas, and whilst suffering from his mischievous influ ence, the friendship of the two women is most severely tried. All comes right, however, in the end; but not until they had both the wild Hermia and the gentle Helena - sacrificed Friendship to Love-a true reading of worldly experience which there is no honest record to set aside.

The lover of Hermia, proceeding in the usual way

has given her rhymes

And interchanged love tokens with the child
by moonlight at her window sung,

With feigning voice, verses of feigning love:
And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of his hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats-

We do not know whether this last "messenger" is still potent in "filching hearts," but at all events enough has been done to prevent her from

"Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon."

And regardless of her doom of "a nunnery or death," she persists in the course of true love" which, as the play truly says,

"never did run smooth.

But, either it was different in blood;
Or else misgraffed, in respect of years;
Or else it stood upon the choice of friends :
Or if there were a sympathy in choice,

War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it;
Making it momentary as a sound,

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;

Brief as the lightning in the colly'd night

That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,

And ere a man hath power to say-Behold!

The jaws of darkness do devour it up :

So quick do bright things come to confusion."

And thus is it with poor Hermia. She soon finds herself assailed by the reproaches of Helena, who complains that her attractions have drawn off Demetrius as well as her own lover,

"Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,"

Helena has no faith in her own beauty: she remembers that,

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind."

And at once despairs of winning her way to his heart; but with the true constancy of woman, she thus appeals to him

"Spurn me, strike,

Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you."

Helena is however dearly revenged by the tricks of Puck— (who even at this day seems busy enough.) The elf has now reversed the order of things; and, Hermia in her turn is scorned by her lord, who becomes enamoured with Helena. And here the contest of Friendship rises to its height-Hermia suffers less patiently, and is not content with simple reproaches. Helena, who of course cares not to avail herself of the revenge in her power, thinks they are all-Hermia and the two mad

lovers-conspiring to taunt her in her misery, and addresses her old friend in that noble passage which paints the passion better than it has ever yet been pourtrayed.

"Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd,

The sister's vows, the hours that we have spent
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us.-O! and is all forgot?
All school-day friendship, childhood innocence ?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods
Have with our neelds created both one flower,
But on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
But yet a union in partition,

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest."

This touching appeal for awhile disarms Hermia—but her anger returns, and we are sorry to add-but we must spare our wonder, for in those days it was not unusual for a Queen to box the ears of a courtier-she, resenting an allusion to her stature, exclaims

I am not so low,

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

But Helena is not to be provoked to the maidenly combatand Puck in good time heals the wounds of both by making each lover return to his mistress.

Lysander and Hermia remember the hours when they

"Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lye,
Emptying their bosoms of their counsels swell'd.

And Demetrius who formerly

"Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul,

Finds that his love for Hermia

Seems to him now

As the remembrance of an idle gawd."

The Dream is thus over-and I would mark in its close Shakespere's idea of the religious obligation of Marriage—

"These couples shall eternally be knit."

There are so many beautiful thoughts in this wonderful poem, that it is difficult to forbear quoting them in the course of such a task. But we have avoided even those eloquent descriptions of Woman's love-so true, so touching, and so pure: which are to be found in almost every scene of the play. We have taken this course with much reluctance. There are some passages, especially in the interview between Helena and Demetriuswhich for their high feeling, delicacy, and truth, at once convey their moral to the heart. Our intention, however, to shew how entirely and yet how purely the Women of Shakespere love, and our wish to give our readers the beautiful picture of Friendship, so gloriously painted, struggling with the influhave felt now, as a thousand times before, that we never rise powerful passion: have been fulfilled. And we from reading Shakespere without having a higher and truer

ence of a more

respect for the character of Woman.

THE HOLLY TREE.

1.

O Reader! hast thou ever stood to see
The Holly Tree?

The eye that contemplates it well perceives
Its glossy leaves

Order'd by an intelligence so wise,

As might confound the Atheist's sophistries.

2.

Below, a circling fence, its leaves are seen
Wrinkled and keen;

No grazing cattle through their prickly round
Can reach to wound;

But as they grow where nothing is to fear,
Smooth and unarm'd the pointless leaves appear.

3.

I love to view these things with curious eyes,
And moralize:

And in this wisdom of the Holly Tree
Can emblems see

Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme,
One which may profit in the after time.

It is always easier to illustrate than define, and this is peculiarly the case with the term-Genius. Although no two persons will, perhaps, unite in any precise definition, yet we believe it is agreed on all hands, that it is but a name given to the power of excelling in some one way. Thus understood, it will be difficult to deny the possession of this gift to any body of men, and however we may dignify the exercise of certain pursuits, it would be premature if not unjust to call the application of this power, in any individual, unimportant.

Our great discoveries, which are as much the bequests of Genius, as our inventions are the results of Perseverance, have