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I Have Always Considered The Merry Wives One Of The Worst Plays, If Not Altogether The Worst, That Shakespeare Has Left Us. The Wit For The Most Part Is Dreary Or Foolish; The Tone Is Coarse And Farcical; And The Characters Want The Fine Distinctive Touches He So Well Knew How To Give. If Some Luckless Wight Had Written Such A Comedy In Our Time, I Should Like To See What The Critics Would Say To It?

Those Works Alone Can Have Enduring Success Which Successfully Appeal To What Is Permanent In Human Nature -- Which, While Suiting The Taste Of The Day, Contain Truths And Beauty Deeper Than The Opinions And Tastes Of The Day.

Remember That Every Drop Of Rain That Falls Bears Into The Bosom Of The Earth A Quality Of Beautiful Fertility.

Shakespeare Is A Good Raft Whereon To Float Securely Down The Stream Of Time; Fasten Yourself To That And Your Immortality Is Safe.

The Moral Nature Of Man Is More Sacred In My Eyes Than His Intellectual Nature. I Know They Cannot Be Divorced - That Without Intelligence We Should Be Brutes - But It Is The Tendency Of Our Gaping, Wondering Dispositions To Give Pre-eminence To Those Faculties Which Most Astonish Us. Strength Of Character Seldom, If Ever, Astonishes; Goodness, Lovingness, And Quiet Self-sacrifice, Are Worth All The Talents In The World.