Such a Conduct in a Poet (as Shakespeare has manifested on many like Occasions;) where the Turn of Action arises from Reflexions of his Characters, where the Reason of it is not express’d in Words, but drawn from the inmost Resources of Nature, shews him truly capable of that Art, which is more in Rule than Practice:  Ars est celare Artem.  ’Tis the Foible of your worser Poets to make a Parade and Ostentation of that little Science they have; and to throw it out in the most ambitious Colours.  And whenever a Writer of this Class shall attempt to copy these artful Concealments of our Author, and shall either think them easy, or practised by a Writer for his Ease, he will soon be convinced of his Mistake by the Difficulty of reaching the Imitation of them.

  Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraq; laboret,
  Ausus idem:——­

Another grand Touch of Nature in our Author, (not less difficult to imitate, tho’ more obvious to the Remark of a common Reader) is, when he brings down at once any Character from the Ferment and Height of Passion, makes him correct himself for the unruly Disposition, and fall into Reflexions of a sober and moral Tenour.  An exquisite fine Instance of this Kind occurs in Lear, where that old King, hasty and intemperate in his Passions, coming to his Son and Daughter Cornwall, is told by the Earl of Gloucester that they are not to be spoken with:  and thereupon throws himself into a Rage, supposing the Excuse of Sickness and Weariness in them to be a purpos’d Contempt:  Gloucester begs him to think of the fiery and unremoveable Quality of the Duke:  and This, which was design’d to qualify his Passion, serves to exaggerate the Transports of it.

As the Conduct of Prince Henry in the first Instance, the secret and mental Reflexions in the Case of Prospero, and the instant Detour of Lear from the Violence of Rage to a Temper of Reasoning, do so much Honour to that surprizing Knowledge of human Nature, which is certainly our Author’s Masterpiece, I thought, they could not be set in too good a Light.  Indeed, to point out, and exclaim upon, all the Beauties of Shakespeare, as they come singly in Review, would be as insipid, as endless; as tedious, as unnecessary:  But the Explanation of those Beauties, that are less obvious to common Readers, and whose Illustration depends on the Rules of just Criticism, and an exact Knowledge of human Life, should deservedly have a Share in a general Critic upon the Author.

    [Sidenote*:  Mr. Addison and He compared, on a similar Topick.]

I shall dismiss the Examination into these his latent Beauties, when I have made a short Comment upon a remarkable Passage from Julius Caesar, which is inexpressibly fine in its self, and greatly discovers our Author’s Knowledge and Researches into Nature.

  Between the acting of a dreadful Thing,
  And the first Motion, all the Interim is
  Like a Phantasma, or a hideous Dream: 
  The Genius, and the mortal Instruments
  Are then in Council; and the State of Man,
  Like to a little Kingdom, suffers then
  The Nature of an Insurrection.