The elevation of this book may
be measured by observing, how certainly all elevation of thought
clothes itself in the words and forms of speech of that book. For
the human mind is not now sufficiently erect to judge and correct
that scripture. Whatever is majestically thought in a great moral
element, instantly approaches this old Sanscrit. It is in the nature
of things that the highest originality must be moral. The only
person, who can be entirely independent of this fountain of
literature and equal to it, must be a prophet in his own proper
person. Shakspeare, the first literary genius of the world, the
highest in whom the moral is not the predominating element, leans on
the Bible: his poetry supposes it. If we examine this brilliant
influence -- Shakspeare -- as it lies in our minds, we shall find it
reverent not only of the letter of this book, but of the whole frame
of society which stood in Europe upon it, deeply indebted to the
traditional morality, in short, compared with the tone of the
Prophets, _secondary_. On the other hand, the Prophets do not imply
the existence of Shakspeare or Homer, -- advert to no books or arts,
only to dread ideas and emotions.
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