SHAKSPEARE.
Pythagoras said that the time when men are honestest, is when
they present themselves before the gods. If we can overhear the
prayer, we shall know the man. But prayers are not made to be
overheard, or to be printed, so that we seldom have the prayer
otherwise than it can be inferred from the man and his fortunes,
which are the answer to the prayer, and always accord with it. Yet
there are scattered about in the earth a few records of these devout
hours which it would edify us to read, could they be collected in a
more catholic spirit than the wretched and repulsive volumes which
usurp that name. Let us not have the prayers of one sect, nor of the
Christian Church, but of men in all ages and religions, who have
prayed well. The prayer of Jesus is, as it deserves, become a form
for the human race. Many men have contributed a single expression, a
single word to the language of devotion, which is immediately caught
and stereotyped in the prayers of their church and nation. Among the
remains of Euripides, we have this prayer; "Thou God of all! infuse
light into the souls of men, whereby they may be enabled to know what
is the root from whence all their evils spring, and by what means
they may avoid them.
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