oks. Since the advice was proffered,
generation after generation of mighty wits have taken counsel with the
Master, and his wisdom has through them been passed out into the practice
of life, the evolution of society, the development of humanity. But the
'prince de toute sapience et de toute comedie' has not yet uttered his
last word. He remains in the front of time as when he lived and wrote.
The Abbey of Thelema and the education of Gargantua are still unrealised
ideals; the Ringing Isle and the Isle of Papimany are in their essentials
pretty much as he left them; Panurge, 'the pollarded man, the man with
every faculty except the reason,' has bettered no whit for the three
centuries of improvement that have passed since he was flashed into
being. We--even we--have much to learn from Master Alcofribas, and until
we have learned it well enough to put it into practice his work remains
half done and his book still one to study.

SHAKESPEARE

A Parallel.

Shakespeare and Rembrandt have in common the faculty of quickening
speculation and compelling the minds of men to combat and discussion.
About the English poet a literature of contention has been in process of
accretion ever since he was discovered to be Shakespeare; and about the
Dutch painter and etcher there has gradually accumulated a literature
precisely analogous in character and for the most part of equal quality.
In such an age as this, when the creative faculty of the world is mainly
occupied with commentary and criticism, the reason should not be far to
seek. Both were giants; both were original and individual in the highest
sense of the words; both were leagues ahead of their contemporaries, not
merely as regards the matter of their message but also in respect of the
terms of its delivery; each, moreover--and here one comes upon a capital
point of contact and resemblance--each was at times prodigiously inferior
to himself. Shakespeare often writes so ill that you hesitate to believe
he could ever write supremely well; or, if this way of putting it seem
indecorous and abominable, he very often writes so well that you are loth
to believe he could ever have written thus extremely ill. There are
passages in his work in which he reaches such heights of literary art as
since his time no mortal has found accessible; and there are passages
which few or none of us can read without a touch of that 'burning sense
of shame' experienced in the presence of