kingdom of light,—the other, from the kingdom of darkness. Man has power either to receive or to reject those messengers, either to entertain or dismiss them, as he will: beyond that, he has no power over them: they are not his subjects, nor do they belong to him. All Shakspeare's high and true and lovely thoughts, then, were God's thoughts, not Shakspeare's;—they were God's messengers, sent to him with words which he was to communicate to the world. And so it is with every man of genius, every man of talent, every man whomsoever, who perceives in his mind true thoughts, and feels in his heart good and pure affections:—these are in fact gifts, momentary gifts, rays of heavenly heat and light flowing into his mind from the Divine Sun, illuminating and warming his mental earth, and causing it to put forth blooming flowers and sweet fruits, for the nourishment and entertainment of his own intellectual life, and for the benefit of his fellowmen and the world.
Thus may be seen the correctness of the expression before used, that as in Newton God "geometrizes," so in Shakspeare He poetizes. The wisdom and intellectual power of both were not theirs, but God's in them; for, to recall the illustration before given,—as all light is the sun's alone, and not one ray belongs to the earth, except as it is momentarily given or lent it by the sun,— so all mental light in man is God's alone, and not one ray is man's, except as the immediate gift of God. For there is a complete analogy between the outer and inner worlds—the world of nature and the world of mind. As God Himself is the Sun of the mental or spiritual universe, including heaven and all spiritual existences, and man's mind which is a part of spiritual
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