In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of _Shakespeare_ it is commonly a species.
It is from this wide extension of design that so much instruction is derived.

It is this which fills the plays of _Shakespeare_ with practical axioms and domestic wisdom.

It was said of _Euripides_, that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of _Shakespeare_, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and oeconomical prudence.

Yet his real power is not shewn in the splendour of particular passages, but by the progress of his fable, and the tenour of his dialogue; and he that tries to recommend him by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in _Hierocles_, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen.
It will not easily be imagined how much _Shakespeare_ excells in accommodating his sentiments to real life, but by comparing him with other authors.

It was observed of the ancient schools of declamation, that the more diligently they were frequented, the more was the student disqualified for the world, because he found nothing there which he should ever meet in any other place.