Chapter XIII

IN DISCUSSIONS of Shakespeare and his plays we hear little about what may be termed the by-products of the great dramatist's mind; for usually the dramatic incidents of the plays occupy the attention of the reader to the exclusion of the more subtle threads of philosophy and soul culture. Shakespeare was a great teacher, and his mind grasped the salient issues in the practical world in which he lived and often forged away ahead into realms that modern research and discovery pronounce miraculous.

Psychological insight is essential in discerning the spiritual wisdom of Shakespeare. The intellectual reader will miss entirely the references to a supermind that crop out in all his dramas. Bible readers know that spiritual things are spiritually discerned. This is also strikingly true of Shakespeare's works.

In the fantasy "Midsummer Night's Dream" Shakespeare tells how the imagination gives to airy nothings a localhabitation and a name:

I never may believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet