The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
In law what plea so tainted and corrupt
But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
Obscures the show of evil? In religion
What damned error, but some sober brow
Will bless it and approve it with a text,
Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
There is no vice so simple but assumes
Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk.
(_Merchant of Venice_, III., ii., 74-86.)
Shakespeare was no cynic. He was not unduly distrustful of his
fellow-men. He was not always suspecting them of something
indistinguishable from fraud. When he wrote, "The world is still
deceived with ornament" which "obscures the show of evil," he was
expressing downright hatred--not suspicion--of sham, of quackery, of
cant. His is the message of all commanding intellects which see
through the hearts of men. Shakespeare's message is Carlyle's message
or Ruskin's message anticipated by nearly three centuries, and more
potently and wisely phrased.
Pages:
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227