The topic was first treated in the speeches of Henry V.'s
councillors:--
_Exeter._ For government, though high and low and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
Like music.
_Cant._ Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
(_Henry V._, I., ii., 180-9.)
There follows a very suggestive comparison between the commonwealth of
bees and the economy of human society. The well-worn comparison has
been fashioned anew by a writer of genius of our own day, M.
Maeterlinck.
In _Troilus and Cressida_ (I., iii., 85 _seq._) Shakespeare returns to
the discussion, and defines with greater precision "the specialty of
rule." There he approaches nearer than anywhere else in his writings
the sphere of strict philosophic exposition. He argues that:--
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom in all line of order.
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