The  second  is.  ''There  is  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,  rough-hew  them
as  we  will."  The  third  is,  "The  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to
the  strong  ;"  but  time  and  chance  happen  (eth)  to  them  all.  Accident,  hu
man  will,  the  shaping  will  of  Deity  :  these  things  make  up  life.  Or  rather,
perhaps,  we  see  a  threefold  causality  from  some  defect  in  our  spiritual  e\  e-
>ight.  Could  we  see  a-  He  sees,  all  would  be  referable,  to  one  principle


2OO  Life  and  Letters  of  the

which  would  contain  them  all ;  as  the  simple,  single  law  of  gravitation  em
braces  the  complex  phenomena  of  the  universe ;  and  as,  on  the  other  hand,
by  pressing  the  eyeballs  so  as  to  destroy  their  united  impression,  you  may
see  all  things  double.  Shakspeare  paints  man  instead  of  writing  moral  tales.
Of  course,  there  is  a  moral  in  what  he  writes,  as  there  must  be  in  all  that  is
true ;  but  it  is  absurd  to  ask  what  was  the  lesson  he  meant  to  inculcate.
