Shakspeare's Seven Ages of Man

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SEVEN AGES. SEVEN AGES. All the World's a Stage, And all the Men and Women merely Players; They have their exits, and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His Acts being Seven Ages ! 1 He Life of Man is a most important period of existence. It is important to the individual himself, and important in the relations which it bears to society. Considered as the gift of God, it should be regarded as the precious boon of Heaven. Viewed as the groundwork of enjoyment, it is susceptible either of exquisite pleasure, or of the most distressing sensations. Formed in the image of His Maker, man assumes a dignified aspect, and his ambition should be to render the impress of Heaven the source of rational enjoyment. When the human faculties and passions are regarded as leading, by proper culture and appropriate management, to the elevated joys of a future life, the present period of existence terminates in a Blessed Immortality? There wanted yet a creature; who, not prone And brute as other creatures, but endued With sanctity of reason, might erect His stature, and upright with front serene Govern the rest, Self-knowing; and from thence Magnanimous to correspond with Heaven, But grateful to acknowledge whence his good Descends; thither with heart, and voice, and eyes i Directed in devotion, to adore And worship God Supreme, who made him chief Of all his works! Milton. The progressive nature of the Life of Man has induced the moralist to resolve it into certain constituent parts. Whether judgment or fancy dictates these divisions, there is something pleasing in the contemplation of them. Hence our favourite Poet marks the period assigned to man, by the/owr successive seasons of the year, with his usual justness and delicacy. ...