isolated passages, to produce an imitation which shall be mistaken for his original composition: but there is not even a possibility of success in an attempt to carry on such an imitation of him throughout many entire scenes. [Sidenote: Given, his outside dress, ask whether his spirit is inside it.] Where the external qualities of a work resemble his, the question of his authorship can be determined in no other way than by inquiring whether the essential elements, and the spirit which animates the whole, are his also; and that inquiry is not one for logical argument; it can be answered only by reflection on the effect which the work produces on our own minds. [Sidenote: The poetic sense alone can judge.] The dullest eye can discriminate the free motions of the living frame from the convulsed writhings which art may excite in the senseless corpse; the nightly traveller easily distinguishes between the red and earthy twinkling of the distant cottage-lamp, and the cold white gleam of the star which rises beyond it;--and with equal quickness and equal certainty the poetical sense can decide whether the living and ethereal principle of poetry is present, or only its corporeal clothing, its dead and inert resemblance. [Sidenote: By the emotion it creates, must Shakspere's work be judgd.] The emotion which poetry necessarily awakens in minds qualified as the subjects of its working, is the only evidence of its presence, and the measure and index of its strength. If we can read with coldness and indifference the drama which we are now examining, we must pronounce it to [59:1]be no more than a skilful imitation of Shakspeare; but we must acknowledge it as an original if the heart burns and the fancy expands under its influence,--if we feel that the poetical and dramatic spirit breathes through all,--and if the mind bows down involuntarily before the powers of whose presence it is secretly but convincingly sensible. [Sidenote: And his part of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ witnesses for itself.] I cannot have a doubt that the parts of this work which I have pointed out as Shakspeare's will the more firmly endure this trial, the more closely and seriously they are revolved and studied. [Sidenote: Shakspere's share of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_.] The portions of the drama which, on such principles as these, have been set down as Shakspeare's, compose a large part of its bulk, and embrace most of the material circumstances of the story. [Sidenote: Act I.] [Sidenote: Act III. sc. i.] [Sidenote: Act V. except scene iv.] They are,--the First Act wholly,--one scene out of six in the Third,--and the whole of the Fifth Act, (a very long one,) except one unimportant scene. These parts are not of equal excellence, but the grounds on which a decision as to their authorship rests, seem to be almost equally strong with regard to each.