"Duller than a great thaw. Dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage." In the words of Ulysses, spoken to Achilles, we find the most wonderful collection of pictures and comparisons ever compressed within the same number of lines: "Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,-- A great-sized monster of ingratitudes-- Those scraps are good deeds passed; which are devoured As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done; perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honor bright: to have done is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail In monumental mockery. "Take the instant way; For honor travels in a strait so narrow Where one but goes abreast; keep then the path; For emulation hath a thousand sons That one by one pursue; if you give way, Or hedge aside from the direct forthright, Like to an entered tide, they all rush by And leave you hindmost: Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, O'errun and trampled on: then what they do in present, Tho' less than yours in past, must o' ertop yours; For time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, And with his arms outstretched as he would fly, Grasps in the comer: Welcome ever smiles, And Farewell goes out sighing." So the words of Cleopatra, when Charmain speaks: "Peace, peace: Dost thou not see my baby at my breast That sucks the nurse asleep?" XIV. NOTHING is more difficult than a definition--a crystallization of thought so perfect that it emits light. Shakespeare says of suicide: "It is great to do that thing That ends all other deeds, Which shackles accident, and bolts up change." He defines drama to be: "Turning the accomplishments of many years Into an hour glass." Of death: "This sensible warm motion to become a kneaded clod, To lie in cold obstruction and to rot." Of memory: "The warder of the brain." Of the body: "This muddy vesture of decay." And he declares that "Our little life is rounded with a sleep." He speaks of Echo as: "The babbling gossip of the air"-- Romeo, addressing the poison that he is about to take, says: "Come, bitter conduct, come unsavory guide, Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy sea-sick, weary bark." He describes the world as "This bank and shoal of time." He says of rumor-- "That it doubles, like the voice and echo." It would take days to call attention to the perfect definitions, comparisons and generalizations of Shakespeare. He gave us the deeper meanings of our words--taught us the art of speech. He was the lord of language--master of expression and compression. He put the greatest thoughts into the shortest words--made the poor rich and the common royal.