THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL "GIVE ME THE STORM AND TEMPEST OF THOUGHT AND ACTION, RATHER THAN THE DEAD CALM OF IGNORANCE AND FAITH. BANISH ME FROM EDEN WHEN YOU WILL; BUT FIRST LET ME EAT OF THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE." IN TWELVE VOLUMES, VOLUME III. LECTURES 1900 THE DRESDEN EDITION CONTENTS OF VOLUME III. SHAKESPEARE (1891.) I. The Greatest Genius of our World--Not of Supernatural Origin or of Royal Blood--Illiteracy of his Parents--Education--His Father--His Mother a Great Woman--Stratford Unconscious of the Immortal Child--Social Position of Shakespeare--Of his Personal Peculiarities--Birth, Marriage, and Death--What we Know of Him--No Line written by him to be Found--The Absurd Epitaph--II. Contemporaries by whom he was Mentioned--III. No direct Mention of any of his Contemporaries in the Plays--Events and Personages of his Time--IV. Position of the Actor in Shakespeare's Time--Fortunately he was Not Educated at Oxford--An Idealist--His Indifference to Stage-carpentry and Plot--He belonged to All Lands--Knew the Brain and Heart of Man--An Intellectual Spendthrift--V. The Baconian Theory--VI. Dramatists before and during the Time of Shakespeare--Dramatic Incidents Illustrated in Passages from "Macbeth" and "Julius Cæsar"--VII. His Use of the Work of Others--The Pontic Sea--A Passage from "Lear"--VIII. Extravagance that touches the Infinite--The Greatest Compliment--"Let me not live after my flame lacks oil"--Where Pathos almost Touches the Grotesque--IX. An Innovator and Iconoclast--Disregard of the "Unities"--Nature Forgets--Violation of the Classic Model--X. Types--The Secret of Shakespeare--Characters who Act from Reason and Motive--What they Say not the Opinion of Shakespeare--XI. The Procession that issued from Shakespeare's Brain--His Great Women--Lovable Clowns--His Men--Talent and Genius--XII. The Greatest of all Philosophers--Master of the Human Heart--Love--XIII. In the Realm of Comparison--XIV. Definitions: Suicide, Drama, Death, Memory, the Body, Life, Echo, the World, Rumor--The Confidant of Nature--XV. Humor and Pathos--Illustrations--XVI. Not a Physician, Lawyer, or Botanist--He was a Man of Imagination--He lived the Life of All--The Imagination had a Stage in Shakespeare's Brain. ROBERT BURNS. (1878.)