been great improvements in the Roman Law, that the system of imperial roads had been successfully developed, that the harbour accommodation at Ravenna had been increased, and that there had been a gratifying activity during a recent period in the building trade at Caesarea Philippi.' But however that may be, there can be no doubt of Mr Gladstone's good faith in the argument, nor of his right to take it up. Both the earlier and the later Locksley Hall are full of debatable matter. Both are criticisms of life, and what is criticism if it may not be challenged and canvassed?
But there are other kinds of poetic thought besides that which can be discussed in prose. The poets, like other men, can play with all sorts of debatable commonplaces, and sometimes it is pleasant enough to follow them, to trace for instance Shakespeare on the human will and destiny, 'the fated sky,' 'the inward quality,'—to compare the reflections of Hamlet or Brutus with the dogmatic certainty of Lysander, waking up under the
