The habitual study of poetry and works of imagination is one chief
part of a well-grounded education. A taste for liberal art is
necessary to complete the character of a gentleman, Science alone is
hard and mechanical. It exercises the understanding upon things out
of ourselves, while it leaves the affections unemployed, or
engrossed with our own immediate, narrow interests.--OTHELLO
furnishes an illustration of these remarks. It excites our sympathy
in an extraordinary degree. The moral it conveys has a closer
application to the concerns of human life than that of any other of
Shakespeare's plays. 'It comes directly home to the bosoms and
business of men.' The pathos in LEAR is indeed more dreadful and
overpowering: but it is less natural, and less of every day's
occurrence. We have not the same degree of sympathy with the
passions described in MACBETH. The interest in HAMLET is more remote
and reflex. That of OTHELLO is at once equally profound and
affecting.
The picturesque contrasts of character in this play are almost as
remarkable as the depth of the passion. The Moor Othello, the gentle
Desdemona, the villain Iago, the good-natured Cassio, the fool
Roderigo, present a range and variety of character as striking and
palpable as that produced by the opposition of costume in a picture.
Their distinguishing qualities stand out to the mind's eye, so that
even when we are not thinking of their actions or sentiments, the
idea of their persons is still as present to us as ever.
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