Excerpt from The Tercentenary of William Shakespeare: An Eulogium Pronounced in St. James's Church, Chicago, Sunday, April 30, 1916

You will agree with me, Good Friends, that this Church, the oldest Church in the City of Chicago in communion with the Church at Stratford-on-Avon, where lie interred the remains of William Shakespeare, should have its part in the tercentenary of the death of the immortal poet. I confess that had it been possible I should have invited to address you the most accomplished Shakespearian scholar I could have obtained in our University, or, failing such, some one of the many learned lovers of the Master who are to be found easily in this city. And yet, after all, it may be well that a priest of the Communion to which the poet undoubtedly belonged should say what is to be said on this occasion. At the same time, it must be understood that I can tell you nothing new. As Mark Antony said of Julius Caesar, "I tell you that which you yourselves do know." I am myself only a disciple of those who have studied, and are the acknowledged exponents of, the Poet and of the vast literature which has grown up round him. There are many here who know more of him and of that literature than I do. I venture little more than to set myself in the multitude of those who admire and love the Man, who, beyond all other men, has enriched the worlds literature, and given lasting and unsullied glory to the race which speaks his language.

Much less will any one question that it is most fitting that the Church should acknowledge the debt due by all who are interested in the welfare of society to the art and the profession which have for their purpose the delineation of human nature in all its phases.

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