But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Ever and ever mistaking the anguish of conscience for fears of selfishness, and thus as a punishment of that selfishness, plunging still deeper in guilt and ruin. 'Ib.' Macbeth's speech: Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. This is Macbeth's sympathy with his own feelings, and his mistaking his wife's opposite state. 'Ib.' sc. 4. 'Macb'. It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood: Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; Augurs, and understood relations, have By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood. The deed is done; but Macbeth receives no comfort,--no additional security. He has by guilt torn himself live-asunder from nature, and is, therefore, himself in a preter-natural state: no wonder, then, that he is inclined to superstition, and faith in the unknown of signs and tokens, and super-human agencies. Act iv. sc. 1. 'Len'. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word, Macduff is fled to England. 'Macb'. Fled to England? The acme of the avenging conscience. 'Ib.' sc. 2. This scene, dreadful as it is, is still a relief, because a variety, because domestic, and therefore soothing, as associated with the only real pleasures of life. The conversation between Lady Macduff and her child heightens the pathos, and is preparatory for the deep tragedy of their assassination. Shakspeare's fondness for children is every where shown;--in Prince Arthur, in King John; in the sweet scene in the Winter's Tale between Hermione and her son; nay, even in honest Evans's examination of Mrs. Page's schoolboy. To the objection that Shakspeare wounds the moral sense by the unsubdued, undisguised description of the most hateful atrocity--that he tears the feelings without mercy, and even outrages the eye itself with scenes of insupportable horror--I, omitting Titus Andronicus, as not genuine, and excepting the scene of Gloster's blinding in Lear, answer boldly in the name of Shakspeare, not guilty. 'Ib.' sc. 3. Malcolm's speech: Better Macbeth, Than such a one to reign. The moral is--the dreadful effects even on the best minds of the soul--sickening sense of insecurity.