REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY, &C., OF SHAKSPEARE. 253 



to reconcile those inconsistencies and defalcations which awaken our 

 surprise and leave us in doubt. 



The physical constitution of Hamlet is the very diapason of his 

 mind : 



" Ophelia, — Oh ! wiiat a noble mind is here o'erthrown ! ' 

 The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword : 

 The expectancy and rose of the fair state, 

 The glass of fashion and the mould of form, 

 The observ'd of all observers ! quite, quite down ! 

 And I, of ladies most deject and wretched. 

 That suck'd the honey of his music vows, 

 Now see that noble and most sovereign reason. 

 Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh ; 

 That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth. 

 Blasted with ecstacy !" 



We at once recognize a perfect organization, that exact proportion 

 of parts, that symmetry of form, that fine adaptation of the intellec- 

 tual, moral, and animal, which distinguishes the sublime creations of 

 art ; it is the preponderance of a particular faculty which di- 

 rects the conduct of mankind, which makes opinion prophetical and 

 action speculative. But in the very few whose cerebral develop- 

 ment approaches this perfect agreement, one faculty so equapoises 

 the other as to create, by that reflective anticipation of the soul, a 

 possible uncertainty. The greatest minds are always the most 

 doubtful. Unhappily, the general temperament of Hamlet was dis- 

 analogous with the concordance of his structure, and thus assisted 

 in producing those strange self-contradictions ; a temperament, or the 

 bodily liability of his nature, at variance with his moral conscious- 

 ness; that melancholy alrabiliousness, denoted great and violent 

 exertion, but conjoined with the inert lymphatic habit, his energy 

 and passion are momentary and his will deadened by lethargy ; and 

 thus 



" the native hue of resolution 

 Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought" — 



Hamlet, though he succumbed to the necessity of his nature, was, 

 nevertheless, fully aware of the defect — 



" Yet I, 

 A dull and muddy -mettled rascal, peak, 

 Like John a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, 

 And can say nothing." 



