254 REMARKS ON THE PHILOSOPHY AND 



and the whole of this beautiful speech to Guildenstem is full of 

 dark sublimity : — 



" I have of late (but wherefore I know not) lost all my mirth, foregone.all 

 custom of exercises, and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that 

 this goodly frame the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory ; this most 

 excellent canopy, the air — look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this 

 majestical roof fretted with golden fire— why it appears no other thing to me 

 than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is 

 man ! — how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculties ! in form and moving, 

 how express and admirable ! in action, how like an angel ! in apprehension, 

 how like a god ! the beauty of the world — the paragon of animals ! And 

 yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust ? Man delights not me, nor wo- 

 man neither ;" 



and again the soliloquy, profaned by the mouthing of every whin- 

 ing school-boy, 



" Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt. 

 Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew !" 



The whole play is craped with the gloom of his nature. Such was 

 Hamlet, a compound in physical temperament : the dispositions of 

 his nature were antagonists ; ''one not easily moved, but being so is 

 moved in the extreme." 



Without going into an explanation of what is meant by the spi- 

 ritual nature or mind of Hamlet, and however the physical is impli- 

 cated in the moral character, we are content to distinguish by this 

 term the habitual characteristic of Hamlet's mind. We speak of 

 Hamlet as a being always existing ; we look upon him as a monad 

 set aside for our interpretation and profit. The mental peculiarity 

 of Hamlet was reflection, deep, searching, profound thought ; from 

 his earliest recognitions comparisons were held; he looked upon 

 every event, upon every action, as implying the past and future in 

 their causes and consequences. He had beheld human nature in its 

 most subtle and occult appearances, when vice becomes more bane- 

 ful because more concealed. The evil which vice loses with its 

 grossness is made up in its permanency and insidiousness ; and thus 

 Hamlet disdained the polished hypocrisy of the court, and chose his 

 friend in the sane and firm-minded Horatio. 



Reflection with him is a moral excess ; his mind is a profound of 

 thought ; he analyzes every thing, dissects the conduct of mankind, 

 and refers every act to some imperfection, either of weakness or 

 wickedness. The complexion of his ideas was always gloomy ; 



