r such an order of the king's as
establishes their supernatural power of information. I say
information,--for so it only is as to Glamis and Cawdor; the "king
hereafter" was still contingent,--still in Macbeth's moral will; although,
if he should yield to the temptation, and thus forfeit his free agency,
the link of cause and effect _more physico_ would then commence. I need
not say, that the general idea is all that can be required from the
poet,--not a scholastic logical consistency in all the parts so as to meet
metaphysical objectors. But O! how truly Shakespearian is the opening of
Macbeth's character given in the _unpossessedness_ of Banquo's mind,
wholly present to the present object,--an unsullied, unscarified mirror!
And how strictly true to nature it is that Banquo, and not Macbeth
himself, directs our notice to the effect produced on Macbeth's mind,
rendered temptible by previous dalliance of the fancy with ambitious
thoughts:--

"Good Sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair?"

And then, again, still unintroitive, addresses the Witches:--

... "I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show?"

Banquo's questions are those of natural curiosity,--such as a girl would
put after hearing a gipsy tell her schoolfellow's fortune;--all perfectly
general, or rather, planless. But Macbeth, lost in thought, raises himself
to speech only by the Witches being about to depart:--

"Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:"--

and all that follows is reasoning on a problem already discussed in his
mind,--on a hope which he welcomes, and the doubts concerning the
attainment of which he wishes to have cleared up. Compare his
eagerness,--the keen eye with which he has pursued the Witches' evanishing--

"Speak, I charge you!"

with the easily satisfied mind of the self-uninterested Banquo:--

"The air hath bubbles, as the water has,
And these are of them:--Whither are they vanish'd?"

and then Macbeth's earnest reply,--

"Into the air; and what seem'd corporal, melted
As breath into the wind.--_Would they had stay'd!_"

Is it too minute to notice the appropriateness of the simile "as breath,"
&c., in a cold climate?

Still again Banquo goes on wondering like any common spectator,--

"Were such things here as we do speak about?"

whilst Macbeth persists in recurring to the self-concerning:--

"Your children shall be kings.

_Ban._ You s