that, if he could perform the deed and escape its consequences here upon this bank and shoal of time, he'd jump the life to come. Without denying him still a complexity of motives - as kinsman and subject he may possibly experience some slight shade of unmixed loyalty to the King under his roof-we may even say that the consequences which he fears are not at all inward and spiritual. It is to be doubted whether he has ever so far considered the possible effects of crime and evil upon the human soul. His later discovery of horrible ravages produced by evil in his own spirit constitutes part of the tragedy. He is mainly concerned, as we might expect, with consequences involving the loss of mutable goods, which he already possesses and values highly.After the murder of Duncan, the natural good in him forces the acknowledgment that, in committing the unnatural act, he has preserved his mind and has given his eternal jewel, the soul, into the possession of those demonic forces which are the enemy of mankind. He recognizes that the acts of conscience which torture him are really expressions of that outraged natural law, which inevitably reduced him as individual to the essentially human. This is the inescapable bond that keeps him pale, and this is the law of his own natural from whose toll of devastating penalties he seeks release: Come, seeling night... And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale.He conceives that quick escape from the accusations of conscience may possibly be effected by utter destruction of the principle of natural law deposited in his nature. And he imagines that the execution of more bloody deeds will serve his purpose. Accordingly, then, in the interest of personal safety and in order to destroy the essential humanity in himself, he instigates the murder of Banquo.But he gains no satisfying peace because his conscience still obliges him to recogniz...
