the prophecy. Accordingly, Macbeth is calm enough to
play the hypocrite, when he must otherwise have experienced surprise
far greater than that of Banquo, because he is much more nearly
concerned in the source of it. So far indeed from being overcome with
astonishment, Macbeth still continues to dwell upon the prophecy, by
which his peace of mind is afterwards constantly disturbed,

"Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me
Promised no less to them?"

Banquo's reply to this question has been one of the chief sources of
the interpretation, the error of which we are now endeavouring to
expose. He says,

"That, trusted home,
Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But, 'tis strange;
And often times, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray us
In deepest consequence."

Now, these words have usually been considered to afford the clue to
the _entire_ nature and extent of the supernatural influence brought
into play upon the present tragedy; whereas, in truth, all that they
express is a natural suspicion, called up in the mind of Banquo, by
Macbeth's remarkable deportment, that _such_ is the character of the
influence which is at this moment being exerted upon the soul of the
man to whom he therefore thinks proper to hint the warning they
contain.

The soliloquy which immediately follows the above passage is
particularly worthy of comment:

"This supernatural soliciting
Cannot be ill; cannot be good:--if ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion,
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings.
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man, that function
Is smothered in surmise, and nothing is,
But what is not."

The early portion of this passage assuredly indicates that Macbeth
regards the communications of the witches merely in the light of an
invitation to the carrying out of a design pre-existent in his own
mind. He thinks that the _spontaneous_ fulfilment of the chief
prophecy is in no way probable; the consummation of the lesser
prophecy being held by him, but as an "earnest of succes