See Sir Thomas Brown:—
“I believe ... that those apparitions and ghosts of departed persons are not the wandering souls of men, but the unquiet walks of devils, prompting and suggesting us unto mischief, blood, and villany, instilling and stealing into our hearts, that the blessed spirits are not at rest in their graves, but wander solicitous of the affairs of the world.”—Relig. Med. part. i. sect. 37.
Act iii. sc. 1. Hamlet's soliloquy:—
“To be, or not to be, that is the question,” &c.
This speech is of absolutely universal interest,—and yet to which of all Shakespeare's characters could it have been appropriately given but to Hamlet? For Jaques it would have been too deep, and for Iago too habitual a communion with the heart; which in every man belongs, or ought to belong, to all mankind.
Ib.—
“The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns.”
Theobald's note in defence of the supposed contradiction of this in the apparition of the Ghost.
O miserable defender! If it be necessary to remove the apparent contradiction,—if it be not rather a great beauty,—surely, it were easy to say, that no traveller returns to this world, as to his home, or abiding-place.