In other words, these supreme presentations of life are presentations of men struggling, or failing to struggle, not after natural happiness, but after supernatural right; and it is always pre-supposed on our part that we admit this struggle to be the one important thing.

And this importance, we shall see further, is based, not on the external and the social consequences of conduct, but essentially and primarily on its internal and its personal consequences.
In _Macbeth_, for instance, the main incident, the tragic-colouring matter of the drama, is the murder of Duncan.

But in what aspect of this does the real tragedy lie?
Not in the fact that Duncan is murdered, but in the fact that Macbeth is the murderer.

What appals us, what purges our passions with pity and with terror as we contemplate it, is not the external, the social effect of the act, but the personal, the internal effect of it.

As for Duncan, he is in his grave; after life's fitful fever he sleeps well.