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98 What natural explanation of all this can be given on the conscience theory?

And now what can be set against this evidence? One solitary passage. Quite late, after Hamlet has narrated to Horatio the events of his voyage, he asks him ( ii. 63):

Here, certainly, is a question of conscience in the usual present sense of the word; and, it may be said, does not this show that all along Hamlet really has been deterred by moral scruples? But I ask first how, in that case, the facts just adduced are to be explained: for they must be explained, not ignored. Next, let the reader observe that even if this passage did show that one hindrance to Hamlet’s action was his conscience, it by no means follows that this was the sole or the chief hindrance. And, thirdly, let him observe, and let him ask himself whether the coincidence is a mere accident, that Hamlet is here almost repeating the words