"

7, for "Guarda di nobili “read "Guardia di nobili." ", 22, for "could" read "would.”

column 1, line 51, for "Cabinet read "Calmet's."

"

"

"

2, line 31, for "pavements" read “fragments."

line 40, for “Captain Gaswyne" read "Captain Gascoyne." line 43, for "The part" read "The fact."

Page 123, line 29, for "Basili" read Basilicas."

Page 101, Stanza XI. Read the first lines as follows:-
"Strange to the ear the oriental name

Of this fair river. Winding serpentine
The Kandian capitol it doth entwine,

And sleepeth quiet in the sun's bright beam.

O'er bare rocks roll the waters of the stream,

Which with their roughness the dashed wave refine

And purify."

Page 104, Stanza XVI,-line 9, for “o'verhanging” read “morning.”

COLOMBO:

PRINTED AT THE HERALD PREOS,

Is discussing the character and merits of Paradise Regained, it is scarcely possible not to refer, and that frequently, to Paradise Lost. On this mighty production of genius the smaller, but not less perfect poem may be said to be as an attendant star; as the moon upon the earth," which else

Night would invade; but there the neighbouring moon,

So call that opposite fair star, her aid

Timely interposes."

Par. Lost. III 726.

Milton himself was apparently of this opinion after the production of his greater poem of Paradise Lost. The origin, however, of Paradise Regained is attributed to the suggestion of Ellwood, the the quaker, to whom Milton leut his Paradise Lost in manuscript. "I pleasantly said to him," says Ellwood, "Thou hast said much of Paradise Lost, but what hast thou to say of Paradise Found ?” "On this hint he spake." Paradise Regained was marvellously, and almost as it were instantaneously, produced.

Nor is the lastre of Paradise Regained at all diminished by the superior splendor of the mightier orb of Milton's genius. The light of both is " light from heaven." "I am at a loss to guess,says an admirable judge of the question," what there is of excellence wanting in this poem." We have already examined its higher claims to our admiration, and to that species of immortality which the loftier creations of genius demand from the successive generations of mankind. We will now descend to the peculiar beauty and propriety of the style.

As, we have seen, action and mystery are the elements of Paradise Lost, so moral wisdom,

"With her best nurse, CONTEMPLATION,"

is to be found, as in her " sweet retired solitude," in the calm and keautiful poem of Paradise Regained. There is a sublime dignity in profound contemplation. The fertility and depth of thought, and the superiBut those words should be or elevation of feeling denrand fewer words. select and faultless. The manner should be dignified to a degree It is so in Milton. What can be finer than the pregnant conciseness, which is truly sublime, of our Lord's replies to some of more dignified Satan's most elaborately artful speeches? What and more awful than the calm self possession of his answer to the tamt of Satan when he set him on "the highest pinnacle" of the temple?

of awe.

"Also it is written

"Tempt not the Lord thy God he said; and stond."

. The remainder of this passage is so spirited; it shews such exquisite art in the poet, by the rapid transition from the nervous and compressed style in which he describes the sublime and composed attitude of Jesus, to the violent fall of the arch-apostate spirit; and it exhibits so happy a specimen of the style of Paradise Lost, appropriate to the action of the scene, that I cannot better illustrate my theory than by a transcription of the following.

"But Satan smitten with amazement fell.
As when earth's son Antaeus, to compare
Small things with greatest, in Irassa strove
With Jove's Alcides, and oft foil'd still rose,
Receiving from his mother earth new strength,
Fresh from his fall, and fiercer grapple join'd,
Throttled at length in th' air, expir'd and fell;
So after many a foil the tempter proud,
Renewing fresh assaults, amidst his pride
Fell whence he stood to see his victor fall.

And as that Theban monster that propos'd
Her riddle, and him who solv'd it not, devour'd,

Sir Egerton Brydges.

That once found out and solv'd, for grief and spite
Cast herself headlong from th' Ismenian steep;

So struck with dread and anguish fell the fiend,
And to his crew that sat consulting, brought
Joyless triumphals of his hop'd success,
Ruin, and desperation, and dismay,

Who durst so proudly tempt the Son of God,
So Satan fell; and straight a fiery globe

Of angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans receiv'd him soft
From his uneasy station, and upbore

As on a floating couch through the blithe air,
Then in a flow'ry valley set him down
On a green bank, and set before him spread
A table of celestial food, divine,
Ambrosial fruits, fetch'd from the tree of life,
And from the fount of life ambrosial drink,
That soon refresh'd him wearied, and repair'd
What hunger, if aught hanger had impair'd
Or thirst; and, as he fed, angelic quires
Sung heav'nly anthems of his victory

Over temptation and the tempter proud."

Paradise Regained. B. 4, 560-595.

The parallel passage of Paradise Lost, descriptive of the more terrible fall of Satan from heaven, noble as it is, is scarcely if at all finer, though the action is more dreadful and sublime, thau these magnificent lines.

"Him the Almighty Power

Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,

With hideous ruin and combustion, down

To bottomless perdition ; there to dwell

In adamantine chains and penal fire,

Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms."

Par: Lost B. 1. 44.

Is the above cited passage from Paradise Regained composed in a lower and less striking style" than any single passage of Paradise Lost? Surely not. Here is no decay of the poet's faculty divine," nor is there "wanting the accomplishment of verse," which were displayed in his best and most vigorous days. In harmony of numbers, in sublimity of thought, and in beauty of diction, it stands unrivalled by, at least not inferior to,--any breathing of bis own celestial lyre. His classical allusions to Antaeus and Hercules, and the Theban Sphinx, whom we almost see

"Cast herself headlong from the Ismenian steep ;"

and the splendid similes which are made of them, are in his very highest, and the very highest style of poetry. Yet we are told that Paradise Regained is without “allusion to poets either ancient or modern."* If the transition from the STANDING of Jesus to the FALL of Satan be, as by all it must be allowed to be, striking and admirable,-how exquisite is the, as immediate, chang of the style, from the apostate's plung of

Who on their plumy vans received him soft

From his uneasy station, and upbore

As on a floating couch, through the blithe air."

The verse itself moves as on angel-wings; and as the gates of heaven,

"Harmonious sound,

On golden binges moving."+

Par: Lost B. III. 206:

The conception of this entire passage is as just and noble as the execution is perfect. The analogy with the Paradise Lost seems never to be lost sight of. One circumstance is peculiarly striking, and has not, so far as I remember, been noticed. The Tree of Life was forfeited by Adam's non-resistance of the Devil's temptation, and his conquest by the Tempter. But immediately after the Victory" of the "second Adam"

66

"Over temptation and the Tempter proud,"

He is refreshed with

"A table of celestial food, divine

Ambrosial fruits, fetched from the TREE OF Life."

There is an angelic feast, though served up by human hands, for the entertainment of the angel Raphael in Paradise Lost; of which an able critic, to whose edition of Milton I have fre

See the Supplement to Tood's Edition of this poem.

It may be remarked, on the subject of Milton's versification, (of which we may have occasion to say more hereafter) that this passage of the opening of the gates of heaven, is one among almost innumerable instances of the perfection of his taste and of his ear. To the Angel Raphael, in the fifth Book, Heaven's

To the Messiah it is

66 gate self-opened wide On golden hinges turning."

"On golden hinges moving."

The change of the one word of " turning" for "moving," improves, the melody in the somewhat comparative degree to the relative importance of the persons of the Angel Raphael, and of MESSIAH. None but the greatest masters have such exquisite touches.