We now come to the last Book of Paradise Regained, and to the conclusion of these speculations upon this fine Poem. I am perfectly aware that the succession of these essays, although the continuity of the subject itself seemed to require it, is tedious to the general reader. This is the last.

It has been remarked by critics generally of Paradise Regained, that the Poetry rises in grandeur and beauty, and does not arrive at its utmost elevation until the last book; whereas it has been complained that Paradise Lost falls off in the concluding books The different principle and structure been sufficiently attended to. Mr. judicious admirers, is of opinion

of the two poems have not Mitford, one of our Poet's most that these poems are so dissi

milar in their structure and purpose that no comparison can be usefully or justly instituted between them."*

There is, however, the same analogy in the structure of the two Poems, and the comparative plainness and elevation of the poetry, as, I have attempted to shew, subsists between the Old and the New Testament in higher respects. The Fall of man being wrought by the Evil Spirit, the diction, as well as the action of the first books of Paradise Lost, in which the power of that Spirit predominates, is, with a beautiful propriety, most inspiring and splendid. The very ruin of Satan with all his host of rebel Angels," was the proximate cause "of Man's first disobedience." It is therefore made most prominent in the poem. We almost see "Satan fall like lightning from heaven."

The action is at its height in the ninth book, where the act of disobedience is committed, and the fall of an accomplished. The tenth book is of a mixed character, which gradually and beautifully prepares the mind for the more quiet and contemplative character of the two last books, in which is the germ of Paradise Regained. That Poem properly takes up the subject, both in the spirit and style of the concluding books of Paradise Lost; and the style of this second and perfect poem, gradually rises with each book into loftier regions, until, in the fourth and last book, the poet's diction and imagery ascend with

A fiery globe

Of angels on full sail of wing."

P. R. B. iv. 581.

Of my quotations from this splendid book, which blazes from beginning to end, I must be sparing; entreating the reader to consult the poem itself. The book begins in the Homeric style with a series of similes. But unlike Homer, whose most familiar simile is generally the last, Milton's rise in beauty and grandeur one above the other. Rome is then presented by the Tempter to the eyes of the Saviour.

"On each side an imperial city stood,
With towers and temples proudly elevate
On seven small bills, with palaces adorn'd,
Porches, and theatres, baths, and aqueducts,
Statues, and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
Gardens, and groves."

P. R. B. iv. 33-38.

I cannot follow the Poet's gorgeous description of " great and

Mitford's Life of Milton p. lxxxiii. Aldine Edition. In a previous essay I omitted the mention of this accomplished writer,-who has done such ample justice to our greatest Lyric Poet, Gray, as one of the best modern biographers, along with Sir Egerton Brydges, of our great Epic Poet. I lament that my limits do not allow me to subjoin in this note his just and finely written criticism of Paradise Regained.

glorious Rome, queen of the earth." Two lines, however, I must select, as connected with the island in which these essays are written, under the ancient name of Taprobane; and because the last line has been noticed, with great truth of taste and feeling, to be one of the most picturesque lines to be met with in poetry, every word conveying a distinct idea, and generally one of great effect.* Among the "embassies from regions far remote in various habits" to Rome, were those "from India and the golden Chersonese,

And utmost Indian Isle TAPROBANE,

Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreath'd."

Athens is next described :

B. IV. 75.

46 On the Egean shore a city stands,

Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil,
Athens, the eye of Greece,"

B. IV. 238-240.

I must request the reader to consult the poem for this exquisite picture.

There is a noble passage, in which our Lord opposes to the philosophy and poetry of ancient Greece the divine truth and sublime and lovely poesy of the Hebrew Scriptures.

"If I would delight my private hours With music or with poem, where, so soon

As in our native language, can I find

That solace? All our law and story strew'd
With hymns, our psalms with artful terins inscrib'd,

Qur Hebrew songs and harps, in Babylon

That pleased so well our victor's ear, declare

That rather Greece from us these arts deriv'd."

B. IV. 331-338.

One splendid burst of poetic inspiration I must give entire. This is the storm in the desert, which is raised by Satan as his last act of violence to our meek and blessed Saviour, before he sets him on the pinnacle of the temple, (which has been cited in a previous essay) with which the poem concludes.

"Darkness now rose,

As daylight sunk, and brought in low'ring night,
Her shadowy offspring, unsubstantial both,

Privation mere of light and absent day.
Our Saviour meek, and with untroubled mind

See a note, in Todd's edition, on the place.

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After his aery jaunt, though hurried sore,
Hungry and cold betook him to his rest,
Wherever, under some concourse of shades,
Whose branching arms thick intertwin'd might shield
From dews and damps of night his shelter'd head;
But, shelter'd, slept in vain; for at his head

The Tempter watch'd, and soon with ugly dreams
Disturb'd his sleep. And either tropic now
'Gan thunder, and both ends of heav'n; the clouds,
From many a horrid rift, abortive pour'd

Fierce rain with lightning mix'd, water with fire

.3.

In ruin reconcil'd; nor slept the winds

Within their stony caves, but rush'd abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the ver'd wilderness, whose tallest pines,
Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks,
Bow'd their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,
Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st
Unshaken! Nor yet staid the terror there;

Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round

Environ'd thee; some howl'd, some yell'd, sôme shriek'd,
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou

Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace!
Thus pass'd the night so foul, till Morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim steps în amice gray;
Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar
Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grisly spectres, which the Fiend had rais'a
"To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
And now the sun with more effectual beams
Had cheer'd the face of earth, and dried the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so'ruinous,
Clear'd up their choicest notes in bush and spray,
To gratulate the sweet return of morn."

B. IV. 397-438.

In all extant poetry, except the Sacred Oracles, there is nothing, in my opinion, so sublime as this description of the storm raised by the hellish furies" of Satan, and vainly raised, against the patient Son of God," who "only stood unshaken", amid this ele mental convulsion; He only

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“SAT UNAPPALL'D IN CALM AND SINLESS PEACH!",

While nothing was ever conceived, or described, perhaps, with such exquisite and touching beauty as the "coming forth of Morn ing fair with pilgrim steps in amice gray,

After a night of storm so ruinous,"

In Paradise Lost there is no single passage. comparable in sublime conception, condensed, and at the same time magnificent des cription, perfect rhythm and melody of verse, and exquisite beauty. In a few lines every perfection of the art is combined. It in this marvellous combination of powers which makes Milton preeminent, in whole and in part, above his mighty compeers, Homer and Virgil. Every classical reader is familiar with the parallel passages. Milton had all these in his mind; but how greatly he has excelled, yet he can scarcely be said to have imitated them. I place the references in the lower margin, and would recommend the English reader to consult the several translations. In the original, Homer's description is greatly superior to that of Virgil, who indeed very closely imitates his master. Pope's translation is very finely done, but is excelled in fidelity, as is almost always the case, by that of Cowper, which is very close to the original. Milton's description of the storm alone fai excels those of Homer and Virgil.*

Milton's melancholy lapse from the Catholic faith of the ever blessed Trinity, which had been long suspected, t is, alas, now too well known, since the discovery of the manuscript treatise, De Doctrina Christiana, some years ago, in the State Paper Office. This has been printed in the original Latin, and edited, and an English translation made by Bishop Charles Sumner. The errors in these high matters of such minds as those of Milton and Newton, while they should warn us of the peril of lofty intellect in finite beings, should at the same time make us lay our mouths in the dust: for when such meu so fearfully fall, it becomes us to take especial heed lest, while “ think we stand," we fall into some of the various temptations to sin and error which beset us in this state of being,

we

But, I own, I am at a loss to understand how, in other respects, Milton's theology should be brought into question, with regard to the title aud the subject of his second Poem of Paradise Regained. It is alleged that he has made the resistance of the temptation of Satan by the Messiah the completion of the Redemption of mankind, and the efficient cause of the recovery of Paradise; and that he has done this that he might place the Disobedience of Adam in contrast with the Obedience of Christ. Poetically, he has certainly made the perfect obedience of the second Adam to do away with the effects of the disobedience of the first. But it does by

Homeri Odyss: E. 291 Cowpers Translation B. V. 350. Southey's Edition. Virgilü Æneid: Lib. I. 81.

f

+ Various passages of the Paradise Lost, especially B. V. 604, gave the critics just suspicion of his Arian, or Semi-Arian opinions. But in bis early works, us prose and verse, he avows his faith in the Trinity.