in form, as the marble is changed when it is carved into a symmetrical form and imbued with power to speak to the imagination. The old words have been condensed, their roughest consonants have been dropped, and their inflections modified; thus fitting them to express simplicity combined with harmony; "so that the sounds of our English words are commonly like those of stringed instruments, short and transient, which rise at a single touch, while those of other languages are like those of wind instruments, sweet and swelling, and lengthen out into varieties of modulation ;" and all that is gained by the exchange, is the melody of these sonorous words; and on the other hand there is the sacrifice of simplicity, with the nerve and vivacity of our own. Chaucer, Spencer, Shakspeare, Milton, Cowper, Scott and Byron continue the Saxon chain without a broken link; and it is handed down to us entire; covered with gems and jewels, the wealth of the intellectual world.

Milton's poetry, combines more beauties, and displays more graces, in common with other languages, than the productions of any other English genius, and at the same time makes pre-eminent the power of the Saxon mind. Cædmon's poem exhibits so much of the Miltonic spirit as to give much plausibility to the opinion that Milton was not entirely ignorant of this poem and that he drew from it the design of his paradise. In its first topic, the "Fall of the Angels," says Mr. Turner, "it exhibits much of the Miltonic spirit; and if it were clear that our illustrious bard, had been familiar with the Saxon, we should be

induced to think that he owed something to the paraphrase of Cadmon. No one at least can read Cædmon without feeling the idea intruding on his mind." The solicitude, to found Paradise Lost upon this poem has been so great, that to remove the difficulty of Milton's supposed ignorance of the Saxon, it is supposed that it was read to him by a friend; and that thus treasuring it up in his memory, he conceived his plan, and gave birth to that matchless production which almost infinitely surpasses its supposed archetype.

THE FIRST DAY.

There had not here as yet,

Save cavern-shade

Aught been;

But this wide abyss

Stood deep and dim,

Strange to its Lord,

Idle and useless;

On which looked with his eyes

The king firm of mind,

And beheld those places

Void of joys;

Saw the dark cloud
Lower in eternal night,
Swart under heaven,
Dark and waste,

Until this worldly creation
Through the word existed
Of the Glory-King.

Here first shaped
The Lord eternal,
Chief of all creatures,
Heaven and earth;
The firmament upreared,
And this spacious land
Established,

By his strong powers,

The Lord Almighty.

The earth as yet was

Not green with grass;

Ocean covered,

Swart in eternal night

Far and wide,

The dusky ways.

Then was the glory-bright

Spirit of heaven's guardian

Borne over the deep

With atmost speed:
The Creator of angels bade,
The Lord of life,
Light to come forth
Over the spacious deep.
Quickly was fulfilled
The high king's behest ;
For him was holy light
Over the waste,
As the Maker bade.

Then sundered
The Lord of triumphs
Over the ocean-flood
Light from darkness,

This, in the most simple expression, presents a sublime conception of the unformed universe.

The Creator of angels bade

Light to come forth

Over the spacious deep.

Cadmon, in the creation of light contemplates only the power of the Creator; while Milton speaks also of the nature and office of light.

Let there be light, said God; and forthwith Light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,

Sprung from the deep; and from her native east
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle
Sojourned the while.

SOLILOQUY OF THE REBEL ANGEL.

"Why should I toi! ?" said he;
"To me it is no whit needful
To have a superior;

I can with my hands as many
Wonders work;

I have great power
To form

A Divine throne,

Higher in the heavens.

Why should I sue for his grace
Or bend to him in obedience ?

I may be a god as he.

Stand by me strong associates,
Who will not deceive me.

Heroes stern of mood,

They have chosen me for chief,
Renowned warriors!

With such may one take counsel,

With such capture his adversaries;
My earnest friends they are,
Faithful in their thoughts;

I may as their leader
Sway in his realm:
I think it not right
Nor need I
Flatter any one

As if to any gods
A god inferior."

The portraiture of Satan's hostility is the most original and interesting part of the poem; and displays the genius of the poet to the best advantage. Cædmon has made Satan as lofty and invincible as Milton made him, and there is a striking coincidence in the spirit and the thought with which they have clothed this character. They both hurl him from heaven with nearly the same ceremony.

When the All-powerful it

All had hard,

That his angel devised

Great presumption

To raise up against his Master,

And spake proud words

Foolishly against the Lord

Then must he expatiate the deed,

Share the work of war,

And for his punishment must have

Of all deadly ills the greatest.

So doth every man

Who against his Lord

Deviseth to war,

With crime against the great Ruler.

Then was the Mighty angry,

The highest Ruler of heaven,

Hurled him from the lofty seat;

Hate had he gained at his Lord,

His favor he had lost,

Incensed with him was God in mind,

Therefore must he seek the gulf

Of hard hell torment,

For that he had warred with heaven's Ruler.

Milton hurls him from the ethereal sky, down to bottomless perdition.

Aspiring

To set himself above his peers,

He trusted to have equal'd the Most High,
If he opposed, and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarch of God,
Raised impious war in heaven, and battle proud,
With vain attempt. 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,

Cadmon represents the expelled angels, as falling for the space of three days and three nights, and Milton represents them as falling nine days.