With singed top their stately growth, though bare, Put forth at full; but still his strength conceal'd, At length from us may find, Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new worlds, whereof so rife A generation, whom his choice regard Should favour equal to the sons of heaven. 633. Hath emptied heaven. “It is conceived that a third part of the angels fell with Satan, according to Revelations ༅་་ ་ རྒྱ་་ ཾ་ རྩེ་ཕྱིརྩི 645 650 655 660 xii. 4: but Satan here talks big, and magnifies their number."-NEWTON. He spake; and, to confirm his words, outflew 665 670 The work of sulphur. Thither, wing'd with speed, A numerous brigad hasten'd; as when bands 675 Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe arm'd, Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on; Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heaven; for ev'n in heaven his looks and thoughts Were always downward bent; admiring more 681 The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, In vision beatific: by him first Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 685 690 695 700 Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross: A third as soon had form'd within the ground 705 A various mould, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook: To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 674. The work of Sulphur. Sulphur was anciently thought the generator of gold.-678. Mammon is Syriac, and signifies "riches." 710 690. Admire, used in the sense of the Latin admiror, "to wonder at." 703. Founded, that is melted. Rose, like an exhalation, with the sound With golden architrave: nor did there want 715 720 Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile Stood fix'd her stately highth: and straight the doors, Opening their brazen folds, discover wide Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth 725 And level pavement: from the arched roof, 730 735 740 745 To have built in heaven high towers; nor did he 'scape By all his engines; but was headlong sent 750 With his industrious crew to build in hell. Of sovran power, with awful ceremony Meanwhile the winged heralds, by command And trumpet's sound, throughout the host proclaim 755 711. This sudden rising of Pandemo nium is supposed to be taken from some of the moving stage-scenes in the time of Charles the First. 728. Cressels, beacon lights, which had a cross on their top, and hence called zroisettes. 740. And how he fell. Observe how Milton lengthens out the time of Vulcan's fall. It was not only all day long, but we are led through the parts of the day,-from morn to noon, then from noon to dewy eve; and, to add to the effect, it was a summer's day. At Pandæmonium, the high capital Of Satan and his peers: their summons call'd Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth 760 765 770 775 780 Or dreams he sees, while over-head the moon 785 Wheels her pale course: they, on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear: At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 Though without number still, amidst the hall Of that infernal court. But far within, And in their own dimensions, like themselves, 795 upon the poetry of this beautiful pas sage."-BRYDGES. 774. Expatiate, used in its Latin sense, 764. Sildan's chair. "Soldan is an old English word for Sultan. Ile here alludes to those accounts of the single cerbats between the Saracens and Chris-"to walk abroad." tians in Spain and Palestine, of which the old romances are full. Panim, another word found in ancient poetry, for Pagan."-TODD. 771. "It is not necessary to enlarge 785. Arbitress: witness, spectatress. Nearer to the earth, is said in allusion to the popular superstition that witches and fairies have great power over the moon. 797. Frequent, in the Latin sense of crowded. REMARKS ON BOOK II. In tracing the progress of this poem by deliberate and minute steps, our wonder and admiration increase. The inexhaustible invention continues to grow upon us: each page, each line, is pregnant with something new, picturesque, and great: the condensity of the matter is without any parallel: the imagination often contained in a single passage is more than equal to all that secondary poets have produced: the fable of the voyage through Chaos is alone a sublime poem. Milton's descriptions of materiality have always touches of the spiritual, the lofty, and the empyreal. Milton has too much condensation to be fluent: a line or two often conveys a world of images and ideas: he expatiates over all time, all space, all possibilities: he unites earth with heaven, with hell, with all intermediate existences, animate and inanimate; and his illustrations are drawn from all learning, historical, natural, and speculative. In him, almost always, "more is meant than meets the ear." An image, an epithet, conveys a rich picture. What is the subject of observation may be told without genius; but the wonder and the greatness lie in invention, if the invention be noble, and according to the principles of possibility. Who could have conceived,-or, if conceived, who could have expressed, the voyage of Satan through Chaos, but Milton? Who could have invented so many distinct and grand obstacles in his way? and all picturesque, all poetical, and all the topics of intellectual meditation and reflection, or of spiritual sentiment? All the faculties of the mind are exercised, stretched, and elevated at once by every page of "Paradise Lost." Invention is the first and most indispensable essential of true poetry; but not the only one: the invention must have certain high, moral, sound, wise qualities: and, in addition to these, such as are picturesque or spiritual. It is easy to invent what is improbable or unnatural. Nothing will do which cannot command our belief. Inventions either of character, imagery, or sentiment, taken separately in small fragments, may still have force and merit; but when they form an integral and appropriate part of a long whole, how infinitely their power, depth, and bearings, are increased! In poetry, we must consider both the original conceptions and the illustrations: each derives interest and strength from the other: a mere copy of an image drawn from nature may have some beauty; but the invention and the essential poetry lie in their complex use, when applied as an embodiment to something intellectual. Imagery is almost always so used by Milton; and so it was used by Homer and Virgil. This gives a new light to the mind of the reader, and creates combinations which perhaps did not before exist: the poet thus spiritualises matter, and materialises spirit. When what is presented is merely such scenery of nature as the painter can give by lines and colours, it falls far short of the poet's power and charm. Poetry, purely descriptive, is not of the first order. There are lines in the "Paradise Lost," which would seem to be mere abstract opinions; but they are not so; inset as they are into the course of a sublime, dense-wove narrative, they derive colour and character |