440

445

450

455

460

To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
For God hath justly given the nations up
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous: but, when his purpose is
Among them to declare his providence
To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,
But from him, or his angels president
In every province, who themselves disdaining
To approach thy temples, give thee in command
What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt say
To thy adorers? Thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st:
Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench’d;
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquired at Delphos, or elsewhere;
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his living oracle
Into the world to teach his final will;
And sends his Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle
To all truth requisite for men to know.

So spake our Saviour; but the subtle fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
Dissembled, and this answer smooth return'd:-
Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,
And urged me hard with doings, which not will,
But misery hath wrested from me. Where
Easily canst thou find one miserable,
And not enforced oft-times to part from truth,
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
But thou art placed above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure
Check or reproof, and glad to 'scape so quit.
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to the ear,
And tunable as sylvan pipe or song:
What wonder then if I delight to hear
Her dictates from thy mouth? Most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lore: permit me
To hear thee when I come, (since no man comes)

465

470

475

480

456. Oracles are ceased. As Milton had 468. Sharply thou hast, &c. The smoothbefore adopted the ancient opinion of ness and hypocrisy of this speech of Saoracles being the operations of the fallen tan's are artful in the extreme, and canangels, so here he makes them cease at not be passed over unobserved.-J.WARthe coming of the Saviour. See "Ode on TON. the Nativity,” line 173.

"The oracles are dumb." &o.

485

490

And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest
To tread his sacred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,
Praying or vowing; and vouchsafed his voice
To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet
Inspired: disdain not such access to me.

To whom our Saviour, with unalter'd brow:
Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope,
I bid not, or forbid; do as thou find'st
Permission from above; thou canst not more.

He added not; and Satan, bowing low
His gray dissimulation, disappear’d,
Into thin air diffused: for now began
Night with her sullen wings to double-shade
The desert: fowls in their clay nests were couch'd;
And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam.

495

500

487. Athros priest to tread, &c. See 502. The whole conclusion of this book Is. i. 12. There are two kinds of athe- abounds so much in closeness of reasonism, therretical and practical; and that ing, grandeur of sentiment, elevation of minister of religion who studies to preach style, and harmony of numbers, that it "smooth things” and “deceits," rather may well be questioned whether poetry than “right things;" (Is. xxx. 10) to say on such a subject, and especially in the what will please his congregation, rather form of dialogue, ever produced any than faithfully rebuke them for their in- thing superior to it.--DUNSTER. dividual or national sins, shows a prac- 498. Gray dissimulation : head gray tical disbelief of the commands of God. with dissiinulation.

REMARKS ON BOOK II.

It is sometimes useful to warn the reader what he is to expect in each portion of a long poem, as it is offered to him. The second book of the "Paradise Regained" begins soberly,– perbaps in a tone almost prosaic. To begin low, and rise by a gradual climax, is admitted to be one of the great arts of beautiful composition.

The anxiety and alarm felt by the disciples of Jesus, at missing him so soon, while detained in the wilderness, coming suddenly on their joy at the discovery of his advent; and the pathetic yet patient reflections of Mary at the loss of her son, though related with extreme plainness, are full of deep interest, and the most affecting natural touches: they abound in passages which excite human sympathy.

Satan, hitherto defeated in his temptations of our Saviour, now resorts again to his council of peers ; at which occurs that magnificent dialogue between the sensual Belial and him, which is at any rate as rich and poetical as the finest in “Paradise Lost;" and shows a vein of warmth, and imagery, and invention, and language, that is evidence how strongly the poet's genius was yet in its full bloom and verdure. Satan's answer to Belial is the more powerful, as coming from the prince of darkness himself: how then does the lustful fiend stand rebuked!

Now Jesus had fasted forty days, and began to suffer by hunger: Satan seizes the occasion, and resolves to take advantage of it. Our Saviour, weary and exbausted, slept under the cover of trees, and dreamed of food supplied by an angel, who invited him to eat. He waked with the moreing, and found that all was but a dream :

Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked. He walked to the top of a hill, to see if there was any human babitation within reach; and there a rich but solitary landscape displayed itself before him, raised magically by Satan and his imps, for the purposes of the delusion which was to follow.

While gazing upon this magnificent prospect, Satan again accosts him, and endeavours to alarm his faith at being left thus destitute :

As his words had end,
Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld,
In ample space, under the broadest shade,

A dinner spread, &c.
Here is an invented array, than which nothing in “Paradise Lost" can
be richer either in imagery or poetical language.
Our Saviour rejects with scorn the temptation : he says :

I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,
Command a table in this wilderness,
And call swift Mights of angels ministrant,
Array'd in glory on my cup to attend :
Why shouldst thou then obtrude this diligence
In vain, where no acceptance it can find ?
And with my hunger what hast thou to do
Thy pompous delicacies I contemn,

And count thy specious gifts no gifts, but guiles.
Satan grows angry at the refusal, and

With that
Both table and provision vanish'd quite,

With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard.

The tempter was not yet to be foiled: he now makes an offer of riches, and descants upon their advantages for the purposes of that dominion which he assumes that our Saviour was sent to obtain.

Jesus answers, that wealth without virtue, valour, and wisdom, is in. potent; and that the highest deeds have been performed in the lowest poverty: he then expounds what are the duties and what are the cares of a king; and how much more desirable it is to surrender a sceptre than to gain one.

Were there in this book nothing but the spiritual and intellectual part, the thoughts and the sentiments, I, for one, should not think the less of it; but it is not so: there are duly intermixed that material, those picturesque descriptions, those striking incidents of fact, which the common critics and the generality of readers more especially deem to be poetry.

The whole story (and it is a beautiful story) is in part practical, though operated on by innmaterial beings, whose delusive powers over our earthly conduct and fate are consistent with our belief. The temptations are such as a mere human being could not have resisted; and to have resisted them is a true test of Christ's divinity.

But the arguments by which they were resisted, contain the most profound doctrines of religion and morals, such as for ever apply to human life, extend and purify the understanding, and elevate the heart. We should have been glad to have learned the grand results at which the mighty mind of Milton had arrived, even if they had been expressed in prose; but how much more, when arranged in all the glowing eloquence of poetry! when interwoven in a sublime story, and deriving practical application from their embodiments and their progressive influences !

The reply to the allurements of female beauty, and still more to the impotent splendour of' wealth, unaccompanied by virtue and talent, is an outburst of imaginative strength and sublimity: it is wisdom irradiated by glory. Whoever does not find himself better and happier by reading and reflecting upon those grand and sentimental arguments, has neither head nor heart, but is a stagnant congeries of clayey coldness and inanimate insusceptibility.

We may be forgiven for dispensing with all poetry of which the mere result is innocent pleasure; that is, they may lay it aside to whom it is do pleasure. But this is not the case with Milton's poetry: his is the voice of instruction and wisdom, to which he who refuses to listen, is guilty of a crime. If we are so dull, that we cannot understand him without labour and pain, still we are bound to undergo that labour and pain. They who are not ashamed of their own ignorance and inapprebensiveness, are lost.

For the purpose of fixing attention, I suspect that Milton's latinized style is best calculated. He who has more acquired knowledge than native and quick taste, ought to study him as he studies Virgil and Homer: in him he will find all that is profound and eloquent in the ancient classics, amalgamated, and exalted at the same time by the aid of the sacred writings; all working together in the plastic mind of the most powerful and sublime of buman poets.

Strength, not grace, was Milton's characteristic: his grasp was that of an unsparing giant; he showed the sinews and muscles of his naked form : he put on no soft garınents of a dove-like tenderness; he neither adorned himself with jewels nor gold leaf; all was plain as nature made him.

Thus his descriptions of scenery, of the seasons, of morning and evening, were rich, but not embellished or sophisticated. In this book, the break of the dawn, the gathering of the night shades, the dark covering of the umbrageous forests, the open and sunny glades, are all painted in the sober hues of visible reality.

There is nothing enfeebling in any of Milton's visionariness. His bold and vigorous mind braces us for action; his strains beget a patient lofti. ness, prepared for temptations, difficulties, and dangers.

It is in vain for authors to attempt to effectuate this tone by practising the artifices of composition: it is produced solely by the poet's belief in what he writes; by his being under the impulse of the ideal presence of what he represents. He does not conjure up factitious images, factitious feelings, and factitious language. Where the soul is wanting, the dress or form will be of no avail.

Milton's purpose was to represent the embodiment and refraction of what he believed to be truth. What was visible to himself, but not palpable to common eyes, except by the Muse’s aid, he wanted to make palpable and distinct to others. The immaterial world is covered with a mist, or a veil, to all but the gifted; unless they become a mirror for duller sights.

SIR EGERTON BRYDGES.