from the position which they occupy. So placed, their plainness is their strength and their spell: ornamented language would have weakened them. Of all styles, the uniformly florid is the most fatiguing. That Milton could bring so much learning, as well as so much imaginative invention, to bear on every, part of his infinitely-extended, yet thick-compacted fable, is truly miraculous. Were the learning superficial and loosely applied, the wonder would not be great, or not nearly so great; but it is always profound, solid, conscientious; and in its combinations original. Bishop Atterbury has said, in opposition to the general opinion, that the allegory of Sin and Death is one of the finest inventions of the poem. I agree with him most sincerely. The portress of the gates of hell sits there in a character, and with a tremendous figure and attributes, which no imagination less gigantic than Milton's could have drawn. Is it to be objected that Sin and Death are imaginary persons, when all the persons of the poem, except Adam and Eve, are imaginary? Realities, in the strict sense, do not make the most essential parts of poetry. SIR EGERTON BRYDGES. The character of Satan is pride and sensual indulgence, finding in self the sole motive of action. It is the character so often seen in little on the political stage. It exhibits all the restlessness, temerity, and cunning, which have marked the mighty hunters of mankind, from Nimrod to Napoleon. The common fascination of men is, that these great men, as they are called, must act from some great motive. Milton has carefully marked in his Satan the intense selfishness, the alcohol of egotism, which would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. To place this lust of self in opposition to denial of self, or duty, and to show what exertions it would make, and what pains endure to accomplish its end, is Milton's particular object in the character of Satan. But around this character he has thrown a singularity of daring, a grandeur of sufferance, and a ruined splendour, which constitute the very height of poetic sublimity. COLERIDGE. BOOK II. THE ARGUMENT. THE Consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of heaven: some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal or not much inferiour to themselves, about this time to be created: their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search: Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage, is honoured and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways, and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to hell gates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between hell and heaven; with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the Power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought. HIGH on a throne of royal state, which far To that bad eminence: and, from despair Vain war with heaven, and, by success untaught, Powers and Dominions, Deities of heaven, More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 2. The Island of Ormus, in the Persian Gulf, was formerly a vast emporium of Indian trade, and celebrated for its wealth and its extended commerce all over Asia. It was the eastern ceremony, 10 15 20 at the coronation of their kings, to powder them with gold-dust and seedpearl. The term barbaric is from the Greek barbarikos, applied by Herodotus to the Persians.-9. Success, i. e. bad success. Yielded with full consent. The happier state Could have assured us: and by what best way, We now debate. Who can advise, may speak. He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptred king, By our delay? no; let us rather choose, Arm'd with hell flames and fury, all at once O'er heaven's high towers to force resistless way, Turning our tortures into horrid arms Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise Of his almighty engine he shall hear 65 Infernal thunder; and for lightning see Black fire and horrour shot with equal rage Among his angels; and his throne itself Mix'd with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire, The way seems difficult and steep, to scale 70 75 Up to our native seat: descent and fall Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find Fear to be worse destroy'd: what can be worse Then to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemn'd Where pain of unextinguishable fire SU 85 Must exercise us without hope of end, The vassals of his anger, when the scourge Calls us to penance? more destroy'd than thus, What fear we then? what doubt we to incense He ended frowning, and his look denounced To less than gods. On the other side up rose But all was false and hollow; though his tongue Dropp'd manna, and could make the worse appear 115 To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 120 89. Exercise, in the sense of the Latin metaphorical or figurative word. In what exerren, to vex," "to trouble." 92. To penance, to punishment. 104. Fatal throne, that is, upheld by fate. 106. He ended frowning, &c. “Nobody of any taste or understanding will deny the beauty of the following paragraph, in the whole of which there is not one then does the beauty consist? In the justness of the thought, in the propriety of the expression, in the art of the com position, and in the variety of the versi fication."-LORD MONBODDO. He means the whole of Belial's speech, from the 119th to the 225th line. Main reason to persuade immediate war, Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. First, what revenge? the towers of heaven are fill'd 138. Would on his throne, &c. "This is a reply to that part of Moloch's speech, where he had threatened to mix the 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 throne itself of God with infernal sulphur and strange fire."--NEWTON. 156. Impotence, weakness of mind. |