By spiritual, to themselves appropriating C On every conscience; laws which none shall find a Of spirit and truth; the rest, far greater part, Bestuck with slanderous darts, and works of faith Under her own weight groaning; till the day And vengeance to the wicked, at return The woman's seed; obscurely then foretold, d Now amplier known thy Saviour and thy Lord: Satan with his perverted world; then raise 520 525 530 535 540 545 but by bolstering and supporting their inward rottenness by a carnal and outward 1 strength."-TODD. a Laws which none shall find. Laws, as Hume and Dr. Newton observe, neither agreeable to revealed or natural religion; neither to be found in Holy Scripture, or written on their hearts by the Spirit of God; laws contrary to his promise, who has said, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts," Jer. xxxi. 33.-TODD. b His consort liberty. "For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," 2 Cor. iii. 17.-NEWTON. e His living temples. Christians are called "the temples of God," 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17; and vi. 19.-NEWTON. See also Milton's Prose Works, vol. i. p. 231, ed. 1698 :-" As if the touch of a lay Christian, who is nevertheless God's living temple, could profane dead Judaisms."TODD. d Last, in the clouds. "Coming in the clouds of Heaven," Matt. xxvi. 64.-"The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father," Matt. xvi. 27.-GILLIES. e New heavens, new earth. The very words of St. Peter, 2 Pet. iii. 13:-"Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." This notion of the heavens and earth being renewed after the conflagration, and made the Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love; 550 555 560 His providence, and on him sole depend, Still overcoming evil, and by small Accomplishing great things, by things deem'd weak Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise By simply meek: that suffering for truth's sake 565 570 And, to the faithful, death the gate of life; To whom thus also the angel last replied: : This having learn'd, thou hast attain'd the sum 575 580 habitation of angels and just men made perfect, was very pleasing to Milton, as it was to Dr. Burnet; and must be to every one of a fine and exalted imagination: and Milton has enlarged upon it in several parts of his works, and particularly in this poem, b. iii. 333, &c.; b. x. 638; b. xi. 65, 900: b. xii. 462.-NEWTON. Compare with this poetic passage Milton's animated description in prose of Christ's "universal and mild monarchy through heaven and earth; where they undoubtedly, that, by their labours, counsels, and prayers, have been earnest for the common good of religion and their country, shall receive, above the inferior orders of the blessed, the regal addition of principalities, legions, and thrones, into their glorious titles; and in supereminence of beatific vision progressing the dateless and irrevoluble circle of eternity, shall clasp inseparable hands with joy and bliss in over-measure for ever." See the end of his Reformation in England.'-TODD. Subverting worldly strong. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty." 1 | Cor. i. 27. And so in the rest there is the sense of Scripture if not the very words: as, to obey is best :-" Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice," 1 Sam. xv. 22. And, on him sole depend:"Casting your care upon him, for he careth for you," 1 Pet. v. 7. And merciful over all his works:-"His mercies are over all his works," Psalm cxlv. 9.NEWTON. Though all the stars. The turn of the sentence resembles, as Mr. Stillingfleet observes, when St. Paul says, 1 Cor. xiii. 2:-" And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowlege, and have not charity, I am nothing."-TODD. And all the rule, one empire: only add Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard; With cause, for evils past; yet much more cheer'd He ended, and they both descend the hill: Descended, Adam to the bower, where Eve Lay sleeping, ran before; but found her waked; And thus with words not sad she him received: Whence thou return'st, and whither went'st, I know; 610 For God is also in sleep; and dreams advise, Art all things under heaven, all places thou, Of speculation. h From this top 615 620 From this hill of prophecy and prediction. Speculation, a watching on a tower or high place; thence a discovery, and therefore applied to the prophets in the sacred page, who are called "seers" and "watchmen," speculators, of specula, Latin, a "watchtower." See Ezekiel, iii. 17; and also chap. xxxiii. 3-7.-HUME, i For God is also in sleep. See Numb. xii. 6:-" If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and I will speak unto him in a dream." And thus Homer, Π. i. 63 :—Καὶ γάρ τ' ὄναρ ἐκ Διός ἐστιν. And the application is very elegant in this place, as Adam's was a vision, and Eve's a dream; and God was in the one as well as in the other.-NEWTON. I carry hence; though all by me is lost, So spake our mother Eve, and Adam heard i Waved over by that flaming brand. 625 630 635 640 645 Of brand for sword take the following explanation from Hickes:-"In the second part of the Edda Islandica,' among other appellations, a 'sword' is denominated 'brand;' and 'glad,' or 'glod,' that is, 'titio, torris, pruna ignita;' and the hall of Odin is said to be illuminated by drawn swords only. A writer of no less learning than penetration, N. Salanus Westmannus, in his dissertation, entitled, Gladius Scythicus,' p. 6, 7, observes, that the ancients formed their swords in imitation of a flaming fire; and thus from 'brand,' a 'sword,' came our English phrase, to brandish a sword,' 'gladium strictum vibrando coruscare facere.'"-T. WARTON. k The poetical imagery of this passage pathetic; and of a majestic conciseness. splendid, sublime, and at the same time The eleventh and twelfth books are built upon the single circumstance of the removal of our first parents from Paradise; but though this is not in itself so great a subject as that in most of the foregoing books, it is extended and diversified with so many surprising incidents and pleasing episodes, that these last two books can by no means be looked upon as unequal parts of this divine poem. Milton, after having represented in vision the history of mankind to the first great period of nature, despatches the remaining part of it in narration. In some places the author has been so attentive to his divinity that he has neglected his poetry: the narrative, however, rises very happily on several occasions, where the subject is capable of poetical ornaments; as particularly in the confusion which be describes among the builders of Babel, and in his short sketch of the plagues of Egypt. --The storm of hail and fire, and the darkness that overspread the land for three days, are described with great strength: the beautiful passage which follows is raised upon noble hints in Scripture: Thus with ten wounds The river-dragon tamed, at length submits To let his sojourners depart, &c. The river-dragon is an allusion to the crocodile, which inhabits the Nile, from whence Egypt derives her plenty. This allusion is taken from that sublime passage in Ezekiel: Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great dragon that lyeth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is my own, and I have made it for myself." Milton has given us another very noble and poetical image in the same description, which is copied almost word for word out of the history of Moses : All night he will pursue, but his approach Darkness defends between, till morning watch. As the principal design of this episode was to give Adam an idea of the Holy Person who was to reinstate human nature in that happiness and perfection from which it had fallen, the poet confines himself to the line of Abraham, from whence the Messiah was to descend. The angel is described as seeing the patriarch actually travelling towards the Land of Promise, which gives a particular liveliness to this part of the description, from ver. 128 to ver. 140. The poet has very finely represented the joy and gladness of heart which rises in Adam upon his discovery of the Messiah. As he sees his day at a distance through types and shadows, he rejoices in it; but when he finds the redemption of man completed and Paradise again renewed, he breaks forth in rapture and transport :— O goodness infinite, goodness immense ! That all this good of evil shall produce, &c. Milton's poem ends very nobly. The last speeches of Adam and the archangel are full of moral and instructive sentiments. The sleep that fell upon Eve, and the effects it had in quieting the disorders of her mind, produce the same kind of consolation in the reader; who cannot peruse the last beautiful speech which is ascribed to the mother of mankind, without a secret pleasure and satisfaction. The following lines, which conclude the poem, rise in a most glorious blaze of poetical images and expressions.ADDISON. It is difficult to add anything to Addison's Essays on the Paradise Lost ;' but still I must extract a few additional encomiums from other critics, and first from Beattie : In the concluding passage of the poem there is brought together, with uncommon strength of fancy, and rapidity of narrative, a number of circumstances wonderfully adapted to the purpose of filling the mind with ideas of terrific grandeur:-the descent of the cherubim; the flaming sword; the archangel leading in haste our first parents down from the heights of Paradise, and then disappearing; and, above all, the scene that presents itself on their looking behind them: They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld to which the remaining verses form the most striking contrast that can be imagined. The final couplet renews our sorrow; by exhibiting, with picturesque accuracy, the most mournful scene in nature; which yet is so prepared, as to raise comfort, and dispose to resignation. And thus, while we are at once melting in tenderness, elevated with pious hope, and overwhelmed with the grandeur of description, the divine poem concludes.-BEATTIE. If ever any poem was truly poetical, if ever any abounded with poetry, it is 'Paradise Lost.' What an expansion of facts from a small seed of history! What worlds are invented, what embellishments of nature upon what our senses present us with! Divine things are more nobly, more divinely represented to the imagination, than by any other poem; a more beautiful idea is given of nature than any poet has pretended to:nature, as just come out of the hand of God, in all its virgin loveliness, glory, and purity; and the human race is shown, not, as Homer's, more gigantic, more robust, more valiant: but without comparison more truly amiable, more so than by the pictures and statues of the greatest masters; and all these sublime ideas are conveyed to us in the most effectual and engaging manner. The mind of the reader is tempered and prepared by pleasure; it is drawn and allured; it is awakened and invigorated, to receive such impressions as the poet intended to give it. The poem opens the fountains of knowledge, piety, and virtue; and pours along full streams of peace, comfort, and joy, to such as can penetrate the true sense of the writer, and obediently listen to his song. In reading the Iliad or Æneis we treasure up a collection of fine imaginative pictures, as when we read 'Paradise Lost;' only that from thence we have (to speak like a connoisseur) more Rafaelles, Correggios, Guidos, &c. Milton's pictures are more sublime |