mission into his collection of poems. The little poem shows at least a remarkable familiarity with Sylvester's Du Bartas; a book in which Milton was assuredly conversant. I submit the verses, with deference, to the determination of the reader.

"Lavinia walking in a frosty morning

"I' the non-age of a winter's day,
Lavinia, glorious as May,

To give the morn an earlier birth,
Paced a mile of crusted earth,
When each place, by which she came,
From her veines conceiv'd a flame.
The amorous plants began to strive,
Which should first be sensitive;
Every boary-headed twigge
Dropp'd his snowy perriwigge,
And each bough his icy beard:

On either side his walkes were heard
Whispers of decrepit wood,

Calling to their rootes for blood:
The gentle soyle did mildely greete
The welcome kisses of her feete;
And, to retaine such a treasure,
Like wax dissolving, took her measure.
Lavinia stood amaz'd to see

Things of yearly certaintie

Thus to rebell against their season;

And, though a stranger to the reason,

Back retiring quench'd their heate,

And Winter tooke his former seate:" Vol. i. P. lxxxix.

The other poem more resembles the language of our great poet.

'Before I quit the subject of the first appearance of Paradise Lost, I must notice a communication made to the public not long since by a gentleman possessing the original edition of the following lines; apparently written by a female on two leaves prefixed to the titlepage of his copy, and subscribed at the bottom with this singular remark: "Dictated by J. M." The communicator observes, that the daughter of Milton officiated as his amanuensis; and that, from the remark already mentioned; there is some reason to attribute the lines to the author of Paradise Lost: Different female hands, it may be added, appear in the manuscript of Milton, preserved in Trinity college, Cambridge. However, the bondage of rhyme will probably incline some readers to doubt the authenticity of these lines; while several striking sentiments and expressions, and the frequent flow of the verses into each other, may perhaps occasion some also to think them genuine, and that the great poet might have chosen, as an amusement, to employ once more the "jingling sound of like endings." The subject also had been a favourite theme of Milton.

CRIT. REV. Vol. 34. March, 1802.

T

• On Day-Break.

"Welcome, bright chorister, to our hemisphere;
Thy glad approaches tell us Day is near.
See! how his early dawn creeps o'er yon hill,
And with his grey-ey'd light begins to fill
The silent air, driving far from our sight
The starry regiment of frighted Night;
Whose pale-fac'd regent, Cynthia, paler grows,
To see herself pursued by conquering foes;
Yet daring stays behind, to guard the rear
Of her black armies, whither without fear
They may retreat, till her alternate course
Bring her about again with rallied force.
Hark! how the lion's terrour loud proclaims
The gladsome tidings of day's gentle beams,
And, long-kept silence breaking, rudely wakes
The feather'd train, which soon their concert makes,
And with unmeasur'd notes, unnumber'd lays,
Do joyfully salute the lightsome rays.

But hearken yonder, where the louder voice
Of some keen hunter's horn hath once or twice
Recheated out its blast, which seems to drill
Th' opposing air, and with its echo fill.
Thither let's hie; and see the toilsome hound,
Willing, pursue his labour, till he has found
Some hope of what he follows, then with fresht
And pleasing clamour tells it to the rest.

"O Thou, who sometimes by most sacred voice
Father of Light wert styl'd! let my free choice
(Though all my works be evil, seldom right,)
Shun loving darkness rather than the light.
Let thy essential brightness, with quick glance,
Dart through the foggy mist of ignorance
Into the darken'd intellect, and thence
Dispel whatever clouds o'erspread the sense;
Till, with illumin'd eyes, the mind
All the dark corners in itself can find,
And fill them all with radiant light, which may
Convert my gloomy night to sun-shine day.
Though dark, O God! if guarded by thy might,
I see with intellectual eyes; the night

To me a noon-tide blaze, illumin'd by

The glorious splendour of thy majesty." Vol. i. P.cxix. The Nuncupative Will of Milton is next in order, as edited and annotated by Warton. This is followed by a list of such editions of Milton's poetical works as have hitherto been met with by the editor of these volumes,' of the translations and alterations, and of detached pieces of criticism relating to Milton, his editors, &c. The Prolegomena follow, succeeded by the first Commendatory Verses on Milton; then in order, Addi

son's Criticism on the Paradise Lost, and Dr. Johnson's Remarks on Milton's Versification. This last in particular is ably commented upon by the editor. An Inquiry into the Origin of Paradise Lost concludes the first volume. An Analysis of Andreini's Tragedy, by Mr. Hayley, is given.

But, if the Adamo be examined with the utmost nicety, Milton will be found no servile copyist: he will be found, as in numberless instances of his extensive, his curious, and careful reading, to have improved the slightest hints into the finest descriptions. Milton indeed, with the skill and grace of an Apelles or a Phidias, has often animated the rude sketch and the shapeless block. I mean not to detract from the Italian drama; but let it here be remarked once for all in Milton's own words, that "borrowing, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiarie." Let the bitterest enemies of Milton prove, if they can, whether the author of this ingenuous remark may be exhibited in such a light; rather let them acknowledge that, in fully comparing him with those authors who have written on similar subjects, he must ever be considered as

"above the rest

In shape and gesture proudly eminent." Vol. i. P. 251. The Italian tragedy mentioned by Dr. Pearce has not been discovered. The Locustæ of Phineas Fletcher is next noticed. From this poem an extract is given of considerable merit. Α passage is inserted from the Letters of Mr. Robert Gray, wherein it is said that an Irish baron at Dusseldorf was, about ten years since, employed in translating into English verse a Latin poem, entitled The Christiad, written by Robert Clarke, a Carthusian monk, of the convent of Nieuport near Ostend. From this the translator asserted that Milton had borrowed largely; and Mr. Gray says that it contains many ideas and descriptions strikingly similar to parts of the Paradise Lost. But the copy from which the baron was translating was printed in 1678, eleven years after the first publication of Milton's poem. Mr. Hayley's analysis of another Italian drama follows, the Adam and Eve of Troilo Lancetta. Three other Italian poems are briefly noticed-the Angeleïda of Erasmo di Valvasone, the Strage de gli Innocenti of Marino, and Le Sette Giornate del Mondo Creato of Tasso. There is another Italian poem upon the Seven Days of Creation, and a Spanish one also entitled La Divina Semana, both which have escaped Mr. Todd's notice. Sylvester is last mentioned. The editor concludes his inquiry thus:

I have thus brought together opinions, delivered at different periods, respecting the Origin of Paradise Lost; and have humbly endeavoured to trace, in part, the reading of the great poet, subservient to his plan. More successful discoveries will probably arise

from the pursuits of those, who are devoted to patient and liberal investigation. "Videlicet hoc illud est præcipuè studiorum genus, quod vigiliis augescat; ut cui subinde ceu fluminibus ex decursu, sic accedit ex lectione minutatìm quo fiat uberius." To such persons may be recommended the masterly observations of him, who was once so far imposed upon as to believe Lauder an honest man, and Milton a plagiary; but who expressed, when "Douglas and Truth appeared," the strongest indignation against the envious impostor: for they are observations resulting from a wish not to depreciate, but zealously to praise the Paradise Lost. "Among the inquiries, to which this ardor of criticism has naturally given occasion, none is more obscure in itself, or more worthy of rational curiosity, than a retrospect of the progress of this mighty genius in the construction of his work; a view of the fabric gradually rising, perhaps, from small beginnings, till its foundation rests in the centre, and its turrets sparkle in the skies; to trace back the structure through all its varieties to the simplicity of its first plan; to find what was first projected, whence the scheme was taken, how it was improved, by what assistance it was executed, and from what stores the materials were collected; whether its founder dug them from the quarries of Nature, or demolished other buildings to embellish his own." I may venture to add, that in such inquiries patience will be invigorated rather than dispirited; and every new discovery will teach us more and more to admire the genius, the erudition, and the memory of the inimitable Milton.' Vol. i. p. 302.

Paradise Lost fills the second and third volumes. The notes are very numerous. At an early period of modern literature the practice of laboriously commenting was transferred from the divines and schoolmen to the vernacular poets. A few lines of text were hardly seen in the middle or in the margin of a crowded page. Each dog must have his day!' The fame of the commentator for a time sometimes equaled or excelled that of the author. The patient and persevering dullness of these men is scarcely credible; and their inanity and impertinence is often little less marvelous. In a poem of Juan de Mena, king Juan the second is mentioned. King Juan the second' (says the commentator)- so called to distinguish him from king Juan the first.' These writers were men who by no other means could gratify their craving after celebrity. Vanity had urged them to the toil of acquiring learning, which they possessed no genius to direct. They would fix upon some favorite poet, and then stick like barnacles to the hulk of the vessel, that they might pursue the triumph and partake the gale.' Their admiration for the author was only shown in an ostentatious display of their own knowledge, as pagans and papists hang the clumsy figures of their own limbs around the idol whom they worship, or as schoolboys and clowns deface the monument that they admire by cutting upon it their names.

This folly was never naturalised in England. The business of our commentators has been to illustrate and explain their author. This has been ably executed by the various editors of Shakspeare, and of his contemporary dramatists, who, though eclipsed by him, are indeed stars of the first magnitude. Of posterior writers only Pope had been thus distinguished, till the publication of the present work. There is little in Milton that requires elucidation; he has lived too near our own days to be difficult or obsolete. But it is a task neither uninteresting nor unimportant to follow our great poet through his various studies-to trace him from Shakspeare and Spencer to Sylvester-to see how from the orange-grove and the weed by the way-side the bee collects the honey. Mr. Todd has judiciously selected the variorum notes; his own are numerous and valuable, and discover a more extensive acquaintance with English and Italian poetry than any of the former editors, except Warton, possessed. The Appendix to Paradise Lost contains plans of similar subjects intended for tragedies by Milton, from his own manuscript in Trinity college Cambridge.

(To be continued.)

ART. III.-General View of the Agriculture of the County of Lincoln; drawn up for the Consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. By the Secretary to the Board. 8vo. 95. sewed. Nicol.

ART. IV.-A Review of the corrected Agricultural Survey of Lincolnshire, by Arthur Young, Esq. published in 1799, by Authority of the Board of Agriculture; together with an Address to the Board, a Letter to its Secretary, and Remarks on the recent Publication of John Lord Somerville, and on the Subject of Inclosures. By Thomas Stone, 8vo. 8s. Boards. Cawthorn.

IN pursuing our account of the Agricultural Survey of this county, we are led into the unpleasing paths of controversy... a controversy, however, which we shall not follow at any great. length, as it would not generally be interesting, and would detain us too long from many works of value which claim our attention. In the agricultural surveys of different counties, Lincolnshire was allotted by the Board to Mr. Stone-a gentleman whose labours as a surveyor and steward we have often had occasion to examine, and who has commonly merited our warm commendations. The value of his survey we cannot estimate it certainly was disapproved of; and Mr. Young