difciples as committed these things to writing, had not difplayed, in their narratives, a remarkable harmony even of words, their minds would have been conftituted differently from the minds of all other men. In the circumftances, however, which accompanied the miracles, and gave occafion to the doctrines, as well as in the arrangement of their different narratives, we meet with fuch difagreement as was to be expected in writers of integrity, whofe fole objects were truth and importance; for as thofe circumftances could make no deep impreffion on their minds, and were not among the things which the Comforter was to bring to their remembrance, they must have been remembered by them as the unimportant circumflances of any great event are generally remembered by other men.

This reafoning has fo long been familiar to us, that perhaps we confider it as more conclufive than it is in reality. The truth is, that we think it fo very obvious and fo fully fufficient to account for all the phænomena, whether of har mony or of difcord, which are looked on as perplexing in the three firft Golpels, that we are perfuaded the hypothefis of written documents would never have been thought of, had not too many of us adopted the German notion, that neither St. Mark nor St. Luke wrote under the guidance of inípiration.

Michaelis fuppofés that none of the difciples were in fpired, but thofe on whom the Holy Ghoft vifibly descend. ed on the day of Pentecoft, and that he fo defcended on none but the eleven Apoftles. This hypothefis feems to be adopted by Mr. Marth, and is not openly rejected by Mr. Veyfie; though the first part of it is in direct contradiction to much of what we read in the Acts of the Apoftles, and the fecond feems to us to be inconfiftent with the account which we have there of the miraculous gift of tongues.

St. Stephen was certainly infpired; for he was one of feven men, whom the multitude knew to be full of the Holy Ghoft, and he did great wonders and miracles among the people;" though there is no reafon to imagine that he was one of thofe, on whom the Holy Ghost fat in the fimilitude of fiery tongues. There is, however, every reason to believe, that the hundred and twenty perfons mentioned in the 15th verfe of the firft chapter of the Acts of Apoftles,

were all with one accord in one place, when there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it fat upon: each of them." Such, at leaft, was the opinion of Jerome. and Chryfoftom, and Ecumenius, among the ancients, as wel! as of Grotius, Lightfoot, and Whitby, among the mo

derns;

derns; and it certainly appears at first fight moft agreeable to the account which we have of the calling of Matthias to the Apoftleship; while we know that the Apoftles imparted the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghoft to thofe, whom by impofition of hands they ordained minifters in particular churches. This being the cafe, both St. Mark and St. Luke may have written under the guidance of infpiration, as we believe they both did, whether they were with the Apoftles or not on the day of Pentecoft; and the hypothefis of written documents, as the bafes of the three first Gofpels, is, in every form in which it has yet been prefented to us, not only fuperfluous, in our opinion, but also loaded with much greater difficulties than thofe which its authors profefs to remove,

ART. III. Latin and Italian Poems of Milton, tranflated into English Verfe; and a Fragment of a Commentary on Paradife Lot. By the Late William Cowper, Efq. With a Preface by the Editor; and Notes of Various Authors. 4to. 355 pp. 21. 2s. Chichester printed; Johnfon and Evans, London. 1808.

WE

E have not often been more gratified by a publication than by this prefent. The union of fuch poets as Milton and Cowper, congenial fouls, at least in genius and piety, two of the higheft claims to admiration, cannot fail to gratify thofe whom their feparate works have often filled with the warmeft fenfations of delight. The Latin poems of Milton, the first fruits of his genius, the manife and very extraordinary promife of his future eminence, have afway's drawn us to them by the ftrongest power of attraction. The rich and native abundance of poetical imagery every where adorning them, and poured forth in a language which, though generally claffical, feems to flow from the writer with fuch cafe, that the ftyle is truly his own, and appears to be the beft and readieft expreffion of his thoughts; all this, proceeding, in many instances, from a youth not yet of age, muft furely demand the highest admiration. But when we add to the confideration, that in thefe qualities he neither had a model in his own country, nor has yet had a rival; that in Italian alfo he was able to exprefs himfelf with elegance and force; and that,

* We speak only of the warmth of religious feeling belonging to both, without adverting to any peculiar opinions in either.

instead of being drawn afide by thefe facilities, the fame man was afterwards enabled to exalt his native language to the higheft fummit of poetical dignity and expreffion, we cannot poffibly moderate our wonder in contemplating fuch extraordinary powers.

The

Yet while we wonder at the talents of the poet, we are equally called upon to admire the qualities of the man. generous and affectionate attachment to his friends, the tender gratitude to a worthy preceptor, the truly filial piety, and attachment to a good father, and laftly the high fentiments of honour, propriety, virtue, and religion, which every where pervade thefe very juvenile poems, give altogether fa very fingular a picture of native excellence, that, inch as we differ from his biographer Symonds, in many points of fpeculation, we are led irrefiftibly to his opinion; that, in every fubfequent part of life, Milton's intentions at leaft were upright: though circumftances led him into efforts which we difapprove, and fituations in which we grieve to fee him. That the beautiful fentiments contained in thefe poems fhould be conveyed to every English reader, in the graceful and appropriate language of Cowper, is fortunate for the extenfion of Milton's fame. The wonderful promife of his youth could never be adequately known by other means; and the versions of Cowper have certainly, with great exactness, more grace and originality of manner than are ufually to be found in any tranflations, He undertook the tafk with an enthu fiafm, which never feems to have abated in his progrefs through it.

Having thus expreffed our general fentiments upon the fubject of this publication, we proceed to the pleafing task of felecting a few fpecimens from it. We begin with the no lefs elegant than affectionate Epifle written by Milton in his 18th year, to his beloved preceptor Thomas Young, who was then Chaplain to the English Factory at Hamburg, This was in 1626. We fhall begin our quotation from the Latin lines,

"Ille quidem eft animæ plus quam par altera noftræ,
Dimidia vita vivere coger ego," &c.

"My friend, and favorite inmate of

my heart,

That now is forced to want its better part!

What mountains now, and feas, alas! how widel
From me this other, dearer felf divide,
Dear, as the fage renown'd for moral truth
To the prime fpirit of the Attic youth!
Dear, as the Stagyrite to Ammon's fon,
His pupil, who difdain'd the world he won!

Nor

Nor fo did Chiron, or fo Phoenix shine

In

young Achilles' eyes, as he in mine.--
First led by him thro' fweet Aonian fhade,
Each facred haunt of Pindus I furvey'd,
And favor'd by the Mufe, whom I implor'd,
Thrice on my lip the hallow'd stream I pour'd.
But thrice tie fun's refplendent chariot roll'd.
To Aries, has new ting'd his fleece with gold,
And Chloris twice has drefs'd the meadows gay,
And twice has fummer parch'd their bloom away,
Since laft delighted on his looks I hung,
Or my ear drank the mufic of his tongue :
Fly therefore, and furpafs the tempeft's speed,
Aware thyfelf that there is urgent need!
Him entering thou shalt haply feated fee
Befide his fpoufe, his infants on his knee;
Or turning, page by page, with ftudious look,
Some bulky father, or God's holy book;
Or miniftring (which is his weightieft care)
To Chrift's affembled flock their heavenly fare.
Give him, whatever his employment be,
Such gratulation, as he claims from me."

P. 21.

The affectionate flyle of this addrefs is highly pleafing, and creditable to the feelings of the young poet, whose reference to his poetical ftudies is natural, and is made the more interefting by our knowledge of his fubfequent eminence. In tranflating thefe lines Cowper has taken one or two liberties creditable, we think, to his judgment, Milton's Latin lines, in the full spirit of claffical flyle, abound with hiftorical and mythological allufions. Some of thefe, as not equally grateful to English readers, the translator has dropped or changed. Thus, in rendering

"Charior ille mihi quam tu, doctiffime Graium,
Cliniadi, pronepos qui Telamonis erat,"

he omits the defcent from Telamon; and in the two next, inftead of a mere allufion to the mythological birth of Alexander, he has ventured to introduce the characteristic circumftance of his " difdaining the world-he won," which is not in the original. This is a liberty which fhould be fpareingly taken, and Cowper has not often attempted it; but here we are not inclined to object to it. As we shall have occafion to notice fome of Milton's love verfes, we will quote alfo the opening of his feventh elegy, written at the

Addreffed to the letter itself, as common with claffical

writers.

age of 19, in which he records the firft triumph of the tender paffion over his heart. It is at once characteristic of the unwillingness with which his mind yielded to any dominion, and we believe the most perfect imitation of the best claffical model that now exifts. It begins,

"Nondum blanda tuas leges, Amathufia, nôram,

Et Paphio vacuum pectus ab igne fuit," &c.

It may be objected indeed that it is built too entirely upon the heathen ideas of Venus and Cupid, but what could a claffical lover of nineteen do without them? Cowper has thus given it.

"As yet a stranger to the gentle fires
That Amathufia's fimiling queen infpires,
Not feldom I derided Cupid's darts,

And fcorn'd his claim to rule all human hearts,
Go, child, I faid, transfix the timorous dove!
An eafy conqueft fuits an infant love;
Enilave the fparrow, for fuch prize shall be
Sufficient triumph to a chief like thee!
Why aim thy idle arms at human kind?
Thy fhafts prevail not 'gainst the noble mind.
The Cyprian heard, and kindling into ire,
(None kindles fooner) burn'd with double fire,
It was the fpring, and newly rifen day
Peep'd o'er the hamlets on the firft of May;
My eyes too tender for the blaze of light,
Still fought the fhelter of retiring night*,
When Love approach'd, in painted plumes array'd,
Th' infidious God his rattling darts betray'd;
Nor lefs his infant features, and the fly

Sweet intimations of his threatening eye." P. 38.

Here the two poets again feem to contend for maftery, and it is difficult to fay which obtains it. The two last lines are

beautiful in Cowper, and, though not quite literal, are fufficiently warranted by the original; yet Milton's lines have ftill beauties of their own,

"Prodidit et facies, et dulce minantis ocelli,

Et quicquid puero dignum et Amore fuit."

Perhaps the ufe of dulce is not quite warranted here; it is generally adverbial, but it might eafily be altered. The verfes again the fuppofed decay of Nature are magnificently

So early did the poet's eyes give fymptoms of the calamity which afterwards hefel him. Rev.