beings, who, for endeavouring to be equal with the Highest, and to divide the empire of Heaven with the Almighty, was hurled down to Hell. His aim was no less than the throne of the universe; his means, myriads of angelic armies bright, who durst defy the Omnipotent in arms. His strength of mind was matchless, as his strength of body: the vastness of his designs did not surpass the firm, inflexible determination with which he submitted to his irreversible doom, and final loss of all good. His power of action and of suffering was equal. He was the greatest power that was ever overthrown, with the strongest will left to resist or to endure. He was baffled, not confounded. The fierceness of tormenting flames is qualified and made innoxious by the greater fierceness of his pride: the loss of infinite happiness to himself, is compensated in thought by the power of inflicting infinite misery on others. Yet, Satan is not the principle of malignity, or of the abstract love of evil, but of the abstract love of power, of pride, of self-will personified, to which last principle all other good and evil, and even his own, are subordinate. He expresses the sum and substance of ambition in one line, “Fallen cherub, to be weak is miserable, doing or suffering." He founds a new empire in Hell, and from it conquers this new world, whither he bends his undaunted flight, forcing his way through nether and surrounding fires. The Achilles of Homer is not more distinct; the Titans were not more vast; Prometheus, chained to his rock, was not a more terrific example of suffering and of crime. Wherever the figure of Satan is introduced, whether he walks or flies, "rising aloft incumbent on the dusky air," it is illustrated with the most striking and appropriate images: so that we see it always before us, gigantic, irregular, portentous, uneasy, and disturbed, but dazzling in its faded splendor, the clouded ruins of a god. The deformity of Satan is only in the depravity of his will; he has no bodily deformity, to excite our loathing or disgust. "Not only the figure of Satan, but his speeches in council, his soliloquies, his address to Eve, his share in the war in heaven, show the same decided superiority of character."-Hazlitt. Another sketch of Satan may be found at the close of Book III., from the dashing pen of Gilfillan. Hazlitt, in the above sketch of Milton's Satan, had no authority for saying that he was not a personification of malice, but, simply, of pride and selfwill: this will appear on referring to Book I. 215–17; Book V. 666; Book VI. 151, 270; Book IX. 126, 134. 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 inferior 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. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. In tracing the progress of this poem by deliberate and minute steps, our wonder and admiration increase. The inexhaustible invention continues to grow upon us; each page, each line, is pregnant with something new, picturesque, and great; the condensity of the matter is without any parallel; the imagination often contained in a single passage, is more than equal to all that secondary poets have produced. The fable of the voyage through Chaos is alone a sublime poem. Milton's descriptions of materiality have always touches of the spiritual, the lofty and the empyreal. Milton has too much condensation to be fluent: a line or two often contains a world of images and ideas. He expatiates over all time, all space, all possibilities; he unites Earth with Heaven, with Hell, with all intermediate existences, animate and inanimate; and his illustrations are drawn from all learning, historical, natural, and speculative. In him, almost always, "more is meant than meets the eye." An image, an epithet, conveys a rich picture. What is the subject of observation, may be told without genius; but the wonder and the greatness lie in invention, if the invention be noble, and according to the principles of possibility. Who could have conceived, or, if conceived, who could have described the voyage of Satan through Chaos, but Milton? Who could have invented so many distinct and grand obstacles in his way, and all picturesque, all poetical, and all the topics of intellectual meditation and reflection, or of spiritual sentiment. All the faculties of the mind are exercised, stretched and elevated at once by every page of Paradise Lost. 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 story, 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.-E. B. BOOK II. HIGH on a throne of royal state, which far To that bad eminence; and from despair Vain war with Heaven: and, by success untaught. Pow'rs and Dominions, Deities of Heaven, 5 10 1. Throne, &c.: “The all-enduring, all-defying pride of Satan, assuming so majestically Hell's burning throne, and coveting the diadem which scorches his thunder-blasted brow, is a creation requiring in its author almost the spiritual (mental) energy with which he invests the fallen seraph."-CHAN NING. 2. Ormus: An island in the Persian Gulf. Ind: India. The wealth consisted chiefly in diamonds and pearls and gold, called barbaric, after the manner of Greeks and Romans, who accounted all nations but their own barbar ous. 4. Showers on, &c.: It was an Eastern custom, as we learn from a Persian life of Timur-bec, or Tamerlane, at the coronation of their kings, to powder them with gold-dust or seed-pearl.-WARBURTON. See Virg. Æn. ii. 504. 10. All the speeches and debates in Pandemonium are well worthy of the place and the occasion, with gods for speakers, and angels and archangels for hearers. There is a decided manly tone in the arguments and sentiments, an eloquent dogmatism, as if each person spoke from thorough conviction. The rout in heaven is like the fall of some mighty structure, nodding to its base, with hideous ruin and combustion down."-HAZLITT. For since no deep within her gulf can hold 15 More glorions and more dread than from no fall, Me, though just right, and the fix'd laws of Heav'n, Did first create your leader, next free choice, 20 With what besides, in council or in fight, Yielded with full consent. The happier state Surer to prosper than prosperity 25 30 35 Could have assured us; and by what best way, 40 15. Virtues: Powers, or spirits. Thus, in Book V., the angels are addressed under the following names: thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers. So in this Book, 1. 315, 316. 17. Fate: Destruction. 18. Me: The position of this word at the commencement of the sentence, indicates, in a vivid manner, the arrogance and pride of the speaker. That superior greatness and mock-majesty which is ascribed to the prince of fallen angels, is admirably preserved in the beginning of this book. His opening and closing the debate, his taking on himself that great enterprise, |