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retary. Admitting this supposition to be right, then the work was recommenced at the third chapter, after his being delivered from his state of "obscure sojourn," and with a reference to that awful obscurity into which he was plunged, as into the "Stygian pool." It was published in ten books; but it was afterwards, under his direction, arranged into twelve books. I shall not attempt any description of its unrivalled excellencies; this has repeatedly been done by writers who were more equal to such criticisms than to which I can have any pretensions. As to the correctness of its theological sentiments, I speak without any hesitation; and as to the sublimity of the sentiments, I profess myself to be lost in wonder and admiration! The first paragraph explains fully the cause which enabled him to produce this almost super-human poem: "The meek will HE guide in judgment; the meek will HE teach his way!"

"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,

Sing heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top

Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook, that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous song,
That with no middle flight attempts to soar
Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.

And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer,
Before all temples, th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread,

20*

Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss,
And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark,
Illumine what is low, raise and support;
That to the height of this great argument
1 may assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men."

Book i. 1-25.

The few other extracts which I make from this most extraordinary poem, will be for eliciting his religious sentiments on some important points of theology.*

"Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heav'n first born!

Or of th' Eternal coeternal beam,

May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate!
Or hear'st thou rather, pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell? before the sun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wert, and, at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest,
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.

Thee I re-visit now with bolder wing,

Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detain'd

* Toland says, p. 129, "I must not forget that we had like to be eternally deprived of this treasure, by the ignorance or malice of the licenser; who among other frivolous exceptions, would needs suppress the whole poem for imaginary treason in the following lines:

-:

"As when the sun new risen,

Looks thro' the horizontal misty air,
Shorn of his beams, or from behind the moon
In dark eclipses disastrous twilight sheds,

On half the nations and with fear of change,
Perplexes monarchs."

The licenser was the Rev. Thomas Tomkyns, one of the chaplains of Archbishop Sheldon. This office, I find, had been abolished during the Protectorate, but was restored, with other corruptions, at the Restoration.

In that obscure sojourn,* while in my flight
Through utter and through middle darkness borne,
With other notes than to th' Orphean lyre,
I sung of Chaos and eternal night,

Taught by th' Heav'nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,
Though hard and rare: thee I re-visit safe,
And feel thy sov'reign vital lamp, but thou
Re-visit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quench'd their orbs,
Or dim suffusion veil'd. Yet not the more
Cease I to wander, where the Muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill,
Smit with the love of sacred song; but chief
Thee, Sion and the flow'ry brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit: nor sometimes forget
'Those other two equall'd with me in fate,
So were I equall'd with them in renown,
Blind Thamyris and blind Moonides,
And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old:
Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seasons return, but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks or herds or human face divine;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with an universal blank

* Richardson, in his note on the line, "In darkness and with dangers compass'd round," says: "This is explained by a piece of secret history, for which we have good authority. Paradise Lost was written after the Restoration, when MILTON apprehended himself to be in danger of his life, first from royal vengeance, (having been very deeply engaged against the royal party,) and when safe by pardon, from private malice and resentment. He was always in fear, much alone, and slept ill. When restless, he would ring for the person who wrote for him, (which was his daughter commonly,) to write what he composed, which would sometimes flow with great ease."

Of nature's works, to me expung'd and ras'd,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial light,

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight."

Book iii. 1-55

ON PROVIDENCE.

"The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide,
They hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way."

Book xii. 646-649.

ON THE NECESSITY OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Speaking of his blindness, he says,

"And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial Light,

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence

Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight."

Book iii. lines 50-55.

ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL.

And now,

Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way,

Not far off Heav'n, in the precincts of light,

Directly tow'rds the new created world,
And man there plac'd, with purpose to essay
If him by force he can destroy, or worse,
By some false guile pervert; and shall pervert,
For Man will hearken to his glozing lies,
And easily transgress the sole command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: so will fall
He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate he had of me
All he could have; I made him just and right,

Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall."

"They therefore as to right belong'd,

So were created, nor can justly accuse
Their Maker, or their making, or their fate,
As if predestination over-rul'd

Their will, dispos'd by absolute decree

Of high foreknowledge; they themselves decreed
Their own revolt, not I: if I foreknew,
Foreknowledge had no influence on their fault,
Which had no less prov'd certain unforeknown.
So without least impulse or shadow of fate,
Or ought by me immutable foreseen,

They trespass, authors to themselves in all

Both what they judge and what they choose; for so
I form'd them free, and free they must remain,
Till they inthrall themselves; I else must change
Their nature and revoke the high decree
Unchangeable, eternal, which ordain'd

Their freedom: they themselves ordain'd their fall.
The first sort by their own suggestion fell,
Self-tempted, self-deprav'd: Man falls, deceiv'd
By th' other first; Man therefore shall find grace,
The other none. In mercy and justice both,
Through Heav'n and Earth, so shall my glory excel,
But mercy first and last shall brightest shine."

Book iii. lines 85-100; 110-134.

ON THE PROPER DIVINITY OF THE SON OF GOD.

"Beyond compare the Son of God was seen Most glorious; in him all his Father shone Substantially express'd; and in his face

Divine compassion visibly appear'd,

Love without end, and without measure grace."

Book iii. lines 138-142.

ON PERSONAL ELECTION.

"As my eternal purpose hath decreed :

Man shall not quite be lost, but sav'd who will,
Yet not of will in him, but grace in me

Freely vouchsafed.

Some have I chosen of peculiar grace

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