"Tum Tartarus ipse Bis patet in præceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras, (Æneid, VI. 577-9.) Milton's phraseology is equivalent to saying that the whole distance from Heaven to Hell is three times as far as from Heaven to Earth; for, because the centre of the Universe was anciently supposed to be occupied by the Earth, "from the centre to the pole is the same unit of measure, from Heaven to Earth, used in the old poetic tradition. It is well to observe this agreement of the great epic poets, since, on account of their difference in manner of expressing the same thing, a learned commentator, Bishop Newton, and others through him, have been led grievously astray. He says, “It is observable that Homer makes the seat of Hell as far beneath the deepest pit of Earth as the Heaven is above the Earth. Virgil makes it twice as far, and Milton thrice as far; as if these three great poets had stretched their utmost genius and vied with each other in extending his idea of Hell farthest." A little reflection will convince any one that such petty artifices by his successors to outrival Homer would be worthy only of contempt, and that Virgil and Milton would have been the last in the world to suffer, or be guilty of, this irreverence to their great Master. But while observing this beautiful deference to the Father of Epic Poetry, Milton, with his superior knowledge of the Earth as a mere point compared with the amplitude of the Starry Universe, was able to use this same measuring-line (from Heaven to Earth) in order to locate Hell, as he says in his Argument, "not in the centre (for Heaven and Earth may be supposed as not yet made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos." The partial description of this place given in the first book may be regarded as the development of a few Scriptural phrases, such as "outer darkness" and "the lake that burns with fire and brimstone." The darkness is called "utter" by Milton to distinguish it both in quality and place from "middle or chaotic darkness, as further from heavenly light and more fearful. It is also called "darkness visible," which to those denizens of Hell "Serves only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace The Lake of Fire is a region of vast extent, and elsewhere called a "boiling ocean " (II. 183). Words of the most terrible energy are employed to describe the fierceness and power of that furnace fire. It is a fiery deluge fed with ever-burning sulphur;" there are "floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire," "fiery waves," “liquid fire," and "upper, nether, and surrounding fires." But as this is a lake, it must have a shore. The shore is described as dry land burning with "solid fire," a broad belt of the fiercest volcanic nature surrounding the "inflamed sea," as similar belts, though less in extent and power, gird our earthly oceans. There is a gradual shifting of the scene from the "burning marle" of this belt to the "burnt ground" at a distance from the lake, a region parched and dry, but more tolerable to the fallen spirits. ... In the first book there is a description of the central Lake of Fire, which, from its designation as a pool, or pit, and from various other expressions, may be regarded as sunken precipitously and far below the surrounding shore. It is literally and not extravagantly speaking, of oceanic extent. Into this pool the four rivers, Phlegethon, Acheron, Styx, and Cocytus, disgorge their baleful streams. Towards the sources of these rivers, which the imagination at once fixes in the direction of the four cardinal points, the angelic bands take up their "flying march." Their flight, swifter than the lightning-flash, bears them quickly over the vast spaces drained by the rivers and far into the wild territory beyond, over the second grand circle of Hell, to the slow and silent waters of Lethe. This stream ought, in order to preserve suitable proportions, to be like the "ocean stream ” in extent; and the terms "flood," "ford," "sound," used to designate it, allow the supposition. The name "labyrinth" need not refer to any intricate windings of the stream, but may, as later (IX. 183), be descriptive of a simple circular shape. It can, therefore, be regarded as the third circle of Milton's Inferno. The words "frozen continent," applied to what lies beyond, define the nature of that desolate, stormy, chilling border-land, which constitutes the fourth and last main division of the vast region. If these conclusions are just, the realm of evil is divided by concentric circles into four parts, consigned respectively to the four elemental properties of ancient physics that in Chaos appear as four warring champions, Hot, Dry, Moist, and Cold. (See Professor Himes's diagram on next page.) The first, or central region, is distinguished for destructive heat the second, for desolating dryness; the third, for a barren waste of water that will not relieve thirst; the fourth, for stiffening cold. ; The four champions, here no longer struggling with one another, can bring in turn all their malignant force to bear upon the denizens of Hell. It must be kept in mind that Dante's Hell was entirely included within the Earth, while Milton's was not only larger than the Earth, but in horizontal extent wider than the diameter of the Starry Universe, and in its depth, designated by the adjective "bottomless," absolutely infinite. It would seem like trifling if Milton, instead of producing only the most general features of this universe of death, had occupied himself with giving particular descriptions of small spaces and recording measurements in feet and inches. He has, however, made a map of the four grand divisions which is more vague and indefinite than Dante's of his nine circles only in the sense in which a map of a hemisphere is more vague and indefinite than one of a county. (See Professor Himes's diagram above.) Besides, Milton's division is upon a natural, while Dante's is upon an artificial basis. If it is asked why there should be nine circles and no more nor less, no better answer can be given than that nine is a favorite poetical number. There is no room for such a question with reference to Milton's arrangement. The four elemental properties appear wherever matter appears; and if in the World they combine harmoniously to produce comfort and life, while in Chaos they neutralize one another, why may they not in Hell serve separately and in turn the purpose of punishment? Milton's adjustment, in giving Heat and Cold, out of respect to popular language, the position of extremes, is also natural and proper. The explorations of the four bands tended to dissipate any hope which the fallen spirits may have conceived of becoming inured to the fierce flames of their habitation so as not to feel this kind of torment. There is a region of ice to which those spirits are periodically transported from their bed of fire, so that no length of endurance can accustom their essence to the tortures and remove the sensibility to pain. Caedmon, the Anglo-Saxon monk-poet, who drew his inspiration from the same sacred source as Milton, and whom the latter is charged with imitating, also speaks of the fierce extremes of heat and cold which the devils in Hell are doomed to suffer: "Then cometh ere dawn The eastern wind, Frost bitter-cold, Ever fire or dart; Some hard torment The means of torture in these regions of woe are many and varied. The tantalizing presence of the stream of Oblivion, the monstrous prodigies, the unnumbered forms of terror hiding in every cave and thicker shade, threatening from every mountain-top, intensify the despair of the bold discoverers: "Thus roving on No rest." Homer and Virgil both acquaint us with many forms of punishment in Tartarus. Eneas on his visit to the world of shades was not admitted within its gates, on the ground that no holy person is allowed to tread the accursed threshold. The Sibyl described to him some of the punishments within, but added at last, "Had I a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths, a voice of iron, I could not comprehend all the species of their crimes nor enumerate the names of all their punishments." Dante in his construction of the Inferno appears to strain his ingenuity in originating modes of torture for the wicked, beginning with the stinging of gadflies and ending in the lowest circle with the crunching of sinners between the teeth of the Emperor himself of the kingdom dolorous. Milton surpasses all his predecessors in judgment and taste in avoiding whatever is belittling, grotesque, or atrocious, and in being consistently great and sublime and awful. Many features in the delineation of Hell-gates are evidently adapted from Virgil's description of the gates of Tartarus. Milton's gates are thrice threefold, — the inner folds being of brass, the middle of iron, and the outer of rock. Masson imagines the gates to be at the highest point of the concave roof of Hell; but here he is plainly in error. They are in the wall forming the circumference, and not in the roof at all. It is true that Satan soared towards the concave roof, but after the broad circle of Lethe had been crossed he descended again before coming to the gates. How could the stride of Death have shaken Hell had he been in the air and not on the ground? All the language implies that the gates stood in a perpendicular and did not lie in a horizontal wall. . . Through the gates thrown open by sin, Satan passes out into Chaos. In this grand division of the Universe there is an absence of that creative power which made Hell a place of punishment and Heaven a place of bliss. In Chaos matter is in its primitive condition, without the impress of Divine law and order. The elemental properties, instead of entering into their combinations and forming land, or sea, or air, or fire, are in a state of isolation and force and war. It is a region presided over by Chaos, Chance, and Night, and contains that confusion, uncertainty, and darkness appropriate to them. . . . Professor Masson makes a very natural oversight in the location of the throne and court of the Anarch of the Abyss, saying of Satan on his voyage, "He reaches at length, about midway in his journey, the central throne and pavilion where Chaos personified and Night have their government." This court, the most noisy and tumultuous portion of Chaos, is not, as we would anticipate, established in the interior, but on the |