ROME.1 The city which thou seest no other deem Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see Lictors and rods, the ensigns of their power, Legions and cohorts, turms of horse and wings: In various habits, on the Appian road, Or on the Emilian; some from farthest south, Dusk faces with white silken turbans wreathed; Germans and Scythians, and Sarmathians, north ATHENS. Paradise Regained, IV. 44. Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount, Where on the Ægean shore a city stands, Built nobly; pure the air, and light the soil; City, or suburban, studious walks and shades; 1 Satan, persisting in the temptation of our Lord, shows him imperial Rome In its greatest pomp and splendor, and tells him that he might easily expel the Emperor Tiberius, and take possession of the whole himself, and thus possess the world. Baffled in this, he next points out to him the celebrated seat of ancient learning, Athens, and its celebrated schools of philosophy; pronouncing a bighly finished panegyric on the Grecian musicians, poets, orators, and philosophers of the different sects See there the olive grove of Academe, Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long; Of bees' industrious murmur oft invites To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls His whispering stream: within the walls then view The schools of ancient sages; his who bred Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next: There shalt thou hear and learn the secret power By voice or hand; and various-measured verse, And his who gave them breath, but higher sung, Of moral prudence, with delight received Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne: To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear, From Heaven descended to the low-roof'd house Whom, well inspired, the oracle pronounced These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home, Paradise Regained, IV. 230 SAMSON'S LAMENTATION FOR HIS BLINDNESS. O loss of sight, of thee I most complain! Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct, Annull'd, which might in part my grief have eased, Of man or worm; the vilest here excel me: In power of others, never in my own; Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half. Without all hope of day! O first-created Beam, and thou great Word, And silent as the moon, Hid in her vacant interlunar cave. That light is in the soul, She all in every part; why was this sight By privilege of death and burial, From worst of other evils, pains, and wrongs; But made hereby obnoxious more To all the miseries of life, Life in captivity Among inhuman foes. Samson Agonistes, 67. SONNET ON HIS OWN BLINDNESS. When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, I fondly ask: but Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, "God doth no need 1 "Few passages in poetry are so affecting as this; and the tone of the expression is peculiarly Miltonic."-Brydges. 2" Milton's sonnets are, in easy majesty and severe beauty, unequalled by any other compositions of the kind."-Rev. Alexander Dyce. "Of all the sonnets of Milton, I am most inclined to prefer that 'On His Blindness. It has, to my weak taste, such various excellences as I am unequal to praise sufficiently. It breathes doctrines at once so sublime and consolatory, as to gild the gloomy paths of our existence here with a new and singular light."-Brydges. He speaks here with allusion to the parable of the talents, Matt. xxv., and with great modesty of himself, as if he had not five, or two, but only one talent. Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best; his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, TO CYRIACK SKINNER.1 Cyriack, this three years day, these eyes, though clear, Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask? In liberty's defence,3 my noble task, Of which all Europe rings from side to side. This thought might lead me through the world's vain mask TO A VIRTUOUS YOUNG LADY. Lady, that in the prime of earliest youth Wisely hast shunn'd the broad way and the green, That labour up the hill of heavenly truth; Thy care is fix'd, and zealously attends To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light, And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore be sure, Passes to bliss at the mid hour of night, Hast gain'd thy entrance, Virgin wise and pure. The prose works of Milton are scarcely less remarkable than his poetry. They are mostly of a controversial character in Religion and Politics, and, as such, have lost some of the interest with which they were invested in the 1 Cyriack Skinner was the son of William Skinner, Esq., a merchant of London. Wood says that he was an ingenious young gentleman, and a scholar to John Milton." 2 "Of heart or hope," &c. "One of Milton's characteristics was a singular fortitude of mind, urising from a consciousness of superior abilities, and a conviction that his cause was just."- Warton. 3 When Milton had entered upon the labor of writing his "Defence of the People of England," one of his eyes was almost gone, and the physicians predicted the loss of both if he proceeded. But he says, "I did not long balance whether my duty should be preferred to my eyes." And yet (prok pudor!) this masterly work was, at the Restoration, ordered to be burnt by the common hangman! 4 "The summit of fame is occupied by the poet, but the base of the vast elevation may justly be said to rest on has prose works; and we invite his admirers to descend from the former, and survey the region that lies round about the latter;-a less explored, but not less magnificent domain.”—Brydges "The prose writings of Milton deserve the attention of every man who wishes to become ac quainted with the full power of the English language. They abound with passages compared with which the finest declamations of Burke sink into insignificance.”—Macaulay. stormy and eventful times in which his lot was cast; but they "breathe throughout," says Burnett, "that sublime, ethereal spirit, peculiar only to him. We are continually astonished and delighted at his never-failing abundance of sentiments and imagery-at that majestic stream and swell of thoughts with which his mind always flows. He was a man essentially great; and whoever wishes to form his language to a lofty and noble style-his character to a fervid sincerity of soul, will read the works of Milton." Milton early commenced his ecclesiastical controversies, and in 1642 published "The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelacy." The following is a part of the preface of the second book, and is particularly remarkable as giving a prophetic assurance of the proudest monument of his fame-PARADISE LOST. MILTON CONSECRATES HIS POWERS TO THE CAUSE OF TRUTH-HIS STUDIES AND PREPARATION FOR HIS GREAT WORK. Surely to every good and peaceable man, it must in nature needs be a hateful thing to be the displeaser and molester of thousands; much better would it like him doubtless to be the messenger of gladness and contentment, which is his chief intended business to all mankind, but that they resist and oppose their own happiness. But when God commands to take the trumpet and blow a dolorous or jarring blast, it lies not in man's will what he shall say or what he shall conceal. If he shall think to be silent as Jeremiah did, because of the reproach and derision he met with daily, "and all his familiar friends watched for his halting," to be revenged on him for speaking the truth, he would be forced to confess as he confessed; "his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary with forbearing, and could not stay." Which might teach these times not suddenly to condemn all things that are sharply spoken or vehemently 'written as proceeding out of stomach virulence and ill-nature; but to consider rather, that if the prelates have leave to say the worst that can be said, or do the worst that can be done, while they strive to keep to themselves, to their great pleasure and commodity, those things which they ought to render up, no man can be justly offended with him that shall endeavor to impart and bestow, without any gain to himself, those sharp and saving words, which would be a error and a torment in him to keep back. For me, I have endeavored to lay up as the best treasure and solace of a good old age, if God vouchsafe it me, the honest liberty of free speech from my youth, where I shall think it avail able in so dear a concernment as the church's good. For, if I be, whether by disposition, or what other cause, too inquisitive, or suspicious of myself and mine own doings, who can help it? Concerning therefore this wayward subject against prelates. the |