Far more magnanimous, than to assume*.

Riches are needless then, both for themselves,

habit of facility in elegiac Latinity had long ago ceased." What ground he had for this suspicion he does not specify, nor is it easy to conjecture. I should not willingly persuade myself that our author could soon lose any faculty which he had acquired. Besides, these verses must have been written before the year 1654, when Christina abdicated; and only nine years before that, when he published a collection of his Latin and English poems in 1645, he had added to his seventh Elegy ten lines, which sufficiently show that he then perfectly retained his elegiac Latinity; and why it should be supposed entirely to cease in eight or nine years more, I cannot imagine. As Marvel was not his associate in the secretaryship till the year 1657, Milton has officially the best claim to them: it was also an employment, which, we may well suppose, he was fond of; as at this time he certainly thought highly of Christina, and was particularly flattered with the idea, that, on reading his 'Defensio Populi,' she withdrew all her protection from his antagonist Salmasius, who was then resident at her court; and whom, it was then said, she dismissed with contempt, as a parasite and an advocate of tyranny. Accordingly, in his 'Defensio Secunda,' Milton honours her with a most splendid panegyric; and in appealing to her that he had no determined prejudices against kings, nor any wish wantonly to attack their rights, he particularly congratulates himself upon having a witness of his integrity tam vere regiam. The expression is sufficiently obvious and hackneyed in the flattery of royalty; but it is well worth observing, when it comes from one who so seldom sings in that strain. It may also be noticed here, as we trace a resemblance of it in some of the preceding lines; where our author, having said that in the laborious and disinterested discharge of magistracy consists the real and proper "office of a king," proceeds to ascribe a superior degree of royalty, of the most distinguished eminence, to him who is duly practised in the habit of self-command;

Yet he, who reigns within himself, and rules
Passions, desires, and fears, is more a king;

and still more to him who conscientiously labours for the well-doing and well-being of mankind at large, by the zealous propagation of truth and pure unadulterated religion;

But to guide nations in the way of truth
By saving doctrine, and from errour lead,
To know, and knowing worship God aright,
Is yet more kingly.

Milton, it appears, however, was rather unfortunate in his selection of a favourite from among the crowned heads of his time. Mr. Warton, in his note on the Verses to Christina,' collects many curious anecdotes of her improprieties and absurdities; and Harte, the English historian of Gustavus Adolphus, terms her "an unaccountable woman; reading much, yet not extremely learned; a collector and critic in the fine arts, but collecting without judgment, and forming conclusions without taste; affecting pomp, and rendering herself a beggar; fond to receive servile dependence, yet divesting herself of the means; paying court to the most serious Christians, and making profession of little less than atheism." But our author saw only the bright side of her character; and considered her as a learned, pious, patriotic, disinterested princess.—DUNSTER. See farther information, drawn from indisputable authority, relating to the extraordinary Christina, in my note on the poet's verses to her.—TODD.

And to lay down

Far more magnanimous, than to assume.

We may rather trace Milton here to Macrobius, than to the passage cited in a preceding note from Q. Curtius by Dr. Newton :-"Quid? quod duas virtutes, quæ inter nobiles quoque unice claræ sunt, in uno video fuisse mancipio; imperium regendi peritiam, et imperium contemnendi magnanimitatem. Anaxilaus enim Messenius, qui Messanam in Sicilia condidit, fuit Rheginorum tyrannus. Is, cum parvos relinqueret liberos, Micitho servo suo commendasse contentus est: is tutelam sancte gessit; imperiumque tam clementer obtinuit,ut Rhegini a servo regi non dedignarentur. Perductus deinde in ætatem pueris et bona et imperium tradidit. Ipse parvo viaticosumpto profectus est; et Olympiæ cum summa tranquillitate consenuit." "Saturnal. i. 11.—DUNSTER.

And for thy reason why they should be sought,
To gain a sceptre', oftest better miss'd.

To gain a sceptre.

485

Dunster gives the following closing summary of this book :-Our Saviour's passing the night is well described. The coming on of morn is a beautiful counterpart of "night coming on in the desert," which so finely closed the preceding book. Our Lord's waking -his viewing the country-and the description of the "pleasant grove," which is to be the scene of the banquet- are all set off with every grace that poetry can give. The appearance of Satan, varied from his first disguise, as he has now quite another part to act, is perfectly well imagined; and his speech, referring to Scripture examples of persons miraculously fed in desert places, is truly artful and in character; as is his second sycophantic address, where, having acknowledged our Lord's right to all created things, he adds :

Behold,

Nature ashamed, or, better to express,

Troubled that thou shouldst hunger, hath purvey'd

From all the elements her choicest store,

To treat thee as beseems, and as her Lord,

With honour.

The banquet, ver. 340, comprises everything that Roman luxury, Eastern magnificence, mythological fable, or poetic fancy can supply; and if compared with similar descriptions in the Italian poets, will be found much superior to them. In the concluding part of his invitation, the virulence of the arch-fiend breaks out, as it were involuntarily, in a sarcastic allusion to the divine prohibition respecting the tree of knowledge; but he immediately resumes his hypocritical servility, which much resembles his language in the ninth book of the Paradise Lost,' when, in his addresses to Eve, "persuasive rhetorick sleek'd his tongue." The last three lines are quite in this style

All these are spirits of air, and woods, and springs,

Thy gentle ministers, who come to pay

Thee homage, and acknowledge thee their Lord.

Our Lord's reply is truly sublime:-

I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou,
Command a table in the wilderness,
And call swift flights of angels ministrant,
Array'd in glory, on my cup to attend.

This part of the book, in particular, is so highly finished, that I could wish it had concluded, as it might well have done, with the vanishing of the banquet. The present conclusion, from its subject, required another style of poetry; it has little description, no machinery, and no mythological allusions to elevate and adorn it; but it is not without a sublimity of another kind. Satan's speech, in which he assails our Lord with the temptation of riches as the means of acquiring greatness, is in a noble tone of dramatic dialogue, and the reply of our Saviour, where he rejects the offer, contains a series of the finest moral precepts, expressed in that plain majestic language, which, in many parts of didactic poetry, is the most becoming vestitus orationis. Still it must be acknowledged, that all this is much lost and obscured by the radiance and enriched descriptions of the preceding three hundred lines. These had been particularly relieved, and their beauty had been rendered more eminently conspicuous, from the studied equality and scriptural plainness of the exordium of this book; which has the effect ascribed by Cicero to the subordinate and less shining parts of any writing, "quo magis id, quod erit illuminatum, extare atque eminere videatur."-De Orator. iii. 101, ed. Proust. But the conclusion of this book, though excellent in its kind, unfortunately, from its loco-position, appears to considerable disadvantage. Writers of didactic poetry, to secure the continuance of their reader's attention, must be careful not only to diversify, but as much as possible gradually to elevate, their strain. Accordingly, they generally open their several divisions with their dryer precepts, proceed then to more pleasing illustrations, and are particularly studious to close each book with some description, or episode, of the most embellished and attractive kind.

BOOK III.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

THE third book of the 'Paradise Regained' continues to be argumentative: but Satan, having found himself hitherto foiled, begins by the most wily and flattering compliments. He now dwells upon the attractions and delights of worldly glory; and tells our Saviour how he is fitted to attain it above all other beings, both by counsel and action; and that it is his duty not to throw away his gifts, and pass his life in obscurity: he says, that men, at a more youthful age than his, have conquered the world. Our Saviour replies calmly:

Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth
For empire's sake, nor empire to affect
For glory's sake by all thy argument.

For what is glory but the blaze of fame,

The people's praise, if always praise unmix'd?

He then describes what is true glory; and instances Job, who was more famous in heaven than known on earth.

He next expatiates on the false glory of conquerors :—

Till conquerour Death discovers them scarce men,
Rolling in brutish vices, and deform'd,

Violent or shameful death their due reward.

After Job, he next names Socrates; who, he says, lives now

Equal in fame to proudest conquerours.

I must here draw the reader's notice to Thyer's observation, who praises "the author's great art, in weaving into the body of so short a work so many grand points of the Christian theology and morality." Jesus exclaims:

But why should man seek glory, who of his own
Hath nothing; and to whom nothing belongs,
But condemnation, ignominy, and shame?

Satan, not silenced, takes up another ground: he appeals to Christ's duty to free his country from heathen servitude. Our Saviour answers that this must be done in the Almighty's time, and by the Almighty's means; but demands of Satan, why he should be anxious for his rise, when it would be his own fall.

Satan's cunning reply is one of the finest of all that Milton has invented of him. Then it was that he took Christ to a high mountain, to show him the monarchies of the earth. The description of the prospect at the foot of the mountain is in the richest style of picturesque poetry: he now points out the Assyrian empire.

After going through an immense Geographical view, conducted with wonderful art, skill, and learning, and every where discriminated by the happiest epithets;Satan says,

All these the Parthian (now some ages past,
By great Arsaces led, who founded first
That empire) under his dominion holds,

From the luxurious kings of Antioch won.

Then comes a most magnificent picture of great armies going out to battle. This is done, to show our Saviour the necessity of worldly power, and numerous military

Here is a little carelessness in this repetition of the word "death."