And there burst upon his sight crisped brooks rolling over pearls and sands of gold, amidst flowers profusely poured over hill and dale, and groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balms; and he saw the vine creep with its purple grapes over the shady cavern, and listened to the mingled minstrelsy of rivulets and birds. And before him stood the parents of mankind in their unpretending majesty, amidst beasts, unconscious of the savage passions of their after life, which sported innocently, the lion playing with the kid, and the bear and panther gambolling together. Satan marvelled much at the excellent form and happy state of man, but relented not in his purpose. He metamorphosed himself into the image of a beast, and lingered round and listened to the words of Adam and Eve, who, with the warmth of mutual affection and natural piety discoursed of the happiness of their simple existence, and of the tree of knowledge whose fruit was forbidden to their taste. Satan turned away for envy, and eyed them askance, but he discovered in what manner to direct his temptation. He left them; and Uriel,

Gliding through the even,

On a sun beam, swift as a shooting star,

hastened to Gabriel, who sat upon a rock of alabaster piled to the clouds, while round him was celestial armory flaming with diamond and gold. Uriel warned Gabriel that an evil spirit had escaped the deep, and passed by

his sphere at noon down to paradise, in the form of a good angel. Night fell, and Adam and Eve, having poured forth their songs of pure devotion, sank into slumber within their bower,

A place

Chosen by the sovran Planter, when he fram'd
All things to Man's delightful use; the roof

Of thickest covert was inwoven shade
Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew

Of firm and fragrant leaf; on either side

Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub

Fenc'd up the verdant wall; each beauteous flower,

Iris all hues, roses, and jessamin,

Rear'd high their flourished heads between, and wrought

Mosaic; underfoot the violet,

Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay

Broider'd the ground, more colour'd than with stone

Of costliest emblem: other creatures here,

Beast, bird, insect, or worm, durst enter none;

Such was their awe of Man. In shadier bower
More sacred and sequester'd, though but feign'd,
Pan or Sylvanus never slept, nor Nymph,
Nor Faunus haunted.

Gabriel disposed his myriads of bright spirits to discover the enemy, and particularly deputed Ithuriel and Zephon with winged speed to search through paradise and protect the slumberers. They found Satan at the ear of Eve, inspiring deceitful dreams, and 'Ithuriel lightly touched him with his spear. The fiend in his natural shape started up, and the two angels, half amazed so suddenly to behold the grisly king, stepped back. But they brought him before Gabriel, and the fiend with stern

frowns confronted the archangel and threatened vengeance; but the phalanx of spirits hemmed him round with pointed spears.

'Satan alarm'd,

Collecting all his might, dilated stood,
Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremov'd;

His stature reach'd the sky, and on his crest
Sat horror plum'd; nor wanted in his grasp
What seem'd both spear and shield-

and with haughty murmurs he fled from the holy presence.

When morning dawned Eve related to Adam the terrors of her dream, and they went forth to begin the day, hymning their grateful praises with prompt eloquence more tuneable than lute or harp. Raphael was dispatched from heaven to warn them of their danger. He came, entered into their bower and discovered his purpose, narrated the late revolt in heaven, the conflicts of the angels, and the final overthrow of the spirits of darkness. He revealed the mysterious creation of the world, but with doubtful answer replied to Adam when he sought to enquire into the secrets of the celestial realms. Adam, unwilling that Raphael should depart, detained him with an artless narration of his own birth, and the thoughts and happy sensations that had beguiled him since he was first filled with life. The angel then departed; and Satan, who had compassed the earth and ridden with darkness-being cautious of day since Uriel had descried

his presence-returned by stealth, and, hid in a mist, again entered Eden, and took upon him the guise of a serpent. Adam and Eve roamed through Paradise, each alone; and the tempter, seizing his opportunity, beguiled the woman, and she ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree, and offered to her lord; and he, in the madness of his affection, resolving rather to perish with her than to lose her, ate too, and the heritage of sin and shame fell on them like a pestilence.

When the transgression of man was known, the angels forsook Paradise, the ghostly phantoms of Sin and Death left their gloomy stations at the gates of hell, to claim the dominion of the world, and the obscure and uncertain way which Satan had traversed from his fearful realms was rendered sure and plain, a way which thereafter was to be worn by the feet of millions. The Tempter returned to his subject spirits; but the applause he expected died upon their lips, and the hisses of a snaky tribe fell discordantly on his ear. The noble proportions of his limbs too dissolved away into the sinuous and slimy folds of a serpent. Then ascended the repentant prayers of the first mortals, but their doom was decided, the scheme of human redemption was foretold, and the events of future days thronged before them in a vision ; but they were driven from the home of their creation, the bright portals were closed, and the flaming brand and the mighty cherubim guarded the walls of Paradise. As they departed,

Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them soon ;
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.

Such is the uninterrupted outline of this great and noble poem; but it is also interspersed with narrations and episodes, which form a considerable part without mainly tending to the catastrophe of the epic. It has always appeared to me the great fault of Paradise Lost— if in such a glorious whole we may not justly suffer ourselves to be too dazzled by its united effect to analyze the construction of its parts-that the episodes are too remote from the events celebrated in the poem, and not sufficiently incidental to its catastrophe; so that the continuity of the action is broken, and the reader's train of thought somewhat destroyed. That poem is probably the most perfectly constructed which carries us on from the beginning to the end, while we gather new and fervent interest as we proceed, and are rapt in the contemplation of the magnificent and successively developed images that throng before us in unbroken array, and hasten towards their consummation, like a full and rapid river, which, notwithstanding the windings of its course, rushes uniformly onwards to the great ocean. But the digressions in Paradise Lost are streams that branch from, rather than flow into the tide of the story; and although deep and grand in themselves, they do not add to the waters of the