1. "OF man's first disobedience." The similarity between the opening of Paradise Lost and the Iliad, in the simplicity and unostentatious solemnity of the language, in the smooth flowing harmony of the versification, in the brief and unadorned introduction of the subject and its consequences, in the avowal of dependence on a Divine spirit for illumination, in the sudden transition from humble invocation to the inspired narrative, and then in the sudden flight into unexampled sublimity, is singularly striking. Milton, no less than Homer, comes up to Horace's just and wellknown conception of an epic poet:— "Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lucem

Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miracula promat."

The subject-matter of both poems, "Man's first disobedience, and the fruit of the forbidden tree," and "The wrath of Achilles," is the very first sentiment expressed. The same epithet is next applied to both acts, mortal or destructive: from each three consequences resulted; to man, death, all the woes of life, and loss of Eden; to the Greeks, woes unnumbered, the premature death of many a valiant hero, and the devouring of their bodies by dogs and birds of prey; this latter involving loss of the rights of sepulture, which for a time deprived spirits of Elysium; for the spirits of the unburied dead were supposed to wander up and down on the confines of the other world for a long period of time, without any place of rest. (I think with the old Commentators, that in

is included the idea of premature death, and it gives an additional picture of misfortune. "Cadat ante diem mediaque inhumatus arena," was the direst curse

Υμείς γαρ θεαι εστε, παρέστε τε, ίστε τε παντα Ημεις δε κλέος διον ακουομεν, ουδε τι ιδμεν. Milton asks, "Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?" and then the heavenly Muse, who is supposed henceforward to dictate the poem, promptly replies, "The infernal spirit," &c. This resembles the questions and answers in the Iliad, as closely as the subject will admit:

Τις τ' αρ σφωε Θεων έριδι ξυνέηκε μάχεσθαι;
Λητούς και Διος υἱος, ὁ γαρ βασιλής χολωθείς
Νουσον ανα στρατον ώρσε κακήν, ολεκοντο δε
λαοι.

Milton dates man's disobedience in these words. "What time," (i. e. after the time that.) Thus does Homer date the wrath of Achilles by the words

Εξ οὗ δη τα πρώτα διαστήτην ερίσαντε. Homer says that it was all the will of God, Διος δ' ετελείετο βουλη. Milton says the same, (212,) that "the will and high permission of all-ruling Heaven left him (Satan) at large to his own dark designs."

4. With loss of Eden." But Eden was not lost; and the last we read of our first parents is, that they were still in Eden-" Through Eden took their soli

Y

tary way."-B. xii. Loss of Eden is, therefore, only loss of Paradise, which was planted in Eden; the whole being put for a part, as a part is sometimes put for the whole, by the figure synecdoche. -(Newton.) This explanation has been adopted in the best modern editions, but, in my opinion, most improperly. Milton distinctly says Eden was lost; its loss he makes part of his subject, and this alone ought to decide the point. It is plain, from several passages in the poem, that Eden, which means "blessed seat," was the general district allotted to Adam in his state of innocence, though Paradise, which was planted in the east. of it, (iv. 208,) was his immediate residence, and that it was distinguished from the rest of the earth, or the outer world; and it is also plain, from the close of the poem, that he was expelled from it, as well as from Paradise :

"They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise.

Then, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,

Through Eden took their solitary way."

Their solitary way, to what place? The poet plainly shows it was to the outer world, or part of the earth outside Eden, to which they were proceeding by the shortest route, as Paradise was in the eastern part of Eden, and they proceeded eastward:

"The world was all before them where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide."

6, 7. "Secret top of Oreb." Dr. Bentley says Milton dictated "sacred top," because, Exod. iii. 5, Horeb is said to be holy, and, 1 Kings xix. 8, it is called the Mountain of God, and the top could be seen several leagues off, and therefore could not be called secret; besides, sacred hill is common among poets in several languages. But it is successfully answered by Pearce and Newton, that Horeb and Sinai are two summits of one mountain; Sinai being the highest, which, says Josephus, in his Jewish Antiquities, iii. 5, "cannot be seen without straining the eyes;" hence it may be called secret; that it is said in Exod. xix. and Ecclus. xlv. and other places, when God gave the law of Moses on the top of Sinai, it was covered with dark clouds and thick smoke, and the people were not to come near it till after a given signal, and even then they were only to come to a certain boundary, but not to ascend it on pain of death; besides, secret may be classically

used in the sense of secretus, set apart, or separate, (secretosque pios. - En. viii 670.) Furthermore, by the rules of good poetry, a particular epithet, as descriptive of a peculiar circumstance, is to be preferred to a general one. Milton, xii. 227, in reference evidently to the clouds and smoke, says, "Sinai, whose gray top shall tremble." So that secret is evidently the correct reading, in whatever sense it is to be taken. As Horeb and Sinai are used for one another in Scripture, (see Exod. iii. 1; Acts vii. 30,) the poet does not determine on which of them the inspiration was given (though he seems to incline to the latter), therefore he mentions both.

8. " That shepherd," &c. Moses, who, after his flight from Egypt, married the daughter of Jethro, a prince of Arabia, and tended his flocks, before he led the Jews from Egypt, and wrote Genesis; perhaps he uses the epithet figuratively, (Psalm lxxvii. 20,) "Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron."

10. "Fast by," &c. Close to. So b. iii. 354.

11. "Siloa's brook," &c. Siloa was a rivulet that flowed near the temple of Jerusalem, (Isa. viii. 6.) So Milton invokes the muse that inspired David and the prophets on Mount Sion, on which stood the royal palace and the ark, and at Jerusalem, as well as Moses. The temple is called the oracle of God, as the high priest occasionally received there the gift of inspiration; particularly when for public purposes he consulted the Divine will by Urim and Thummim.

13, 14, 15. It is not unusual with poets to boast of the novelty and boldness of their poetic flights. So Lucretius, i. 925.

"Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante Trita solo," &c.

Virgil, Georg. iii. 292.—

- juvat ire jugis, quâ nulla priorum Castaliam molli divertitur orbita clivo."

Hor. Od. xi. 10.

"Non usitata nec tenui ferar penna, Biformis per liquidum Æthera vates." Virgil, Georg. iii. 11.—

"Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas."

Aonia, the ancient name of Boeotia, contained Parnassus, Helicon, and other places, supposed to be the haunt of the Muses. Milton means here, that his flight will be far above that of the ancient