dence of the fallen portion of the old race, was separated from it by chaos.

This is the fundamental conception of the Paradise Lost. The infinity of space thus divided, first into two, and afterwards into four regions, is the scene in which the action of the poem is laid. Now, such a gigantic conception could not have occurred to any except a blind man; or if it had occurred to any one else, he could not have sustained it consistently throughout the poem. But how consistently has Milton sustained it! Thus, when he describes the rout of the rebel angels driven before the Messiah's thunder, the crystal wall of heaven

"Rolled inward, and a spacious gap disclosed

Into the wasteful deep; the monstrous sight
Struck them with terror backward; but far worse
Urged them behind, headlong themselves they

threw

vapor-like something in the east, which slowly creeps westward through the gloom, like a mist from the sea. This is light. In the second place, there is a sort of sentimental lingering in the description, unlike what would be natural in the case of a poet not afflicted with that calamity, which made light so dear to Milton, and all the circumstances of its appearance so delightful to his memory.

Besides the passages we have selected, fifty or sixty others might be given. The only sort of description which five sixths of the poem required, or would tolerate, is precisely that in which the power Milton's blindness gave him of contrasting light and darkness on the great scale, and of conceiving luminous objects, enabled him to excel. No, doubt, if a man having the use of his eyesight had dared to attempt the subject of the Paradise Lost, he would, as a matter of necessity, have been obliged to deal with blackness and fire, chaoses and galaxies, just as Milton has done. No doubt, also, there are poets, not blind, whose imagination is at home in the vast and gigantic, who figure to themselves the earth as a brown little ball wheeling through space, and whistling as it wheels. Thus Shakspeare speaks of" striking flat the thick rotundity o' the world." Still, none except a blind man could have been so consistent throughout in that sort of description as Milton. But not only does he, more than any other poet, contrast fire and blackness on the great scale; he employs the same contrast as a means of representing what it would never have occurred to any but a blind man to represent in that way. Thus, when Satan, seized in Paradise by Ithuriel and Zephon, is brought before Gabriel Without dimension, where length, breath, and and his band of angels, he dares them to battle

Down from the verge of heaven; eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit." It was Milton's blindness that gave him this grand figure. Reading the passage, one sees chaos, as it were, an infinite mass of solid blackness, and the descent of the angels through it like a red hissing fiery funnel. So in many other that, for instance, describing the creation of man's universe; or the following one, describing Satan's glance into chaos, when, standing at the mouth of hell, he prepares to launch into it in quest of the new universe

passages;

"Before their eyes in sudden view appear The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark Illimitable ocean, without bound,

height,

And time, and place, are lost, where endless"

night

And chaos, ancestors of nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand."
If this passage had not the tone of a narrative, it
might pass for a Lamentation on Blindness.
Making his way through chaos, Satan at last
emerges into the light of the new universe. Di-
recting his flight first to the sun-

“There lands_the_fiend; a spot like which, perhaps,

Astronomer in the sun's lucent orb, Through his glazed optic tube, yet never saw." This splendid image of Satan alighting on the sun being like a spot dimming its disc, we can hardly conceive presenting itself to the mind of any but a blind man ; but how readily to his!

The following is the poet's description of the creation of light

"Let there be light,' God said; and forthwith
light

Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure
Sprung from the deep; and from her native

Turned fiery red, sharpened in mooned horns

Their phalanx, and began to hem him round." Who but a blind man could have fancied the appearance of the band of angels hemming Satan in like that of a crescent moon? But luminousness with Milton served as a means of describing everything. Satan, starting up when touched by Ithuriel's spear, as he was sitting in the shape of a a powder magazine. Brilliancy is Milton's sytoad at Eve's ear, is compared to the explosion of nonyme for beauty. The eyes of the serpent are glowing carbuncles, his neck is verdant burnished gold. The locks of the unfallen angels are inwreathed with beams of light; and their golden harps hang by their sides glittering like quivers.

But deduct those five sixths of the Paradise Lost in which the descriptions are all grand and gigantic-of spirits warring in heaven, toiling through chaos, or winging from star to star-there remains still one sixth of the poem in which, leaving the regions of space, the poet condescends on our dear particular planet, and outpours his imagination in rich and luscious descriptions of earth's own scenes and landscapes, the fragrant woods, the blooming gardens, the daisied banks, and green overarching bowers of Eden's Paradise. How are these passages of rich vegetable description to be accounted for? Suns and moons and chaoses were easy but whence got he the trees, and shrubs, and flowers?-that blind old man!

If we examine Milton's earlier poems-those

which he wrote before he became blind-we shall | find their characteristic to be luscious and flowery description. In this respect we know no one so like him as the poet Keats. Take, for instance, the following exquisite passage from Ly

cidas

From the Christian Observer.

TABLE-TALK OF EMINENT MEN:-SELDEN.
MUCH of information and entertainment is to be

found in the Table-Talk (as it is called)—the
familiar conversation-of eminent men, treasured
up by those who have held intercourse with them,
and posthumously published their choice sayings.
The lively discourse of a powerful mind, quickened
by colloquial intercourse, is often more striking
Brilliant sparkles coruscate; and gold-dust and
than lucubrations laboriously committed to paper.

"Return, Sicilian muse, And call the vales, and bid them hither cast Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. Ye valleys low, where the mild whispers use Of shades and wanton winds, and gushing brocks, On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks-diamonds are scattered with lavish prodigality; so Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes, That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, And purple all the ground with vernal flowers; Bring the rath primrose, that forsaken dies, The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, The glowing violet,

The musk rose, and the well-attired woodbine,
With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head,
And every flower that sad embroidery wears;
Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,
And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,
To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies."
There is not a passage like this in all the Para-
dise Lost. If the poet, after being blind for some
time, had attempted to rival it, he could have ac-
complished the feat only by the help of a book on
botany. Here is the passage describing Eve's
nuptial bower in Paradise, and we may be sure
that on this occasion Milton would lavish his rich-
est beauties-

"The roof

Of thickest covert was, in woven shade,
Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew
Of firm and fragrant leaf; on either side,
Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub
Fenced up the verdant wall: each beauteous
flower,

Iris all hues, roses, and jessamine,

that a by-stander is sometimes fain to prefer the racy effervescence of the rapid mental fermentation, to the heavy evaporated potion. Nor are the thoughts necessarily less solid for being spontaneously thrown off; for they may have been growing for years, till occasion occurred for using them, and the ardor of conversation gave zest to the delivery. In writing, a man often refines and corrects, till he debilitates what was redolent of grace and spirit in the conception.

It is no wonder, then, that both in early and modern times collections of the remarkable sayings of wise men have been accounted among the most precious records of human wisdom. The ancients have left us some valuable collections of this kind; among which (not to include the inspired maxims of Solomon, who spake "three thousand proverbs,") the conversational outporings of Socrates, as noted by Plato and Xenophon, are the most interesting and delightful. The Germans, the Italians, and the French, have many repositories of this kind; the Jews, and even the Turks, are not destitute of them; and England is rich in them; indeed Boswell's Johnson stands at the head of the list, ancient or modern.

The authenticity of many of these collections has been disputed. Sometimes the alleged tabletalk does not coincide with the known opinions of the speaker, as gathered from his life, or as set forth in his published works. Thus Plato makes

Reared high their flourished heads between, and Socrates often Platonize rather than Socratize.

wrought

Mosaic; under foot the violet,

Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay,

Frequently speeches are put into the lips of a great and good man, so mean, rash, worthless, or indecent, that their admirers cannot bring themselves

Broidered the ground, more colored than with to believe they uttered them. In these respects

stone

Of costliest emblem."

Beautiful still; brave recollections of his old loves, the flowers. But, alas, alas! the recollections are growing fainter and fewer in the mind of the blind old man. Yet as the images of his youth are growing dimmer and dimmer, he is fast nearing that life where he shall renew them all again, and where, amid the spheres of which he sung, and thrilling to a higher music than that| which his soul loved so dearly on earth, his eyes shall no more shut out the light nor the colors of the little flowers.

Milton's earlier poems, we have said, remind us of Keats. No poet is so "lush" in description, to use his own word, as poor Keats. He knew the secrets of the flowers, as if he had been the very bee that buzzed among them, and sipped their sweets. Now, had Keats suddenly grown blind, would he not have forgotten the flowers, and would not his fine soul, then pent up and unwindowed, have employed itself building castles of sunbeams in the darkness within?

portions of the alleged table-talk of Lord Bacon and of Luther lie under suspicion. But it must be remembered that even wise men do not always exhibit wisdom; and that witty men may be seduced to utter striking rather than judicious sayings. Sometimes also the speaker may be jesting, or expressing himself ironically; and frequently he may throw off in the heat of conversation opinions or remarks which will not stand the test of his own calm investigation. The admiring pupil is perhaps not select in his gatherings and recollections; he embalms much that had better gone to decay; he accumulates rubbish as well as rubies; he possibly mistakes, or misstates, the words or intention of the speaker; and he injures the fair fame of the object of his veneration, by recording much that had better been forgotten; in which category we must class whatever is false, gross, or profane, however intellectually or imaginatively felicitous. And all this may happen without any intention to deceive; though sometimes it is to be feared that the love of making a good story has led to intentional exaggeration, to silly fabrication, and to improper would-be wit,

for which the person whose name is abused is not | and his majesty's most gracious favor towards me answerable.

After making ample allowances under these several heads, we do not doubt that most of the celebrated collections of table-talk may, in the main, be a genuine transcript; though so mixed up with fallacy or invention, as not to be tho-quences of it, which the doctor talks of? Is there roughly authentic.

received that satisfaction of the fault in so untimely printing it; and I profess still to the world that I am sorry for it. And so I should have been if 1 had published a most orthodox catechism that had offended. But what is that to the doctrinal consea syllable of it, of less truth, because I was sorry for the publishing of it? He (Dr. Tillesley) hopes, as he says, that my submission hath cleared my judgment concerning the right of tithes. What dream made him hope so? There is not a word of tithes in that submission more than in mentioning the title of the book; neither was my judgment at all in question, but my publishing it." Several replies were put forth; but Selden was forbidden by the king to rejoin. He says: "All that will, have liberty, and some use it, to write and preach what they will against me; to abuse my name, my person, my profession, with as many falsehoods as they please; and my hands are tied; 1 must not so much as answer their calumnies."

We are led to these remarks by glancing over the table-talk of Selden, published after his death by his amanuensis, Richard Milward. The learned Dr. (David) Wilkins, who edited the collected writings of Selden in 1726, discredited the authenticity of this work, declaring that it contains many things inconsistent with Selden's great learning, his known principles, and his general character. But Milward dedicated the book to Selden's four executors, Sir Matthew Hale, Heywood, Vaughan, and Jewkes, stating that he had been twenty years in the habit of hearing Selden's conversation, and that he was sure these relics of "the excellent things that fell from him" would be very acceptable to those who so well knew, and so greatly There were several other events in Selden's admired, "this glory of the nation;" and as these career which exposed him to the charge of inconeminent lawyers did not repudiate the publication,sistency; and sometimes the courtiers considered it was too late for Dr. Wilkins, seventy years him on their side, and sometimes the parliament after Selden's death, to repudiate it. Many of party on theirs. But we must not digress to a the remarks are thoroughly Seldenian; and that sketch of his life and character; our only intention soine are unworthy of so able and learned a man, being to give a series of passages from his converis no proof that he did not utter something of the sations; which we purpose following up in future kind. Nor are we even surprised that some con- numbers, by similar contributions from the tabletradict certain of his written opinions; for, in the talk of some other remarkable men; selecting course of years men's opinions may vary; besides such observations as may seem appropriate to our which, the turn of a conversation may often lead pages-whether for adoption, consideration, or reto an inconsistency more apparent than real: as a jection; but not endorsing all that we quote. whig may seem to toryize when opposing a radical; or a moderate dissenter to defend the church when replying to some outrageous misstatement. We have a proof that it was not always easy to discover Selden's real opinion, from what passed relative to his "History of Tithes." This work was published in 1618. It is usually considered as denying the "divine right;" but Selden does not enounce that conclusion, though he arranges his facts and authorities in such a manner as, upon his premises, to render it inevitable. It does not even appear that he wished to deprive the Church of England of this provision; for though he rejects the divine right, he learnedly proves and defends the lega! title. The book, however, excited the displeasure of the clergy and of the court; and he was accordingly cited before some of the lords of the high commission to make a public submission, which he did in the following words. "My good lords, I most humbly acknowledge my error which I have committed in publishing the History of Tithes, and especially in that I have at all, by shewing any interpretations of Holy Scriptures, by meddling with councils, fathers, or canons, or by what else soever occurs in it, offered any occasion of argument against any right of maintenance, Jure Divino, of the ministers of the gospel; beseeching your lordships to receive this ingenuous and humble acknowledgment, together with the unfeigned protestation of my grief for that I have so incurred both his majesty's and your lordships' displeasure, conceived against me on behalf of the Church of England." This was popularly considered to be a recantation of his opinion; but it is not really so; and next year, in reply to his opponent, Dr. Tillesley, he said: "I did most humbly acknowledge that I was most sorry for the blishing of that history, because it had offended;

A few dates may usefully introduce our citations from Selden. That erudite and laborious man was born in 1584. After passing through Oxford and the inns of Court, he began to give to the world the fruits of his learned researches in law, history, and other studies. The dry titles o his many volumes it were tedious to specify. He was equally at home in heraldic bearings and Arundelian marbles; in the origin of duels and of church courts; in Jewish antiquities and English constitutional law; in Rabbinical lore, and popish [edicts and provincial decrees; in Hebrew and its cognates, and the biography of lord chancellors and keepers from the days of the Conquest. He could turn his hand from defending the right of England to the four seas, in his Mare Clausum, against the Mare Liberum of Grotius, to draw up the petition of rights, or articles of impeachment against Archbishop Laud. "Lay gentlemen, says quaint Fuller,"prefer his Titles of Honor;' Lawyers, his Mare Clausum; Antiquaries, his Spicilegium ad Eadmearum;' Clergymen like best his De Diis Syris,' and worst his History of Tithes;' but all acknowledge his wonderful erudition and fecundity."

Yet could he break from his studies, and mix busily in the public struggles of those eventful days; and could then resume them even in a dungeon, except when denied the use of pens, ink, paper, and books; as happened to him when Charles the First imprisoned him, because in his place in the House of Commons he had stood up for the rights of the subject and the privileges of Parliament; and had assisted to confine the speaker by manual force in the chair, while resolutions were passed in spite of his majesty's menaces.

Selden's love of letters moderated the barbarous proceedings of some of his rude colleagues in the

days of anarchy. Thus, when Archbishop Laud's had leisure, and might ask somebody the meanendowment of the professorship of Arabic at Ox-ing. The law was repealed in Edward the Sixth's ford was seized, on the attainder of that prelate, days. he procured its restitution. When Archbishop

Bishops.-Anciently, the noblemen lay withUsher's library was confiscated, because his grace in the city for safety and security. The bishhad been so graceless as to preach against the in- ops' houses were by the water side, because fallible Assembly of Divines at Westminster, Sel- they were held sacred persons which nobody den saved it from sale and dispersion. When would hurt. prelacy was abolished, he procured the transfer of "That which is thought to have done the bishthe Lambeth Library to the University of Cam-ops hurt, is their going about to bring men to a bridge, where it was kept safely till the restora- blind obedience, imposing things upon them, tion, and then honestly restored. Many similar though perhaps small and well enough, without services in those days of dilapidation he ren- preparing them, and insinuating into their reasons dered to literature; and also to science and an- and fancies. Every man loves to know his comtiquities. mander. I wear those gloves, but, perhaps, if an alderman should command me, I should think much to do it: what has he to do with me? Or, if he has, peradventure I do not know it. This jumping upon things at first dash will destroy all: to keep up friendship, there must be little addresses and applications, whereas bluntness spoils it quickly to keep up the hierarchy, there must be little applications made to men; they must be brought on little by little so in the primitive times, the power was gained, and so it must be continued. Scaliger said of Erasmus, Si minor esse voluit, major fuisset. So we may say of the bishops, Si minores esse voluerint, majores fuissent.

He continued writing almost till his death, his last work being published when he was nearly seventy years of age. He died in 1654: but, had he lived six years longer, we sincerely believeafter all he had witnessed-that he would have cordially concurred in the restoration of monarchy and episcopacy.

To our citations from this Table-Talk we will prefix alphabetical headings, for the convenience of reference. We repeat that citation does not

always imply approval.

"Abbeys.-When the founders of abbeys laid a curse upon those that should take away those lands, I would fain know what power they had to curse me; it is not the curses that come from the poor, or from anybody that hurt me, because they come from them, but because I do something ill against them that deserves God should curse me for it. On the other side, it is not a man's blessing me that makes me blessed, he only declares me to be so; and if I do well, I shall be blessed, whether any bless me or not.

"Articles.-The nine-and-thirty articles are much another thing in Latin, (in which tongue they were made) than they are translated into English: they were made at three several convocations, and confirmed by act of parliament six or seven times after. There is a secret concerning them of late ministers have subscribed to all of them, but by act of parliament that confirmed them, they ought only to subscribe to those articles which contain matter of faith, and the doctrine of the sacraments, as appears by the first subscriptions. But Bishop Bancroft, (in the convocation held in King James' day) he began it, that ministers should subscribe to three things; to the king's supremacy, to the Common Prayer, and to the Thirty-nine Articles: many of them do not contain matter of faith. Is it matter of faith how the church should be governed? whether infants should be baptized? whether we have any property in goods, &c.

Bible.-The English translation of the Bible is the best translation in the world, and renders the sense of the original best, taking in for the English translation, the bishops' Bible, as well as King James'. The translation in King James' time took an excellent way: that part of the Bible was given to him who was most excellent in such a tongue, (as the Apocrypha to Andrew Downs) and then they met together, and one read the translation, the rest holding in their hands some Bible, either of the learned tongues, or French, Spanish, Italian, &c.; if they found any fault, they spoke; if not, he read on.

Henry the Eighth made a law, that all men might read the Scripture, except servants: but no women, except ladies and gentlewomen, who

:

"The bishops were too hasty, else, with a discreet slowness, they might have had what they aimed at the old story of the fellow, that told the gentleman he might get to such a place, if he did not ride too fast, would have fitted their turn.

"Bishops in Parliament.-You would not have bishops meddle with temporal affairs; think who you are that say it. If a Papist, they do in their church; if an English Protestant, they do among you; if a Presbyterian, where you have no bishops, you mean your Presbyterian lay elders should meddle with temporal affairs as well as spiritual: besides, all jurisdiction is temporal, and in no church but they have some jurisdiction or other. The question then will be reduced to magis and minus; they meddle more in one church than in another.

66

Bishops are now unfit to govern because of their learning; they are bred up in another law, they run to the text for something done amongst the Jews that nothing concerns England: it is just as if a man would have a kettle, and he would not go to our brazier to have it made as they make kettles, but he would have it made as Hiram made his brass-work, who wrought in Solomon's temple.

"To take away bishops' votes, is but the beginning to take them away; for then they can be no longer useful to the king or state. It is but like the little wimble, to let in the greater auger. Objection. But, they are but for their life, and that makes them always go for the king as he will have them. Answer. This is against a double charity, for you must always suppose a bad king and bad bishops.

"Books. It is good to have translations, because they serve as a comment, so far as the judgment of the man goes.

"Quoting of authors is most for matter of fact; and then I write them as I would produce a witness, sometimes for a free expression; and then I give the author his due, and gain myself praise by reading him.

"Ceremony.-Ceremony keeps up all things; it is like a penny-glass to a rich spirit, or some ex-world to reverence him. Objection. But if this be cellent water; without it the water were spilt, the spirit lost.