By the analysis we have given of this effay, it will be seen, that the fubject is methodically treated. The reasonings are just and clear; but they would strike us, perhaps, with more vivacity and effect, if they were a little more compreffed. From an extenfive reading, collateral as well as direct, the author has brought together a number of decifive authorities, on the feveral branches of the three propofitions, of which he undertakes the proof: though he has been led fometimes, by the beauty of a pallage, to give the whole, when his reafoning requires only a part of it: of this, one or two inftances might be affigned. His flyle is fuch as good fenfe required, equable, pure, and fitted to the fubject; to the general stock of knowledge upon which he has added much, at a very necessary time. APT. VIII. Paradife Regained. A Poem, In four Books. By John Milton. A new Edition, with Notes of various Auth rs. By Charles Dunfter, M. A. 4to. 18s. Cadell, &c. 1795. THE HE editor of the prefent volume, a man of undoubted tafte and learning, has been induced to bestow this labour on the Paradife Regained" of Milton, from an opinion that this poem has never had justice done it, either by critics of commentators. It is moft certainly true that Milton himfulf thought very highly of this production, it is no lefs fo that the admirers of English poetry have ufually affigned to it only an inferior place. The general fenfe of the public, when it has had fufficient time to become fettled, is feldom very erroneous; being in part the adopted judgment of the acutest and most competent critics, and in part the united fuffrage of many, on a comparison of their mutual feelings : and, though it be true, as Johnson obferves, "that the author of Paradife Loft could not be fuppofed to write without great effufions of fancy, and exalted precepts of wifdom," the fact is, that the Paradife Regained is far inferior. Deep thinking, fold learning, and occafional flashes of tranfcendent genius, are indeed confpicuous in it; but these excellences are in part counterbalanced by a lefs perfect vertification, intended as more fimple, but fometimes actually profaic; and a general absence of those beauties and that fire which adorn and animate the former work. The fault of the plan is alfo invincible. It is not only too narrow, as the commentators have obferved, but it is falfe. No No mind acquiefces in the idea that the refiftance of the temptations in the wildernefs was the complete regaining of Paradife. The Death of Chrift is the great point to which every chriftian is taught to look, as to the final triumph of the Saviour over fin and death, and all the confequences of our fall: and it is in vain that the fublimeft genius is emploved to call forth a comparatively fmaller point of his mortal warfare, into fuperior notice. The mind revolts, and will not adopt the notion at the expence of all its preconceptions. The true plan for a "Paradife Regained" is certainly that which Mr. Cumberland has adopted in his very able poem of "Calvary," a poem by no means noticed as it deferves; in which, if it be faid that the writer has caught his infpiration from Milton, it ought to be allowed alfo that he has caught a general infpiration; not the artificial ebullition of a mere imitator, but the right direction of a fublime and original genius. Milton would, perhaps, have thought fuch a plan too like a continuation of his former poem; nevertheless it is the plan that common fenfe prefcribes, and which, with fuch variation as his mind could have given it, would have fucceeded better than his attempt to invent a new fpecies of epic. It is, however, true that the Paradife Regained has been too much neglected, and Mr. Dunster's edi tion will probably contribute to the defirable end of calling it into proper notice. It deferves, and will finally obtain univerfal praife, though not that enthufiafm of admiration which is extorted by feveral other works of its great author. This edition is profeffedly a variorum, and the names of Thyer, Newton, &c. will accordingly be found fubjoined to many of the notes; but the contributions of Mr. Dunfter are alfo numerous and frequently valuable. We fhall give a few fpecimens. B. I. 1. 5. "Waste wildernefs" "Thus in the fourth Book of this poem, ver. 523; And follow'd thee ftill on to this waste wild. Wafle is an epithet which our author had annexed to wilderness at an early period of his life. In his tranflation of the cxxxvith Pfalm, written when he was only fifteen, he has His chofen people he did blefs In the wafteful wilderness. In that inftance, perhaps, he borrowed the whole phrafe from his favorite Spenfer: *This is in effect obferved by Bentley, in a note on Paradife Loft, v. 182, and is not fatisfactorily anfwered by Mr. Dunfter, Far Far hence (quoth he) in wafteful wilderness Fairy Queen, b. i. c. 1. 32. But the expreffion and the application of it, in this place, were evidently taken from a paffage in Ifaiah. C. li. 3. "The Lord fhall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her wafte places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her defert like the garden of the Lord." From whence Pope alfo, in his Eloifa to Abelard, You rais'd thefe hallow'd walls, the defert fmil'd, The note on the following lines is worthy of attention: Against the fpiritual foe, and brought'it him thence As thou art wont, my prompted fong, else mute, &c. "In the very fine opening of the ninth book of the Paradife Loft, Milton thus fpeaks of the inspiration of the Mufe: If anfwerable file I can obtain Of my celestial patroness, who deigns So alfo in his invocation of Urania, at the beginning of the seventh book. More fafe I fing with mortal voice, unchang'd Urania. And in the introduction to the fecond book of "The Reason of Church Government" urged against Prelacy, where he promises to undertake fomething, he yet knows not what, that may be of use and honour to his country, he adds, "This is not to be obtained but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and fends out his Seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify whom he pleafes."-Here then we see, that Milton's invocations of the Divine Spirit were not merely exordia pro forma. Indeed his profe works are not without their invocations." Milton's third wife, who furvived him many years, related of him, that he used to compofe his poetry chiefly in winter; and, on his waking in a morning, would make her write down fometimes twenty or thirty verfes. Being afked, whether he did not often read Homer and and Virgil, the understood it as an imputation upon him for ftealing from thofe authors, and answered with eagerness, "he ftole from nobody but the Mufe who infpired him;" and, being asked by a lady prefent who the Mufe was, replied, "it was God's grace and the Holy Spirit that vifited him nightly." Mr. Dunfter alfo illuftrates his author very frequently by fimilar paffages from the claffic writers of antiquity, which is in no poems more neceffary than in thofe of Milton, whofe mind was fo completely impregnated with ancient learning. He illuftrates his expreffions alfo from other parts of Milton's own works, and from prior poets, particularly Spenfer, and from Scriptural paffages; in all which methods he performs the part of a useful and fagacious commentator. Where he defends the poet against objections, he generally does it well, when he propofes new readings, which however is but feldom, he is not always fo happy. Thus in b. ii. 1. 51, he would read "pointed out," for pointed at," which is equivalent in fenfe, and better in found. But, on the whole, the edition is fuch as the public will receive with pleafure, as it has already received his edition of Philips's Cider, with its provincial, hiftorical, and claffical annotations. ART..IX. Newcome's Hiftory of St. Alban. (Concluded from our last, page 416.) WE E now enter upon the fecond part of this hiftory, embellifhed with a ground-plan of the abbey, as it was in 1250, with another of the church at a later period, and with a new map of the county; as the firit part was with view of the abbeychurch. We fhall only notice, that the map was quite unneceffary, we apprehend, after the map formed by Drury and Andrews. Having in our last review urged fome objections to Mr. Newcome's account, concerning the different parts of that building, which is the principal object of his work: we now pafs on to other paffages, in which the author appears to much greater advantage, and rifes to his proper elevation in our efteem. For this purpofe we thall go to the diffolution. Henry proceeded in procuring other acts," as " an act to give the King the annates or firit fruits of all ecclefiaftic benefices. By an act paffed two years before, thefe had been directed to be no longer payable to the Pope; and the ecclefiaftics hoped they were for ever delivered from this payment. But by this act they were revived, and paid to the King; and a new valuation of all church preferments was nade. The fame act alfo appointed an annual payment to be made, called the tenths.-The annates was [were] originally no more than one years rent or profit; and was [were] a mode impofed on fome new incumbents, when Ruftand was collector for the Pope, in Henry the Third's time, inftituted in refemblance of the relief paid to the lay lord by every fucceeding tenant of copyhold. It began firft in the diocefe of Norwich, whofe bifhop, in the above reign, was legate and reprefentative to the Pontiff; and thence it was fpread, and in about a century became general. But thefe innovators changed its old name, as if to difguife its origin, and called it now by a new appellation of firft fruits. As this was made in analogy to the fine, paid on taking up an eftate, among laymen, fo they ordained the payment of tenths, in imitation of yearly quit-rent; intending hereby to propagate the opinion, that the temporalities of the church were holden by the like kind of tenure, as thofe of the laity." This forms a better account than we have ever yet seen, of that heavy burden as it must have been at firft upon the clergy, (though the finking value of money has lightened it wonderfully at prefent, and is lightening it every day) the payment of firft-fruits by a new valuation, on taking poffeffion of every living, and the payment of the tenth of them every year after wards. "The vifitors," fent by Henry to the monafteries, "had doubt lefs received a full leffon at their departure; and were ordered to intimidate and terrify, with all poffible threats of rigor, and hints of the danger which the monks were in from the premunire. Applications were made to them fuitable to their cafe; the timid were frightened, the flout were tempted, the faultlefs were courted, and the guilty and vicious were terrified: in fhort, before Christmas, many fmall houfes had furrendered their charters.—An offer was made, that all who had profeffed under twenty-four years of age, fhould be at liberty to depart, and put on a fecular habit; but the monks, not knowing how to live in the bufy world, fo contrary to their accustomed ways, chose to ftay. The report of the vifitors was completed and published by the month of January, 1535-6; and was fuppofed to contain all the worft relations that could be gathered, and that done in haste; for the vifitors finished their work in ten weeks. The full report never lived long; and Burnet faw only an abftract, containing an account of one hundred and forty-four houfes, which, for their abominations and fuperftitions, he dwells on with his wonted credulity, and great predilection for fcandal." A note adds thus: " in this return, of which the original (or an authentic copy from it) may be feen in the British Mufcum, the general character of the houfe is fet down in a very Yet Mr. Newcome, in that fpirit of forgetfulness which we have had too much occafion to note before, has told us just now that "the full report never lived long," and that " only an abstract" was feen by Burnet. fhort |