imagination revelled equally in regions of mirth, beauty and terror, now evoking spectres, now sporting with fairies, and now “ascending the highest heaven of invention.” Milton was cast on times too solemn and eventful, was called to take part in transactions too perilous, and had too perpetual need of the presence of high thoughts and motives, to indulge himself in light and gay creations, even had his genius been more flexible and sportive. But Milton's poetry, though habitually serious, is always healthful, and bright, and vigorous. It has no gloom. He took no pleasure in drawing dark pictures of life; for he knew by experience, that there is a power in the soul to transmute calamity into an occasion and nutriment of moral power and triumphant virtue. We find nowhere in his writings that whining sensibility and exaggeration of morbid feeling, which makes so much of modern poetry effeminating. If he is not gay he is not spirit-broken. His L’Allegro proves that he understood thoroughly the bright and joyous aspects of nature; and in his Pensoroso, where he was tempted to accumulate images of gloom, we learn that the saddest views which he took of creation, are such as inspire only pensive musing or lofty contemplation. - - - - - CONTENTS, Took I. ...................... 1 Book VII. ... 140 - II........................... ..... 22 || – VIII. ... ..... . . 156 – III. .................... 49 || – IX. ... ... - - - - - - - 173 – IV. ............ ... 68 || – X........... - 203 - V. ................... 94 | – XI. ... ... . . . 231 - VI. .............................. 117 | – XII. ... 254 Book I. ................ 271 Book III. ........... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 29s – II........................... 285 – IV: .......... --- ... 311 Samson Agonistes ..................................... ... . 329 Lycidas .......................................... 375 L'Allegro.............................. .... 380 Il PEN.senoso.............................. . . ... 384 ARCADEs ................................... . 38.9 Consus ........................................................................... 395 PAGE Page To the Nightingale.................. 423 On the religious memory of Mrs. On his being arrived at the Age Catherine Thomson............... 427 of Twenty-three .................. ib. To the Lord General Fairfax ... ib. When the Assault was intended To the Lord General Cromwell 428 to the City......................... 424 || To Sir Harry Vane, the Younger ib. To a Virtuous Young Lady...... ib. On the late Massacre in Piomont 429 To the Lady Margaret Ley ...... 425 || On his Blindness............ --- ib. on the Detraction which followed To Mr. Lawrence............. 430 on my writing certainTreatises ib. To Cyriack Skinner ... ib. On the same ........................... 426 || To the same ............ - - - - - - - - --- 431 To Mr. H. Lawes, on the pub- On his deceased Wife............... ib lishing his Airs................... ... ib. On the Morning of Christ's Na- Anno AEtatis six. .................. 447 tivity ................................. 432 An Epitaph on William Shaks- The Passion........................... 439 peare ................................. 450 Upon the Circumcision............ 440 An Epitaph on the University On the Death of a Fair Infant... 441 Carrier .............................. ib. At a Solemn Music.................. 443 Another on the same.............. 451 An Epitaph on the Marchioness On the New Forcers of Con- of Winchester ..................... 444 science.............................. 452 Song on May Morning............ 446 On Time........................ --------- ib. - PAGE PAGE From Dante...... ib. From Sophocles ... --- ib. From Ariosto ......... ib. From Seneca.......... --------- ib. Psalm I.................................. 457 | Psalm LXXXII. .................. 469 II. ..... ib. – LXXXIII. ... --- 470 -- III. ... -458 – LXXXIV. ... 472 - Elegia Prima ........................ 484 | Elegia Quinta ...................... 402 Elegia Secunda .......... 486 | Elegia Sexta ... ...-------- 496 Elegia Tertia........................... 487 Elegia Septima ... 498 In Proditionem Bombardicam. 502 Ad Eandem .......................... 504 In Eandem.............................. ib. Apologus de Rustico et Hero ... ib. - o - In Eandem..... ... ib. Ad Christinam Suecorum Regi- - In Eandem.... ... 503 nam, Nomine Cromwell......... ib. In Inventorem loombaruas ...... ib. In Salmasii Hundredam ...... 505 Ad Leonaram, Romae Canentem ib. In Salmasium ..................... ib. Psalm coiv. ........................... 506, Ad Patrem.............................. 519 In Obitum Procancellari Medici 507 AdSalsillum, Poetam Romanum, In Quintum Novembris............ 508 AEgrotantem ........................ 522 In Obitum Praesulis Eliensis ... 514 || Mansus ................................. 523 Naturam. Non Pati Semium ...... 516 Epitaphium Damonis............... 526 De Idea Platonica Quemadmo- Ad Joannem Rousium, Oxonien- dum. Aristoteles Intellexit...... 517 sis Academiae Bibliothecarium 532 ITALIAN Son.NETs .......................................................................... 535 The First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, Man's disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was placed: then touches the prime cause of his fall, the serpent or rather Satan in the serpent; who, revolting from God, and drawing to his side many legions of angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of heaven, with all his crew, into the great deep. Which action passed over, the poem hastens into the midst of things, presenting Satan, with his angels, now fallen into hell, described, here, not in the centre (for heaven and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed,) but in a place of utterdarkness, fitliest called Chaos: here Satan, with his angels, lying on the burning lake, thunder-struck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion, calls up him who next in order and dignity lay by him: they confer of their miserable fall: Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded. They rise; their numbers; array of battle; their chief leaders named according to the idols known afterward in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regaining heaven, buttells them lastly of a new world, and a new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy, or report, in heaven; for, that angels were long before this visible creation, was the opinion of many ancient fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determine thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of satan, rises | suddenly built out of the deep: the infernal peers there sit in council. | Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, |
