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THE PARADISE REGAINED.

"In either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as first
To the subjected plain; then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate

With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms.

Some natural tears they dropped, but wiped them soon.
The world was all before them where to choose

Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way."

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Of Milton's later poem-the "Paradise Regained"-I have space but for one remark. It has never attained its just fame, because it is forever forced into irrational comparison with the "Paradise Lost." It is essentially different in its whole character, for the simplest of all reasons,-its adaptation to the nature of its subject; a difference analogous, as has been remarked, to that between the style of the Old and New Testaments. The poem is entitled to a judgment by a positive standard, and thus only can justice be rendered to its admirable meditative imagination. There is a tradition that the poet himself always denied its inferiority to the "Paradise Lost." I am strongly inclined to think that this meant that he resented what he knew was a senseless comparison of two poems intrinsically different. The "Paradise Regained" gives no sanction to the opinion that it betrays a failure of the author's genius. It was an appropriation of his powers to a new and different kind of poetic creation.

The last of his poems was the "Samson Agonistes," an English drama in the severest classical form of the Greek tragedy. The student of Milton's poetry will

read it with enthusiasm, were it only for its shadowing forth the author's own fortunes, his dearest hopes betrayed, and left, old and blind, among enemies. The poet was a man to bow without repining to his Maker's will, dark as that will might be; and I cannot help thinking that this tragic drama was an invention for him to relieve his overcharged heart,-to utter complaints,-to say more bitter things with the tongue of Samson than with his We can fancy it the voice of John Milton when the once indomitable but now captive Israelite breaks forth in that piteous and withal majestic utterance of a blind man's agony :-

own.

"Oh, dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse

Without all hope of day!

'Let there be light, and light was over all.'

Why am I thus bereaved thy prime decree?
The sun to me is dark

And silent as the moon,

When she deserts the night,

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave."

In the early part of this lecture I spoke of what had struck me as the magnanimity of Milton's boyhood. That magnanimity had grown with the labours and afflictions of his eventful life; and the parting thought I have of this great poet finds expression in the last words of his last poem :-that he was one whom God

"With peace and consolation hath dismissed,

And calm of mind, all passion spent."

LECTURE VII.

Minor Poetry of the Seventeenth Century.

Character of the transition from Milton to Dryden-The rank of Dryden among the poets-English imagination in his age—Influence of Milton's genius upon his contemporaries and successorsWordsworth's apostrophe to Milton-Decline of imaginative energy —Metaphysical poetry—Daniel and Drayton-Drayton's Polyolbion -Lamb's notice of this poem-Donne and Cowley-The sin of this school of poetry-Poetry a subject for studious thoughtfulness-Donne's "Lecture"- Character of Cowley's genius- His prose essays "The Complaint"-The conceits of the poetry of this period-Herbert's lines on Virtue; Life; Peace-Herbert's self-criticism-Sacred poetry of the seventeenth century-Robert Herrick-His Litany to the Holy Spirit-The music of his verseLiterary interest of the Civil War-Lord Chatham on the character of this struggle―The Puritan system adverse to poetic cultureRichard Lovelace "To Althea, from prison"-George Wither-His character-His address to his Muse-A tribute to Wither's me

mory.

IN tracing the progress of English Poetry thus far, there has been no occasion for doubt in selecting the poets who may justly be deemed its representatives in different eras. The light of poetic inspiration first held on high by old Chaucer was given in succession to the giant hands of Spenser, of Shakspeare, and of Milton,-men of such might that no one ventures to question the supremacy of any of them in his own age. We have moved on,

turning over the annals of a dynasty of noble poets,—the noblest of their kind. Preserving the historical character of these lectures, I pass from the name of Milton to that of Dryden. But this is a transition not to be made without pausing to reflect on the changes that at that period were beginning to pass over the spirit of the English Muse. The transition is a transition of descent: it will bring us down into a lower region. We have been dwelling among the mountains, and have caught the voice of poetry carried on from one lofty peak to another; and, after listening to the solemn strains of the "Paradise Lost" echoing in the upper air, we hear the next sound, far away, rising up in the lowlands. Is it then at all surprising that I am approaching this period of English poetry with reluctance? I find I am making excuses to myself for lingering a while longer in the high and pure atmosphere, a sunny region full of life,—when the path I must follow leads precipitately down into a valley not wholly free from unwholesome shades and fogs obscuring the placid canopy of the blue sky.

The most indulgent criticism appropriates to Dryden no higher station than the first rank among the secondary English poets. His period is the last thirty years of the seventeenth century. The character of the literature was undergoing a great change. The spirit of the nation, too, was changing; and its poetry especially betrayed sympathy and suffering with the change, for it was losing much of its distinctive character. Public opinion and feeling were, by the operation of causes remaining to be noticed, abased and corrupted; and poetry did not escape the contagion. The high moral tone of the Muse of the great earlier poets was lowered; and English imagination, part

THE POETICAL RANK OF DRYDEN.

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ing with a portion of its native strength and simplicity, became at once a meaner and more mechanical thing. The change was not a sudden one; at least there had been indications of it at a much earlier period; and I propose, therefore, before closing the examination of the poetry of the seventeenth century with Dryden, to glance over the previous portions of that century, for the purpose of ascertaining what were the various manifestations of its literature, and especially those tending to form its fashion, at the close of that age. In this it will be necessary to notice some of the poets whom I passed by when I entered on the subject of my last lecture. It will be perceived that I am taking the liberty of deviating a little from the original prospectus of the course, in devoting one lecture (the present) to the minor poetry of the seventeenth century; it being my intention to appropriate the next lecture to the poetry of both Dryden and Pope, the times of the Restoration and of Queen Anne.

In taking a retrospect of the literary character and influence of any age, it is necessary to guard against falling into the error of supposing that an author whose fame has been realized by posterity possessed equal repute and authority in his own day. I selected, for instance, without hesitation, Milton, as the great poet of the middle of the seventeenth century; and yet the poetry of Milton was far from being the influential—the dominant-poetry of those times. Smaller stars were in the ascendant. When we come, therefore, to the transition from Milton to Dryden, the poetry of the latter differs so essentially from the former that one would be at fault in comprehending the change in so short a space of time, unless we turn to other poetry to discover in it some

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