Imatges de pàgina
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not on Milton himself, we would fain cast the blame. So utterly visionary and Utopian are they in themselves, though propounded in majestic language, and interspersed with the sublimest and noblest thoughts, that there is no fear, and never was, of his finding followers, or forming a sect. And, in fact, he who errs with him must be endued with the same gigantic powers of soul and intellect as he possessed, which will for ever preclude any danger that might arise from studying his works. We regard him as a much misunderstood, ill-used, and disappointed man. With Hamlet, he might have exclaimed

'The time is out of joint ;-O cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!'

But this was a work beyond even his powers. Still, he set about it manfully and resolutely, and, failing, he delivered his own soul.

We can well understand why his works should be unpopular, especially to those who do not penetrate beneath the surface; and our desire is not so much to direct attention to his opinions, but to the oftentimes magnificent language in which they are clothed-not to recommend all that he wrote, but certain parts, which we would not willingly let die, or remain in an undeserved and unjust oblivion. We do not hesitate to say that the reading of his works by those whose principles are formed, however much they seem to fall in with and foster republican views, would tend

to generate a healthy tone in these degenerate days, and that from the lofty, and majestic, and high-minded spirit which pervades them. Honesty of purpose and consistency of conduct, in the midst of severe temptation, are the characteristic marks and the true glory of Milton. He is the most splendid example which could be cited of the truth of that noble stanza of Horace (Carm. iii., 3).

'Justum ac tenacem propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava jubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni

Mente quatit solida, neque Auster,

Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ,

Nec fulminantis magna manus Jovis :
Si fractus illabatur orbis,

Impavidum ferient ruinæ.'

He was no reed shaken with the wind, but onward he pursued his course, through good report and evil report. He commands our respect even where we most differ from him. Take the simple fact that he took office under the usurper Cromwell, and refused to take office under the Restoration, though urged to do so, and we see how consistent and noble was that mind which excessive light alone led astray. In a word, he had grace to live

"As ever in his great Taskmaster's eye;"

not meaning that God is a hard taskmaster to anyone, but that He has given to everyone his allotted task to do in this world; and this is what Milton desired to find out, and then did with all his might.

26

OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND,

AND THE CAUSES THAT HITHERTO HAVE HINDERED IT.

WE

WRITTEN TO A FRIEND.

E are glad this work comes first under notice, because it furnishes a good specimen of Milton's peculiar style. The length of the sentences almost takes away one's breath, and the wonder is how those which occur in his speeches could have been spoken by him; just as we wonder how the actors in the ancient theatres madet hemselves heard by an audience of thirty thousand in the open air. Long as they are, they are built up most artistically, and we confess to liking them in Milton, though perhaps we should not in any one else.

The exordium and the peroration of this remarkable production are exceedingly grand and striking. The latter astonishes and enchants us by its powerful and matchless eloquence, and its richly musical cadences. It has never been surpassed in any language, and is a glorious specimen of impassioned prose. Such an outburst seems to us little less than direct in

spiration. It is in fact a prose-poem, a patriotic lyric; and naturally prompts the question where does poetry begin and prose end, and what is the proper domain of each art? for here we see them invading each other. Macaulay doubtless had this celebrated passage in view when he spoke of his prose style as 'stiff with gorgeous embroidery-a perfect field of cloth of gold.' This burst of 'devotional and lyric rapture,' in which his excited feelings find a vent, and others, especially in the Areopagitica, seem to us to rival the poetry of the Paradise Lost. We have said so much that we think our readers will not thank us if we detain them any longer from the rich feast we propose to set before them.

"Amidst those deep and retired thoughts, which, with every man Christianity instructed, ought to be most frequent of God, and of His miraculous ways and works amongst men, and of our religion and works, to be performed to Him; after the story of our Saviour Christ, suffering to the lowest bent of weakness in the flesh, and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in the spirit, which drew up His body also, till we in both be united to Him in the revelation of His kingdom: I do not know of anything more worthy to take up the whole passion of pity on the one side, and joy on the other, than to consider first the foul and sudden corruption, and then, after many a tedious age,

the long deferred, but much more wonderful and happy reformation of the church in these latter days. Sad it is to think how that doctrine of the gospel, planted by teachers divinely inspired, and by them winnowed and sifted from the chaff of overdated ceremonies, and refined to such a spiritual height and temper of purity, and knowledge of the Creator, that the body, with all the circumstances of time and place, were purified by the affections of the regenerate soul, and nothing left impure but sin; faith needing not the weak and fallible office of his senses, to be either the ushers or interpreters of heavenly mysteries, save where our Lord Himself in His sacraments ordained; that such a doctrine should, through the grossness and blindness of her professors, and the fraud of deceivable traditions, drag so downwards, as to backslide one way into the Jewish beggary of old cast rudiments, and stumble forward another way into the new-vomited paganism of sensual idolatry, attributing purity or impurity to things indifferent, that they might bring the inward acts of the spirit to the outward and customary eyeservice of the body, as if they could make God earthly and fleshly, because they could not make themselves heavenly and spiritual; they began to draw down all the divine intercourse betwixt God and the soul, yea, the very shape of God Himself, into an exterior and bodily form, urgently pretending a necessity and obligement of joining the

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