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indignation with which his admirers may now regard this fact, it is to the honour of his countrymen that, in defiance of his numerous enemies, its sale was rapid, and the admiration it excited almost universal. Some of the most eminent men of his time addressed to him the highest 5 eulogies; and its first announcement to the world was worthy of its pre-eminent worth. Sir John Denman, a man distinguished as a soldier, a senator, and a poet, entered the House of Commons with a proof-sheet of Milton's work wet from the press, and exclaimed, "This is part of the noblest poem that ever was written in any language or in any age." And Dryden's exclamation on first seeing it was no less pithy: "This man cuts us all out, and the ancients too!

Ere the first edition of the poem had been sold, its author was 66 numbered with the mighty dead." With a dissolution so easy that it was unperceived by those attending him, he closed a life, clouded indeed by uncom mon and various calamities, yet ennobled by the constant exercise of great virtues and rare endowments.

In the Church of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, in the presence of a large assemblage of his countrymen, England's noblest poet was committed to the dust, calm in the Christian's " sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality."

'pamphlet, a small book consisting of a few sheets not bound. 2 epic, a great poem treating of some heroic deed or deeds in a lofty and noble style. 3 alleviate, to make light; relieve; soften. 4 recur, to come back; return, eulogies, praises.

1

SHORT PASSAGES FROM MILTON.

DESCRIPTION OF SATAN.

He, above the rest

In shape and gesture proudly eminent,

Stood like a tower: his form had yet not lost
All its original brightness; nor appear'd
Less than archangel ruin'd, and the excess
Of glory obscured: as when the sun, new risen,
Looks through the horizontal misty air,

Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
'Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd so, yet shone
Above them all the archangel; but his face
Deep scars of thunder had intrench'd; and care
Sat on his faded cheek.

Paradise Lost, Book I.

Perplexes monarchs. It was formerly thought that eclipses were forerunners of some dreadful event, as the destruction of kingdoms, change of rulers, pestilence, etc.

MILTON ON HIS BLINDNESS.

Thus with the year

Seasons return; but not to me returns

Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose,
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine;
But clouds instead, and everduring dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and for the book of knowledge fair
Presented with a universal blank

Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial light,

Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers 2 Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mist from thence Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell

Of things invisible to mortal sight.

Paradise Lost, Book III.

1 vernal, of spring. irradiate, illuminate; enlighten.

GOD PRAISED BY THE ANGELS.

No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all
The multitude of angels with a shout,

Loud as from numbers without number, sweet
As from bless'd voices, uttering joy, heaven rung
With jubilee, and loud hosannas fill'd

The eternal regions: lowly reverent

Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground,
With solemn adoration, down they cast
Their crowns inwove with 'amarant and gold;
Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In Paradise fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence

To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,

And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven Rolls o'er 2 Elysian flowers her amber stream;

With these, that never fade, the spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks, enwreathed with beams : Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone,

3

Impurpled with celestial roses, smiled.

Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took,
Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side
Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet
Of charming symphony they introduce
Their sacred song, and waken raptures high;
No voice exempt, no voice but well could join
Melodious part, such concord is in heaven.

Paradise Lost, Book III.

1 amarant, a never-fading flower, only existing in the imagination of poets. 2 Elysian, heavenly. The Elysian fields were the heaven of the ancients. 3jasper, a mineral of the flint kind, but harder, and of various colours. When polished it is very smooth and beautiful.

EVENING IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

Now came still evening on, and twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad ;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale,
She all night long her amorous' descant sung;
Silence was pleased: now glow'd the firmament
With living 2 sapphires: Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length

4 Apparent queen, unveil'd her 5 peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

Paradise Lost, Book IV.

1 descant, a song divided into parts, or modulations. 2 sapphire, a precious stone of various colours-blue, red, green, yellow, white, etc. Hesperus, the evening star. apparent, evident; manifest. 5 peerless, having no equal; unequalled.

1
EVE'S LAMENTATION.

"O unexpected stroke, worse than of death!
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave
Thee, native soil? these happy walks and shades,
Fit haunt of gods? where I had hope to spend,
Quiet, though sad, the respite of that day
That must be mortal to us both? O flowers,
That never will in other climate grow,

My early visitation, and my last

At even, which I bred up with tender hand
From the first opening bud, and gave ye names,
Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank

Your tribes, and water from the 2 ambrosial fount?

Thee, lastly, nuptial bower, by me adorn'd
With what to sight or smell was sweet, from thee
How shall I part, and whither wander down
Into a lower world; to this obscure

And wild? how shall we breathe in other air

Less pure, accustom'd to immortal fruits?"

Paradise Lost, Book XI.

1 Spoken by Eve when she learned that she and her husband were to be expelled from the garden of Eden. 2 ambrosial, of ambrosia, a name given by the poets to the food of the gods.

ADAM AND EVE'S DEPARTURE FROM PARADISE.
In either hand the hastening angel caught
Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast

1

To the subjected plain; then disappear'd.
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 throng'd, and fiery arms.
Some natural tears they dropt, 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.

2

Paradise Lost, Book XII.

1 subjected, lying beneath. flaming brand, the "flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life."

SAMSON BEWAILS HIS BLINDNESS.

O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
Without all hope of day!

O first-created beam, and Thou great Word,
"Let there be light, and light was over all;"
Why am I thus bereaved Thy prime decree?

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