APPENDIX. Singing their great Creator? oft in bands While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk BOOK IV. 674. In these lines is represented the gloom of night enlightened by the lustre of the heavenly bodies. This picture, without any attending circumstance, is grand and solemn. The view of the skies by night, the moon moving in the brightness of her course, and all the host of heaven performing their determined round, fill the mind with awe and adoration. But how wonderfully is the sublimity of the scene heightened by the introduction of aerial beings, walking their nightly round, contemplating the heavens, and to the "midnight air, sole, or responsive each to other's note, singing their great Creator." The famous night-scene of Homer, and all the night-scenes ever drawn, are inferior to this. "But see the angry victor hath recall'd His ministers of vengeance and pursuit, Back to the gates of heaven: the sulphurous hail Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid The fiery surge, that from the precipice H APPENDIX. Of heaven received us falling; and the thunder, "Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate The gran This passage is throughout sublime. deur and correspondent harmony of the numbers are wonderful. No comment is necessary to point out its particular excellence. We see in it all the fallen greatness of " the Arch-angel," and the inventive rebellion of his heart. APPENDIX. Though Paradise Regained is eclipsed by the superior lustre of Paradise Lost; yet it contains many eminent beauties. Had it been written by any other pen than Milton's, it would perhaps have been more read, and been more celebrated: But the voice of criticism having ranked it far beneath the other great work of its author, it is now doomed, with Homer's Odyssey, to a partial oblivion. It deserves not this fate; for it is still the strain of Milton, which, like Apollo's lyre, has descended from the heavens. The following passage will shew if these remarks be just. It presents a picture of our Saviour, amid the terrors of the wilderness, still pursued by the temptation and malice of Satan. "Darkness now rose, As day-light sunk, and brought in low'ring night Whose branching arms thick intertwin'd might shield, But shelter'd slept in vain; for at his head The tempter watch'd, and soon with ugly dreams APPENDIX. Disturb'd his sleep; and either tropic now 'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven the clouds Infernal ghosts, and hellish furies, round Environ'd thee, some howl'd, some yell'd, some shriek'd. Some bent at thee their fiery darts; while thou Sat'st unappall'd in calm and sinless peace. Thus pass'd the night so foul, till morning fair Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds, To tempt the son of God with terrors dire. PAR. REGAINED, B. IV. Homer, in age and sublimity in action, approaches nearer than any other poet to the inspired writers. Early criticism has frowned upon him in vain. Time has increased the veneration bestowed APPENDIX. upon his name. Since he sang to his harp, ages have rolled on; heard his song, and admired. His faults have been called blots in the sun, which can scarcely be discovered amid the continued glory of his beams. From his Iliad it is difficult to select a passage to which preference should be given. The battle of the gods, the interview of Priam and Achilles, the night-scene, the combat of Hector and Ajax, and the apparition of Patroclus, have generally obtained the highest meed of praise. I offer the following passage, which has been less frequently noticed than those which have been mentioned, but which is undoubtedly equal to either of them, in most characteristics of Genius. It is the description of Achilles, after his reconciliation with Agamemnon, preparing for battle, Full in the midst, high-tow'ring o'er the rest, The silver cuishes first his thighs enfold: That, starr'd with gems, hung glittering at his side; |