CHAPTER III.

CRITICAL NOTES UPON A PORTION OF PARADISE LOST.

[This chapter is derived from an anonymous London work, and is proposed as a model of criticism where figurative language is concerned, particularly in poetic composition.]

SATAN'S SPEECH.-Paradise Lost, Book ii., 1. 11.

THE debate is opened by Satan, and his speech should naturally turn, in the first place, on vindicating his right to preside; and, in the second place, on the subject for which they are met, that is, how they are to regain their lost inheritance.

This division is extremely simple, but it is very oratorical, as it affords Milton the opportunity of characterizing Satan by his known vice, PRIDE, which he displays while he asserts his right to pre-eminence Pow'rs and dominions, deities of heav'n; For, since no deep within her gulf can hold Immortal vigor, though oppress'd and fall'n, I give not heav'n for lost. From this descent Celestial virtue's rising, will appear

More glorious and more dread than from no fall,
And trust themselves to fear no second fate.

Me, though just right, and the fix'd laws of heaven,

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Book II., 1. 11.-Satan's character is seen in the very first line of his address. It is all pomp, but the climax is masterly: first, he compliments them with strength, then with strength added to dominion; and lastly, strength and dominion crowned with godhead. In the last word of this line there is artful encouragement, which he proves in the three following lines.

L. 12. Here you may observe a bold Pleonasm, used by Milton to paint the dreadful profundity of hell; for saying a deep holds within its gulf, is the same thing as a deep holds within its deep; but the poet felt the force of the imagery, and ventured the figure.

L. 15.-Celestial virtues. Here the cause is elegantly used for the effect, for virtue inspires confidence on the knowledge of its own rectitude, and vigor and exertion are the result. The demons are therefore called Celestial Virtues, alluding to the immortal vigor which Satan bestows upon them, in order to encour age them to reascend to heaven.

L. 18.-Here, and in two or three of the following lines, he enumerates his reasons for supremacy: (1) just right, suggested by pride; (2) fate, here called the fixed laws of heaven; (3) free choice of his subjects; (4, 5) merit in council, and merit in fight, are only glanced at.

Did first create your leader, next free choice,
With what besides, in counsel or in fight,
Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss
Thus far at least recover'd, hath much more
Establish'd in a safe, unenvied throne,
Yielded with full consent. The happier state
In heav'n, which follows dignity, might draw
Envy from each inferior; but who here
Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thunderer's aim,
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share
Of endless pain? Where there is then no good
For which to strive, no strife can grow up there
From faction; for none sure will claim in hell
Precedence; none, whose portion is so small

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30

L. 26 presents a sixth reason (i. e.), none will dispute precedence in sufferings with him. This is not barely hinted at, but introduced by a bold INTERROGATION: "Who here will envy ?"

L. 27.-Whom the highest place exposes, &c. This is one of those bold strokes of imagery for which Milton is distinguished. L. 28.-Thunderer. SYNECDOCHE; that is, a part for the whole, for he that can do all things can likewise thunder; and as this exertion of his power is peculiarly alarming, we borrow from it the appellation of the author.

L. 29.-Your bulwark. A METAPHOR. A mound raised to withstand the impetuosity of the sea is a bulwark. It conveys an idea of the evils Satan will have to support, to save his infernal associates from the wrath of the Divinity.

L. 30.-Here is an instance of a beautiful oratorical Sorites, a kind of argument in which, generally, the predicate of one proposition is made the subject of the one that follows, and the subject of the first is also the subject of the last proposition, or conclusion, as when Themistocles argued in regard to his son, a boy of three years old, "My son commands his mother; his mother commands me; I command the Athenians; the Athenians command Greece; Greece commands Europe; Europe commands the whole earth: therefore my son commands the whole earth."

The example before us is not quite so complete, or strictly logical :

Where there is no good to be gained there can be no strife: Where there is no strife there can be no faction;

And where there is no faction there must be union.

This sorites ends in 1. 36.

L. 31.-No strife can grow up there from faction. A metaphor, so much the more just, as it may be applied to a noxious weed L. 32, 33-A persuasive repetition of none.

1

Of present pain, that with ambitious mind
Will covet more. With this advantage, then,
To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,
More than can be in heav'n, we now return
To claim our just inheritance of old,
Surer to prosper than prosperity

Could have assured us; and by what best way,
Whether of open war or covert guile,

We now debate: who can advise, may speak.

MOLOCH'S SPEECH

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40

If the former speech is characteristic, this is not ess so. It paints the fierce spirit, who is now fiercer by despair, as Milton beautifully expresses it: the four ines he gives us on this subject are inimitable.

His trust was with the Eternal to be deem'd
Equal in strength, and rather than be less,
Cared not to be at all; with that care lost,
Went all his fear of God, or hell, or worse,
He reck'd not.

My sentence is for open war of wiles
More unexpert, I boast not them let those
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now.
For while they sit contriving, shall the rest,
Millions that stand in arms, and longing wait
The signal to ascend, sit lingering here

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55

Heav'n's fugitives, and for their dwelling place

L. 34, 35.-Ambitious mind will covet more. Here one passion borrows an expression from another, that is, ambition has recourse to avarice for the term covet, in order to strengthen the idea.

L. 37.-More than can be in heaven. This is an artful oratorica. consequence, from the supposition that there must be envy in heaven on account of dignity, and none in hell on account of pain.

L. 39, 40.-A rational antithesis and jeu de mots: surer to prosper than prosperity could have assured us.

L. 41.-Open war or covert guile. A second antithesis, concise and simple.

L. 51.-An abrupt exordium, well suiting the stern spirit who utters it. The contrast and alliteration of war and wiles owe much of their beauty to their conciseness.

L. 55.-A grand image. Millions that stand in arms. Sullenness generally proposes its arguments in disdainful interrogations. "Shall the rest sit lingering here," &c.

Accept this dark, opprobrious den of shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns

By our delay? No, let us rather choose,

60

Arm'd with hell-flames and fury, all at once

O'er heav'n's high towers to force resistless way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms

Against the Torturer; when to meet the noise

Of his infernal engine he shall hear

65

Infernal thunder, and for lightning see

Black fire and horror shot with equal rage

Among his angels, and his throne itself

Mix'd with Tartarean sulphur, and strange fire,
His own invented torments. But perhaps
The way seems difficult and steep, to scale
With upright wing against a higher foe.
Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench
Of that forgetful lake benumb not still,
That in our proper motion we ascend
Up to our native seat: descent and fall
To us is adverse.

L. 58.-Den of shame.

Shame is here personified. The prison of his tyranny, that is, which his tyranny has made: an example of ellipsis.

L. 61.-Arm'd with hell-flames and fury. A bold catachresis. See p. 103.

L. 63. The idea of turning his tortures into arms is nobly diabolical. Here the effect is put for the cause by metonymy.

L. 67.-See black fire and horror shot. There is a catachresis in the sense of the word black, as it is here applied to fire, there being an allusion to the revolving smoke with which the fire is enveloped. To shoot horror is a metonymy, as it gives the effect for the cause. L. 69.-Tartarean. Allusion to the hell of the Gentiles. See ch. xxxvii., pt. ii.

Strange fire. Allusion to the Sacred Scriptures. They offered strange fire before the Lord.-Levit.

L. 71, 72.-To scale with upright wing. A striking image. The metaphor is taken from fortification.

L. 73.-The sleepy drench of that forgetful lake. Allusion to the River Lethe.

L. 75.-There is a beautiful simile in these words artfully conveyed to the mind without expressing it; we conceive the infernal spirits to resemble pyramids of fire, whose proper motion is te

ascend.

CHAPTER IV.

DEFINITIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS.

In the discussion and exhibition of truth, the shortest and clearest way is to begin with a good definition or description of the thing before you. Obscurity, contradiction, and, of course, much wrangling, even error itself, will almost always disappear, if you take care previously to fix the state of the question, and explain the point which you mean to establish. One single judicious definition throws light upon a whole speech, a dissertation, and even a whole work. False reasoning and absurd contentions generally spring 'rom error in, or the omission of, a definition or description.

A good logical definition explains the thing that it defines. in terms more clear than those in which it is conveyed. There must not be a single word of it without its use: it must comprehend all the thing that is to be defined, and that thing only; that is to say, that under what light soever you consider an object, its definition should agree to it, and to it alone.

The rules of an oratorical or poetical definition are the same as those of a logical definition; that is, both must give a clear and distinct idea of the things they define; but the orator and the poet, in place of confining themselves to the nature of objects, consider them sometimes in their causes, and sometimes in their effects. Thus it is, that by means of accessory ideas you will observe their definitions skirted with all the brilliancy of imagination.

Take, for example, a translation of Cicero's definition of praise it is oratorical :

"Praise is the well-merited applause for upright actions and public-spirited achievements, approved of not only by the good in particular, but by the world in general."

As a logician, Cicero would have reduced it to this: "Praise is honorable mention frequently made of a person." But as an orator, he is equally exact, and much more interesting, by the harmonious display of the causes of praise, and of those by whom it is given.

The following is a charming definition of thought:

"The hermit's solace in his cell,

The fire that warms the poet's brain;

The lover's heaven or his hell,

The madman's sport, the wise man's pain."