A CRITIQUE ON PARADISE LOST. 105 



to pronounce on the merit of the poem. Now we know that nar- 

 ration, description, argument, and wit, each possess a peculiar 

 beauty and utility of their own ; and this, whether they appear in 

 verse or prose, and consequently that they must bestow a value 

 on any work which exhibits them. But the value of a poem, as 

 a poem, must depend on the poetry, which should be scattered 

 throughout, and to which all these other elements should be con- 

 sidered as subservient. You may as well speak of the beauty of 

 an illumination where unlighted lamps are supported on Corin- 

 thian pillars, as of a poem which presents taste, wit, and judgment, 

 but where these are not made the supports to the poetic flame. 

 There is one other error on which it may be proper here to animad- 

 vert that of mistaking the treating of high ideas for raising the 

 ideas. This is an error so gross and palpable, that I should not 

 have thought it necessary to expose it here, had it not been one so 

 generally entertained. Our ideas of objects are naturally propor- 

 tioned to their several importance, and consequently in discoursing 

 of highly important objects we excite in our hearers high ideas ; 

 this is one thing ; but it is also possible sometimes and in a 

 certain manner to raise ideas in our hearers higher than the objects 

 of which we treat; this is another thing. The first is done by the 

 very dictionary of philosophy and religion; the second is an 

 essential of poetry. If we open indeed the very commonest dic- 

 tionary at the word God angel devil it suggests at once to our 

 minds some of the highest ideas of which we are capable, and these 

 a. philosophical disquisition may improve and correct, and thus 

 perhaps even ex-alt but only towards -never beyond the object 

 treated of ; whereas if poetry light upon the meanest object, the 

 ideas may be raised to a height of ecstacy. A few lines of Words- 

 worth will illustrate this position ; he is describing a field of 

 yellow daffodils shaken by the wind on a sun-shiny day : the 

 idea with which he imbues the reader is the playing of a man's 

 spirits in the 'sunshine of the breast.' " 



The reason of Milton's failure in some of his attempts 

 is thus pointed out : 



" I think it will appear upon consideration that many of the 

 subjects treated of in Paradise Lost are such as necessarily to ex- 

 clude the developement of poetry. The subjects are God and 

 Satan the spirit and essence of perfect good, and the spirit and 

 essence of perfect evil. How are mankind's ideas upon such sub- 

 jects to be raised ? by association ? surely not. Every associ- 

 ation must here tend to degrade rather than exalt ; there is nothing 

 to associate them with but that which is below them. You may 

 raise man's ideas in discoursing of unorganized matter, by associ- 

 ating it with that to which it is subservient vegetable life ; you 

 may raise his ideas of this, by associating it with animal energy; 

 of this by associating it with spiritual ; but the idea of God 

 is a supreme idea there is nothing above it to associate it with. 

 VOL. i. 1833. o 



