1830.] Mr. Edward Clarkson. 213 



us, " resembles the gorgeous orientalisms and splendid horrors of 

 Vathek ;" while the latter " is coloured by a Swedenborgian hue of 

 religious Platonism !" One specimen of the description of neaven will, 

 we suspect, abundantly satisfy our readers. It is styled " an empyrean 

 infinitely vast and irridescent." No wonder that the Lecturer on the 

 Pyramids and Pluto is enamoured of this description ! The word 

 " irridescent ' must be peculiarly acceptable to a critic who talks of 

 " impotentializing a joke," evirating a poem," and " dephlogistica- 

 ting vulgar flames !" 



" We come now to " Satan." This is the poem which, not a few of 

 his admirers say, entitles Mr. Montgomery to rank beside the author 

 of Paradise Lost. We shall see. Milton's sacred epic is one of those 

 rare productions of intellect which cannot even be contemplated without 

 awe. In thought it is sublime beyond conception indeed language 

 'seems actually to bend and break down under its overwhelming gran- 

 deur in imagery copious and stately, but natural and characteristic ; 

 in description lavish and picturesque ; in sentiment high-toned and aus- 

 tere. Its very perusal is an act of devotion. The world, with its count- 

 less interests its joys its sorrows it's idle but seducing day-dreams, 

 fades off our minds; we breathe a loftier atmosphere of thought ; the 

 spirit of the poet sustains us as we roam with him through other 

 .worlds ; and puts a power into our vision to enable us to appreciate 

 the transcendant loveliness of his Eden. His Satan is the personifica- 

 tion of a lawless, ambitious intellect, conscious of its powers, but limited 

 in their exercise, and hence perpetually maddened with the idea of its 

 comparative insignificance. Envy, however, is the true touch-stone of 

 Satan's character. He sees but through the medium of this blinding 

 passion, which throws an added gloom over hell itself. Such is a slight 

 sketch of Satan as drawn by Milton. What is he as defined by Mr. 

 Montgomery ? A prosing, shallow, methodist parson, who, perched 

 upon a mountain, like a bilious cockney on Primrose-Hill, looks round 

 him over the four quarters of the globe for the sole purpose of telling 

 us that some parts have been famous in their day, but are now ruined 

 and all but forgotten ; that Jerusalem Egypt Persia Rome Venice 

 Greece Spain, &c. are nothing to what they have been ; that Buona- 

 parte and Lord Byron, though very clever, were both very wicked men ; 

 that the powers of human nature are great and various, but too often 

 perverted ; that the public press* is a vile, degraded instrument of oppres- 

 sion ; that a theatre is the haunt of debauchery, " a fine prospect for 

 demoniac view ;" and a ball-room, pretty nearly, if not quite as bad ; 

 that in short, the whole world, and more especially England, is in a 

 desperately bad state. And this, Mr. Montgomery calls giving a new 

 version of the character of Satan! He makes him a field preacher, 

 and cries out " Eureka !" He makes him a strange compound of 

 Boatswain Smith and Parson Grahame " sepulchral Grahame," as Byron 

 aptly calls him and triumphantly exclaims, " Thou art the man !" 

 There is nothing on record in the annals of literature to equal this pre- 

 sumption. It stands alone in its superhuman audacity. Our only notions 

 of Satan are drawn from Scripture or from Milton. They are the sole 



* In a note intended to qualify his general abuse of the public press, Mr. Montgomery 

 says, *" of course there are some honourable exceptions." By the " honourable excep- 

 tions" he means, we presume, those newspapers who have been good-natured enough to 

 praise his various poems. - 



