96 



he affects to believe, the incompetent hands of some over-zealous friend 

 and editor introduced into the spotless original of the bUnd poet. 

 Bentley's criticism, however, is only verbal and textual ; he never rises 

 to the contemplation of the poem as a whole ; but his remarks are 

 nevertheless highly interesting and instructive ; they are invariably 

 clever, sparkling with wit and ingenuity, and they indicate the finest 

 tact for grammatical propriety and correctness of diction. His 

 proposed alterations are, perhaps, not in a single instance real emenda- 

 tions of the text, i.e. restorations of the original reading, such as it 

 must be supposed to have proceeded from the author's mind (and such 

 alterations only have we a right and a duty to introduce into the text) ; 

 they are, on the contrary, suggested improvements, such as a friend of 

 the author would note on the margin of a proof sheet ; and it must be 

 owned, a great proportion of these suggestions are so happy and pleasing, 

 that ]\Iilton, had he seen them, would no doubt have adopted them 

 readily and thankfully. 



Dr. Johnson's Life of Milton is a very able and useful performance. 

 Johnson was not a blind idol-worshipper. He had his eyes open to see 

 defects as well as merits ; and he had the courage and good sense to 

 qualify his pi'aise, where he saw proper. Perhaps there is something 

 of the rancour of party spirit in the judgment, which lie passes on 

 Milton the politician and the theologian ; but of Milton the poet, he is, 

 in spite of several exceptions that he takes, an honest and enthusiastic 

 admirer. He speaks of the " Paradise Lost " as " a poem, which, 

 considered with respect to design, may claim the first place, and, with 

 respect to performance, the second among the productions of the 

 human mind." 



Milton's numerous editors and biographers and all the writers on 

 English literature, as far as I am acquainted with them, express the 

 same transcendent admiration. To name one for all — Macaulay, in 

 that sparkling, though half juvenile treatise, which forms the first of 

 his valuable contributions to the Edinburgh Ee-\-iew, expresses the same 

 opinion : " We are sure," he says, " that the superiority of the 

 ' Paradise Lost' to the ' Paradise Regained' is not more decided than 

 the superiority of the ' Paradise Piegained' to every poem, which has 

 since made its appearance." Further on he says : " We hasten on to 

 that extraordinary production, which the general suffrage of critics has 

 placed in the highest class of human compositions." 



But all the praise so generally and generously bestowed upon the 

 bard of " Paradise Lost " and " Regained" is summed up and expressed in 

 what may be considered the general sentiment at present, viz. that in 



