poet cannot be vague and general in his opinions of the Deity. He 

 must declare for one or the other dogma ; without well defined outlines 

 and bold relief his figures would be lifeless shadows. Thus, Milton was 

 unavoidably led by poetical necessity to Arianism. This cannot fail to 

 repel a large number of readers, though so little prominence is given to 

 that dogma, that before the discovery of Milton's treatise on Christian 

 Doctrine, (in 1823,) perhaps few readers suspected its existence. In this 

 rigid generation such heterodoxy as this cannot fail to operate powerfully 

 against the continued popularity of the poem, and it is asserted, that 

 already its sale has been impaired since that fatal discovery. 



If Milton has tried to avoid shocking orthodox Christians by his 

 Arianism, which tlie necessity of poetical anthropomorphism perhaps 

 imperiously demanded, he was on the other hand led astray, (and again 

 by the peculiarity of his subject,) to indulge his natural taste for dog- 

 matic and controversial theology, by giving us his own views on the 

 nature and attributes of spiritual beings, and to give to these views 

 advisedly, and quite unnecessarily, a provoking distinctness. I will 

 refer only to one instance — the elaborate demonstration that angels 

 require food, (Par. Lost, V. 404.) mixed up with the crudest notions on 

 physical science that could disfigure a noble poem (Par. Lost, V, 407) : — 



" Aud food alike those pure 

 Iiitclligential substances require, 

 As doeth your rational ; aud both contain 

 Within them every lower faculty 

 l)f sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste ; 

 Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate. 

 And corporeal to incorporeal turn. 

 For know, whatever was created, needs 

 To be sustained and fed ; of elements 

 The grosser feeds the purer, earth the sea. 

 Earth and the sea feed air, and air those fli'es 

 Ethereal, and as lowest first the Moon ; 

 ^Vheuce in her visage round those spots, unpurgud 

 Vapours not yet into her substance turned. 

 Nor does the Moon no nourishment exhale 

 From her moist continent to higher orbs. 

 The Sun, that light imparts to all, receives 

 From aU his alimental recompense 

 In humid exhalations, and at even 

 Sups wiih the Ocean. — Though in Heaven the trees 

 Of life ambrosial fruitage bear, and vines 

 Vielil nectar ; though from ofl' the boughs each mom 

 AVe brush mellifluous dews, and find the ground 

 Covered with pearly grain : yet God hath here 

 Varied his bounty so with new delights, 



