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is the meaning of heathen gods and heroes filling tlie pediments and 

 the metopes and the frieze ? Is this demanded hy the adopted style, 

 or does not the object to which the building is devoted, demand different 

 decorations? Nothing has been so generally blamed in Milton as 

 his frequent allusions to Greek mythology, nor are these objections 

 unfounded, as we shall presently see. 



Wiiat is the rationale of these objections ? It cannot be, that the 

 Greek mythology is in itself devoid of beauty. Nobody ever found 

 fault with Homer,or Pindar, or Aeschj'lus, for the ever charming forms 

 of Olympic beauty, which they introduced into their poems. Kor is 

 our (esthetic objection a puritanical aversion to images, or even to 

 heathen gods. We justly admire a group of Venus and the Graces, if 

 the sculptor's chisel has been inspired by true art. We hang up in our 

 Museums the masterly productions of Rubens and Titian, even when 

 they represent goddesses, and nymphs and satyrs. Why object to 

 Chaos, or Saturn, or Mulciber in " Paradise Lost '?" It is this, that 

 these figures offend against the spirit of truth . We do not like to hear 

 them spoken of as realities by a man, who, like ourselves, knows them to 

 be fictions. Grave, and venerable and truth-loving to austerity as Milton 

 must ever appear, there is in his employment of Greek mythology 

 almost a dash of frivolity. The poet is playing with beings whom he 

 professes to believe to be devils, but whom he really looks upon as 

 poetical imagery, as mere productions of fancy. There is neither a 

 poetical nor a religious conviction in the poet's mind of the reality of 

 his mythological personages. They cannot inspire him, and tliey cannot 

 of course gain the sympathy of his reader. They lack the reality of 

 truth. They are artificial accompaniments in which we may admire 

 skOl and labour, but which cannot produce that never-failing effect of 

 genuine poetical inspiration, wedded with truthfulness, which warms us 

 with the poet's enthusiasm, and raises us, willing or unwilling, with him 

 to the regions to which he soars. 



It is truth, that is wanting in Milton's mythological persons; and this 

 want makes us indifferent to them. In Homer they have the reality 

 of life ; the poet believes in them, and thus he can succeed in maldng 

 us momentarily believe in their real existence, and to sympathise with 

 whatever agitates their souls. The same effect cannot be produced by 

 any modern author. The Greek mythology has ceased to inspire with 

 that only true inspiration which is allied to truth and faith. It may 

 furnish subjects for works of sculpture or painting, which never appeal 

 to our heart and feelings like those of poetry. But even in these works 

 it is a fatal error to mix up mythologica! lignrcs with such as arc true 



