112 



to all his thoughts and writings a peculiar colouring ;* he was 

 unable to rise above the element into which he had plunged in 

 early youth ; though he aspired to " soar with no middle flight above 

 the Aonian Mount," his wings were too heavy with the element of the 

 Parnassian Hippocrene ; he sought his Muse on Oreb or on Sion ; but 

 still it was a muse that he sought, the daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, 

 who dwelt among the shady groves of Helicon or Parnassus, and sang 

 in the Olympian courts the loves of goddesses and the valiant deeds of 

 gods and heroes.f 



We now approach the much-debated topic of the materiality of 

 Milton's spiritual beings. Johnson was the first, as far as I know, to 

 charge Milton with inconsistency on this gi'ound. He makes the 

 following remarks: — ^" Another inconvenience of Milton's design is, 

 that it requires the description of what cannot be described, the agency 

 of spirits. He saw, that immateriality supplied no images, and that he 

 could not show angels acting but by instruments of action ; he, there- 

 fore, invested them with form and matter. This being necessary, was, 

 therefore, defensible ; and he should have secured the consistency of 

 his system by keeping immateriality out of sight, and enticing his 

 reader to drop it from his thoughts. But he has unhappily perplexed 

 his poetiy with his philosophy. His infernal and celestial powers are 

 sometimes pure spirit, and sometimes animated body,"&c. (p. 174.) 



An attempt has been made by Macaulay to defend Milton against 

 Dr. Johnson's charge. He argues, like Milton himself and Johnson, 

 that to describe the agency of spirits to the comprehension of man 

 materiality was necessary. "Logicians," he says, " may reason about 

 abstractions, but the great mass of men must have images. The strong 

 tendency of the multitude in all ages and nations to idolatry can be 

 explained on no other principle." Thus he justifies materialism. 

 Good ! " But," he continues, " Milton wrote in an age of philosophers 

 and theologians. It was necessary therefore for him to abstain from 



* Macaulay (Milton p. 9) says, " He who in an enlightened and literary society aspires 

 to be a great poet must first become a little child. He must tate to pieces the whole web 

 of his mind. He must unlearn much of that knowledge which has perhaps constituted 

 hitherto his chief title to superiority. His very talents will be a hindrance to him." Let 

 the reader judge now, if Milton did put aside all his classical lore to become a man instead 

 of a scholar, and a poet by nature instead of a poet by books. See Johnson, 168, " Milton 

 saw nature through the spectacle of books, and on most occasions calls learning to his 

 assistance. The garden of Eden brings to his mind the vale of Enna, where Proserpine was 

 gathering flowers. Satan makes his way through fighting elements like Argo," &c. 



+ Strange contradiction : that the muse should be invoked immediately after the gods of 

 Doric Land had been declared to be embodied evil spirits, [1. 506)1 



