66 JOHN MILTON 
overthrew, was founded more upon “ Paradise Lost” 
than upon the Bible. 
There is a tradition that Milton preferred his 
“ Paradise Regained” to “ Paradise Lost.” The 
poem is much less generally read. Its main theme 
is the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and it 
affords no such scope for picturesqueness as its prede- 
cessor. Its greatness consists in the sustained loftiness 
of the thought and the organ-like music of the verse. 
There is a Greek severity and simplicity about it, as 
also in the drama of the blind Samson, the last mighty 
work of the Puritan poet. 
A treatise of Milton’s on Christian doctrine, which 
did not get published till 1825, confirmed the suspicion 
which some shrewd readers of “ Paradise Lost” had 
entertained, that the poet’s own theology, like that of 
Locke and Newton, was Unitarian. In this, as in 
some other ways, he was far from being in touch with 
the Puritans of his time. 
In the spiritual life of modern times there have 
been two great uplifting tendencies, one derived from 
the Bible, the other from the study of Greek. The 
former tendency produced the Protestant Reformation, 
the latter produced what we call the Renaissance or 
New Birth of art and science. The spirit of the 
Reformation animated the Puritans as a class. But 
Milton was as much a child of the Renaissance as of 
the Reformation; there was in him as much of the 
Greek as of the Hebrew. The limits of Puritanism 
were too narrow for him. 
By common consent of educated mankind three 
poets — Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare — stand 
above all others. For the fourth place there are com- 
