Milton's cxivth Psalm, ver. 11. Lisle's compound epithets, in his translation, are very numerous, and sometimes extremely beautiful. Sylvester has often merit also of this kind: but it is my duty to observe, that Sylvester is not always original: his shining phrases may be frequently traced in contemporary or preceding poets. In the notes on Milton's poetical works, I have sometimes had occasion to exhibit the expressions of Sylvester in this point of view. In justice, however, to this laborious writer, I shall here close my remarks with a detached specimen of his poetry; to which, if Milton has been indebted, the temptation of the serpent in Paradise Lost affords such a contrast, that the reader will be at no loss how to appreciate the improvement. Eve, second honour of this vniverse. Is't true (I pray) that jealous God, perverse, In Eve's frail brest; who thus replies: O! knowe, In this earth's-heav'n are in our hands and powrs, Which in the midst of this green ground doth shine; As a false louer, that thick snares hath laid Perceiuing Eve his flattering gloze digest,. He prosecutes; and, jocund, doth not rest, Till he haue try'd foot, hand, and head, and all, No, fair, (quoth he) beleeue not that the care H 4 A double A double fear, an envie, and a hate, His iealous heart for euer cruciate; Sith the suspected vertue of this tree O world's rare glory! reach thy happy hand, you seem Reach, reach, I say, why dost thou stop or stand? Of an vncertain God-head, onely great Through self-aw'd zeal: put on the glistering pall (As envious stepdame) thy posteritie • The soverain honour of Divinitie.' SYLVESTER'S Du Bartas, edit. 1621. pp. 192, 193, "As Milton has been supposed to have been much obliged to other poets in describing the unsubdued spirit of Satan, especially where he says, ог Better to reign in hell, than serve in 'heaven;' * arch-angeli, angeli, and all the celestiall hierarchyes, (with a shout of applause,) sung my departure out of heauen: my alleluia was turned into an ehu; and too soone found, that I was corruptibilis ab alio, though not in alio; and that 'he, that gaue me my being, could againe take it from mee, Now, for as much as I was once an angell of light, it was the will of Wisedome to coufine me to darknes, and to 'create me prince thereof, that so I, wH0 COULD I am tempted to make an extract two from, Stafford's Niobe, a prose-work already mentioned, in which Satan speaks the following words; not dissimilar to passages in Fletcher and Crashaw, which have been cited, on the same sub-HEAVEN, MIGHT COMMAUND IN ject. They say, forsooth, that pride was the cause of my fall; and that I dwell where there is nothing but weeping, howling, and gnash⚫ing of teeth; of which that falsehood was the authour, I will make NOT OBEY IN 'HELL. And, belieue mee, sir, I had rather controule within my dark diocese, than to reinhabite cœlum empyrium, and there live in subjection, under check." Edit. 1611, PP. 16-18, part the second. Staf ford calls Satan the "grim-visag'd goblin," ibid. p. 85. And, in the first part of the book, he describes the devil as having "com'mitted incest with his daughter, the you plainlie perceiue. True it is, sir, that I (storming at the name of supremacie) sought to depose my Creatour; which the watchful, all-seeing eye of Prouidence find-World," p. 3. He also attributes ing, degraded me of my angelicall dignitie, dispossessed me of all pleasures; and the seraphin, and cherubin, throni, dominationes, virtutes, potestates, principatus, the gunpowder-plot to the devil, with his unhallowed senate of popes, the inuentors and fautours of this vnheard-of attempt in hell,' p. 149. t " "I have thus brought together naturally given occasion, none is opinions delivered at different pe- ⚫ more obscure in itself, or more worriods, respecting the origin of Para-thy of rational curiosity, than a redise Lost; and have humbly en- trospect of the progress of this deavoured to trace, in part, the mighty genius in the construction reading of the great poet, subser- of his work; a view of the fabric vient to his plan. More successful gradually rising, perhaps, from discoveries will probably arise from small beginnings, till its foundathe pursuits of those, who are de- tion rests in the centre, and its voted to patient and liberal investi- ' turrets sparkle in the skies; to gation. * Videlicet hoc illud est "trace back the structure, through præcipue studiorum genus, quod all its varieties, to the simplicity. vigiliis augescat; ut cui subinde of its first plan; to find what was ceu fluminibus ex decursu, sic ac-first projected, whence the scheme cedit ex lectione minutatìm quo was taken, how it was improved, fiat uberius.' To such persons by what assistance it was excmay be recommended the ma- cuted, and from what stores the sterly observations of him, who was ' materials were collected; wheso far imposed upon as to ther its founder dug them from the believe Lauder an honest man, and quarries of Nature, or demolished Milton a plagiary; but who ex- ' other buildings to embellish his pressed, when + Douglas and Truth 'own.' I may venture to add that, appeared,' the strongest indigna- in such inquiries, patience will be tion against the envious impostor: invigorated rather than dispirited; for they are observations resulting and every new discovery will teach from a wish not to depreciate, but us more and more to admire the zealously to praise, the Paradise genius, the erudition, and the meLost. Among the inquiries, to mory of the inimitable Milton" which this ardour of criticism has once METHOD OF TEACHING LOGIC and RELIGION to the DEAF and DUMB. [From the ABBE L'EPEE's Manner of educating the DEAF and DUME.] "How Spiritual Operations, which are the Object of Logic, may be explained to the Deaf and Dumb. " Twill easily be admitted that there is no danger of the deaf and dumb confounding any of the "Politian. Miscellaneorum Prof." parts of speech. It is sufficient for me to give, by signs, to every word its proper signification, and they assign it of themselves its proper place; (which, by the way, is what very many, whose education has "The Progress of Envy, an excellent poem, occasioned by Lauder's attack on the character of Milton. See Lloyd's Poems, 1762, p. 221." "So bishop Douglas told the affectionate biographer of Dr. Johnson. See Bos well's Life of Johnson, vol. i. p 197, edit. 1799." "See Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. i. p. 199." been been deficient, cannot do. So that nothing is beyond the reach of their capacity which we propose to them with clearness and method. "To explain to them the spiritual operations which are the chief subjects of logic, I take the following measures. overpowered them with admiration to such a degree, that they all three changed colour when they entered it. "We then, in idea, range the park. They walk from grove to grove, and in their description do not leave out the different waterpieces, the sight of which surprised them strangely. "I observe to them, it is not the eyes of their body which now see these various objects; that their body has not changed places; that it is fronting the table upon which we write; but that these objects are presented by the eyes of the mind as if still actually visible: and I then say, that the internal painting which is the source of their present entertain, ment is what we call 'an idea, or the representation of an object in the mind.' "I look attentively at the various rows of my library, and at the busts and the globes on the top; and I engage my pupil to fix his eyes upon them also. Afterwards I shut my eyes, and no longer beholding any of these objects externally, I trace out however the height and the width of them, their different shapes and their positions. I remark, and press upon the observation of my pupil, that it is no longer the eyes of my body which perceive them, but that i behold them in another way, as if there were two apertures in the middle. of my forehead, through which these objects were still pictured in my head, my eyes being shut. This call, seeing with the eyes of the mind.' No deaf and dumb persons will fail to put this to the proof in themselves, upon the spot: and they will all take pleasure in multiplying and diversifying exemplifications. "I am at Paris, in my own house, giving lessons; but I transport myself in imagination to Versailles, (the place of my nativity,) where I once took three of my eldest female pupils to spend a week. They transport themselves thither in fancy as readily as I do; they never call to mind the stay they made there without pleasing sensations. "In idea, I mount the castle, and I trace out, as well as I can, the grand stair-case, and the outer rooms: the females immediately proceed with the picture, particularly that of the gallery, which You have just now in your mind, I say to them, the idea of the castle of Versailles, the idea of its apartments, of its groves, &c. all these things are material and sensible; you have seen them with your eyes; but that which now represents them to you internally we call your imagination. "You have seen that it took two bours and a half to transport you from Paris to Versailles, and several entire days to bring you from Lyons to Paris. Your body cannot travel faster. But as speedily as you please your mind is rambling in the gardens of Versailles, or walking on the banks of the Rhone, while this same body is seated on a chair, or traversing the streets of Paris. This we term thinking: you think of the beauty of Versailles: you think of the river which runs through Lyons. "You say within yourselves, the park of Versailles is beautiful; this is what we call judgment. It con tains two ideas; you have the idea of the park, and the idea of beauty; unite them to each other by an you internal yes; this is what we call an affirmative judgment. On the contrary, you say within yourselves, that the tower at St. Martin's gate is not handsome: here again are two ideas, the idea of the tower and the idea of handsomeness: but you seperate them by an internal no this is what we call a negative udgment; and when you write down what you have thought within yourselves, it forms what we call an affirmative proposition, or a negative proposition. "I ask, if you are willing to return to Versailles, where you appeared to be very much delighted, and reside there constantly. You answer me, that you should like extremely to do so, provided 1 go and reside there too. I ask you, why you put in this condition; and you answer, that it is because there is nobody at Versailles who instructs the deaf and dumb; now this is what we call reasoning. It contains several ideas which you compare one with another, in this manner: Versailles is a beautiful place; I am charmed with Versailles; I should like to live there: but I should find no instruction at Versailles for the deaf and dumb; 1 am fonder of instruction than of the beauty of Versailles: therefore I do not wish to live there unless he who instructs us live there too.' Thought and love, we tell our pupils, are not the same thing. You often think of things which you do not love; which, on the contrary, you hate. You think of idleness, of disobedience, of gluttony, when you observe them in some young person; and yet you love none of them. That which thinks within us is called our mind; that which loves is called our heart; and the union of the two is called our soul. "The idea of a soul which thinks and reasons, presents itself to our mind without form and withour colour; we call this idea a simple conception. "Thus you have a body and a soul: a body which eats, drinks, sleeps, moves, and rests; a soul which thinks, judges, and reasons. Your soul cannot eat, nor drink, &c. Your body cannot think, nor judge, nor reason. These operations, as Out readers perceive, are in truth perfectly simple; and the deaf and dumb seize them with equal facility and avidity." "How Deaf and Dumb Persons are instructed in the first Truths of Religion. "When the difference of soul and body is once clearly ascertained, and the deaf and dumb are become sensible of the superiority and nobleness which thereby distinguish them from brutes, that can neither reason nor think, their souls stand eager to follow wherever we lead the way: they take their flight up to heaven, descend again to earth, and plunge into the abyss, with as much promptitude as our own. They have seen with their own eyes that a house does not build itself, nor a watch construct itself; they have admired this little machine, and have observed, without the least suggestion from others, that the inventor of it must have had a great deal of ingenuity. "But when we show them on an artificial sphere, the periodical motions of the carth and the planets round the sun, and afterwards let them see the execution of these in miniature, in Passemont's scientific machinery, their souls are then expanded |