Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-03-06
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.


THE PARADISE LOST, by JOHN MILToN. With
Notes Explanatory and Critical. Edited by Rev.
JAMES ROBERT BOYD author Of Elements Of Rhetoric
and Electric Moral Philosophy" New York Baker &
Scribner
The Paradise Lost is not, we suppose, "new
book" to any one that has ever learned to read the
English language and yet we are inclined to sus-
pect that if duly studied and fully comprehended,
it would become a ae,o book to the general reader
When Milton invoked the heavenly muse, Urania
to inspire his song, it was his prayer that she would
find for him q fit audience, though few and ac-
cordingly the entire poem of Paradise Lost breahes
the spirit of man who, in conformity with the
by the crowd, coateats paucis ctorJas, but labors
rather to blind the eyes Of the multitude with that
"excess of light in which his genius clothed itself
as with garment Not only does his very subject
carry him above this visible diurnal sphere" into
regions beyond the flight of "Pegasean wing" but
the natural and habitual level of his mind seems
ever to rest in high empyreal tracts in native
and congenial element. He could not indite a SON
net without o choral swell that lifts the mind
heayenward; while even his controversial writings
are raised, ever and anon, above the noisy Of
earth, by the excursions of his genius into clearer
and brighter atmosphere and instead of the forums
din, we hear, to his own magnificent dction, q
seven-fold chorus of hallelujahs and harpng SYM
phonies" The great characteristic of Millions
mind was its " gigantic sublimity," to quote the
phrase of italian critic, and in this attribute he
stands unrivalled among uninspired men. johnson
said of Goldsmith that he touched nothing which
he did not adon; of Milton, we may say, that he
touched nothing which he did not transmute into an
image of grandeur or Of beauty for such was the
alchemy of his genius that materials the most rude
into fine gold Possessed of an erudition which en-
abled him to gather riches from every field of
science and every walk of art he safe supreme over
all his acquisitions and scattered the treasures OF
his wide dominion with all the proud magnihcence
of an acknowledged king in the realms OF poesy.
Attracting to himself by native power whatever in
nature or art was fair and beautiful and great,
he moulded it all by his plastic hands into shapes Of
winning loneliness surprising grandeur, and if ever
a poet possessed that "divine energy" of which
Plato speaks, it may surely be asserted of Milton
But, in making Mr. Boyds edition of Paradise
Lost the occasion of few desultory observations,
we far from intending to essay critical appre
citation of Millions genius or writings We have
nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Besides
the slightest degree of prudence would avail to pre-
serve the most ambitious and aspiring of newspaper
wits from any exhibition of critical talent subject
which has exercised the best minds and brightest intel
lects in English literature, from Addison to Macauay
from DIR. johnson Charming, and readers
have perhaps already wondered at the presumption which
have evinced in making the great English bard the
subject of random remark But may be pleaded in
exenuaton of this temety that we should have remain
ed guess of it had been melted thereto by the
annotations of Mr.. Boyd and only profess
indite otes, like himself, it would be unfair mpu-
taton to suspect Of aiming any thing higher than
that which the ancient grammatical proposed to themselves
as the reward Of their labors.
Whoever has not made the Paradise Lost subject OF
careful patient and reconcile study has often felt in its
casual perusa the need Of many calculations The
of this obscurty are briefly summed up by Mr. Boyd,
as follows 1.-THE learned character of the illusions
ancient history and mythology great inversion Of STYLE
from the use Of Latin and Greek The might have added
Hebrew forms of expressions from peculiar modes Of
spelling from references exploded and unphlosoph
cal notions astronomy chemistry geology and philo
sophy with which but few persons are familiar" And
Milton having as already minated fused and subimed
into all his conceptions and descriptions the almost inf
mite fund Of his literary acquisition, it requires no slight
familiarity with general and classical literature TO under
stand him he wished to be understood Who, for in
stance that has knowledge Of medieval fiction in the
prose Of the old chronclers Of chiva the of
Orlando FuriOso, can catch the full significance of
WHAT resounds
In fable or romance Of Uthers son,
Begirt with British and Armoric knights;
And all who since baptized or infdel,
Jousted in Aspramont or Montaban,
Damasco, or Marocco, Trebisond
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore,
When charlemagne with all his peerage fell
BY Fontsrabiar
Or Who that has investigated the Polemac astro-
nomy with its brations and primun MOBILE and crystal
line sphere Of Eudoxus, expound the following brief
passage:
sThey pass the planets sew n, and pass the fx'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talked, and that first moved"
Milton, says Sir Egerton Brydges-(an il is not O
tho least merits in Mr. Boyds edition Of Paradise Lost ha
he makes very copous quotations from the magnificent pub
LEGATION Of this celebrated biblomaniac Milton has
language Of his own may say invented by himself
is somewhat hard but II is all sincere it is not
lar but has Latinired cast which requires little m'
10 reconcile reader to IT, Its best fitted TO convey biz
magnificent ideas its very learnedness mpresses
with respect IL with gigantic step: IL does not
dow like Shakspeare's STYLE dance like Sponsors
Much objection has been made TO the Paradise Lost
the Of its obscurity much when considered
whole in detached passages nterspersed through
the entire poem. That the poetic dcon Of Milton IL
peculiar AMI original is undeniable yeti he could have
written in the seventeenth century stately epic blank
verse without employing involutons and diversions in
the construction Of his periods how he could have CON-
which shoud 0rafifv