New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-11-04
He'll

London, December ., iooo, WIZ ~'o
~ wears ago next Thursday, on Novem-
Der 8, 1874. Though Italy early sang his
praises, Milton did not attain fame in his
own land until the later years Of his life
But his genius was acknowledged by the
next great poet of his age, Dryden, in the
well known lines:
Three poets in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy and England did sdorn.
The first in loftness Of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty; in both the last.
The force of nature could no further 60,
To make a third she joined the former two"
The poem that comes TO mind most read
ily at mention of Millions name is Para
disc Lost" the great epic written during
his latter yesrs-the years when England
was suffering from internal wars and other
results of a too stern Puritanism-the
wears of Millions total blindness. 1t sug-
gests itself particularly just now, perhaps
because Millions conception of hell COIN
cides so faithfully with the modern full
flment in warfare. What once were the
most awe-inspiring passages seem now, by
comparison, to have lost some of their
poignancy and terror.
Satan, cast out of Heaven with his rebel
host of angels, sees relief from the burning
lake which for nine days has been his
bed, in
dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation, void Of light,
Save what the glimmering of these livid
flames
Cast pale and dreadful
And
Forthwith upright he resrs from of the
pool
His mighty stature; on each hand the
names,
Driven backward, slope their pointing
spires, and, rolPd
In pillows, leave in the midst horrid vale.
Then with expanded wings he steers ms
flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky sir,
That felt unusual weight; till on dry land
He lights, if it were land that ever burn'd
With solid, as the lake with liquid, fire:
And such appear'd in hue, as when the
force
| OF subterrsnean wind transports hill
Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd side
| OF laundering Etns, whose combustibe
! And fuel'd entrsils thence conceiying fire,
Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave q singed bottom all involved
With stencil and smoke: such resting found
the sole
OF unbless'd feet"
He greets his new abode;
"Hail. horrors, hail,
Internal world! And thou, profoundest hell,
Receive thy new possessor one who brings
mind not TO be changed by place or time:
| The mind is it's own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven Of hell, hell Of
heaven"
Satan comforts his companions with the
hope of regaining heaven, telling them
lastly of new world and new kind Of
creature TO be created, according TO an an
Gent prophecy or report in heaven. To
find out the truth of this prophecy, and
what to determine thereon, he refers to a
|, full council:
"For this internal pit shall never hold
Celestial spirits in bondage, nor the abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these
thoughts
Full counsel must mature; peace is de-
spair'd;
For who can think submission? War, then,
war,
Open or understood, must be resolved
"He spake; and, to confirm his words,
outfew
Millions of flaming swords drawn from the
thighs
OF mighty eherubimj the sudden blaze
Far round illumned hell; highly they ragged
Against the Highest, and fierce with
grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din
Of war,
Hurting defiance toward the vault Of heaven.