home to our hearts what we know to be true; to teach us what we have
not seen; to awaken us to what we have forgotten; to remove the
"covering" from all people, and the "veil" that is spread over all
nations: to give us, in a word, such a conception of things divine and
human as we can accept, believe, and trust. The true doctrine of
criticism demands what Milton invites,--an examination of the degree in
which the great epic attains this aim. And if, in examining it, we
find it necessary to use unusual illustrations, and plainer words than
are customary, it must be our excuse that we do not think the subject
can be made clear without them.

The defect of "Paradise Lost" is that, after all, it is founded on a
_political_ transaction. The scene is in heaven very early in the
history of the universe, before the creation of man or the fall of
Satan. We have a description of a court [Book v.]. The angels,

"by imperial summons called,"

appear:--

"Under their hierarchs in orders bright
Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced;
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
Of hierarchies, or orders, and degrees."

To this assemblage "th' Omnipotent" speaks:--

"Hear, all ye angels, progeny of light,
Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers,
Hear my decree, which unrevoked shall stand:
This day I have begot whom I declare
My only Son, and on this holy hill
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold
At my right hand; your Head I him appoint:
And by myself have sworn, to him shall bow
All knees in heaven, and shall confess him Lord;
Under his great vicegerent reign abide
United as one individual soul,
Forever happy. Him who disobeys,
Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day,
Cast out from God and blessed vision, falls
Int' utter darkness, deep ingulfed, his place
Ordained without redemption, without end."

This act of patronage was not popular at court; and why should it have
been? The religious sense is against it. The worship which sinful men
owe to God is not transferable to lieutenants and vicegerents. The
whole scene of the court jars upon a true feeling; we seem to be
reading about some emperor of history, who admits his son to a share in
the empire, who confers on him a considerable jurisdiction, and
requires officials, with "standards and gonfalons," to bow before him.
The orthodoxy of Milton is quite a