the
same sort of interest belongs to the Satan of the first two books of
"Paradise Lost." We know that he will be vanquished; his name is not a
recommendation. Still, we do not imagine distinctly the minds by which
he is to be vanquished; we do not take the same interest in them that
we do in him; our sympathies, our fancy, are on his side.

Perhaps much of this was inevitable; yet what a defect it is!
especially what a defect in Milton's own view, and looked at with the
stern realism with which he regarded it! Suppose that the author of
evil in the universe were the most attractive being in it; suppose that
the source of all sin were the origin of all interest to us! We need
not dwell upon this.

As we have said, much of this was difficult to avoid, if indeed it
could be avoided in dealing with such a theme. Even Milton shrank, in
some measure, from delineating the Divine character. His imagination
evidently halts when it is required to perform that task. The more
delicate imagination of our modern world would shrink still more. Any
person who will consider what such an attempt must end in, will find
his nerves quiver. But by a curiously fatal error, Milton has selected
for delineation exactly that part of the Divine nature which is most
beyond the reach of the human faculties, and which is also, when we try
to describe our fancy of it, the least effective to our minds. He has
made God _argue_. Now, the procedure of the Divine mind from truth to
truth must ever be incomprehensible to us; the notion, indeed, of his
proceeding at all is a contradiction: to some extent, at least, it is
inevitable that we should use such language, but we know it is in
reality inapplicable. A long train of reasoning in such a connection
is so out of place as to be painful; and yet Milton has many. He
relates a series of family prayers in heaven, with sermons afterwards,
which are very tedious. Even Pope was shocked at the notion of
Providence talking like a "school-divine." [19] And there is the still
worse error, that if you once attribute reasoning to him, subsequent
logicians may discover that he does not reason very well.

Another way in which Milton has contrived to strengthen our interest in
Satan is the number and insipidity of the good angels. There are old
rules as to the necessity of a supernatural machinery for an epic poem,
worth some fraction of the paper on which they are written, and derived
from the practi