Book XII.-The angel, continuing his prophetic narrative, explains to Adam who that Christ shall be whose God-like act'

'Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength,
Defeating Sin and Death."

Adam, much comforted by the relation, is then led with Eve out of
Paradise by Michael.*

'High in front advanc't,

The brandish't sword of God before them blaz'd,
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Libyan air adust,

Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat
In either hand the hast'ning angel caught
Our ling'ring parents, and to th' eastern gate
Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
To the subjected plain; then disappear'd.
They, looking back, all th' eastern side beheld
Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Wav'd over by that flaming brand; the gate
With dreadful faces throng'd, and fiery arms:
Some natural tears they dropt but wip'd them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.'

[11.632-649.]

The temptation of our Lord is the subject of Milton's shorter poem, Paradise Regained, which, as we have already said, was called into existence by the question put to the poet by his Quakerfriend Ellwood. (See p. 87, s. 57.) Coleridge pronounces the work to be in its kind the most perfect poem extant.' There is no doubt that Milton's consummate art in its descriptive power is here developed in its highest form. There is not a hollow or a vague sentiment, not a useless word, in the whole poem,' though we cannot but feel with Southey that, owing, perhaps, to the fact of the entire subject being but an incident in the many incidents in the life of our Saviour, it had been grander as an episode in a longer work. The Death for Death,' alluded to in Paradise Lost, is not realised in Paradise Regained, in which the wilderness instead of Calvary is the appendage to Eden,' and this alone has been suggested as a theological deficiency which has affected its popularity. That the poem has never attained its just fame because forced into comparison with Paradise Lost is probably the key to its being so often unduly disparaged by readers of the present day.

*It may not here be out of place to note the idea which Addison comments on, of the misery of Satan in the midst of his transient triumph contrasted with the triumphant hope of Adam in the excess of his wretchedness.

Paradise Regained is contained in four books of which the first presents Jesus' this man of men attested Son of God,' retiring to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil,' who, having previously announced his plans to his peers in council, appears to Him in the disguise of a peasant.

Book II. shows Mary bewailing the absence of her son, Jesus. Satan, in the garb of a courtier, tempts the Saviour with a feast and the offer of riches.

Book III. continues the temptation, and the kingdoms of Asia are exhibited.

Book IV. introduces Rome and Athens in their architectural and intellectual greatness, and our Lord, after being exposed to a raging storm, is brought back to the desert to be conveyed to the pinnacle of the Temple, from which Satan, defeated in his plans, falls, while angels bear Jesus away. Their hymn of triumph ends the poem. The following are the lines on Athens (236–284) :—

'Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount,
Westward, much nearer by south-west, behold;

Where on the Ægean shore a city stands

Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil;

Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts
And eloquence, native to famous wits

Or hospitable, in her sweet recess,

City or suburban, studious walks and shades.
See there the olive grove of Academe,

Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird

Trills her thick-warbl'd notes the summer long;

There flowery hill Hymettus, with the sound

Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites

To studious musing; there Ilissus rolls

His whispering stream: within the walls then view
The schools of ancient sages; his who bred
Great Alexander to subdue the world,

Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:

There shalt thou hear and learn the secret power

Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit

By voice or hand; and various-measur'd verse,

Eolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,

And his, who gave them breath, but higher sung
Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer call'd,
Whose poem Phoebus challeng'd for his own.
Thence what the lofty grave tragedians taught
In chorus or Iambic, teachers best

Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd

In brief sententious precepts, while they treat
Of fate, and chance, and change in human life,
High actions and high passions best describing :
Thence to the famous orators repair,
Those ancient, whose resistless eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democraty,

Shook the Arsenal, and fulmin'd over Greece
To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne:

To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear,
From Heaven descended to the low-roof't house
Of Socrates; see there his tenement,
Whom well inspir'd the oracle pronounc'd
Wisest of men; from whose mouth issued forth
Mellifluous streams, that water'd all the schools
Of Academics old and new, with those
Surnam❜d Peripatetics, and the sect
Epicurean, and the Stoic severe ;

These here revolve, or, as thou lik'st, at home,
Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
These rules will render thee a king complete
Within thyself, much more with empire join'd.'

APPENDIX E.

DICTIONARY OF MINOR AUTHORS.

[IN the following Appendix a number of deceased authors whose names are not included in, or have been accidentally omitted from, the body of the foregoing Handbook are arranged in Alphabetical order. The reader is requested to bear in mind that the reigns given are those during which they published their works, and do not necessarily include the reign in which they were born. The works cited are not the whole of the works they produced, but only their best or best-known works. The letter p signifies PROSE WORKS; the letter m, METRICAL (or POETICAL) WORKS; and the letter d, DRAMATIC WORKS.]*

Ailred or Ethelred of Rievaulx, 1109-1166. (HENRY II.) p Homilies; Account of the Battle of the Standard (1138).

Alfred or Alured of Beverley, d. 1154? (STEPHEN, HENRY II.) p Abridgment of Geoffrey of Monmouth (see p. 19, s. 10), continued to the year 1129.

Alison, Archibald, 1757-1839. (GEORGE III.) p Essay on Taste, 1790. He was the father of Alison the historian (see p. 212, s. 136).

Amory, Thomas, 1691-1788. (GEORGE II., GEORGE III.) p Memoirs of Several Ladies of Great Britain, 1755; Life and Opinions of John Buncle, Esq., 1756-66. Hazlitt called Buncle the 'English Rabelais,' '-a name given also to Swift and Sterne.

Andrewes, Lancelot, 1555-1626, Bishop successively of Chichester, Ely and Winchester. (ELIZABETH, JAMES I.) p Sermons and Devotional Works, 1589-1610. James I. employed him against the Jesuit Bellarmine.

Ashmole, Elias, 1617-92.

(CHARLES II.) p History of the Order of the Garter, 1672. He was the founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and the son-in-law of Dugdale, p. 267.

To anticipate the objection that many 'Dramatic' works are metrical, it should be stated that the term 'Metrical' has been adopted here more for the sake of its initial letter than with a view to precise classification.

Aubrey, John, 1626-1697? (WILLIAM III. and MARY.) p Miscellanies (chiefly on supernatural subjects), 1696.

Baker, Sir Richard, 1568–1645. (CHARLES II.) p Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Romans' Government unto the Death of King James, 1641.

Bale, John, Bishop of Ossory, 1495-1564? (HENRY VIII., EDWARD VI., MARY.) p British Biographies from Japhet to 1559, 1557-9. d Interludes; Kynge Johan, printed by the Camden Society in 1838, and supposed to have been written in the reign of Edward VI.

Barbauld, Anna Lætitia, 1743–1825. (GEORGE III.) p Works on miscellaneous subjects. m Poems chiefly devotional.

Barnfield, Richard, b. 1574? (ELIZABETH.) m The Affectionate Shepherd, 1594; Cynthia, 1595; The Encomion of Lady Pecunia, 1598. The verses in The Passionate Pilgrime, 1599-beginning As it fell upon a day--are ascribed to Barnfield. (See p. 65.)

Barton, Bernard, 1784-1849. (GEORGE III., GEORGE IV., WILLIAM IV., VICTORIA.) m Poems on various subjects from 1811 to 1845. Barton is often styled the Quaker Poet.'

Beaumont, Sir John, 1582-1628. (ELIZABETH, JAMES.) m Bosworth Field, with a Taste of the Variety of other Poems, published posthumously in 1629. He was the elder brother of Fletcher's colleague.

Becon, Thomas, 1511-67. (HENRY VIII., EDWARD VI., MARY, ELIZABETH.) p The Sick Man's Salve, and numerous other works.

Behn, Aphra, or Afra, 1642-89. (CHARLES II., JAMES II.) p Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave, and other Novels. m Poems (with Rochester, Etherege and others), 1684-88. d Plays, seventeen in number. Under the name of Astræa' Pope refers to the licentiousness of her style

'The stage how loosely doth Astræa tread.'

Bellenden, John, Archdean of Moray, d. 1550. (HENRY VIII.) p Translation of Boece's History of Scotland made by command of James V. of Scotland, 1537. First Scotch prose-writer.

Berners, Juliana, 1390–1460, Prioress of Sopwell Nunnery, near St. Albans. (HENRY V., HENRY VI.) p and m. Treatises on Hawking, Hunting and Armory.

Birch, Dr. Thomas, 1705-66. (GEORGE II., GEORGE III.) p Historical and miscellaneous works from 1734 to 1766. He published, in 1734-41, a General Dictionary based on that of Bayle.