homage, and are assured of immortality as the reward of virtue. Abraham confers with Christ, and is shown the vision of the heavenly Jerusalem, as described in the Apocalypse. Christ reascends to earth, and after an address from Gabriel, explaining the purport of the resurrection, and a conference between Moses and that angel, a paradise springs up within the regions of Death, and the poem terminates with the departure of Gabriel.

Such is the outline of this arduous undertaking, which, though requiring much judgment and genius to conduct with propriety, appears to be well adapted for epic action, and is free from the objections commonly made to the Paradise Lost of Milton, who has been frequently censured for its melancholy catastrophe, for the abject condition in which our first parents are left, and for having chosen the Devil for his hero. Without inquiry concerning the justness of these remarks, we may observe of Calvary, that it is not obnoxious to similar spleen; the Messiah, though exposed to the machinations of Satan, and suffering all that man could inflict, being repeatedly and finally triumphant.

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Nor will it be any ground for rational objection, that the allegorical personage Death acts so conspicuous a part in this poem; for, though Milton has felt the lash of criticism for personification of this kind, in Calvary, the introduction of the king of terrors was almost a necessary part of the action, few circumstances being more frequently insisted upon by the authors of our Testament, than the conquest and humiliation of Death by the Messiah, and the consequent resurrection of his saints,

If we now advert to the characters of Mr. Cumberland, we may remark that, though not in possession of originality, they are well drawn and well supported. The materials he has made use of, and the models he has copied from, are of transcendent excellence; and to have woven these into a new whole, to have imitated these sublime writings without losing. a portion of their first spirit and raciness, is to have achieved a work of difficulty and danger, that claims and will acquire both grateful and durable praise. No characters in the whole range of literature are so exquisitely conceived, so beautifully delineated and coloured, as those of our Saviour in the writings of the

Evangelists, and of Satan in the Paradise Lost. The tender mercy and compassion of our Redeemer, the universal philanthropy and meekness of his character, his pathetic appeals to the virtues and feelings of his auditors, his patient and heroic suffering, his numerous acts of goodness and stupendous power, are given with such touching simplicity of language, with such minuteness and accuracy of detail, with such conviction of the truth and dignity of the theme, that whilst no compositions are so interesting to the uncorrupted heart, none are more pleasing to the purest taste. On the other hand, in a style elevated to the utmost pitch of grandeur, Milton has portrayed a being of terrible sublimity, author of every dreadful and gigantic evil, and contending for the supremacy of heaven; breathing revenge, hatred, and despair, armed with archangelic strength, and clothed with the majesty of power. With these tremendous attributes he has mingled such a portion of beauty and grace, of mental activity and invincible 'courage, that while we gaze and tremble at the awful demon, we feel a thrilling sensation of pleasurable wonder, of admiration, and of horror, stealing through every nerve.

To bring forward therefore characters such as these, to place them in new situations, to support them in all their original vigour and effect, is a task which superior genius only can perform, and which has been attempted, and with success, in the poem under our consideration.

The palace and person of Death too, Satan seized upon by the vindictive angel, and the punishment to which he is subjected, are painted with the strongest colours of imagination, and the delineation of, and the speeches ascribed to, the devils, when assembled in the wilderness, are characteristic of their attributes, and teem with appropriate imagery. Gabriel and Mammon likewise are agents of considerable consequence, and do their errands with consummate energy and address; nor are the inferior actors, Caiphas, Iscariot, Peter, and Pilate, less admirably supported, or pencilled with diminished spirit, though the attitudes and grouping are from Scripture.

Having cast a transient glance over the characters, we may proceed to remark, that the sentiments of this work are, in general, such

as, in a composition assuming epic dignity, we expect to meet with. The simplicity of the Gospel history is seldom violated, and the sentiments attributed to the superhuman agents are replete with Miltonic vigour and sublimity. There is, however, something very dreadful, and, we trust, something very much misapprehended, in dwelling upon the idea of eter nal torments; in teaching that the far greater part of the human race will liquefy in fire through everlasting ages. In the seventh book, myriads of miserable beings are represented as plunged into perpetual and unmitigated flames,

that sparkling blaz'd

Up to the iron roof, whose echoing vault
Resounded ever with the dolorous groans

Of the sad crew beneath; Thence might be heard
The wailing suicide's remorseful plaint,
The murderer's yelling scream, and the loud cry
Of tyrants in that fiery furnace hurl'd;
Vain cry! th' unmitigated furies urge
Their ruthless task, and to the cauldron's edge
With ceaseless toil huge blocks of sulphur roll,
Pil'd mountains high to feed the greedy flames.
All these, th' accursed brood of Sin, were once
The guilty pleasures, the false joys, that lur'd