a higher and a nobler mind, and criticism sinks in admiration.

Milton's style was not modified by his subject; what is shown with
greater extent in "Paradise Lost" may be found in "Comus." One
source of his peculiarity was his familiarity with the Tuscan poets;
the disposition of his words is, I think, frequently Italian;
perhaps sometimes combined with other tongues. Of him, at last, may
be said what Jonson says of Spenser, that "he wrote no language,"
but has formed what Butler calls a "Babylonish dialect," in itself
harsh and barbarous, but made by exalted genius and extensive
learning the vehicle of so much instruction and so much pleasure,
that, like other lovers, we find grace in its deformity.

Whatever be the faults of his diction, he cannot want the praise of
copiousness and variety. He was master of his language in its full
extent; and has selected the melodious words with such diligence,
that from his book alone the Art of English Poetry might be learned.

After his diction something must be said of his VERSIFICATION. The
MEASURE, he says, "is the English heroic verse without rhyme." Of
this mode he had many examples among the Italians, and some in his
own country. The Earl of Surrey is said to have translated one of
Virgil's books without rhyme; and, beside our tragedies, a few short
poems had appeared in blank verse, particularly one tending to
reconcile the nation to Raleigh's wild attempt upon Guiana, and
probably written by Raleigh himself. These petty performances
cannot be supposed to have much influenced Milton, who more probably
took his hint from Trissino's "Italia Liberata;" and, finding blank
verse easier than rhyme, was desirous of persuading himself that it
is better.