In courts and palaces he also reigns
And in luxurious cities, where the noise
Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers,
And injury and outrage: And when night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.

Milton.

But now a fairer form arrests the eye
Of hells despotic lord: his radiant vest
Of Tyrian purple, studded thick with gems,
Flow'd graceful: He for courts was form'd, for feasts,
For ladies' chambers and for amorous sports;
He lov'd not camps nor the rude toils of war;
Belial his name; around his temples twin'd
A wreath of roses, and, where'er he pass'd
His garments fann'd a breeze of rich perfume:
No ear had he for the shrill-toned trump,
Him the soft warble of the Lydian flute
Delighted rather, the love-soothing harp,
Sappho's loose song and the Aonian Maids
And zoneless Graces floating in the dance;
Yet from his lips sweet eloquence distill'd,
As honey from the bee.

Cumberland.

In the two first quotations few, perhaps, will deny to Mr. Cumberland a greater warmth and beauty of conception, and in the third he is equal, though not superior to Milton, but in the following portrait of Baal, he certainly sinks beneath his celebrated predecessor.

-With grave

Aspéct he rose, and in his rising seem'd
A pillar of state, deep on his front engraven
Deliberation sat and public care;

And princely counsel in his face yet shone,
Majestic though in ruin: sage he stood
With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear

The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look
Drew audience and attention still as night

Or summer's noon-tide air.

MILTON.

-Beside him one

Of towering stature and majestic port,
Himself a host: his black and curling locks
Down his herculean shoulders copious flow'd;
In glittering brass upon his shield he bore
A kingly eagle, ensign of command,
Baal his name, second to none in state
Save only his great chieftain, worshipp'd long
In Babylon, till Daniel drove him thence
With all his gluttonous priests; exalted since
High above all the idol gods of Greece,
Thron'd on Olympus, and his impious hand
Arm'd with the thunder.

CUMBERLAND.

4

The debate now ensues, in which the speeches though by no means so sublime as those in Milton, are strongly characteristic and well supported. Moloch, as in Paradise Lost, after making a furious oration, is succeeded by Belial, and as the passage in Milton delineating these demons has been justly admired, we shall transcribe it here with the corresponding one in Calvary, nor have we any hesitation in affirming that Mr. Cumberland has much improved upon our divine bard, and thrown his contrasted demons into much more pictoresque and dramatic attitudes.

He ended frowning, and his look denounc'd
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous
To less than Gods. On the other side uprose
Belial, in act more graceful and humane;
A fairer person lost not heaven; he seem'd
For dignity compos'd and high exploit:
But all was false and hollow.

Milton.

Breathless he paus'd, so rapid was the pulse
Of his high-beating heart he stood as one
Choak'd and convuls'd with rage; when as he ceas'd,
He smote his mailed habergeon so loud,
Hell's armed legions heard, and shook their spears
Betok'ning war.

-Yet not long

His triumph, for now Belial from the ranks
Graceful advanc'd, and as he put aside
His purple robe in act to speak, the throng,
Such was the dazzling beauty of his form,
Fell back a space.

Cumberland.

Belial in his speech having suggested the propriety of employing Mammon as a tempter of Christ's disciples, Satan adopts the hint and calls upon that Spirit to effect the seduction of Iscariot. Mammon accepts the office, and Satan filled with enthusiasm and fancied triumph exclaims

Prophetic visions burst upon me:

I see the traitor Judas with a band
Of midnight ruffians seize his peaceful Lord:
They drag him to the bar, accuse, condemn;
He bleeds, he dies! Darkness involves the rest.

The exultation of this tremendous Being, his self-delusion, and the obscurity that still rests upon his hopes, are finely contrived, and give additional interest to the part he performs. Mammon meanwhile departs on his embassy,

-no longer now Crouching with age and pain, but nerv'd anew, As with a spell transform'd, erect he stood With towering stature tallest of the throng, And looks of high supremacy and state. And now from either shoulder he unfurl'd His wide-stretch'd pinions, and uprising swift Tower'd in mid-air; the host with loud acclaim Hail'd his ascent; he on the well-pois'd wing Hover'd awhile, till from his cloudy heighth Sweeping the wide horizon he descried Far in the west the holy city of God, His destin'd port, then to the orient sun Turn'd his broad vans, and plied their utmost speed.

Though the first book from the nature of its plan has, as we have already observed, necessarily the air of a copy, yet the oratorical parts possess very considerable merit, and exhibit much adaptation both in style and sentiment. The language of Belial melts with voluptuousness, and in strains of the softest cadence he still flatters himself with an eternal reign, whilst Moloch breathes nothing but inexorable revenge and hatred of the blackest hue, The terrific traits in the character of Satan are strongly marked, and he maintains his supremacy in the synod for matchless sin