Milton's Adam and Eve walk before us instead of the Adam and Eve of Genesis.

Milton's Satan usurps the place of that grotesque, malignant spirit of the Bible, which, instead of claiming our admiration, excites only our horror, as he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

He it is who can declare The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same, And what I should be?
MILTON AND DANTE .-- It has been usual for the literary critic to compare Milton and Dante; and it is certain that in the conception, at least, of his great themes, Milton took Dante for his guide.

Without an odious comparison, and conceding the great value, principally historical, of the _Divina Commedia_, it must be said that the palm remains with the English poet.

Take, for a single illustration, the fall of the arch-fiend.