tive' law, not against the essential principles of morality. As Professor Raleigh puts it, the ruler of the universe becomes a 'whimsical tyrant,' issuing commands from time to time, often utterly incapable of being carried out, and given merely to test the submissiveness of his subjects. The corruption of human nature is a Christian doctrine, the plausibility of which was admitted, as we have been lately reminded, by such a freethinker as Huxley. With Milton it seems to be a superficial phenomenon. His morality usually rests upon a lofty sense of the dignity of human nature. 'A pious and just honouring of ourselves,' he says 'is the radical moisture and fountain-head whence every laudable and worthy enterprise issues forth.' He claims for himself an 'honest haughtiness and self-esteem,' 'which let envy call pride.' In Paradise Lost, Satan's pride has so strong an affinity to this honest haughtiness that we feel his error to have been rather of the head than of the heart. He has miscalculated his position, and applied a noble quality to a mistaken end. Milton, therefore, has more real sympathy with the Stoic than with the Christian ethics. He tells us how, during his study of 'Greek and Roman exploits,' he had
