o the Hellene. The character
of Luther, again, might seem wholly Hebraic to those who see him only as
a zealot of fiery controversy, so carried out of himself that his very
visions of Beelzebub acquired all the vividness of reality. Yet there
are times when another spirit is upon him, when his reasoning is cool
and colourless as that of a Greek philosopher. The misfortune of Luther
is that he could not, as a Melancthon in large measure could, amalgamate
the best elements of these complementary natures.

If from the names of English literature one were asked to choose our
most Hebraic poet, the name of Milton would perhaps be the first to
offer itself to many minds. Yet this would be a mere illusion. We must
not confound the subject of poetry with its spirit. The subject of
_Paradise Lost_, _Paradise Regained_, and _Samson Agonistes_ is Hebraic;
the spirit and manner are by no means so. Distinguish in these works all
that which cannot properly be said to belong to the poet himself, the
evident paraphrase of Bible language and Bible narrative; set by itself
that which is Milton's own imagining; mark the spirit and manner which
pervade it; and it will be seen that prophetic fervour is hardly there,
profound moral enthusiasm is hardly there. What we chiefly discover is
the intellect of a theological student, working in a certain rich
material, the magnificent Miltonic diction. The true Hebraic note is
rather struck in the sonnet, "_Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints,
whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold_," in that
fierce reproach of the Church in _Lycidas_, and in certain passages of
his prose. Milton is in fact a Hellene made subject to Hebraic moods by
his Hebrew studies, the Puritan Hebraism of his training, and the Hebrew
connexion of his subjects. It is when he writes _Comus_ or _L'Allegro_
that he is giving expression to his natural poetic bent. It may seem a
paradox if, on the other hand, we say that there was much of Hebraism in
one whose purity and justness of language and grace of form seem wholly
Hellenic; I mean Shelley. Shelley was intense in imagination, capable of
boundless rapture and absorption, subject to white heats of passion and
conflagration of moral wrath. In truth his nature was a rare blending,
left crude by his early death. As faultless in diction as a Hellene, in
philosophical speculation almost a copy of Plato, he was in capacity for
reaching the heights and depths of spiritu