Profound, too, is the pathos of-- "I would be at the worst, worst is my best, My harbour, and my ultimate repose." The general sobriety of the style of "Paradise Regained" is a fertile theme for the critics.

It is, indeed, carried to the verge of baldness; frigidity, used by Pattison, is too strong a word.

This does not seem to be any token of a decay of poetical power.

As writers advance in life their characteristics usually grow upon them, and develop into mannerisms.

In "Paradise Regained," and yet more markedly in "Samson Agonistes," Milton seems to have prided himself on showing how independent he could be of the ordinary poetical stock-in-trade.