Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/546

536  (Sing, O goddess, the wrath)? I insist upon taking these words literally, and they certainly indicate that "the blind old man of Scio's rocky isle" regarded himself as the mere mouthpiece which was to give utterance in immortal strains to the inspiration that came from a higher quarter and took possession of his soul. Then what shall we say to the more elaborate invocation with which Milton opens up to us the sublimities of 'Paradise Lost'? If the poet be not a hypocrite and a deceiver (and who has ever dared to bring forward such a charge ?), this invocation is clearly an acknowledgment that it is not to himself that he looks for the inspiration which is to support him in the accomplishment of his great enterprise.