The language of the poem often bears a striking resemblance to the language of painting, or seems like a detailed description of some _chef d’œuvre_ of the art, rather than the creation of the poet’s fancy. We should have little doubt that the solitary church in the valley of Ronscevalles is copied from that in the back-ground of Titian’s _St. Peter Martyr_, and the massacre at the altar in the first canto is certainly taken from some picture of Raphael! In the sentiments of this poem there is more feebleness, a greater number of Gallicisms, than in the imagery. We meet with such courtly expressions as these: ‘Les Francs à chaque instant voient de nouveaux guerriers _Solliciter l’honneur d’embrasser leur defense_!’ The devil addresses the deity with the following piece of high-flown sentimentality: ‘Pour braver les remords, et la gêne et la flamme, Je ne demande rien _qu’un seul rayon d’espoir_.’ We know, indeed, from whence the allusion is taken, and we wonder the more at the affectation implied in the alteration. It is like some of Pope’s refinements on Isaiah. In giving an account of the sorrow which prevails in heaven at the disasters of the church of Christ, the author has expressed a trite theological sentiment with more felicity than we recollect to have seen it expressed before: ‘On entend à ces mots toutes les voix célestes D’une douce tristesse exhaler les soupirs. La harpe ainsi murmure au souffle des zéphirs. Les habitants du ciel n’ont point ces sons funestes— Qu’ici-bas les malheurs arrachent aux humains. Aux peines, aux chagrins, Aux passions du monde ils ne sont plus en proie; D’un amour sans mélange ils goûtent la douceur: Leurs maux sont moins amers, plus purs que notre joie; Et leur tristesse à peine altère leur bonheur.’ The conception of his Heaven is much more just than that of Hell, though the execution is (almost as a matter of course) less powerful. The two figures of Adam and Moses, in the former, are particularly fine: ‘Le père des humains voit sa nombreuse race, Et calcule, pensif, le nombre des élus! Moïse près de lui, d’un seul regard embrasse Les enfants d’Israël en tous lieux répandus.’ Our poet has, very good-naturedly, (and we hope with the approbation of his holiness the Pope, to whom this work is dedicated,) set aside two stanzas for the secret conveyance of the souls of virtuous heathens and of little children, into the abodes of the blest.