Gilmore, by batteries placed at one and two miles distance, destroyed, in a day, all faith in defensive works of masonry, which up to that time had been regarded as the bulwarks of sea-coast defence. History furnishes no instance of so complete and universal a change in practice caused by one gigantic experiment occupying hardly more than twenty-four hours. The echoes of Gilmore's guns had scarcely died away before orders were issued from the war offices of all nations having sea coasts to defend to suspend work on masonry fortifications. These two events, the conflict of the Monitor and Merrimack, and the reduction of Fort Pulaski, were the beginnings, however, of a contest which has lasted to the present time-the contest between rifled ordnance, and defensive armor. In this war of force, of impact and resistance, if we take into account the cost of armored vessels, hundreds of millions of dollars have been expended. In the course of ordinary events, however, isolated results do not usually furnish the most useful collection of facts; there are few branches of Art or Industry, involving mechanical appliances, which may not be advanced by investigations systematically undertaken, and which are made through a careful observance of all phenomena and conditions to bring out general laws. No It will not be considered inappropriate in connection with this subject to make a brief allusion, and render tribute to the works of one who, though not now living, may be regarded as having been among the foremost investigators of the present age in the department of Mechanical Science. name is more frequently mentioned, wherever the English language is spoken, as authority in matters relating to applied mechanics than the name of RANKINE. His original investigations in founding, and building up, the science of Thermodynamics, were sufficient to establish his fame; but the peculiar fascination of his works, to the engineer, lies in the wonderful scope of his genius in the solution of problems of applied mechanics in every branch of engineering; and the remarkable skill and perception with which he introduced experimental data into his researches; thus giving to his deduc tions the most unerring scientific exactness combined with the nearest approximate practical solutions. Unlike the writings of many scientific authors Rankine's voluminous works will not bear reduction or condensation. Conciseness of style and the shortest modes of demonstration are their marked characteristics. Every paragraph, and almost every line, seems to contain the expression of an idea, a valuable description, or the enunciation of a principle. As an investigator he appears never to have touched a subject without throwing new light upon it, either by his mode of treatment, the discovery of new principles, or in extending its practical applications. Although not an experimenter himself, no investigator has made more constant use of well established results of experiments made by others, or has been more skillful in bringing useful rules of practice out of the combinations of such results with exact theories. He has left to the present generation the most complete exposition of the principles of the science of applied mechanics that can be found in the English language. England has not yet done full justice to the memory of one whose labors in science ought to be regarded as having added to her national fame, and whose practical expositions have contributed so much to the progress of all nations in the Mechanic Arts. ARTICLE IV.-THE PLAN OF PARADISE LOST. IN all the attempts to trace the origin of Paradise Lost to the Caedmon, to Andreini, to Grotius, to Du Bartas, and to a score of others, no claim, so far as I am aware, has been advanced to having found in any, or in all, of them the entire plan upon which Milton worked and which he filled out. Caedmon is said to have helped here, Andreini there, and Du Bartas in a third place, but no one of them and not all of them together give in any just sense an explanation of the existence of the great English epic. During an extended study of Paradise Lost, the results of which were published in 1878, I became convinced that there remained a point of view from which the poem would show a better unity than it is commonly supposed to have. This point of view I found, accidentally, it must be admitted, shortly after the publication of my essay, and at once and without any difficulty I wrote out the substance of what I am here about to give. Reviewing my material after an interval of nearly five years, during which much thought has been expended upon the poem, I am more than ever convinced of its value in explanation of the poet's method. Milton is no exception to the rule that great poets find rather than make their plans. There is a narrative exactly coincident with the story of the poem in its beginning, breadth, and end. It is found where Milton would naturally look for his plan. It conforms to the poet's classical taste. As commonly understood, it accords with Milton's early religious training and political sympathies. It is highly figurative, and therefore just what a poet's soul would delight to interpret. In the last-named characteristic we find the chief reason why Milton's selection of the passage as the foundation of his poem has not sooner been discovered. St. John's vision of the seven trumpets in the Apocalypse is a vision of Judgment covering the entire course of angelic and human transgression. It begins before the Creation, takes in the whole reach of time, and ends with the final disposition of things for eternity. It is a view of the origin and the final punishment of evil. What else could be said of Paradise Lost? Its scope and purpose are the same, its method is the same, and we shall find that every distinct feature of the prophecy can be found in the poem. The prophet's vision and the poet's may best be compared first in their general features. In the former a part of the action is extra-mundane and a part intra-mundane, and the transition from the one to the other is marked by the warning cry between the fourth and the fifth trumpet: "Woe to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound!" Magnificent opportunity for an epic poet meditating this subject in the way of an opening leading at once in medias res! Milton was not slow to see and take advantage of such a feature. At this point of time, near the sounding of the fifth trumpet, he enters upon the narrative, and from this looks before and after. Raphael is brought from Heaven to narrate the past, Michael to foretell the future. Two angels, unnamed, likewise appeared to St. John: the first, seen "flying through the midst of Heaven," is identical with Raphael, who, charged with a warning to man, similarly sprang up and "flew through the midst of Heaven" (v. 251); the second is Michael, having the same radiant form as he, and clothed, like him, with a cloud and a rainbow (xi. 229, 244). It will be observed that the angels who sound the trumpets are stationed in Heaven, while the judgments following are executed in some other place. The last three are separated from the rest as alone executed upon the earth; and it is most natural to infer that the other four are to be referred to Hell, the place of punishment, which is unmistakably prominent in the passage. In Paradise Lost, six soundings of the trumpet in Heaven are explicitly mentioned, and the remaining one is with sufficient clearness implied. Two of the soundings occur on the first day of the war in Heaven. On the morning of that day, as a sign of wrath awaked for the first time in celestial history, "the loud ethereal trumpet from on high gan blow" (vi. 60). It announced the approaching combat be tween Faith, represented in Abdiel, and Unbelief, embodied in Satan. Again, just as the two armies were about to engage in a general battle, "Michael bid sound The archangel trumpet. Through the vast of Heaven Hosanna to the Highest" (vi. 202). It was the signal for the conflict between the Letter and the Spirit of the Law, such as took place when Michael contended with Satan for the body of Moses (Jude 9). The third sounding was at the dawning of the second day, when "Up rose the victor angels, and to arms The matin trumpet sung" (vi. 526). Following this came the fierce and doubtful encounter which symbolizes the struggle between the Flesh and the Spirit, or between Desire and Duty. Another sounding on the morning of the third day is naturally looked for, but instead thereof the chariot of the Messiah then rushes forth "with whirlwind sound." What reason is there for believing this to be a substitute for the fourth sounding of the trumpet, and its equivalent? Note the features of the third day's conflict. They are such as the Sacred Writings associate with the Final Judgment. The unexpected appearance of the Messiah on his throne in the clouds accompanied by his saints and his portentous heavenly ensign; his renewal of the disordered celestial territory, as he will finally renew the earth; his approval of the faithful; his affliction of the disobedient, until they call for the mountains to fall upon them and shield them from his wrath; his expulsion of his enemies, as a flock of timorous goats, from Heaven; his imprisonment of them in the dungeon of despair, form together a scene of unmistakable significance. Matthew and Paul mention the sounding of a trumpet as announcing the Judgment, but Mark and Luke omit it, and Peter speaks only of "a great noise." The Old Testament writers frequently connect a whirlwind with their Judgment scenes, and at least one (Zech. ix. 14) includes both the sounding of a trumpet and a whirlwind. The poet, then, may be allowed to choose as to whether he will mention the trumpet |