But how strangely original is the earlier Poet in so cunningly working it into the very matter of his persuasion! Our quotation from Young recalls that in the 'Night-Thoughts' there are evident reminiscences of Crashaw: e.g.
'Midnight veil'd his face:
Not such as this, not such as Nature makes;
A midnight Nature shudder'd to behold;
A midnight new; a dread eclipse, without
Opposing spheres, from her Creator's frown.'
(Night IV. ll. 246-250.)
So in 'Gilt was Hell's gloom' (N. VII. l. 1041), and in this portrait of Satan:
'Like meteors in a stormy sky, how roll
His baleful eyes!' (N. IX. ll. 280-1.) and
'the fiery gulf,
That flaming bound of wrath omnipotent;' (Ib. ll. 473-4)
and
'Banners streaming as the comet's blaze;' (Ib. l. 323)
and
'Which makes a hell of hell,' (Ib. l. 340)