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Yet half his firength he put not forth, but checkt
His thunder in mid volley, for he meant
Not to deftroy, but root them out of Heaven.

In a word, Milton's Genius which was fo great in it felf, and fo ftrengthened by all the helps of Learning, appears in this Book every way Equal to his Subject[s], which was the moft Sublime that could enter into the Thoughts of a Poet. As he knew all the Arts of affecting the Mind, had he not given [he knew it was neceffary to give] it certain refting places and Opportunities of recovering it felf from time to time: He has [therefore] with great Address interfperfed feveral Speeches, Reflections, Similitudes, and the like Reliefs to diverfifie his Narration, and ease the Attention of his [the] Reader, that he might come fresh to his great Action, and by fuch a Contraft of Ideas, have a more lively taste of the nobler parts of his Description.

Addison corrected and re-corrected this last sentence. The first and last readings, as in the original and second editions, are as above. The intermediate reading, according to the Errata in No. 369, of the original issue, is as follows:

As he knew all the Arts of affecting the Mind, he has given it certain refting places and Opportunities of recovering it felf from time to time: feveral Speeches, Reflections, Similitudes, and the like Reliefs being interspersed, to diversifie his Narration, and ease the attention of his Reader.

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The SPECTATOR.

Vt his exordia primis

Virg.

Omnia, & ipfe tener Mundi concreverit orbis.
Tum durare folum, & difcludere Nerea ponto
Caperit, & rerum paullatim fumere formas.
{He fung the fecret Seeds of Nature's Frame;
How Seas, and Earth, and Air, and active Flame,
Fell thro' the mighty Void, and in their Fall
Were blindly gather'd in this goodly Ball.
The tender Soil then fliff'ning by degrees
Shut from the bounded Earth the bounding Seas.
Then Earth and Ocean various Forms difclofe,
And a new Sun to the new World arofe. Dryden.}

Saturday, March 29. 1712.

ONGINUS has obferved, that there may be a Loftiness in Sentiments, where there is no Paffion, and brings Inftances out of Ancient Authors to fupport this his Opinion.

The Pathetick, as that great Critick obferves, máy animate and inflame the Sublime, but is not effential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that thofe, who excell most in ftirring up the Paffions, very often want the Talent of Writing in the Great and Sublime manner; and fo on the contrary. Milton has fhewn himself a Master in both thefe ways of Writing. The Seventh Book, which we are now entering upon, is an Inftance of that Sublime, which is not mixt and work'd up with Paffion. The Author appears in a kind of composed and fedate Majefty; and tho' the Sentiments do not give fo great [an] Emotion as thofe in the former Book, they abound with as magnificent Ideas.

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The Sixth Book, like a troubled Ocean, represents Greatness in Confufion; the Seventh affects the Imagination like the Ocean in a Calm, and fills the Mind of the Reader without producing in it any thing like Tumult or Agitation.

The Critick abovementioned, among the Rules which he lays down for fucceeding in the Sublime way of Writing, proposes to his Reader, that he should imitate the most celebrated Authors who have gone before him, and have been engaged in Works of the fame nature; as in particular that if he writes on a Poetical Subject, he should confider how Homer would have spoken on such an Occasion. By this means one great Genius often catches the Flame from another, and writes in his Spirit, without copying fervilely after him. There are a thousand Shining Paffages in Virgil, which have been lighted up by Homer.

Milton, though his own natural Strength of Genius was capable of furnishing out a perfect Work, has doubtless very much raised and ennobled his Conceptions, by fuch an Imitation as that which Longinus has recommended.

In this Book, which gives us an Account of the Six Days Works, the Poet received but very few Affistances from Heathen Writers, who were Strangers to the Wonders of Creation. But as there are many Glorious Stroaks of Poetry upon this Subject in Holy Writ, the Author has numberless Allufions to them through the whole Course of this Book. The great Critick, I have before mentioned, tho' an Heathen, has taken notice of the Sublime manner in which the Law-giver of the Jews has described the Creation in the first Chapter of Genefis; and there are many other Paffages in Scripture, which rife up to the fame Majefty, where this Subject is toucht upon. Milton has fhewn his Judgment very remarkably, in making use of such of these as were proper for his Poem, and in duly qualifying thofe high Strains of Eastern Poetry,

which were fuited to Readers whose Imaginations were fet to an higher pitch than those of colder Climates. Adam's Speech to the Angel, wherein he defires an Account of what had paffed within the Regions of Nature before his [the] Creation, is very great and folemn. The following Lines, in which he tells him that the Day is not too far spent for him to enter upon fuch a Subject, are exquisite in their kind.

And the Great light of day yet wants to run

Much of his race through steep, fufpens in Heav'n
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he hears,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His Generation, &c.-

The Angel's encouraging our first Parent[s] in amodest pursuit after Knowledge, with the Causes which he affigns for the Creation of the World, are very just and beautiful. The Meffiah, by whom, as we are told in Scripture, the Heavens were made, goes [comes*] forth in the Power of his Father, surrounded with an Host of Angels, and cloathed with fucha Majefty as becomes his entering upon a Work, which, according to our Conceptions, looks like [appears] the utmoft exertion of Omnipotence. What a beautiful Description has our Author raised upon that Hint in one of the Prophets. And behold there came four Chariots out from between two Mountains, and the Mountains were Mountains of Brafs. About his Chariot numberlefs were pour'd Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones, And virtues, winged Spirits, and Chariots wing'd, From the Armoury of God, where fland of old Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg'd Against a folemn day, harnest at hand; Celeftial Equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them fpirit liv'd Attendant on their lord: Heav'n open'd wide Her ever-during Gates, Harmonious found On golden Hinges moving

I have before taken notice of these Chariots of

God, and of these Gates of Heaven, and shall here only add, that Homer gives us the fame Idea of the latter as opening of themselves, tho' he afterwards takes off from it, by telling us, that the Hours first of all removed those prodigious heaps of Clouds which lay as a Barrier before them.

I do not know any thing in the whole Poem more Sublime than the Description which follows, where the Meffiah is reprefented at the head of his Angels, as looking down into the Chaos, calming its Confusion, riding into the midst of it, and drawing the first Outline of the Creation.

On Heav'nly ground they flood, and from the fhore
They view'd the vaft immeafurable Abyfs
Outragious as a Sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And furging waves, as Mountains to affault
Heav'n's height, and with the Center mix the Pole.
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou Deep, Peace,
Said then th' Omnific word, your Difcord end:
Nor flaid, but on the wings of Cherubim
Up-lifted, in Paternal Glory rode

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Follow'd in bright Proceffion to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then flaid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden Compaffes, prepared
In Gods eternal Store, to circumfcribe
This Univerfe, and all created things:
One foot he Center'd, and the other turn'd,
Round through the vast profundity obfcure,
And faid, thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy juft Circumference, O World.

The Thought of the Golden Compaffes is conceiv'd altogether in Homer's Spirit, and is a very noble Incident in this wonderful Description. Homer, when he speaks of the Gods, afcribes to them several Arms and

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