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Took largely, of their mutual guilt the Seal,
The Solace of their Sin, 'till dewy fleep
Opprefs'd them

As no Poet seems ever to have studied Homer more, or to have resembled him in the greatness of Genius than Milton, I think I fhou'd have given but a very imperfect Account of his Beauties, if I had not observed the most remarkable Passages which look like Parallels in these two great Authors. I might, in the Course of these Criticisms, have taken notice of many particular Lines and Expreffions which are tranflated from the Greek Poet, but as I thought this would have appeared too minute and over-curious, I have purpofely omitted them. The greater Incidents, however, are not only set off by being shown in the fame Light, with several of the same Nature in Homer, but by that means may be also guarded against the Cavils of the Tastelefs or Ignorant.

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The SPECTATOR.

+Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.
{He knows what beft befits each character.}

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{Who can relate fuch Woes without a Tear?}
Saturday, April 19. 1712.

Hor.

Virg.]

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HE Tenth Book of Paradife Loft has a greater variety of Perfons in it than any other in the whole Poem. The Author upon the winding up of his Action introduces all thofe who had any Concern in it, and fhews with great Beauty the influence which it had upon each of them. It is like the laft Act of a well written Tragedy, in which all who had a part in it are generally drawn up before the Audience, and reprefented under those Circumstances in which the determination of the Action places them.

I fhall therefore confider this Book under four Heads, in relation to the Celestial, the Infernal, the Human, and the Imaginary Perfons, who have their respective Parts allotted in it.

To begin with the Celestial Perfons: The Guardian Angels of Paradife are defcribed as returning to Heaven upon the Fall of Man, in order to approve their Vigilance; their Arrival, their manner of Reception, with the Sorrow which appeared in themselves, and in thofe Spirits who are faid to Rejoice at the Conversion of a Sinner, are very finely laid together in the following Lines.

Up into Heav'n from Paradife in hafte
Th' angelick guards afcended, mute and fad
For man, for of his flate by this they knew
Much wond'ring how the fubtle Fiend had ftoln
+ This motto was changed in second edition for the one below it.

Entrance unfeen. Soon as th' unwelcome news
From earth arriv'd at Heaven Gate, difpleas'd
All were who heard, dim fadnefs did not fpare
That time Celestial vifages, yet mixt

With pity, violated not their blifs.

About the new-arriv'd, in multitudes
Th' Ethereal people ran, to hear and know
How all befell: They tow'rds the throne fupreame
Accountable made hafle to make appear
With righteous plea, their utmoft vigilance,
And eafily approv'd; when the most High
Eternal father from his fecret cloud,
Amidst in thunder utter'd thus his voice.

The fame Divine Person who in the foregoing parts of this Poem interceded for our firft Parents before their Fall, overthrew the rebel Angels, and created the World, is now represented as descending to Paradife, and pronouncing Sentence upon the three Offenders. The cool of the Evening, being a Circumstance with which Holy Writ introduces this great Scene, it is Poetically described by our Author, who has also kept religiously to the form of Words, in which the three several Sentences were paffed upon Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. He has rather chofen to neglect the numerousness of his Verfe, than to deviate from those Speeches which are recorded on this great occafion. The Guilt and Confusion of our first Parents standing naked before their Judge, is touch'd with great Beauty. Upon the Arrival of Sin and Death into the Works of the Creation, the Almighty is again introduced as peaking to his Angels that furrounded him.

See with what heat thefe Dogs of Hell advance
To waste and havock yonder world, which I
So fair and good created, &c.

The following Passage is formed upon that glorious Image in Holy Writ which compares the Voice of an innumerable Hoft of Angels, uttering Hallelujahs, to the Voice of mighty Thunderings, or of many Waters.

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He ended, and the Heav'nly Audience loud
Sung Hallelujah, as the found of Seas,
Through multitude that fung: Juft are thy ways,
Righteous are thy Decrees in all thy Works,
Who can extenuate thee?-

Though the Author in the whole courfe of his Poem, and particularly in the Book we are now examining, has infinite Allusions to places of Scripture, I have only taken notice in my Remarks of fuch as are of a Poetical Nature, and which are woven with great Beauty into the Body of his [this] Fable. Of this kind is that Passage in the present Book, where defcribing Sin [and Death] as marching through the Works of Nature, he adds,

-Behind her Death

Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horfe :-

Which alludes to that Paffage in Scripture fo wonderfully Poetical, and terrifying to the Imagination. And I looked, and behold, a pale Horfe, and his Name that fat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him: and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with fword, and with hunger, and with ficknefs, and with the beafts of the earth. Under this firft head of Celestial Persons we must likewife take notice of the Command which the Angels received, to produce [the] feveral Changes in Nature, and fully the Beauty of the Creation. Accordingly they are represented as infecting the Stars and Planets with malignant Influences, weakning the Light of the Sun, bringing down the Winter into the milder Regions of Nature, planting Winds and Storms in feveral Quarters of the Sky, ftoring the Clouds with Thunder, and in fhort, perverting the whole frame of the Universe to the condition of its Criminal inhabitants. As this is a noble Incident in the Poem, the following Lines, in which we see the Angels heaving up the Earth, and

placing it in a different posture to the Sun from what it had before the Fall of Man, is conceived with that sublime Imagination which was fo peculiar to this great Author.

Some fay he bid his angels turn afcanfe

The Poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the Sun's Axle; they with labour pufh'd
Oblique the Centrick Globe-

We are in the second place to confider the Infernal Agents under the View which Milton has given us of them in this Book. It is obferved by those who would fet forth the Greatness of Virgil's Plan, that he conducts his Reader thro' all the Parts of the Earth which were discover'd in his time. Afia, Africk and Europe are the feveral Scenes of his Fable. The Plan of Milton's Poem is of an infinitely greater extent, and fills the Mind with many more astonishing Circumftances. Satan, having furrounded the Earth feven times, departs at length from Paradife. We afterwards [then] see him fteering his Course among the Conftellations, and after having traverfed the whole Creation, pursuing his Voyage through the Chaos, and entering into his own Infernal Dominions.

His first appearance in the Affembly of Fallen Angels is work'd up with Circumstances which give a delightful Surprize to the Reader; but there is no Incident in the whole Poem which does this more than the Transformation of the whole Audience, that follows the account their Leader gives them of his Expedition. The gradual change of Satan himself is described after Ovid's manner, and may vie with any of those celebrated Transformations which are looked upon as the most beautiful parts in that Poet's Works. Milton never fails of improving his own Hints, and bestowing the last finishing Touches to every Incident which is admitted into his Poem. The unexpected Hifs which rifes in this Episode, the Dimensions and Bulk of Satan so much superior to those of the Infernal Spirits who lay under the fame Transformation, with the

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