gale, he adds, Silence was pleafed; and upon the Meffiah's bidding Peace to the Chaos, Confufion heard his voice. I might add innumerable other* Inftances of our Poet's writing in this beautiful Figure. It is plain that these I have mentioned, in which Perfons of an imaginary Nature are introduced, are fuch fhort Allegories as are not defigned to be taken in the literal Sense, but only to convey particular Circumftances to the Reader after an unusual and entertaining Manner. But when fuch Perfons are introduced as principal Actors, and engaged in a Series of Adventures, they take too much upon them, and are by no means proper for an Heroic Poem, which ought to appear credible in its principal Parts. I cannot forbear therefore thinking that Sin and Death are as improper Agents in a Work of this Nature, as Strength and Violence [Neceffity] in one of the Tragedies of Efchylus, who reprefented those two Perfons nailing down Prometheus to a Rock, for which he has been justly cenfured by the greatest Criticks. I do not know any imaginary Person made use of in a more Sublime manner of thinking than that in one of the Prophets, who defcribing God as defcending from Heaven, and visiting the Sins of Mankind, adds that dreadful Circumstance; Before him went the Peftilence. It is certain this imaginary Person might have been described in all her purple Spots. The Fever might have march'd before her, Pain might have stood at her right Hand, Phrenzy on her left, and Death in her Rear. She might have been introduced as gliding down from the Tail of a Comet, or darted upon the Earth in a Flash of Lightning: She might have tainted the Atmosphere with her Breath; the very glaring of her Eyes might have scattered Infection. But I believe every Reader will think that in such Sublime Writings the mentioning of her as it is done in Scripture has fomething in it more juft, as well as great, than all that the most fanciful Poet could have bestowed upon her in the Richness of his Imagination.

The SPECTATOR.

Crudelis ubique

Luctus, ubique pavor, & plurima Mortis Imago. Virg. {All Parts refound with Tumults, Plaints, and Fears, And grify Death in fundry Shapes appears.

M

Saturday, April 26. 1712.

Dryden.}

ILTON has fhewn a wonderful Art in defcribing that variety of Paffions which arife in our first Parents upon the breach of the Commandment that had been given them. We fee them gradually passing from the triumph of their Guilt thro' Remorfe, Shame, Despair, Contrition, Prayer, and Hope, to a perfect and compleat Repentance. At the end of the Tenth Book they are represented as proftrating themselves upon the Ground, and watering the Earth with their Tears: To which the Poet joins this beautiful Circumstance, that they offer'd up their Penitential Prayers on the very place where their Judge appeared to them when he pronounced their Sentence.

-They forthwith to the place

Repairing, where he judg'd them, prostrate fell
Before him reverent, and both confefs'd

Humbly their faults, and pardon begg'd, with tears
Watring the Ground-

[There is a Beauty of the fame kind in a tragedy of Sophocles, where Oedipus, after having put out his own Eyes, instead of breaking his Neck from the Palace Battlements (which furnishes fo elegant an Entertainment for our English Audience) defires that he may be conducted to Mount Citharon, in order to end his Life in that very Place where he was expofed in his

Infancy, and where he should then have died, had the Will of his Parents been executed.]

As the Author never fails to give a Poetical turn to his Sentiments, he describes in the beginning of this Book the Acceptance which these their Prayers met with, in a short Allegory form'd upon that beautiful Paffage in Holy Writ. And another Angel came and flood at the Altar, having a golden Cenfer; and there was given unto him much incenfe, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the Golden Altar, which was before the throne: And the fmoak of the incenfe which came with the Prayers of the Saints, afcended up before God.

-To Heav'n their prayers

Flew up, nor mifs'd the way, by envious winds
Blown vagabond or fruftrate: in they pass'd
Dimentionlefs through Heav'nly doors, then clad
With incenfe, where the Golden Altar fumed,
By their great interceffor, came in fight
Before the Father's throne-

We have the fame Thought expressed a second time in the Interceffion of the Meffiah, which is conceived in very Emphatick Sentiments and Expreffions.

Among the Poetical parts of Scripture which Milton has fo finely wrought into this part of his Narration, I must not omit that wherein Ezekiel speaking of the Angels who appeared to him in a Vision, adds that every one had four faces, and that their whole bodies, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings were full of eyes round about.

The Cohort bright

Of watchful Cherubim; four faces each
Had, like a double Janus, all their shape
Spangled with eyes-

The affembling of all the Angels of Heaven to hear the Solemn Decree paffed upon Man is reprefented in very lively Ideas. The Almighty is here defcrib'd as remembring Mercy in the midst of Judgment, and

commanding Michael to deliver his Meffage in the mildest terms, leaft the Spirit of Man, which was already broken with the Senfe of his Guilt and Mifery, fhould fail before him.

Yet leaft they faint

At the fad Senience rigorously urg'd,
For I behold them foftned and with tears
Bewailing their excefs, all terror hide.

The Conference of Adam and Eve is full of moving Sentiments. Upon their going Abroad after the melancholy Night which they had paffed together, they discover the Lion and the Eagle pursuing each of them their Prey towards the Eastern Gates of Paradife. There is a double Beauty in this Incident, not only as it presents great and juft Omens which are always agreeable in Poetry; but as it expreffes that Enmity which was now produced in the Animal Creation. The Poet, to fhew the like changes in Nature, as well as to grace his Fable with a noble Prodigy, represents the Sun in an Eclipfe. This particular Incident has likewise a fine effect upon the Imagination of the Reader, in regard to what follows: For, at the same time that the Sun is under an Eclipse, a bright Cloud defcends in the Western quarter of the Heavens, filled with an Hoft of Angels, and more luminous than the Sun it felf. The whole Theatre of Nature is darkned, that this glorious Machine may appear in all its luftre and magnificence.

Why in the Eaft

Darkness ere day's mid-courfe, and morning light
More orient in that Western cloud that draws
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white,

And flow defcends, with fomething heav'nly fraught?
He err'd not; for by this the Heav'nly bands
Down from a Sky of Jafper lighted now

In Paradife, and on a Hill made halt;

A glorious apparition

I need not obferve how properly this Author, who always fuits his Parts to the Actors whom he intro

duces, has employed Michael in the Expulfion of our first Parents from Paradife. The Arch-angel on this occafion neither appears in his proper Shape, nor in that familiar manner with which Raphael the fociable Spirit entertained the Father of Mankind before the Fall. His Perfon, his Port and Behaviour, are suitable to a Spirit of the highest Rank, and exquifitely defcrib'd in the following Paffage.

Th' Archangel foon drew nigh
Not in his fhape Celestial; but as man
Clad to meet man; over his lucid arms
A military veft of purple flow'd
Livelier than Melibaan, or the grain
Of Sarra, worn by Kings and Heroes old
In time of truce; Iris had dipt the Wooff:
His ftarry helm, unbuckled, shew'd him prime
In Manhood where Youth ended; by his fide
As in a gliftring Zodiack hung the Sword,
Satan's dire dread, and in his hand the Spear.
Adam bow'd low; he kingly from his flate
Inclined not, but his coming thus declar'd.

Eve's Complaint upon hearing that he was to be removed from the Garden of Paradife is wonderfully beautiful. The Sentiments are not only proper to the Subject, but have something in them particularly foft and womanish.

Muft I then leave thee, Paradife? thus leave

Thee, native Soil, thefe happy walks and fhades, Fit haunt of Gods? Where I had hoped to spend Quiet though fad the refpite of that day

That must be mortal to us both.

O flow'rs
That never will in other Climate grow,
My early vifitation, and my last

At Even, which I bred up with tender hand
From the first opening bud, and gave you names,
Who now fhall rear you to the Sun, or rank
Your tribes, and water from th' ambrofial fount?
Thee lafly, Nuptial bowre, by me adorn'd