in this Divine Work, I should think the Poem would end better with the Passage here quoted, than with the two Verfes which follow.

They hand in hand with wandering fleps and flow, Through Eden took their folitary way.

These two Verfes, though they have their Beauty, fall very much below the foregoing Paffage, and renew in the Mind of the Reader that Anguish which was pretty well laid by that Confideration,

The World was all before them, where to chufe
Their place of reft, and providence their Guide.

The number of Books in Paradife Loft is equal to thofe of the Eneid. Our Author in his First Edition had divided his Poem into ten Books, but afterwards broke the Seventh and the Eleventh each of them into two different Books, by the help of some small Additions. This fecond Divifion was made with great Judgment, as any one may fee who will be at the pains of examining it. It was not done for the fake of fuch a Chimerical Beauty as that of resembling Virgil in this particular, but for the more just and regular Difpofition of this great Work.

Those who have read Boffu, and many of the Criticks who have written fince his time, will not pardon me if I do not find out the particular Moral which is inculcated in Paradife Loft. Tho' I can by no means think with the last-mentioned French Author, that an Epic Writer first of all pitches upon a certain Moral, as the Ground-work and Foundation of his Poem, and afterwards finds out a Story to it: I am, however, of Opinion, that no juft Heroic Poem ever was, or can be made, from whence one great Moral may not be deduced. That which reigns in Milton is the most univerfal and most useful that can be imagined: it is in short this, that Obedience to the Will of God makes Men happy, and that Difobedience makes them miferable. This is vifibly the Moral of the principal Fable which turns upon Adam and Eve, who

THE MORAL OF PARADISE LOST.'

151 continued in Paradife while they kept the Command that was given them, and were driven out of it as foon as they had tranfgreffed. This is likewife the Moral of the principal Episode, which fhews us how an innumerable multitude of Angels fell from their State of Bliss, and were caft into Hell upon their Difobedience. Befides this great Moral, which may be looked upon as the Soul of the Fable, there are an infinity of UnderMorals which are to be drawn from the several parts of the Poem, and which make this Work more useful and inftructive than any other Poem in any Language.

Thofe who have criticised on the Odyffey, the Iliad, and Æneid, have taken a great deal of pains to fix the number of Months or Days contain'd in the Action of each of those Poems. If any one thinks it worth his while to examine this Particular in Milton, he will find that from Adam's first Appearance in the Fourth Book, to his Expulfion from Paradife in the Twelfth, the Author reckons ten Days. As for that part of the Action which is described in the three first Books, as it does not pass within the Regions of Nature, I have before observ'd that it is not subject to any Calculations of Time.

I have now finish'd my Obfervations on a Work which does an Honour to the English Nation. I have taken a general View of it under thofe four Heads, the Fable, the Characters, the Sentiments and the Language, and made each of them the Subject of a particular Paper. I have in the next place spoken of the Cenfures which our Author may incur under each of thefe Heads, which I have confined to two Papers, tho' I might have enlarged the number, if I had been disposed to dwell on fo ungrateful a Subject. I believe, however, that the fevereft Reader will not find any little fault in Heroic Poetry, which this Author has fallen into, that does not come under one of those Heads among which I have diftributed his several Blemishes. After having thus treated at large of Paradife Loft, I could not think it fufficient to have celebrated this Poem in the whole, without defcending to Particulars. I have therefore bestowed a

Paper upon each Book, and endeavoured not only to fhew [prove] that the Poem is beautiful in general, but to point out its particular Beauties, and to determine wherein they consist. I have endeavoured to shew how fome Paffages are beautiful by being Sublime, others by being Soft, others by being Natural; which of them are recommended by the Paffion, which by the Moral, which by the Sentiment, and which by the Expreffion. I have [likewife] endeavoured to fhew how the Genius of the Poet fhines by a happy Invention, a distant Allusion, or a judicious Imitation; how he has copied or improved Homer or Virgil, and raised his own Imaginations by the ufe which he has made of feveral Poetical Paffages in Scripture. I might have inferted [alfo] several Passages of Taffo, which our Author has likewife* imitated; but as I do not look upon Taffo to be a fufficient Voucher, I would not perplex my Reader with fuch Quotations, as might do more Honour to the Italian than the English Poet. In short, I have endeavoured to particularize those innumerable Kinds of Beauty, which it would be tedious to recapitulate, but which are effential to Poetry, and which may be met with in the Works of this great Author. Had I thought, at my first engaging in this Defign, that it would have led me to fo great a length, I believe I should never have entered upon it; but the kind Reception which it has met with among those whofe Judgments I have a Value for, as well as the uncommon Demands which my Bookfeller tells me has been made for these particular Discourses, give me no Reason to repent of the Pains I have been at in composing them.