With horrid flrides, Hell trembled as he flrode, The fame Boldness and Intrepidity of Behaviour dif covers it felf in the several Adventures which he meets with during his Paffage through the Regions of unform'd Matter, and particularly in his Address to those tremendous Powers who are described as prefiding over it. The Part of Moloch is likewife in all its Circumstances full of that Fire and Fury, which diftinguish this Spirit from the reft of the fallen Angels. He is described in the first Book as besmear'd with the Blood of Human Sacrifices, and delighted with the Tears of Parents, and the Cries of Children. In the fecond Book he is marked out as the fierceft Spirit that fought in Heaven; and if we confider the Figure which he makes in the Sixth Book, where the Battel of the Angels is described, we find it every way answerable to the fame furious enraged Character. --Where the might of Gabriel fought, And with fierce Enfigns pierc'd the deep array It may be worth while to obferve, that Milton has represented this violent impetuous Spirit, who is hurried on by fuch precipitate Paffions, as the first that rises in the Affembly, to give his Opinion upon their prefent Pofture of Affairs. Accordingly he declares himself abruptly for War, and appears incensed at his Companions, for losing so much time as even to deliberate upon it. All his Sentiments are Rash, Audacious and Defperate. Such is that of arming themselves with their Tortures, and turning their Punishments upon him who inflicted them. -No, let us rather chufe, Arm'd with Hell flames and fury, all at once His preferring Annihilation to Shame or Mifery, is also highly suitable to his Character, as the Comfort he draws from their disturbing the Peace of Heaven, namely, that if it be not Victory it is Revenge, is a Sentiment truly Diabolical, and becoming the Bitternefs of this implacable Spirit. • Belial is described, in the First Book, as the Idol of the Lewd and Luxurious. He is in the Second Book, pursuant to that Description, characterized as timorous and flothful; and if we look into the Sixth Book, we find him celebrated in the Battel of Angels for nothing but that Scoffing Speech which he makes to Satan, on their fuppofed Advantage over the Enemy. As his Appearance is uniform, and of a Piece, in these three feveral Views, we find his Sentiments in the Infernal Affembly every way conformable to his Character. Such are his Apprehenfions of a second Battel, his Horrors of Annihilation, his preferring to be miserable rather than not to be. I need not obferve, that the Contrast of Thought in this Speech, and that which precedes it, gives an agreeable Variety to the Debate. Mammon's Character is fo fully drawn in the First Book, that the Poet adds nothing to it in the Second. We were before told, that he was the first who taught Mankind to ranfack the Earth for Gold and Silver, and that he was the Architect of Pandemonium, the Infernal Palace, where the Evil Spirits were to or meet in Council. His Speech in this Book is every way [where] fuitable to fo depraved à Character. How proper is that Reflection, of their being unable to taste the Happiness of Heaven were they actually there, in the Mouth of one, who while he was in Heaven, is faid to have had his Mind dazled with the outward Pomps and Glories of the Place, and to have been more intent on the Riches of the Pavement, than on the Beatifick Vifion. I fhall also leave the Reader to judge how agreeable the following Sentiments are to the fame Character. -This deep world Of Darkness do we dread? How oft amidst And with the Majefty of darkness round Covers his Throne; from whence deep thunders roar Beelzebub, who is reckon'd the second in Dignity that fell, and is in the First Book, the second that awakens out of the Trance, and confers with Satan upon the fituation of their Affairs, maintains his Rank in the Book now before us. There is a wonderful Majesty described in his rising up to speak. He acts as a kind of Moderator between the two oppofite Parties, and proposes a third Undertaking, which the whole Affembly gives into. The Motion he makes of detaching one of their Body in search of a new World is grounded upon a Project devised by Satan, and curforily proposed by him in the following Lines of the first Book. Space may produce new Worlds, whereof fo rife Intended to create, and therein plant It is on this Project that Beëlzebub grounds his Pro pofal. What if we find Some eafier enterprize? There is a place In power and excellence, but favoured more The Reader may observe how juft it was, not to omit in the First Book the Project upon which the whole Poem turns: As alfo that the Prince of the fall'n Angels was the only proper Person to give it Birth, and that the next to him in Dignity was the fittest to second and support it. There is befides, I think, fomething wonderfully beautiful, and very apt to affect the Reader's Imagination, in this ancient Prophecy or Report in Heaven, concerning the Creation of Man. Nothing could fhew more the Dignity of the Species, than this Tradition which ran of them before their Existence. They are represented to have been the Talk of Heaven, before they were created. Virgil, in compliment to the Roman Common-Wealth, makes the Heroes of it appear in their State of Pre-existence; But Milton does a far greater Honour to Mankind in general, as he gives us a Glimpse of them even before they are in Being. The ring of this great Affembly is defcribed in a very Sublime and Poetical manner. Their rifing all at once was as the found The Diversions of the fallen Angels, with the particular Account of their Place of Habitation, are described with great Pregnancy of Thought, and Copioufnefs of Invention. The Diversions are every way fuitable to Beings who had nothing left them but Strength and Knowledge mifapplied. Such are their Contentions at the Race, and in Feats of Arms, with their Entertainment in the following Lines. Others with vaft Typhæan rage more fell Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air Their Mufick is employed in celebrating their own criminal Exploits, and their Difcourfe in founding the unfathomable Depths of Fate, Free-will, and Foreknowledge. The several Circumstances in the Description of Hell are very finely imagined; as the four Rivers which difgorge themselves into the Sea of Fire, the Extreams of Cold and Heat, and the River of Oblivion. The monstrous Animals produced in that infernal World are represented by a single Line, which gives us a more horrid Idea of them, than a much longer Description would have done. -Nature breeds, Perverfe, all monftrous, all prodigious things, Than Fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, This Episode of the fallen Spirits, and their Place of Habitation, comes in very happily to unbend the Mind of the Reader from its Attention to the Debate. An ordinary Poet would indeed have spun out so many |