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that follows upon it, are so wonderfully beautiful and poetical, that I should not forbear inferting the whole Paffage, if the bounds of my Paper would give me leave.

No fooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, but all
The multitude of Angels with a shout
Loud as from numbers without number, fweet
As from bleft Voices, uttering Joy, Heav'n rung
With Jubilee, and loud Hofanna's fill'd
Th' eternal regions; &c. &c.-

Satan's Walk upon the Outside of the Universe, which, at a Distance, appeared to him of a globular Form, but, upon his nearer Approach, looked like an unbounded Plain, is natural and noble: As his roaming upon the Frontiers of the Creation, between tl at Mafs of Matter, which was wrought into a World, and that shapeless unform'd Heap of Materials, which still lay in Chaos and Confusion, strikes the Imagination with something aftonishingly great and wild. I have before spoken of the Limbo of Vanity, which the F'oet places upon this outermoft Surface of the Universe, and shall here explain my self more at large on that, and other Parts of the Poem, which are of the same Shadowy nature.

Ariftotle obferves, that the Fable of an Epic Poem should abound in Circumstances that are both credible and astonishing: or as the French Critics chufe to phrase it, the Fable fhould be filled with the Probable and the Marvellous. This Rule is as fine and just as any in Ariftotle's whole Art of Poetry.

If the Fable is only probable, it differs nothing from a true History; if it is only Marvellous, it is no better than a Romance. The great Secret therefore of Heroic Poetry is to relate fuch Circumstances, as may produce in the Reader at the same time both Belief and Aftonishment. This often happens [is brought to pass] in a well chofen Fable, by the Account of fuch things as have really happened, or at least of fuch things as have

happen'd, according to the received Opinions of Mankind. Milton's Fable is a Mafter-piece of this Nature; as the War in Heaven, the Condition of the fallen Angels, the State of Innocence, the Temptation of the Serpent, and the Fall of Man, though they are very astonishing in themselves, are not only credible, but actual Points of Faith.

The next Method of reconciling Miracles with Credibility, is by a happy Invention of the Poet; as in particular, when he introduces Agents of a superior Nature, who are capable of effecting what is wonderful, and what is not to be met with in the ordinary course of things. Ulyffes's Ship being turned into a Rock, and Eneas's Fleet into a Shoal of Water Nymphs, though they are very furprizing Accidents, are nevertheless probable, when we are told that they were the Gods who thus transformed them. It is this kind of Machinery which fills the Poems both of Homer and Virgil with fuch Circumstances as are wonderful, but not impoffible, and fo frequently produce in the Reader the most pleasing Paffion that can rise in the Mind of Man, which is Admiration. If there be any Instance in the Eneid liable to Exception upon this Account, it is in the beginning of the third Book, where Æneas is reprefented as tearing up the Myrtle that dropped Blood. To qualifie this wonderful Circumftance, Polydorus tells a Story from the Root of the Myrtle, that the barbarous inhabitants of the Country having pierced him with Spears and Arrows, the Wood which was left in his Body took Root in his Wounds, and gave birth to that bleeding Tree. This Circumftance feems to have the Marvellous without the Probable, because it is represented as proceeding from Natural Causes, without the Interpofition of any God, or rather Supernatural Power capable of producing it. The Spears and Arrows grow of themfelves, without fo much as the Modern help of an Enchantment. If we look into the Fiction of Milton's Fable, though we find it full of furprizing Incidents,

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they are generally fuited to our Notions of the Things and Perfons described, and temper'd with a due measure of Probability. I muft only make an Exception to the Lymbo of Vanity, with his Episode of Sin and Death, and fome of the imaginary Perfons in his Chaos. These Paffages are aftonishing, but not credible; the Reader cannot fo far impose upon himfelf as to fee a Poffibility in them; they are the Description of Dreams and Shadows, not of Things or Perfons. I know that many Critics look upon the Stories of Circe, Polypheme, the Sirens, nay the whole Odyffey and Iliad, to be Allegories; but allowing this to be true, they are Fables, which confidering the Opinions of Mankind that prevailed in the Age of the Poet, might poffibly have been according to the Letter. The Perfons are fuch as might have acted what is ascribed to them, as the Circumstances in which they are represented, might poffibly have been Truths and Realities. This appearance of Probability is fo abfolutely requifite in the greater kinds of Poetry, that Ariftotie obferves the Ancient Tragick Writers made use of the Names of fuch great Men as had actually lived in the World, tho' the Tragedy proceeded upon fuch Adventures they were never engaged in, on purpose to make the Subject more Credible. In a Word, befides the hidden Meaning of an EpicAllegory, the plain literal Senfe ought to appear probable. The Story fhould be fuch as an ordinary Reader may acquiefce in, whatever Natural Moral or Political Truth may be discovered in it by Men of greater Penetration.

Satan, after having long wandered upon the Surface, or outmost Wall of the Universe, discovers at last a wide Gap in it, which led into the Creation, and which* is described as the Opening through which the Angels pass to and fro into the lower World, upon their Errands to Mankind. His Sitting upon the brink of this Paffage, and taking a Survey of the whole Face of Nature that appeared to him new and fresh in all its

Beauties, with the Simile illuftrating this Circumstance, fills the Mind of the Reader with as furprising and glorious an Idea as any that arises in the whole Poem. He looks down into that vast hollow of the Universe with the Eye, or (as Milton calls it in his first Book) with the Kenn of an Angel.' He surveys all the Wonders in this immense Amphitheatre that lie between both the Poles of Heaven, and takes in at one View the whole Round of the Creation.

His Flight between the feveral Worlds that shined on every side of him, with the particular Description of the Sun, are set forth in all the wantonness of a luxuriant Imagination. His Shape, Speech and Behaviour upon his transforming himself into an Angel of Light, are touched with exquifite Beauty. The Poet's Thought of directing Satan to the Sun, which in the Vulgar Opinion of Mankind is the most conspicuous Part of the Creation, and the placing in it an Angel, is a Circumstance very finely contriv'd, and the more adjusted to a Poetical Probability, as it was a receiv'd Doctrine among the most famous Philofophers, that every Orb had its Intelligence; and as an Apostle in Sacred Writ is faid to have seen fuch an Angel in the Sun. In the Answer which this Angel returns to the disguised Evil Spirit, there is such a becoming Majesty as is altogether suitable to a Superior Being. The part of it in which he represents himself as prefent at the Creation, is very noble in it self, and not only proper where it is introduced, but requifite to prepare the Reader for what follows in the Seventh Book.

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I faw when at his word the formlefs Mafs,
This worlds material mould, came to a heap:
Confufion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood rul'd, flood valt infinitude confin'd;
Till at his fecond bidding darkness fled,
Light fhon, &c.

In the following part of the Speech he points out the Earth with fuch Circumstances, that the Reader

can scarce forbear fancying himself employ'd on the fame diftant view of it.

Look downward on that Globe, whofe hither fide
With light from hence, tho' but reflected, shines;
That place is Earth, the Seat of man, that light
His day, &c.

I must not conclude my Reflections upon this Third Book of Paradife Loft, without taking notice of that celebrated Complaint of Milton with which it opens, and which certainly deserves all the Praises that have been given it; tho' as I have before hinted, it may rather be looked upon as an Excrefcence, than as an effential Part of the Poem. The fame Obfervation might be applied to that beautiful Digression upon Hypocrifie, in the fame Book.

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