hanging out of the Golden Scales in Heaven, is a Refinement upon Homer's Thought, who tells us, that before the Battel between Hector and Achilles, Jupiter weighed the Event of it in a pair of Scales. The Reader may see the whole Passage in the 22d Iliad. Virgil, before the last decisive Combat, describes Jupiter in the fame manner, as weighing the Fates of Turnus and Eneas. Milton, though he fetched this beautiful Circumftance from the Iliad and Æneid, does not only infert it as a Poetical Embellishment, like the Authors above-mentioned; but makes an artful use of it for the proper carrying on of his Fable, and for the breaking off the Combat between the two Warriors, who were upon the point of engaging. [To this we may further add, that Milton is the more juftified in this Paffage, as we find the fame noble Allegory in Holy Writ, where a wicked Prince, {some few Hours before he was assaulted and flain,} is said to have been weigh'd in the Scales and to have been found wanting.] I must here take Notice under the Head of the Machines, that Uriel's gliding down to the Earth upon a Sun-beam, with the Poet's Device to make him defcend, as well in his return to the Sun, as in his coming from it, is a Prettiness that might have been admired in a little fanciful Poet, but seems below the Genius of Milton. The Description of the Hoft of armed Angels walking their nightly Round in Paradife, is of another Spirit. So faying, on he led his radiant files, As that Account of the Hymns which our first Parents used to hear them Sing in these their Midnight Walks, is altogether Divine, and inexpreffibly amusing to the Imagination. We are, in the last place, to confider the Parts which Adam and Eve act in the Fourth Book. The Description of them as they first appear'd to Satan, is exquifitely drawn, and fufficient to make the fallen There is a fine Spirit of Poetry in the Lines which follow, wherein they are describ'd as fitting on a Bed of Flowers by the side of a Fountain, amidst a mixed Affembly of Animals. The Speeches of these two firft Lovers flow equally from Paffion and Sincerity. The Profeffions they make to one another are full of Warmth; but at the fame time founded on Truth. In a Word, they are the Gallantries of Paradife. When Adam first of Men Sole Partner and fole part of all thefe joys, But let us ever praife him, and extol His bounty, following our delightful task, To prune thofe growing plants, and tend thefe flowers, The remaining part of Eve's Speech, in which fhe gives an Account of her felf upon her first Creation, and the manner in which she was brought to Adam, is I think as beautiful a Paffage as any in Milton, or perhaps in any other Poet whatsoever. These Paffages are all work'd off with fo much Art, that they are capable of pleasing the most delicate Reader, without offending the most severe. That day I oft remember, when from Sleep, &c. A Poet of less Judgment and Invention than this great Author, would have found it very difficult to have filled thofe [these] tender parts of the Poem with Sentiments proper for a State of Innocence; to have defcribed the warmth of Love, and the Professions of it, without Artifice or Hyperbole ; to have made the Man speak the most endearing things, without defcending from his natural Dignity, and the Woman receiving them without departing from the Modefty of her Character; in a word, to adjust the Prerogatives of Wisdom and Beauty, and make each appear to the other in its proper Force and Loveliness. This mutual Subordination of the two Sexes is wonderfully kept up in the whole Poem, as particularly in the Speech of Eve I have before-mentioned, and upon the Conclufion of it in the following Lines: So fpake our general Mother, and with eyes And meek surrender, half embracing lean'd The Poet adds, that the Devil turn'd away with Envy at the fight of fo much Happiness. We have another View of our First Parents in their Evening Difcourfes, which is full of pleafing Images and Sentiments suitable to their Condition and Characters. The Speech of Eve, in particular, is drefs'd up in such a foft and natural Turn of Words and Sentiments, as cannot be fufficiently admired. I fhall close my Reflections upon this Book, with obferving the Masterly Transition which the Poet makes to their Evening Worship, in the followingLines :— Thus at their fhadie lodge arriv'd, both flood, The God that made both Sky, Air, Earth and Heav'n, Moft of the Modern Heroic Poets have imitated the Ancients, in beginning a Speech without premising, that the Person faid thus or thus; but as it is easie to imitate the Ancients in the Omiffion of two or three Words, it requires Judgment to do it in fuch a manner as they shall not be miss'd, and that the Speech may begin naturally without them. There is a fine Inftance of this Kind out of Homer, in the TwentyThird Chapter of Longinus. The SPECTATOR. -major rerum mihi nafcitur ordo. {A larger Scene of Action is difplay'd. Saturday, March 15, 1712. Virg. Dryden.} E were told in the foregoing Book how the Evil Spirit practised upon Eve as she lay afleep, in order to infpire her with Thoughts of Vanity, Pride and Ambition. The Author, who fhews a wonderful Art throughout his whole Poem, in preparing the Reader for the feveral Occurrences that arife in it, founds upon the above-mentioned Circumstance the first part of the Fifth Book. Adam upon his awaking, finds Eve still asleep, with an unusual Difcompofure in her Looks. The Pofture in which he regards her, is described with a wonderful Tenderness [not to be expreffed*], as the Whisper with which he awakens her, is the fofteft that ever was conveyed to a Lover's Ears His wonder was to find unwaken'd Eve + See Errata, at the end of No. 369, in the original issue, |