The SPECTATOR. Vt his exordia primis Ovid. Omnia, & ipfe tener Mundi concreverit orbis. Saturday, March 29, 1712. ONGINUS has obferved, that there may be a Loftiness in Sentiments, where there is no Paffion, and brings Inftances out of Ancient Authors to fupport this his Opinion. The Pathetick, as that great Critick obferves, may animate and inflame the Sublime, but is not effential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that thofe, who excell most in ftirring up the Paffions, very often want the Talent of Writing in the Great and Sublime manner; and so on the contrary. Milton has fhewn himself a Master in both these ways of Writing. The Seventh Book, which we are now entering upon, is an instance of that Sublime, which is not mixt and work'd up with Paffion. The Author appears in a kind of composed and fedate Majefty; and tho' the Sentiments do not give fo great [an] Emotion as thofe in the former Book, they abound with as magnificent Ideas. The Sixth Book, like a troubled Ocean, represents Greatness in Confation; the Seventh affects the Imagination like the Ocean in a Calm, and fills the Mind of the Reader, without producing in it any thing like Tumult or Agitation. The Critick abovementioned, among the Rules which he lays down for fucceeding in the Sublime way of Writing, proposes to his Reader, that he should imitate the most celebrated Authors who have gone before him, and have been engaged in Works of the fame nature; as in particular that if he writes on a Poetical Subject, he should confider how Homer would have spoken on fuch an Occasion. By this means one great Genius often catches the Flame from another, and writes in his Spirit, without copying fervilely after him. There are a thousand Shining Paffages in Virgil, which have been lighted up by Homer. Milton, though his own natural Strength of Genius was capable of furnishing out a perfect Work, has doubtless very much raised and ennobled his Conceptions, by fuch an Imitation as that which Longinus has recommended. In this Book, which gives us an Account of the Six Days Works, the Poet received but very few Assistances from Heathen Writers, who were Strangers to the Wonders of Creation. But as there are many Glorious Stroaks of Poetry upon this Subject in Holy Writ, the Author has numberless Allusions to them through the whole Course of this Book. The great Critick, I have before mentioned, tho' an Heathen, has taken notice of the Sublime manner in which the Law-giver of the Jews has described the Creation in the first Chapter of Genefis; and there are many other Paffages in Scripture, which rife up to the fame Majefty, where this Subject is toucht upon. Milton has fhewn his Judgment very remarkably, in making use of such of these as were proper for his Poem, and in duly qualifying those high Strains of Eastern Poetry, which were fuited to Readers whose Imaginations were fet to an higher pitch than those of colder Climates. Adam's Speech to the Angel, wherein he defires an Account of what had paffed within the Regions of Nature before his [the] Creation, is very great and folemn. The following Lines, in which he tells him that the Day is not too far spent for him to enter upon fuch a Subject, are exquisite in their kind. And the Great light of day yet wants to run His Generation, &c. The Angel's encouraging our firft Parent[s] in a modeft pursuit after Knowledge, with the Causes which he affigns for the Creation of the World, are very just and beautiful. The Meffiah, by whom, as we are told in Scripture, the Heavens were made, comes forth in the Power of his Father, surrounded with an Hoft of Angels, and cloathed with fuch a Majefty as becomes his entering upon a Work, which, according to our Conceptions, looks like [appears] the utmost exertion of Omnipotence. What a beautiful Description has our Author raised upon that Hint in one of the Prophets. And behold there came four Chariots out from between two Mountains, and the Mountains were Mountains of Brafs. About his Chariot numberlefs were pour'd Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones, And virtues, winged Spirits, and Chariots wing'd, From the Armoury of God, where fland of old Myriads between two brazen mountains lodg'd Against a folemn day, harneft at hand; Celestial Equipage; and now came forth Spontaneous, for within them fpirit liv'd Attendant on their lord: Heav'n open'd wide Her ever-during Gates, Harmonious found On golden Hinges moving I have before taken notice of these Chariots of God, and of thefe Gates of Heaven, and fhall here only add, that Homer gives us the fame Idea of the latter as opening of themselves, tho' he afterwards takes off from it, by telling us, that the Hours first of all removed those prodigious heaps of Clouds which lay as a Barrier before them. I do not know any thing in the whole Poem more Sublime than the Description which follows, where the Meffiah is represented at the head of his Angels, as looking down into the Chaos, calming its Confufion, riding into the midst of it, and drawing the first Outline of the Creation. On Heav'nly ground they flood, and from the shore Far into Chaos, and the world unborn; The Thought of the Golden Compaffes is conceiv'd altogether in Homer's Spirit, and is a very noble Incident in this wonderful Description. Homer, when he speaks of the Gods, afcribes to them several Arms and Inftruments with the fame greatness of Imagination. Let the Reader only peruse the Description of Minerva's Ægis, or Buckler, in the Fifth Book, with her Spear, which could [would] overturn whole Squadrons, and her Helmet, that was fufficient to cover an Army, drawn out of an hundred Cities: The Golden Compasses, in the above-mentioned Paffage appear a very natural Instrument in the Hand of him, whom Plato fomewhere calls the Divine Geometrician. As Poetry delights in cloathing abstracted Ideas in Allegories and fenfible Images, we find a magnificent Defcription of the Creation form'd after the fame manner in one of the Prophets, wherein he defcribes the Almighty Architect as measuring the Waters in the hollow of his Hand, meting out the Heavens with his Span, comprehending the Duft of the Earth in a Measure, weighing the Mountains in Scales, and the Hills in a Ballance. Another of them defcribing the Supreme Being in this great Work of Creation, represents him as laying the Foundations of the Earth, and ftretching a Line upon it. And in another place as garnishing the Heavens, stretching out the North over the empty place, and hanging the Earth upon nothing. This laft noble Thought Milton has exprefs'd in the following Verse : And Earth felf-balanc'd on her Center hung. The Beauties of Description in this Book lie so very thick, that it is impoffible to enumerate them in this Paper. The Poet has employed on them the whole Energy of our Tongue. The several great Scenes of the Creation rife up to view one after another, in fuch a manner that the Reader feems prefent at this wonderful Work, and to affist among the Quires [Choirs] of Angels, who are the Spectators of it. How glorious is the Conclufion of the first Day. -Thus was the first day Ev'n and Morn. Nor paft uncelebrated, nor unfung By the Celestial Quires, when Orient light |
