No, let us rather chuje,

Arm'd with Hell flames and fury, all at once
O'er Heavens high tow'rs to force refiflefs way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Againf the Torturer; when to meet the Noife
Of his almighty Engine he shall hear
Infernal Thunder, and for Lightning fee
Black fire and horror fhot with equal rage
Among his Angels; and his throne it felf
Mixt with Tartarean Sulphur, and firange fire,
His own invented Tooments-

His preferring Annihilation to Shame or Mifery, is alfo highly fuitable 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 Assembly every way conformable to his Character. Such are his Apprehenfions of a second Battel, his Horrors of Annihilation, his preferring to be miferable rather than not to be. I need not observe, 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, or the Infernal Palace, where the Evil Spirits were to

meet in Council. His Speech in this Book is every way [where] fuitable to fo depraved a 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 shall alfo leave the Reader to judge how agreeable the following Sentiments are to the fame Character.

-This deep world

Of Darknefs do we dread? How oft amidst
Thick cloud and dark doth Heav'ns all-ruling Sire
Chufe to refide, his Glory unobfcured,

And with the Majesty of darkness round

Covers his Throne; from whence deep thunders roar
Mufiring their rage, and Heav'n refembles Hell?
As he our darknefs, cannot we his light
Imitate when we pleafe? This defart Soil
Wants not her hidden luftre, Gems and Gold;
Nor want we Skill or Art, from whence to raise
Magnificence; and what can Heav'n fhew more?

Beelzebub, who is reckon'd the second in Dignity that fell, and is in the First Book, the fecond 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 rifing up to speak. He acts asa 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 propofed by him in the following Lines of the first Book.

Space may produce new Worlds, whereof fo rife
There went a fame in Heav'n, that he e'er long

Intended to create, and therein plant
A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heaven:
Thither, if but to pry, fhall be perhaps
Our firft eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this infernal Pit shall never hold
Celeftial Spirits in bondage, nor th' Abyfs
Long under Darknefs cover. But thefe thoughts
Full Counfel must mature:

It is on this Project that Beelzebub grounds his Pro

pofal.

What if we find

Some eafier enterprize? There is a place
(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heav'n
Err not) another World, the happy Seat
Of fome new Race call'd MAN, about this time
To be created like to us, though lefs

In power and excellence, but favoured more
Of him who rules above; fo was his Will
Pronounc'd among the Gods, and by an oath,
That Shook Heav'ns whole circumference, confirm'd.

The Reader may observe how juft it was, not to omit in the First Book the Project upon which the whole Poem turns: As also 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 fupport 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 shew 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.

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The rifing of this great Assembly is described in a very Sublime and Poetical manner.

Their rifing all at once was as the found
Of Thunder heard remote-

The Diverfions of the fallen Angels, with the particular Account of their Place of Habitation, are described with great Pregnancy of Thought, and Copioufness 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
In Whirlwind; Hell fcarce holds the wild uproar.

Their Musick is employed in celebrating their own criminal Exploits, and their Discourse in founding the unfathomable Depths of Fate, Free-will, and Foreknowledge.

The feveral Circumftances 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 The monstrous and Heat, and the River of Oblivion. 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 monflrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than Fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.

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

Circumstances to a great Length, and by that means have weakned, instead of illustrated, the principal Fable. The Flight of Satan to the Gates of Hellis finely imaged.

I have already declared my Opinion of the Allegory concerning Sin and Death, which is however a very finished Piece in its kind, when it is not considered as a Part of an Epic Poem. The Genealogy of the feveral Perfons is contrived with great Delicacy. Sin is the Daughter of Satan, and Death the Offspring of Sin. The incestuous Mixture between Sin and Death produces thofe Monsters and Hell-hounds which from time to time enter into their Mother, and tear the Bowels of her who gave them Birth. These are the Terrors of an evil Confcience, and the proper Fruits of Sin, which naturally rise from the Apprehenfions of Death. This laft beautiful Moral is, I think, clearly intimated in the Speech of Sin, where complaining of this her dreadful Iffue, she adds,

Before mine eyes in oppofition fits,

Grim Death thy Son and foe, who fets them on.
And me his Parent would full foon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows

His end with mine involv'd

I need not mention to the Reader the beautiful Circumstance in the last Part of this Quotation. He will likewise observe how naturally the three Persons concerned in this Allegory are tempted by one common Interest to enter into a Confederacy together, and how properly Sin is made the Portress of Hell, and the only Being that can open the Gates to that World of Tortures.

The defcriptive Part of this Allegory is likewise very strong, and full of Sublime Ideas. The Figure of Death, [the Regal Crown upon his Head,] his Menace to Satan, his advancing to the Combat, the Outcry at his Birth, are Circumstances too noble to be past over in Silence, and extreamly fuitable to this King of Terrors. I need not mention the Juftness of Thought which is obferved in the Generation of these

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