which I have not taken notice of. I must likewise observe, that as the greatest Masters of Critical Learning differ from one another, as to fome particular Points in an Epic Poem, I have not bound my self fcrupulously to the Rules, which any one of them has laid down upon that Art, but have taken the Liberty fometimes to join with one, and fometimes with another, and sometimes to differ from all of them, when I have thought that the Reason of the thing was on my fide.

We may confider the Beauties of the Fourth Book under three Heads. In the First are thofe Pictures of Still-Life, which we meet with in the Descriptions of Eden, Paradife, Adam's Bower, &c. In the next are the Machines, which comprehend the Speeches and Behaviour of the good and bad Angels. In the last is the Conduct of Adam and Eve, who are the principal Actors in the Poem.

In the Description of Paradife, the Poet has obferved Ariftotle's Rule of lavishing all the Ornaments of Diction on the weak unactive Parts of the Fable, which are not fupported by the Beauty of Sentiments and Characters. Accordingly the Reader may observe, that the Expreffions are more florid and elaborate in these Descriptions, than in most other Parts of the Poem. I must further add, that tho' the Drawings of Gardens, Rivers, Rainbows, and the like dead Pieces of Nature, are justly cenfured in an Heroic Poem, when they run out into an unneceffary length; the Description of Paradife would have been faulty, had not the Poet been very particular in it, not only as it is the Scene of the principal Action, but as it is requifite to give us an Idea of that Happiness from which our first Parents fell. Plan of it is wonderfully beautiful, and formed upon the fhort Sketch which we have of it, in Holy Writ. Milton's Exuberance of Imagination, has pour'd forth fuch a redundancy of Ornaments on this Seat of Happiness and Innocence, that it would be endless to point out each Particular.

The

I must not quit this Head, without further obferving,

that there is scarce a Speech of Adam or Eve in the whole Poem, wherein the Sentiments and Allusions are not taken from this their delightful Habitation, The Reader, during their whole Course of Action, always finds himself in the Walks of Paradije. In short, as the Criticks have remarked, that in those Poems, wherein Shepherds are Actors, the Thoughts ought always to take a Tincture from the Woods, Fields, and Rivers; fo we may observe, that our first Parents feldom lofe Sight of their happy Station in any thing they speak or do; and, if the Reader will give me leave to use the Expreffion, that their Thoughts are always Paradifiacal.

We are in the next place to confider the Machines of the Fourth Book. Satan being now within Profpect of Eden, and looking round upon the Glories of the Creation, is filled with Sentiments different from those which he discovered whilft he was in Hell. The Place inspires him with Thoughts more adapted to it: He reflects upon the happy Condition from whence he fell, and breaks forth into a Speech that is softned with feveral tranfient Touches of Remorfe and Selfaccufation: But at length he confirms himself in Impenitence, and in his design of drawing Men into his own State of Guilt and Misery. This Conflict of Paffions is raised with a great deal of Art, as the opening of his Speech to the Sun is very bold and noble. O thou that with furpaffing Glory crown'd Look' ft from thy Sole Dominion like the God Of this new World, at whofe Sight all the Stars Hide their diminish'd heads, to thee I call But with no Friendly Voice, and add thy name, O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams That bring to my remembrance from what State I fell, how glorious once above thy Sphere.

This Speech is, I think, the finest that is afcribed to Satan in the whole Poem. The Evil Spirit afterwards proceeds to make his Discoveries concerning

our first Parents, and to learn after what manner they may be best attacked. His bounding over the Walls of Paradife; his fitting in the Shape of a Cormorant upon the Tree of Life, which stood in the Center of it, and over-topp'd all the other Trees of the Garden; his alighting among the Herd of Animals, which are fo beautifully represented as playing about Adam and Eve, together with his transforming himself into different Shapes, in order to hear their Conversation; are Circumstances that give an agreeable Surprize to the Reader, and are devised with great Art, to connect that Series of Adventures in which the Poet has engaged this great Artificer of Fraud.

[The Thought of Satan's Transformation into a Cormorant, and placing himself on the Tree of Life, seems raised upon that Paffage in the Iliad, where two Deities are described, as perching on the Top of an Oak in the Shape of Vulturs.]

His planting himself at the Ear of Eve in the shape [under the Form] of a Toad, in order to produce vain Dreams and Imaginations, is a Circumstance of the fame Nature; as his starting up in his own Form is wonderfully fine, both in the Literal Description, and in the Moral which is concealed under it. His Answer upon his being discovered, and demanded to give an Account of himself, are [is] conformable to the Pride and Intrepidity of his Character.

Know ye not then, faid Satan, fill'd with Scorn,
Know ye not me? ye knew me once no mate
For you, fitting where you durft not foare;
Not to know me argues your-felves unknown,
The lowest of your throng;-

Zephon's Rebuke, with the Influence it had on Satan, is exquifitely Graceful and Moral. Satan is afterwards led away to Gabriel, the chief of the Guardian Angels, who kept watch in Paradife. His difdainful Behaviour on this occafion is fo remarkable a Beauty, that the moft ordinary Reader cannot but take notice of it.

Gabriel's discovering his approach at a distance, is drawn with great strength and liveliness of Imagination.

O Friends, I hear the tread of nimble Feet
Hafening this way, and now by glimps difcern
Ithuriel and Zephon through the fhade;
And with them comes a third of Regal Port,
But faded fplendor wan; who by his gait
And fierce demeanour feems the Prince of Hell,
Not likely to part hence without conteft;
Stand firm, for in his look defiance lours.

The Conference between Gabriel and Satan abounds with Sentiments proper for the Occasion, and suitable to the Persons of the two Speakers. Satan's cloathing himself with Terror when he prepares for the Combat is truly fublime, and at least equal to Homer's Defcription of Discord celebrated by Longinus, or to that of Fame in Virgil, who are both represented with their Feet standing upon the Earth, and their Heads reaching above the Clouds.

While thus he fpake, th' Angelic Squadron bright
Turn'd fiery red, Sharpning in mooned Horns
Their Phalanx, and began to hem him round
With ported Spears, &c.

On th' other Side, Satan alarm'd,

Collecting all his might dilated flood

Like Teneriff or Atlas unremov'd.

His Stature reach'd the Sky, and on his Creft
Sat horrour plum'd ;-

I must here take notice, that Milton is every where full of Hints, and fometimes literal Translations, taken from the greatest of the Greek and Latin Poets. But this I fhall [may] reserve for a Discourse by it self, because I would not break the Thread of these Speculations that are designed for English Readers, with such Reflections as would be of no use but to the Learned.

I must however obferve in this Place, that the breaking off the Combat between Gabriel and Satan, by the

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 decifive Combat, describes Jupiter in the fame manner, as weighing the Fates of Turnus and Æneas. Milton, though he fetched this beautiful Circumftance from the Iliad and Æneid, does not only insert 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 justified in this Paffage, as we find the same 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,
Dazling the Moon;-

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 laft place, to confider the Parts which Adam and Eve act in the Fourth Book. The Description of them as they firft appear'd to Satan, is