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the contending Armies, and lifts up his Voice in fuch a manner, that it is heard diftinctly amidst all the Shouts and Confufion of the Fight. Fupiter at the fame time Thunders over their Heads; while Neptune raises such a Tempest, that the whole Field of Battel. and all the tops of the Mountains shake about them, The Poet tells us, that Pluto himself, whofe Habitation was in the very Center of the Earth, was fo a[f]frighted at the shock, that he leapt from his Throne. Homer afterwards describes Vulcan as pouring down a Storm of Fire upon the River Xanthus, and Minerva as throwing a Rock at Mars; who, he tells us, covered seven Acres in his Fall.

As Homer has introduced into his Battel of the Gods every thing that is great and terrible in Nature, Milton has filled his Fight of Good and Bad Angels with all the like Circumstances of Horrour. The Shout of Armies, the Rattling of Brazen Chariots, the Hurling of Rocks and Mountains, the Earthquake, the Fire, the Thunder, are all of them employed to lift up the Reader's Imagination, and give him a fuitable Idea of so great an Action. With what Art has the Poet represented the whole Body of the Earth trembling, even before it was created.

All Heaven refounded, and had Earth been then
All Earth had to its Center fhook-

In how fublime and just a manner does he afterwards defcribe the whole Heaven shaking under the Wheels of the Meffiah's Chariot, with that Exception to the Throne of God?

Under his burning Wheels

The fteadfast Empyrean shook throughout,
All but the Throne it felf of God-

Notwithstanding the Meffiah appears cloathed with fo much Terrour and Majefty, the Poet has still found means to make his Readers conceive an Idea of him, beyond what he himself was able to describe.

Yet half his firength he put not forth, but checkt
His thunder in mid volley, for he meant
Not to defroy, but root them out of Heaven.

In a word, Milton's Genius which was fo great in it felf, and fo ftrengthened by all the helps of Learning, appears in this Book every way Equal to his Subject[s], which was the moft Sublime that could enter into the Thoughts of a Poet. As he knew all the Arts of affecting the Mind, had he not given [he knew it was neceffary to give] it certain refting places and Opportunities of recovering it felf from time to time: He has [therefore] with great Addrefs interspersed feveral Speeches, Reflections, Similitudes, and the like Reliefs to diverfifie his Narration, and ease the Attention of his [the] Reader, that he might come fresh to his great Action, and by fuch a Contraft of Ideas, have a more lively taste of the nobler parts of his Description.

Addison corrected and re-corrected this last sentence. The first and last readings, as in the original and second editions, are as above. The intermediate reading, according to the Errata in No. 369, of the original issue, is Ls follows:

As he knew all the Arts of affecting the Mind, he has given it certain refting places and Opportunities of recovering it felf from time to time: feveral Speeches, Reflections, Similitudes, and the like Reliefs being interspersed, to diversifie his Narration, ard ease the attention of his Reader.

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The SPECTATOR.

Vt his exordia primis

Virg.

Omnia, & ipfe tener Mundi concreverit orbis.
Tum durare folum, & difcludere Nerea ponto
Caperit, & rerum paullatim fumere formas.
{He fung the fecret Seeds of Nature's Frame;
How Seas, and Earth, and Air, and active Flame.
Fell thro' the mighty Void, and in their Fall
Were blindly gather'd in this goodly Ball.
The tender Soil then fliff'ning by degrees
Shut from the bounded Earth the bounding Seas.
Then Earth and Ocean various Forms difclofe,
And a new Sun to the new World arofe.

Saturday, March 29. 1712.

Dryden.}

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 fo 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 compofed 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 Confufion; 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, propofes 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 Occafion. 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 Affistances 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 Majesty, 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 set to an higher pitch than those of colder Climates. Adam's Speech to the Angel, wherein he desires 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
Much of his race through steep, fufpens in Heav'n
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he hears,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell

His Generation, &c.

The Angel's encouraging our firft Parent[s] in a modeft purfuit after Knowledge, with the Caufes 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, goes [comes*] forth in the Power of his Father, surrounded with an Host 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, harnest 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

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