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We may likewise observe with how much Art the Poet has varied feveral Characters of the Persons that speak in his infernal Affembly. On the contrary, how has he represented the whole Godhead exerting it self towards Man in its full Benevolence under the Three-fold Dif tinction of a Creator, a Redeemer and a Comforter !

Nor must we omit the Perfon of Raphael, who amidst his Tenderness and Friendship for Man, shews fuch a Dignity and Condescention in all his Speech and Behaviour, as are suitable to a Superior Nature. [The Angels are indeed as much diverfified in Milton, and distinguished by their proper Parts, as the Gods are in Homer or Virgil. The Reader will find nothing afscribed to Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, or Raphael, which is not in a particular manner fuitable to their respective Characters.]

There is another Circumftance in the principal Actors of the Iliad and Æneid, which gives a particular [pecu-i liar] Beauty to those two Poems, and was therefore contrived with very great Judgment. I mean the Authors having chofen for their Heroes Perfons who were so nearly related to the People for whom they wrote. Achilles was a Greek, and Æneas the remote Founder of Rome. By this means their Countrymen (whom they principally propofed to themselves for their Readers) were particularly attentive to all the parts of their Story, and fympathized with their Heroes in all their Adventures. A Roman could not but rejoice in the Escapes, Succeffes and Victories of Æneas, and be grieved at any Defeats, Misfortunes, or Disappointments that befel him; as a Greek must have had the fame regard for Achilles. And it is plain, that each of those Poems have loft this great Advantage, among thofe Readers to whom their Heroes are as Strangers, or indifferent Persons.

Milton's Poem is admirable in this respect, since it is impoffible for any of its Readers, whatever Nation, Country or People he may belong to, not to be related to the Perfons who are the principal Actors in it; but what is ftill infinitely more to its Advantage, the principal Actors in this Poem are not only our

BE RELATED TO ITS INTENDED READERS.

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Progenitors, but our Representatives. We have an actual Interest in every thing they do, and no less than our utmost Happiness or *Mifery* is concerned, and lies at Stake in all their Behaviour.

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I shall subjoyn as a Corollary to the foregoing Remark, an admirable Observation out of Ariftotle, which hath been very much mifreprefented in the Quotations of fome Modern Criticks. If a Man of perfect ' and confummate Virtue falls into a Misfortune, it 'raises our Pity, but not our Terror, because we do not fear that it may be our own Cafe, who do not resemble the Suffering Perfon. But as that great Philofopher adds, 'If we fee a Man of Virtues mixt with Infirmities, fall into any Misfortune, it does not ' only raise our Pity but our Terror; because we are afraid 'that the like Misfortunes may happen to our selves, 'who resemble the Character of the Suffering Person.

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I fhall take another Opportunity to obferve, that a Person of an abfolute and confummate Virtue should never be introduced in Tragedy, and shall only remark in this Place, that this [the foregoing] Obfervation of Ariftotle, tho' it may be true in other Occafions, does not hold in this; because in the present Case, though the Perfons who fall into Misfortune are of the most perfect and confummate Virtue, it is not to be confidered as what may poffibly be, but what actually is our own Cafe; fince we are embark'd with them on the fame Bottom, and must be Partakers of their Happiness or Mifery.

In this, and fome other very few Instances, Ariftotle's Rules for Epic Poetry (which he had drawn from his Reflections upon Homer) cannot be supposed to quadrate exactly with the Heroic Poems which have been made fince his Time; as it is plain his Rules would have been ftill more perfect, cou'd he have perused the Æneid which was made fome hundred Years after his Death.

In my next I fhall go through other parts of Milton's Poem; and hope that what I shall there advance, as well as what I have already written, will not only ferve as a Comment upon Milton, but upon Aristotle.

The SPECTATOR.

Reddere perfonæ fcit convenientia cuique.

{He knows what beft befits each Character.}

Saturday, January 19. 1712.

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E have already taken a general Survey of the Fable and Characters in Milton's Paradife Loft: The Parts which remain to be confider'd, according to Ariftotle's Method, are the Sentiments and the Language. Before I enter upon the first of these, I must advertise my Reader, that it is my Design as soon as I have finished my general Reflections on these four feveral Heads, to give particular Inftances out of the Poem which is now before us of Beauties and Imperfections which may be obferved under each of them, as alfo of fuch other Particulars as may not properly fall under any of them. This I thought fit to premise, that the Reader may not judge too hastily of this Piece of Criticifm, or look upon it as Imperfect, before he has feen the whole Extent of it.

The Sentiments in an [all] Epic Poem are the Thoughts and Behaviour which the Author afcribes to the Perfons whom he introduces, and are just when they are conformable to the Characters of the several Perfons. The Sentiments have likewise a relation to Things as well as Perfons, and are then perfect when they are fuch as are adapted to the Subject. If in either of these Cafes the Poet argues, or explains, magnifies or diminishes, raises Love or Hatred, Pity or Terror, or any other Paffion, we ought to confider whether the Sentiments he makes ufe of are proper for these [their] Ends. Homer is cenfured by the Criticks for

TIIE SENTIMENTS MUST BE BOTH NATURAL AND SUBLIME. 27 his Defect as to this Particular in feveral parts of the Iliad and Odyffey, tho' at the fame time those who have treated this great Poet with Candour, have attri buted this Defect to the Times in which he lived. It was the fault of the Age, and not of Homer, if there wants that Delicacy in some of his Sentiments, which appears in the Works of Men of a much inferior Genius. Befides, if there are Blemishes in any particular Thoughts, there is an infinite Beauty in the greatest part of them. In short, if there are many Poets who wou'd not have fallen into the mea[n]nefs of some of his Sentiments, there are none who cou'd have rife[n] up to the Greatness of others. Virgil has excelled all others in the Propriety of his Sentiments. Milton fhines likewise very much in this Particular : Nor muft we omit one Confideration which adds to his Honour and Reputation. Homer and Virgil introduced Perfons whofe Characters are commonly known among Men, and fuch as are to be met with either in History, or in ordinary Converfation. Milton's Characters, most of them, lie out of Nature, and were to be formed purely by his own Invention. It fhews a greater Genius in Shakespear to have drawn his Calyban, than his Hotspur or Julius Cæfar: The one was to be fupplied out of his own Imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon Tradition, History and Observation. It was much easier therefore for Homer to find proper Sentiments for an Affembly of Grecian Generals, than for Milton to diverfifie his Infernal Council with proper Characters, and inspire them with a variety of Sentiments. The Loves of Dido and Æneas are only Copies of what has paffed between other Perfons. Adam and Eve, before the Fall, are a different Species from that of Mankind, who are defcended from them; and none but a Poet of the most unbounded Invention, and_the moft exquisite Judgment, cou'd have filled their Converfation and Behaviour with fuch Beautiful Circumstances during their State of Innocence.

Nor is it fufficient for an Epic Poem to be filled with fuch Thoughts as are Natural, unless it abound also with fuch as are Sublime. Virgil in this Particular falls fhort of Homer. He has not indeed so many Thoughts that are Low and Vulgar; but at the same 'time has not fo many Thoughts that are Sublime and Noble. The truth of it is, Virgil feldom rifes into very astonishing Sentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad. He every where charms and pleases us by the force of his own Genius; but feldom elevates and transports us where he does not fetch his Hints from Homer.

Milton's chief Talent, and indeed his diftinguishing Excellence, lies in the Sublimity of his Thoughts. There are others of the Moderns who rival him in every other part of Poetry; but in the greatness of his Sentiments he triumphs over all the Poets both Modern and Ancient, Homer only excepted. It is impoffible for the Imagination of Man to diftend it self with greater Ideas, than those which he has laid together in his firft, [fecond,] and fixth* [tenth] Book[s]. The feventh, which describes the Creation of the World, is likewife wonderfully Sublime, tho' not fo apt to ftir up Emotion in the Mind of the Reader, nor confequently fo perfect in the Epic way of Writing, because it is filled with lefs Action. Let the Reader compare what Longinus has obferved on feveral Paffages of Homer, and he will find Parallels for most of them in the Paradife Loft.

From what has been faid we may infer, that as there are two kinds of Sentiments, the Natural and the Sublime, which are always to be pursued in an Heroic Poem, there are alfo two kinds of Thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The first are such as are affected and unnatural; the fecond fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the first kind of Thoughts we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil: He has none of those little Points and Puerilities that are so often to be met with in Ovid, none of the

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