can scarce forbear fancying himself employ'd on the fame distant view of it.

Look downward on that Globe, whofe hither fide
With light from hence, tho' but reflected, fhines;
That place is Earth, the Seat of man, that light
His day, &c.

I must not conclude my Reflections upon this Third Book of Paradife Loft, without taking notice of that celebrated Complaint of Milton with which it opens, and which certainly deserves all the Praises that have been given it; tho' as I have before hinted, it may rather be looked upon as an Excrefcence, than as an effential Part of the Poem. The fame Obfervation might be applied to that beautiful Digreffion upon Hypocrifie, in the same Book.

The SPECTATOR.

Nec fatis eft pulchra effe poemata, dulcia funto. Hor.

'Tis not enough a Poem's finely writ;

It muft affect and captivate the Soul. }

Saturday, March 8. 1712.

[HOSE, who know how many Volumes have been written on the Poems of Homer and Virgil, will easily pardon the Length of my Difcourfe upon Milton. The Paradife Loft is look'd upon, by the best Judges, as the greatest Production, or at least the nobleft Work of Genius, in our Language, and therefore deserves to be set before an English Reader in its full Beauty. For this Reason, tho' I have endeavoured to give a general Idea of its Graces and Imperfections in my Six First Papers I thought my self obliged to bestow one upon every Book in particular. The Three First Books I have already dispatched, and am now entring upon the Fourth. I need not acquaint my Reader, that there are Multitudes of Beauties in this great Author, especially in the Descriptive Parts of his Poem, which I have not touched upon, it being my Intention to point out those only, which appear to me the most exquisite, or those which are not so obvious to ordinary Readers. Every one that has read the Criticks, who have written upon the Odyffey, the Iliad and the Æneid, knows very well, that though they agree in their Opinions of the great Beauties in those Poems, they have nevertheless each of them discovered several Mafter-Stroaks, which have escaped the Observation of the reft. In the fame manner, I question not, but any Writer, who fhall treat of this Subject after me, may find several Beauties in Milton,

which I have not taken notice of. I muft 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 scrupulously to the Rules, which any one of them has laid down upon that Art, but have taken the Liberty sometimes to join with one, and sometimes with another, and fometimes 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 those Pictures of Still-Life, which we meet with in the Defcriptions 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 laft 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 supported 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 muft further add, that tho' the Drawings of Gardens, Rivers, Rainbows, and the like dead Pieces of Nature, are justly censured in an Heroic Poem, when they run out into an unnecessary 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 such 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 Allufions are not taken from this their delightful Habitation. The Reader, during their whole Course of Action, always finds himself in the Walks of Paradife. 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 whilst 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 foftned with feveral tranfient Touches of Remorfe and Selfaccufation: But at length he confirms himself in Impenitence, and in his design of drawing Man 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 ascribed 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 Circumftance 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 disdainful Behaviour on this occafion is fo remarkable a Beauty, that the most ordinary Reader cannot but take notice of it.