TIMENTS, and the LANGUAGE. I have, in the next place, fpoken of the cenfures which our author may incur under each of thefe heads; of which I might have enlarged the number, if I had been difpofed to dwell on fo ungrateful a fubject. I believe, however, that the fevereft reader will not find any little fault in heroick poetry, which this author has fallen into, that does not come under one of thofe heads among which I have distributed his feveral blemishes.

After having thus treated at large of Paradife Loft, I could not think it fufficient to have celebrated this Poem in the whole, without defcending to particulars. I have, therefore, endeavoured not only to prove that the Poem is beautiful in general, but to point out its particular beauties, and to determine wherein they confift. I have endeavoured

Britannia's Paftorals, elegantly calls the Morning " tilly-handed:" Other decorations of this kind may be found in his poems. Drayton feems to have been particularly fond of compounds; for, in his fifty-third Sonnet alone, there occur the filverfanded fhore," the "nectar-dropping fhowers,"-the "myrrhebreathing zephyr," and the "dew-impearled flowers." From Hall's Satires, from the poetry of Daniel, Drummond, Wither, and Crafhaw, many compounds of fine effect might be extracted. Compound epithets indeed were fo much in fashion, in the beginning of the feventeenth century, that they were often admitted into profe. Thus in Stafford's Niobe, or His Age of Teares, 1611, p. 9, fpeaking of immodest women, "whatfoeucr their luft-darting eyes fhall feize vpon :" Again, speaking of a lady's mouth," thofe lippes, the purple porters to that corallpaued palace," p. 122; an epithet, which Milton has differently applied in Comus, y. 886. Many more inftances might be given.

TODD.

to fhow how fome paffages are beautiful by being fublime, others by being foft, others by being natural; which of them are recommended by the paffion, which by the moral, which by the fentiment, and which by the expreffion. I have likewife endeavoured to fhow how the genius of the poet fhines by a happy invention, a diftant allufion, or a judicious imitation; how he has copied or improved Homer or Virgil, and raites his own. imaginations by the ufe which he has made of fcveral poetical paffages in Scripture. I might have inferted alfo feveral paffages of Taffo, which our author has imitated; but, as I do not look upon Taffo to be a fufficient voucher, I would not perplex my reader with fuch quotations, as might do more honour to the Italian than the English poet. In short, I have endeavoured to particularize those innumerable kinds of beauty, which it would be tedious to recapitulate, but which are effential to poetry; and which may be met with in the works of this great author. ADDISON.

The preceding criticifm may be found in the following eighteen Papers, in The Spectator, viz. Nos. 267, 273, 279, 285, 291, 297, 303, 309, 315, 321, 327, 333, 339, 345, 351, 357, 363, and 369. I have here formed them into a Preliminary Difcourfe; to which I add, from the 86th, 88th, 90th, 92d, and 94th Papers in The Rambler, (which feem to have been intended by Dr. Johnson as a Supplement to Mr. Addison's illuftration of the FABLE, the CHARACTERS, the SENTIMENTS, and the LANGUAGE,) a criticifm on the VERSIFICATION. See p. 156.

I venture to remark, that two paffages of uncommon beauty and excellence have efcaped the notice of Mr. Addifon: I mean

the fpeech of Satan in the ninth book, ver. 99, &c. which exhibits perhaps the finest traits of character in the whole Poem; and the defcription of the fame Infernal Being, in the tenth book, after Eve has been feduced, changing his shape to obferve the fequel; flying when he beholds the Son of God defcend to judge our first parents; returning afterwards, and liftening to their fad difcourfe; and thence gathering his own doom. TODD.

DR. JOHNSON'S REMARKS

ON THE

VERSIFICATION OF MILTON,

Legitimúmque fonum digitis callemus et aure."

Hor. Art. Poet. v. 274.

"The fecret power 2

"Of harmony, in tones and numbers hit

By voice or hand; and various-measur'd verse.”

Par. Reg. B. iv. 255,

ONE of the ancients has obferved, that the burthen of government is encreafed upon princes by the virtues of their immediate predeceffours. It is, indeed, always dangerous to be placed in a ftate of unavoidable comparison with excellence; and the danger is ftill greater when that excellence is confecrated by death, when envy and interest ceafe to act against it, and thofe paffions by which it was at first vilified and oppofed now ftand in its

a Dr. Warton is jufly furprifed, that Pope fhould notice two great mafters of VERSIFICATION, Waller and Dryden, and yet omit the name of Milton. "What! did Milton contribute nothing to the harmony and extent of our language?-Surely his verfes vary and refound as much, and difplay as much majesty and energy, as any that can be found in Dryden." See Efay on Pope, vol. ii. p. 351, edit. 1782. I fhall enlarge thefe remarks of Dr. Johnfon by occafionally introducing other opinions refpecting MILTON'S VERSIFICATION; together with various proofs, that the poet's "fkill in harmony was not less than his invention or his learning." TODD.

defence, and turn their vehemence against honeft emulation.

He, that fucceeds a celebrated writer, has the fame difficulties to encounter: He stands under the fhade of exalted merit, and is hindered from rifing to his natural height, by the interception of thofe beams which fhould invigorate and quicken him. He applies to that attention which is already engaged, and unwilling to be drawn off from certain fatisfaction; or perhaps to an attention already wearied, and not to be recalled to the fame object. One of the old pocts congratulates himself that he has the untrodden regions of Parnaffus before him, and that his garland will be gathered from plantations which no writer had yet culled. But the imitator treads a beaten walk; and, with all his diligence, can only hope to find a few flowers or branches untouched by his predeceffour; the refufe of contempt, or the omillions of negligence. The Macedonian conquerour, when he was once invited to hear a man that fung like a nightingale, replied with contempt, that he had heard the nightingale herself; and the fame treatment must every man expect, whofe praife is, that he imitates another.

Yet, in the midst of these discouraging reflections, I am about to offer to the reader fome obfervations upon Paradife Loft; and hope, that, however I may fall below the illuftrious writer who has fo long dictated to the commonwealth of learning, my attempt may not be wholly ufclefs. There are, in every age, new errours to be rectified, and new prejudices to be oppofed. Falfe taste is alfo bufy