them, than a much longer defcription would have done. "Nature breeds, "Perverse, all monftrous, all prodigious things, "Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, 66 This episode of the fallen Spirits, and their place of habitation, comes in very happily to unbend the mind of the reader from its attention to the debate. An ordinary poet would indeed have spun out fo many circumftances to a great length, and by that means have weakened, instead of illuftrated, the principal fable. The flight of Satan to the gates of Hell is finely imaged. I have already declared my opinion of the allegory concerning Sin and Death, which is 9 is however a very finished piece in its kind, &c.] The allegory of Sin and Death has been cenfured, perhaps faftidiously, by Voltaire, and fome English criticks, as abounding with nauseous and disgusting images. It was, however, a favourite paffage with Atterbury; whofe tafte in polite literature, as doctor Newton has obferved, was never queftioned. "I return you," fays Atterbury in a letter to Pope," your MILTON; and I protest to you, this laft perufal of him has given me fuch new degrees, I will not fay of pleasure, but of admiration and astonishment, that I look upon the fublimity of Homer, and the majefty of Virgil, with fomewhat lefs reverence than I used to do. I challenge you, with all your partiality, to fhow me, in the first of these, any thing equal to the allegory of Sin and Death, either as to the great, however a very finished piece in its kind, when it is not confidered as à part of an epick poem. The genealogy of the several perfons is contrived with great delicacy. Sin is the daughter of Satan, and Death the offspring of Sin. The incestuous mixture between Sin and Death produces thofe monfters and hell-hounds which from time to time enter into their mother, and tear the bowels of her who gave them birth. These are the terrours of an evil confcience, and the proper fruits of Sin, which naturally rife from the apprchenfions of Death. This last beautiful moral is, I think, clearly intimated in the speech of Sin, where, complaining of this her dreadful iffue, fhe adds, 66 Before mine eyes in oppofition fits "Grim Death, my fon and foe; who fets them on, "For want of other prey, but that he knows nefs and juftness of the invention, or the height and beauty of the colouring." Milton, indeed, in painting Sin, has felected, with his ufual fkill, fuch circumstances as exhibit the fair-appearing monster in a true light; and raife, in confequence, a deteftation of an object fo fpecious and fo deformed. I have fometimes thought that part of his defcription might be fuggefted by Shakspeare, K. Rich. III, A. iv. S. iv. "From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept 1 the terrours of an evil confcience,] See the Note on B. iv. 20, I need not mention to the reader the beautiful circumftance in the laft part of this quotation. He will likewise observe how naturally the three perfons, concerned in this allegory, are tempted, by one common intereft, to enter into a confederacy together; and how properly Sin is made * the portrefs of Hell, and the only Being that can open the gates to that world of tortures. The defcriptive part of this allegory is likewife very strong, and full of fublime ideas. The figure of Death, the regal crown upon his head, his menace of Satan, his advancing to the combat, the outcry at his birth, are circumstances too noble to be paffed over in filence, and extremely fuitable to this King of Terrours. I need not mention the juftness of thought, which is observed in the generation of these several fymbolical perfons; that Sin was produced upon the first revolt of Satan, that Death appeared foon after he was caft into Hell, and that the terrours of confcience were conceived at the gatę of this place of torments. The defcription of the gates is very poetical, as the opening of them is full of Milton's spirit. In Satan's voyage through the Chaos there are feveral imaginary perfons defcribed, as refiding the portrefs of Hell,] See the Note on B. ii. 746. feveral imaginary perfons &c.] Dr. Newton has obferved that Addifon feems to difapprove of thefe fictitious beings, thinking in that immense wafte of matter. This may perhaps be conformable to the taste of those criticks, who are pleased with nothing in a poet which has not life and manners afcribed to it; but, for my own part, I am pleased most with those paffages in this description which carry in them a greater measure of probability, and are fuch as might poffibly have happened. Of this kind is his first mounting in the fmoke that rifes from the infernal pit; his falling into a cloud of nitre, and the like combustible materials, that by their explosion still hurried him forward in his voyage; his fpringing upward like a pyramid of fire; with his laborious paffage through that confufion of elements, which the poet calls "The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave." them perhaps, like Sin and Death, improper for an epick poem: But he contends that Milton may be allowed to place fuch ima. ginary perfons in the regions of Chaos, as Virgil defcribes fimilar beings within the confines of Hell, Æn. vi. 273-281; a passage of acknowledged beauty: And it is impoffible, he adds, to be pleased with Virgil, and to be difpleafed with Milton. In further juftification of Milton, doctor Newton alfo refers to the intro. duction of fimilar fhadowy beings in Seneca, Herc. Far. 686, in Statius, Theb. vii. 47, in Claudian, In Rufin. i. 30, and in Spenfer, Faer. Qu. ii. vii. 21, &c. To thefe inftances might be added the beautiful perfonifications of Sackville in the Mirrour for Magiftrates. See Note on Par. Loft, B. xi. 489. In Mafenius's infernal council, Death, Difeafes, Cares, Labour, Grief, Poverty, and Hunger, are perfons. Sarcotis, B. i. But Milton has introduced, with much fublimity, long before this author, many fhadowy beings, in his poem In Quintum Novembris. The glimmering light which fhot into the Chaos from the utmost verge of the creation, and the distant discovery " of the earth that hung close by the moon, are wonderfully beautiful and poetical. Horace advifes a poet to confider thoroughly the nature and force of his genius. Milton feems to have known perfectly well, wherein his strength lay, and has therefore chosen a subject entirely conformable to those talents, of which he was master. As his genius was wonderfully turned to the fublime, his subject is the noblest that could have entered into the thoughts of man. Every thing that is truly great, and The whole aftonishing, has a place in it. fyftem of the intellectual world; the Chaos, and the Creation; Heaven, Earth, and Hell; enter into the conftitution of his Poem. ; Having in the first and second books reprefented the infernal world with all its horrours the thread of his fable naturally leads him into the oppofite regions of blifs and glory. w If Milton's majesty forfakes him any where, "of the earth &c.] This is a mistake, into which Dr. Bentley alfo fell; and is corrected in the Note on v. 1052. If Milton's majesty forfakes him any where, &c.] It has been often obferved, that Milton's chief deficiency is in the THIRD BOOK. "The attempt to describe God Almighty himself, and to recount dialogues between the Father and the Son," fays Dr. Blair, "was too bold and arduous; and is that wherein the poet, |