rivers, rainbows, and the like dead pieces That bring to my remembrance from what of nature, are justly censured in an heroic ftate poem, when they run out into an in I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere. neceilary length; the description of Paradise wouid have been faulty, had not This speech is, I think, the finest that the poet been very particular in it, not is ascribed to Satan in the whole poem. only as it is the icene of the principal The evil spirit afterwards proceeds to action, but as it is requisite to give us an make his discoveries concerning our first idea of that happinets from whichour fult parents, and to learn after what manner jarins fell. The plan of it is wonder- they may be best attacked. His boundfuily beautiful, and formed upon the ing over the walls of Paralile; his fitfruit ikich which we have of ii in holy ting in the shape of a cormorant upon wit. Milton's exuberance of imagina- the tree of lite, which food in the center tion has poured forth such a redundancy of it, and overtopped all the other trees of ornaments on this text of happiness of the garden; his alighting among the and innocence, that it would be endless herd of animals, which are fo beautito point out erch particular. fully repretented as playing about Adam i mait not quit this head, without and Eve, together with his transforining further observing, that there'is carce himself into different thapes, in order to a fpeech et Adam or Eve in the whole hear their conversation; arc circumitanpoem, whervin the sentiments and al Ces that give an agreeable furprise to the Intions are not taken from this their ite- stader, and are deviled with great art, ligheiul habitation. The reader, uning to connect that feries of adventures in their whuic course of action, always which the poet has engaged this artificer finds himself in the walks of Paradife. of fraud. In short, as the critics have remarked, The thought of Satan's transforma. that in thote pisems where in thepherd's tion into a cormorant, and placing linare actor's, the thoughts oughi always telt on the tree of life, feems sailed upon to take a tinéture from the woods, fields, that palage in the Diad, where iwo and rivers, fo we may cbserve, that our deities are described, as perching on the tirit parents feldom lote light of their top of an ook in the shape of vultures. happy tłation in any thing the peak Eve under the form of a toad, in order lijs planting himself at the ear of or do; and, if the reader will give me leave to ule the expre:Tion, that their to produce vain dreams and imaginathoughts are always Paradiliacal. tions, is a circumstance of the same We are in the next place to consider nature; as his ftarting up in his own the machines of the fourth book. Satan form, is wonderfully fine, both in the being now within prospect of Eden, and literal description, and in the moral looking round upon the glories of the which is concealed under it. His answer creation, is rilled with intiments dif. upon his being discovered, and demandferent from thole which he discovered eci to give an account of himself, is whilft he was in hell. The place in conformable to the pride and intrepidity 1pires him with thoughts more adapted of his character. to it: he reflects upon the happy condition from whence he fell, and breaks •Know ye not then,' said Satan, fill?d with • scorn, forth into a speech that is fofiened with “Know ye not me! ye knew me once nomate feveral transient touches of remorfe and fdf-accusation: but at length he con For you, there fitting where you durit not foar; fums himself in impenitence, and in his • Not to know me argues yourself unknown, design of drawing man into his own • The lowest of your throng. 1t ite of guilt and milery. This conflict of parlions is raised with a great deal of Zephon's rebuke, with the influence art, as the opening of his speech to the it had on Satan, is exquisitely graceful Sun is very bold and noble. and moral. Satan is afterwards led away O thou that with surpasing glory crown'd, to Gabriel, the chief of the guardian Lo kit from thy fole jomision like the God angels, who kept watch in Paradise. Of this new' world; at wiwie light all the fiars His didainful behaviour on this ccc.2Hide their dimining J heids; tu thee I call, fion is to remarkable a beauty, that the But with no fiiendly voice; and addiy name moit ordinary reader cannot but take O fun! to tell thee bouw é baie thy beans, notice of it. Gabriel's discovering his approach approach at a distance, is drawn with it as a poetical embellishinent, like the great itrength and liveliness of imagi- authors above-mentioned; but makes an nation. arufui use of it for the proper carrying on of his fable, and for the breaking off O friends, I hear the tread of nimble feet, the combat between the two warriors, Hasting this way, and now by glimpse discern who were upon the point of eng ging. Jehuriel and Zephon through the shade, To this we may further add, tha: Mila And with them comes a third of regal port, ton is the more justified in this pallage, But faded splendor wan; who by his gait as we find the fame noble allegory' in. And fierce demeanor seems the prince of hell: Not likely to part hence without contest: holy writ, where a wickad princt, tome few hours becaute he was alwuled and Stand firm, for in his look defiance low'rs. llain, is faid to have been 'weighed in The conference between Gabriel and the scales, and to have been found Satan abounds with lentiments proper 'wanting.' for the occasion, and suitable to the per I muit here take notice, under the sons of the two speakers. Sacan clotho head of the machines, that Uriel's glid. ing himself with terror when he prepares ing down to the earth upon a tun-beam, for the combat is truly sublime, and at with the poet's device to make him-deleaft equal to Homer's defcription of scend, as well in his return to the sun Discord celebrated by Longinus, or to as in his coming from it, is a prettiness that of Fame in Virgil, who are both re that inight have been admired in a little presented with their feet (tanding upon Fanciful poet, but feems below the genitis the earth, and their heads reaching above of Milton. The description of the host the clouds. of armed angels walking their rightly round in Paradise, is of another spirit. While thus he spake, th' angelic squadron bright So saving, on he led his radiant files, Turn'd tiery red, sharp'ning in mooned horns Dazzling the moon; Their phalanx, and began to hem bim round as that account of the hymns which our With ported spears, &c. On th' cther side Satan alarm'd, first parents used to hear thein ting in these their midnight walks, is altogether Collecting all his might dilared strod Like Teneriff, or Atlas, unremov'd: divine, and inexprefiibly amuting to the His ftature reach'd the sky, and on his crest imagination. Sat horror plum'da We are, in the last place, to consider the parts which Adam and Eve act in I must here take notice, that Milton is the fourth book. The description of every where full of hints, and sometimes them, as they first appearerl to Satan, is literal translations, taken from the greatest exquisitely drawn, and sufficient to make of the Greek and Latin poets. But this the fallen angel gaze upon them with all I may reserve for a discourse by itself, that altonishment, and those emotions of because I would not break the thread of envy, in which he is represented. thele fpeculations, that are designed for English readers, with such reflections Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, God-like ereét! with native honour clad as would be of no use but to the learned. I mult however observe in this place, And worthy ieem d: for in their looks divine In naked majesty, seem'd lords of all; that the breaking off the combat be The image of their glorious Maker thone, tween Gabriel and Satan, by the hang- Truth, wisdom, fančtitude sevre and pure; ing out of the golden scales in heaven, Severe, but in true filial freedom plac'd: is a refinement upon Homer's thought, for contemplation he and valour form'd, who tells us, that before the battle be For softness ihe and sweet attractive grace; tween Hector and Achilles, Jupiter He for God only, she for God in him. weighed the event of it in a pair of His fair large front, and eye sublime, declar'd scales. The reader may see the whole Absolute rule; and Hyacinthine locks passage in the 22d Iliad. Round from his paited forelock manly hung Virgil, before the last decisive com Clust'ring, but not beneath his shoulders broad. bat, describes Jupiter in the fame manner, as weighing the fatęs of Turnus Her unadorned golden tresses wore She, as a veil, down to a Nender waist and Æneas. Milton, though he fetch- Dif-sheveld, but in wanton ringlets wav'd. ed this beautiful circumstance from the Sopafs’d they naked on, nor thunn'd the fight Iliad and neid, does not only insert of God or angel, for they thought no ill: So hand in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair scending from his natural dignity, and parting from the modetty of her cha. lines which follow, wherein they are de- gatives of wisdom and beauty, and make. seribed as fitting on a bed of flowers by each appear to the other in it's proper the side of a fountain, amidst a mixt af- force and loveliness. This mutual fu, sembly of animals. The speeches of these two first lovers fully kept up in the whole poem, as par bordination of the two sexes is wonder. how equally froin passion and sincerity. ticularly in the speech of Eve I have beThe professions they make to one ano. ther are full of warinth; but at the fame fion of it in the following lines. fore mentioned, and upon the conclu. time founded on truth. In a word, they are the gallantries of Paradise. So fpake our general mother, and with eyes of conjugal attraction unreprov'd, -When Adam, Art of men And ireek surrender, half embracing lean'a “Sole partner and sole part of all these joys, On our first father: half her swelling break • Dearer thyself than all; Naked met his under the fowing gold • But let us ever praise him, and extol Of her loose trefies hid; he in delighe * His bounty, following our delightful talk, Both of her beauty and submiflive charms «Tu prune chole growing plants, and tend these Smild with superior love.com How'rs: • Which were it toilfome, yet with thee were The poet adds, that the devil turned • sweet.' To whom thus Eve reply'd thou for away with envy at the light of so much 6 whom, « And from whom I was formåd, feh of thy rents in their evening discourses, whick We have another view of our first pa. • feth, • And without whom am to no end my guide is full of pleasing images and sentiments • And head, what thou hast said is jult and suitable to their condition and charac. ters. The speech of Eve, in particu. * For we to him indeed all praises owe, lar, is dretied up in such a soft and na. • And daily thanks; I chiefly, who enjoy, tural turn of words and sentiments, as . So far the happier lot, enjoying thee cannot be sufficiently a 'mired. • Pre-eminent by so much odds, while thou I Mall close my reflections upon this • Like confort to thyself canst no where book, with observing the maiterly tran. ‘find,' &c. fition which the poet makes to their The remaining part of Eve's speechy evening worship, in the following lines. in which she gives an account of hertelf Thus at their lhady lodge arriv'd, both food, upon her first creation, and the manner Both turn'd, and under open fky, ador'd in which she was brought to Adam, is, The God that made bocb iky, air, earth, and I think, as beautiful a passage as any in heav'n, Milion, or perhaps in any other poet which they beheid, the moon's resplendent wliatioever. These passages are all work globe, ed off with so much art, that they are And farry pnlc: Tbou also medji the right, capable of pleafing the most delicate read. * Muker cmnipotent, and ibox tóc day,' ac, er, without offending the inolt fevere. Most of the modern heroic poets have That day I oft remember, when from sleep,&c. imitated the ancients in beginning a speech without premising, that the perA poet of less judgment and inven- fon said thus or thus; but as it is easy tion than this great author, would have to imitate the ancients in the omiffion of found it very difficult to have filled these two or three words, it requires judg. tender parts of the poem with fentirnents ment to do it in fuch a manner as they proper for a state of innocence; to have shall not be mified, and that the speech described the warmth of love, and the may begin naturally without them. professions of it, without artifice or hy. There is a fine inftance of this kind out perbole; to have made the man speak of Homer, in the twenty-third chapter the most endearing things, without de- of Longinus. END OF THE FOURTH VOLUME, Ι Ν D E X TO THE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH VOLUMES OF THE SPECTATOR. A VOLUME THE FIRST. A. Absence in converlation, a remarkable instance of it in Will Honeycomb, The character of an absent man, out of Bruyere, ibid. 24. From a gentlewoman that teaches birds to speak, 36. From another that is a fine fleth-painter, 41. Advice; no order of persons too considerable to be advised, N. 34, Affectation, a greater enemy to a fine face than the small-pox, N. 33. it deforms beauty, and turns wit into absurdity, 38. The original of it, ibid. found in the wise man as well the coxcomb, ibid. The way to get clear of it, ibid. by the Spartans, ibid. countrymen, ibid. story of the Ephesian matron, ibid. her story of Inkle and Yarico, ibid. ibid. it's officers and adherents, ibid. comes to an agreement with luxury, ibid. and temper, in order to read his works with pleasure, N. 1. his opinion of liis B. obfervation upon envy, 19. Beauties, Beauties, when plagiaries, Number 4. The true secret how to improve beauty, 33. then the molt charming when heightened by virtue, ibid. c. poon, N. 23. ibid. originals, ibid. &c. Rules prescribed to be observed in the Two-penny club, ciub, ibid. His opinion of men of fine parts, 6. rian, ibid. a ton of being as handsome as Madam Van Brisket, D. , defended, N. 67, Dignitarica |