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Satan alighted walks: a globe far off

It seem'd, now feems a boundless continent
Dark, wafte, and wild, under the frown of Night
Starless expos'd, and ever-threatning storms

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Of Chaos bluft'ring round, inclement sky;
Save on that fide which from the wall of Heaven,
Though distant far, some small reflection gains
Of glimmering air less vex'd with tempest loud:
Here walk'd the Fiend at large in fpacious field. 430
As when a vultur on Imaus bred,

from Hell to Earth in order to destroy mankind, but lighting firft on the bare convex of this world's outermoft orb, a fea of land as the poet calls it, is very fitly compared to a vultur flying, in queft of his prey, tender lambs or kids new-yean'd, from the barren rocks to the more fruitful hills and ftreams of India, but lighting in his way on the plains of Sericana, which were in a manner a fea of land too, the country being fo Imooth and open that carriages were driven (as travelers report) with fails and wind. Imaus is a celebrated mountain in Afia; its name fignifies fnowy in the language of the inhabitants according to Pliny, Lib. 6. cap. 21. incolarum lingua nivofum fignificante; and therefore it is faid here whofe fnewy ridge. It is the boundary to the east of the Western Tartars,

Whofe

who are called roving, as they live chiefly in tents, and remove from place to place for the convenience of pafturage, their herds of cattel and what they take in hunting being their principal fubfiftence. Ganges and Hydafpes are famous rivers of India; and Serica is a region betwixt China to the east and the mountain Imaus to the weft: and what our author here fays of the Chineses, he feems to have taken from Heylin's Cofmography, p. 867. where it is faid,

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Agreeable unto the obfervation " of modern writers, the country "is fo plain and level, that they " have carts and coaches driven "with fails, as ordinarily as drawn "with horfes, in these parts." Our author fuppofes these carriages to be made of cane, to render the thing fomewhat more probable. It may be thought the lefs incredible,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
Diflodging from a region fcarce of prey

Το gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids

On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the

fprings

Of Ganges or Hydafpes, Indian ftreams;

435

as there was a man lately at Bath who attempted fomething of the fame nature, and could really drive his machine without horfes by the help of wind and fail upon Marlborough Downs, but it would not ferve upon the road; it did well enough upon the plain, but he could not make it go up hill.

-

442. in this place] I have before fpoken of the Limbo of Vanity, which the poet places upon the outermoft furface of the univerfe, and fhall here explain myfelf more at large on that, and other parts of the poem, which are of the fame fhadowy nature. Ariftotle obferves, that the fable of an epic poem fhould abound in circumftances that are both credible and aftonishing; or as the French critics choose to phrafe it, the fable fhould be filled with the probable and the marvelous. This rule is as fine and just as any in Aristotle's whole art of poetry. If the fable is only probable, it differs nothing from a true hiftory; if it is only marvelous, it is no better than a romance. The great fecret therefore of heroic poetry is to relate fuch circumftances, as

But

may produce in the reader at the fame time both belief and aftonishment. This is brought to pafs in a well-chofen fable, by the account of fuch things as have really happen'd, or at least of such things as have happen'd according to the received opinions of mankind. Milton's fable is a mafter-piece of this nature; as the war in Heaven, the condition of the fallen Angels, the ftate of innocence, the temptation of the Serpent and the fall of Man, though they are very astonishing in themselves, are not only credible, but actual points of faith. The next method of reconciling miracles with credibility, is by a happy invention of the poet; as in particular, when he introduces agents of a fuperior nature, who are capable of effecting what is wonderful, and what is not to be met with in the ordinary courfe of things. Ulyffes's fhip being turned into a rock, and Eneas's fleet into a fhoal of Water-nymphs, though they are very furprifing accidents, are neverthelefs probable, when we are told that they were the Gods who thus transformed them. It is this kind

of

But in his way lights on the barren plains
Of Sericana, where Chinefes drive

With faïls and wind their cany waggons light:
So on this windy fea of land, the Fiend
Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey ;
Alone, for other creature in this place

of machinery which fills the poems both of Homer and Virgil with fuch circumstances as are wonderful, but not imposible, and fo frequently produce in the reader the moft pleafing paffion that can rife in the mind of man, which is admiration. If there be any inftance in the Æneid liable to exception upon this account, it is in the beginning of the third book, where Aneas is reprefented as tearing up the myrtle that dropped blood. To qualify this wonderful circumftance, Polydorus tells a story from the root of the myrtle, that the barbarous inhabitants of the country having pierced him with fpears and arrows, the wood which was left in his body took root in his wounds, and gave birth to that bleeding tree. This circumftance feems to have the marvelous with out the probable, because it is reprefented as proceeding from natural caufes, without the interpofition of any God, or other fupernatural power capable of producing it. The fpears and arrows grow of themfelves, without fo much as the modern help of an inchantment. If we look into the

440

Living

fiation of Milton's fable, though we find it full of furprising incidents, they are generally fuited to our notions of the things and per fons defcribed, and tempered with a due measure of probability. I muit only make an exception to the Limbo of Vanity, with his epifode of Sin and Death, and fome of the imaginary perfons in his Chaos. Thefe pailages are aftonishing, but not credible; the reader cannot fo far impofe upon himself, as to fee a posibility in them; they are the defeription of dreams and fhadows, not of things or perfons. I know that many critics look upon the ftories of Circe, Polypheme, the Sirens, nay the whole Odyffey and Iliad, to be allegories; but allowing this to be true, they are fables, which confidering the opinions of mankind that prevailed in the age of the poet, might poffibly have been according to the letter. The perfons are fuch as might have acted what is afcribed to them, as the circumftances in which they are reprefented, might poflibly have been truths and realities. This appear. race of probability is fo abfolutely

23

requifito

Living or lifeless to be found was none;
None yet, but ftore hereafter from the earth
Up hither like aereal vapors flew

Of all things tranfitory' and vain, when fin
With vanity had fill'd the works of men;
Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
Built their fond hopes of glory' or lafting fame,
Or happiness in this or th' other life;

All who have their reward on earth, the fruits

requifite in the greater kinds of poetry, that Ariftotle obferves the ancient tragic writers made ufe of the names of fuch great men as had actually lived in the world, tho' the tragedy proceeded upon adventures they were never engaged in, on purpofe to make the fubject more credible. In a word, befides the hidden meaning of an epic allegory, the plain litteral fenfe ought to appear probable. The ftory fhould be fuch as an ordinary reader may acquiefce in, whatever natural, moral, or political truth may be difcovered in it by men of greater penetration.

Addifon.

443. lifeless] Milton writes it liveles; but i conceive the word to be compounded of lefs and the fubftantive life, and not of the verb li lif lefs without life, as fearless without fear, liflefs without lift or defire, peerless, ruthless, foapeless, &c.

445

450

Of

444. None yet, &c.] Dr. Bentley is for rejecting this verfe and fifty four more which follow as an infertion of the editor; but I think there can be no doubt of their ge nuinnefs, whatever there may be of their goodness. Mr. Richardfon thinks the Paradife of Fools is finely imagin'd, but it must be own'd that it is formed more upon the tafte of the Italian poets than of the Ancients,

der in vain as commonly under457. and in vain,] To wanftood would be a weak expreffion,

but it has the force of the Greek autas, the Latin fruftrà, temerè, fortuitò, nullo confilio, at random. Richardfon

459. Not in the neighb'ring moon,

as fome have dream'd; Ariofto particularly, who in his Orlando Furiofo, Cant. 34. St. 70, &c. gives a much larger description of things loft upon earth and treafur'd

up

Of painful fuperstition and blind zeal,

Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find
Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;

All th' unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand, 455 Abortive, monftrous, or unkindly mix'd,

Diffolv'd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

Till final diffolution, wander here,

Not in the neighb'ring moon, as fome have

dream'd;

up in the moon, than our poet here makes of the Limbo of Vanity. The reader may have a tafte of it in the following ftanza's of Harrington's tranflation,

A ftore-house ftrange, that what on earth is loft

By fault, by time, by fortune, there is found,

And like a merchandife is there ingroft,

In ftranger fort than I can well
expound;
Nor fpeak I fole of wealth, or
things of coft,

In which blind fortune's pow'r
doth most abound,
But e'en of things quite out of for-

tune's pow'r,

Which wilfully we wafte each day

and hour.

The precious time that fools mifpend in play, The vain attempts that never take effect,

Thofe

The vows that finners make and never pay,

The counfels wife that careless men neglect,

The fond defires that lead us oft aftray,

The praises that with pride the heart infect,

And all we lofe with folly and mifpending,

May there be found unto this place afcending.

other particulars, the vanity of ti And fo he proceeds in enumerating tles, falfe flatteries, fond loves, great men's promifes, court-fervices, death-bed alms, &c. and men's wits kept in jars like oil. likewife made fine ufe of this noOur late great English poet has tion in his Rape of the Lock, Cant. 5. as indeed it seems to be fitter for a mock-heroic poem than for the true epic.

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