put these materials to poetical ufe, is required an Imagination capable of painting nature, and realizing fiction. Nor is he yet a poet till he has attained the whole extenfion of his language, diftinguifhed all the delicacies of phrafe, and all the colours of words, and learned to adjust their different founds to all the varieties of metrical modulation.

pro

Boffu is of opinion, that the poet's first work is to find a moral, which his fable is afterwards to illuftrate and establish. This feems to have been the cefs only of Milton; the moral of other poems is incidental and confequent; in Milton's only it is effential and intrinfick. His purpose was the most useful and the most arduous; to vindicate the ways of God to man; to fhew the reasonableness of religion, and the neceffity of obedience to the Divine Law.

To convey this moral, there must be a fable, a narration artfully conftructed, fo as to excite curiofity, and furprise expectation. In this part of his work, Milton must be confeffed to have equalled every other poet. He has involved in his account of the Fall of Man the events which preceded, and those that were to follow it: he has interwoven the whole fyftem of theology with fuch propriety, that every part appears to be neceffary; and fcarcely any recital is wished shorter for the fake of quickening the progrefs of the main action.

The fubject of an epick poem is naturally an event of great importance. That of Milton is not the destruction of a city, the conduct of a colony, or the foundation of an empire. His fubject is the fate of worlds, che revolutions of Heaven and of Earth; rebellion, against the Supreme King, raifed by the VOL. IX.

M

highest

highest order of created beings; the overthrow of their hoft, and the punishment of their crime; the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures; their original happiness and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality, and their restoration to hope and peace.

Great events can be haftened or retarded only by perfons of elevated dignity. Before the greatness difplayed in Milton's poem, all other greatnefs fhrinks away. The weakest of his agents are the highest and nobleft of human beings, the original parents of mankind; with whofe actions the elements confented; on whose rectitude, or deviation of will, depended the ftate of terreftrial nature, and the condition of all the future inhabitants of the globe.

Of the other agents in the poem, the chief are fuch as it is irreverence to name on flight occafions. The reft were lower powers;

of which the leaft could wield

Thofe elements, and arm him with the force
Of all their regions;

powers, which only the controul of Omnipotence reftrains from laying creation wafte, and filling the vast expanse of space with ruin and confufion. To difplay the motives and actions of beings thus fuperiour, fo far as human reafon can examine them, or human imagination reprefent them, is the task which this mighty poet has undertaken and performed.

In the examination of epick poems much fpeculation is commonly employed upon the characters. The characters in the Paradife Loft, which admit of examination, are thofe of angels and of man; of

angels

angels good and evil; of man in his innocent and finful state.

Among the angels, the virtue of Raphael is mild and placid, of eafy condefcenfion and free communication; that of Michael is regal and lofty, and, as may seem, attentive to the dignity of his own nature. Abdiel and Gabriel appear occafionally, and act as every incident requires; the folitary fidelity of Abdiel is very amiably painted.

Of the evil angels the characters are more diverfified. To Satan, as Addison obferves, fuch fentiments are given as fuit the most exalted and most depraved being. Milton has been cenfured by Clarke *, for the impiety which fometimes breaks from Satan's mouth. For there are thoughts, as he juftly remarks, which no obfervation of character can juftify, becaufe no good man would willingly permit them to pafs, however tranfiently, through his own mind. To make Satan fpeak as a rebel, without any fuch expreffion as might taint the reader's imagination, was indeed one of the great difficulties in Milton's undertaking; and I cannot but think that he has extricated himself with great happiness. There is in, Satan's fpeeches little that can give pain to a pious ear. The language of rebellion cannot be the fame with that of obedience. The malignity of Satan foams in haughtinefs and obftinacy; but his expreffions are commonly general, and no otherwise offenfive than as they are wicked.

The other chiefs of the celeftial rebellion are very judiciously difcriminated in the first and second books;

Author of the Effay on Study." Dr. J.

and the ferocious character of Moloch appears, both in the battle and the council, with exact confiftency.

To Adam and to Eve are given, during their innocence, fuch fentiments as innocence can generate and utter. Their love is pure benevolence and mutual veneration; their repafts are without luxury, and their diligence without toil. Their addreffes to their Maker have little more than the voice of admiration and gratitude. Fruition left them nothing to afk; and Innocence left them nothing to fear.

But with guilt enter diftrust and difcord, mutual accufation, and ftubborn felf-defence; they regard each other with alienated minds, and dread their Creator as the avenger of their tranfgreffion. At laft they feck shelter in his mercy, foften to repentance, and melt in fupplication. Both before and after the Fall, the fuperiority of Adam is diligently fuftained.

Of the probable and the marvellous, two parts of a vulgar epick poem, which immerge the critick in deep confideration, the Paradise Loft requires little to be faid. It contains the hiftory of a miracle, of Creation and Redemption; it difplays the power and the mercy of the Supreme Being; the probable therefore is marvellous, and the marvellous is probable. The fubftance of the narrative is truth; and, as truth allows no choice, it is, like neceffity, fuperior to rule. To the accidental or adventitious parts, as to every thing human, fome flight exceptions may be made. But the main fabrick is immovably supported.

It is justly remarked by Addison, that this poem has, by the nature of its fubject, the advantage above all others, that it is univerfally and perpetually interefting. All mankind will, through all ages, bear the fame relation to Adam and to Eve, and muft partake of that good and evil which extend to themfelves.

Of the machinery, fo called from Θεὸς ἀπὸ μηχανῆς, by which is meant the occafional interpofition of fupernatural power, another fertile topick of critical remarks, here is no room to speak, because every thing is done under the immediate and vifible direction of Heaven; but the rule is so far observed, that no part of the action could have been accomplished by any other means.

Of epifodes, I think there are only two, contained in Raphael's relation of the war in Heaven, and Michael's prophetick account of the changes to happen in this world. Both are closely connected with the great action; one was neceffary to Adam as a warning, the other as a confolation.

To the compleatnefs or integrity of the defign nothing can be objected; it has diftinctly and clearly what Aristotle requires, a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is perhaps no poem, of the fame length, from which fo little can be taken without apparent mutilation. Here are no funeral games, nor is there any long defcription of a fhield. The fhort digreffions at the beginning of the third, seventh, and ninth books, might doubtless be spared; but fuperfluities fo beautiful, who would take away? or who does not with that the author of the Iliad had gratified fucceeding ages with a little knowledge of M 3

himfelf?