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time those who have treated this great poet with candor, have attributed this defect to the times in which he lived. It was the fault of the age, and not of Homer, if there wants that delicacy in fome of his fentiments, which now appears in the works of men of a much inferior genius. Befides, if there are blemishes in any particular thoughts, there is an infinite beauty in the greateft part of them, In fhort, if there are many poets who would not have fallen into the meannefs of fome of his fentiments, there are none who could have rifen up to the greatness of others. Virgil has excelled all others in the propriety of his fentiments. Milton fhines likewife very much in this particular: Nor muft we omit one confideration which adds to his honor and reputation. Homer and Virgil introduced perfons whofe characters are commonly known among men, and fuch as are to be met with either in hiftory, or in ordinary converfation. Milton's characters, most of them, lie out of nature, and were to be formed purely by his own invention. It fhows a greater genius in Shakespear to have drawn his Ca. lyban, than his Hotspur or Julius Cæfar: The one was to be fupplied out of his own imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon tradition, hiftory and obfervation. It was much easier therefore for Homer to find proper fentiments for an affembly of Grecian generals, than for Milton to diverfify his infernal council with proper characters, and infpire them with a variety of fentiments. The loves of Dido and Eneas are only copies of what has paffed be

tween other perfons. Adam and Eve before the fall, are a different fpecies from that of mankind, who are defcended from them; and none but a poet of the most unbounded invention, and the most exquifite judgment, could have filled their converfation and behaviour with fo many apt circumftances during their ftate of innocence.

Nor is it fufficient for an epic poem to be filled with fuch thoughts as are natural, unless it abound also with fuch as are fublime. Virgil in this particular falls fhort of Homer. He has not indeed so many thoughts that are low and vulgar; but at the fame time has not fo many thoughts that are fublime and noble. The truth of it is, Virgil feldom rifes into very aftonifhing fentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad. He every where charms and pleafes us by the force of his own genius; but feldom elevates and tranfports us where he does not fetch his hints from Ho

mer.

Milton's chief talent, and indeed his diftinguishing excellence lies in the fublimity of his thoughts. There are others of the Moderns who rival him in every other part of poetry; but in the greatnefs of his fentiments he triumphs over all the poets both modern and ancient,-Homer only excepted. It is impoffible for the imagination of man to diftend itself with greater ideas, than thofe which he has laid together in his firft, fecond, and fixth books. The feventh, which defcribes the creation of the world, is likewife wonderfully fublime, tho' not fo apt to ftir up emotion in the mind of the reader, nor con

fequently

fequently fo perfect in the epic way of writing, because it is filled with lefs action. Let the judicious reader compare what Longinus has obferved on feveral paffages in Ho mer, and he will find parallels for most of them in the Paradife Loft.

From what has been faid we may infer, that as there are two kinds of fentiments, the natural and the fublime, which are always to be purfued in an heroic poem, there are alfo two kinds of thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The firft are fuch as are affected and unnatural; the fecond fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the first kind of thoughts we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil: He has none of thofe trifling points and puerilities that are fo often to be met with in Ovid, none of the epigrammatic turns of Lucan, none of thofe fwelling fentiments which are fo frequently in Statius and Claudian, none of thofe mixed embellishments of Taffo. Every thing is just and natural. His fentiments how that he had a perfect infight into human nature, and that he knew every thing which was the mot proper to affect it.

Mr. Dryden has in fome places, which I may hereafter take notice of, mifreprefented Virgil's way of thinking as to this particular, in the tranflation he has given us of the Æneid. I do not remember that Homer any where falls into the faults abovementioned, which were indeed the falfe refinements of later ages. Milton, it must be confeft, has fometimes erred in this refpect, as I fhall fhew more at large in another paper; tho' con

fidering all the poets of the age in which he writ, were infected with this wrong way of thinking, he is rather to be admired that he did not give more into it, than that he did fometimes comply with the vicious tafte which still prevails fo much among modern writers.

But fince feveral thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an epic poet should not only avoid fuch fentiments as are unnatural or affected, but also fuch as are mean and vulgar. Homer has opened a great field of rallery to men of more delicacy than greatnefs of genius, by the homeliness of fome of his fentiments. But, as I have before faid, these are rather to be imputed to the fimplicity of the age in which he lived, to which I may alfo add, of that which he defcribed, than to any imperfection in that divine poet. Zoilus, among the Ancients, and Monfieur Perrault, among the Moderns, pushed their ridicule very far upon him, on account of fome fuch fentiments. There is no blemish to be obferved in Virgil, under this head, and but a very few in Milton.

I fhall give but one inftance of this impropriety of thought in Homer, and at, the fame time compare it with an inftance of the fame nature, both in Virgil and Milton. Sentiments which raise laughter, can very feldom be admitted with any decency into an heroic poem, whofe bufinefs is to excite paffions of a much nobler nature. Homer, however, in his characters of Vul-. can and Therfites, in his history of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of Irus, and in other paffages, has been obferved to have lapfed into

the

the burlefque character, and to have departed from that ferious air which feems effential to the magnificence of an epic poem. I remember but one laugh in the whole Eneid, which rifes in the fifth book upon Monetes, where he is reprefented as thrown overboard, and drying himself upon a rock. But this piece of mirth is fo well timed, that the fevereft critic can having nothing to fay against it, for it is in the book of games and diverfions, where the reader's mind may be fuppofed to be fufficiently relaxed for fuch an entertainment. The only piece of pleafantry in Páradife Loft, is where the evil fpirits are described as rallying the Angels upon the fuccefs of their new invented artillery. This paffage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole poem, as being nothing else but a string of puns, and those too very indifferent.

-Satan beheld their plight, And to his mates thus in derifion call'd.

O Friends, why come not on thefe victors proud! Ere while they fierce were coming,

and when we, To entertain them fair with open front, And breaft, (what could we more) propounded terms

Of compofition; ftrait they chang'd their minds,

Flew off, and into strange vagagaries fell,

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If our proposals once again were beard,

We should compel them to a quick refult.

To whom thus Belial in like gamefome mood.

Leader, the terms we fent, were terms of weight,

Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,

Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,

And ftumbled many; who receives them right,

Had need, from head to foot, well understand;

Not underflood, this gift they have befides,

They fhow us when our foes walk not upright.

Thus they among themselves in pleasant vein Stood fcoffing.

HAVING already treated of the fable, the characters and fentiments in the Paradife Loft, we are in the laft place to confider the language; and as the learned world is very much divided upon Milton as to this point, I hope they will excufe me if I appear particular in any of my opinions, and incline to those who judge the moft advantageoufly of the author.

It is requifite that the language of an heroic poem fhould be both perfpicuous and fublime. In proportion as either of thefe two qualities are wanting, the language is imperfect. Perfpicuity is the firft and moft neceffary qualification; infomuch that a good-natur'd reader fometimes overlooks a little flip even in the grammar or fyntax, where it is impoffible for him to mistake the poet's fenfe. Of this

kind is that paffage in Milton, wherein he fpeaks of Satan,

-God and his Son except, Created thing nought valu'd he nor fhunn'd.

become too familiar to the ear, and contract a kind of meanness by paffing through the mouths of the vulgar, a poet fhould take particular care to guard himself against idiomatic ways of fpeaking. Ovid and Lucan have many poorneffes

And that in which he defcribes of expreffon upon this account, as Adam and Eve.

Adam the goodliest man of men fince born

His sons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.

It is plain that in the former of thefe paffages, according to the natural fyntax, the divine Perfons mentioned in the first line are reprefented as created beings; and that in the other, Adam and Eve are confounded with their fons and daughters. Such little blemishes as thefe, when the thought is great and natural, we should, with Horace, impute to a pardonable inadvertency, or to the weakness of human nature, which cannot attend to each minute particular, and give the last finishing to every circumftance in fo long a work. The ancient critics therefore, who were acted by a spirit of candor, rather than that of cavilling, invented certain figures of fpeech, on purpofe to palliate little errors of this nature in the writings of thofe authors who had fo many greater beauties to atone for them.

If clearness and perfpicuity were only to be confulted, the poet would have nothing else to do but to clothe his thoughts in the moft plain and natural expreffions. But fince it often happens that the moft obvious phrafes, and thofe which are ufed in ordinary converfation,

taking up with the firft phrafes that offered, without putting themselves to the trouble of looking after fuch as would not only be natural, but alfo elevated and fublime. Milton has but a few failings in this kind, of which, however, you may meet with fome inftances, as in the following paffages,

Embrio's and idiots, eremites and friers

White, black and grey, with all their trumpery, Here pilgrims roam

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A while difcourfe they hold, No fear left dinner cool; when thus began

Our author

Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling

The evil on him brought by me, will curfe

My head, ill fare our ancestor impure,

For this we may thank Adam

The great mafters in compofition. know very well that many an elegant phrafe becomes improper for a poet or an orator, when it has been debafed by common ufe. For this reafon the works of ancient authors, which are written in dead languages, have a great advantage over those which are written in languages that are now spoken. Were there any mean phrafes or idioms in Virgil and Homer, they

would

would not fhock the ear of the moft delicate modern reader, fo much as they would have done that of an old Greek or Roman, because we never heard them pronounced in our ftreets, or in ordinary converfation.

It is not therefore fufficient, that the language of an epic poem be perfpicuous, unless it be alfo fublime. To this end it ought to deviate from the common forms and ordinary phrafes of fpeech. The judgment of a poet very much difcovers itself in fhunning the com. mon roads of expreffion, without falling into fuch ways of speech as may feem ftiff and unnatural; he muft not swell into a falfe fublime, by endevoring to avoid the other extreme. Among the Greeks, Afchylus, and fometimes Sophocles were guilty of this fault; among the Latins, Claudian and Statius; and trymen, Shakespear and Lee. In thefe authors the affectation of greatnefs often hurts the perfpicuity of the ftile, as in many others the endevor after perfpicuity prejudices its greatnefs.

among our own coun

Ariftotle has obferved, that the idiomatic ftile may be avoided, and the fublime formed, by the following methods. First, by the ufe of metaphors: fuch are those in Milton.

Imparadis'd in one another's arms.
And in his hand a reed
Stood waving tipt with fire.
The graffy clods now calv'd.
Spangled with eyes—

In thefe and innumerable other inftances, the metaphors are very bold but juft; I must however obferve, that the metaphors are not

thick fown in Milton, which always favors too much of wit; that they never clash with one another, which, as Ariftotle obferves, turns a fentence into a kind of an enigma or riddle; and that he feldom has recourse to them where the proper and natural words will do as well.

Another way of raifing the language, and giving it a poetical turn, is to make ufe of the idioms of other tongues. Virgil is full of the Greek forms of fpeech, which the critics call Hellenifms, as Horace in his odes abounds with them much more than Virgil. I need not mention the feveral dialects which Homer has made ufe of for this end. Milton in conformity with the practice of the ancient poets, and with Ariftotle's rule, has infufed a great many Latinifms as well as Græcifms, and fometimes Hebraifms, into the language of his poem; as towards the beginning of it.

Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel.

Yet to their general's voice they foon obey'd.

-Who fhall tempt with wand'ring

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