verfify his infernal Council with proper Characters, and inspire them with a Variety of Sentiments. The Loves of Dido and Eneas are only Copies of what has paffed between other Perfons. Adam and Eve

before the Fall, are a different Species from that of Mankind, who are defcended from them, and none but a Poet of the most unbounded Invention, and the moft exquifite Judgment, could have filled their Converfation and Behaviour with fo many apt Circumstances during their State 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 fo 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 astonishing Sentiments, where he is not fo fired by the Iliad. He every where charms and pleases us by the Force of his own Genius; but feldom elevates and transports us where he does not fetch his Hints from Homer.

MILTON's chief Talent, and indeed his diftinguifhing Excellence, lies in the Sublimity of his Thoughts. There are others of the Moderns who ri. val him in every other Part of Poetry; but in the Greatness of his Sentiments 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 those 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, though not fo apt to ftir up Emotion in the Mind of the Reader, nor confequently fo perfect in the Epic Way of Writing, because it is filled with less. Action. Let the judicious Reader .compare what Longinus has observed on several Paffages of Homer, and he will find Parallels for most of them in the Paradife Loft.

FROM

FROM what has been faid we may infer, that as there are two Kinds of Sentiments, the Natural and the Sublime, which are always to be purfued in an heroic Poem, there are alfo two Kinds of Thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The first are fuch as are affected and unnatural; the fecond fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the firft Kind of Thoughts, we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil: He has none of those trifling Points and Puerilities that are so often to be met with in Ovid, none of the Epigrammatic Turns of Lucan, none of those fwelling Sentiments which are fo frequent in Statius and Claudian, none of thofe mixed Embellishments of Tao. Every Thing is juft and natural. His Sentiments fhew that he had a perfect Insight into human Nature, and that he knew every thing which was the most 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 above mentioned, 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; though, confidering 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 ftill prevails fo much among modern Writers.

BUT fince feveral Thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an Epic Poet fhould not only avoid fuch Sentiments as are unnatural or affected, but also fuch as are mean and vulgar. Homer has opened a great Field of Raillery to Men of more Delicacy than Greatness of Genius, by the Homeliness of fome of his Sentiments. But, as I have before said, thefe are rather to be imputed to the Simplicity of the Age

in which he lived, to which I may also add, of that which he described, than to any Imperfection in that Divine Poet. Zoilus, among the Ancients, and Monfieur Perrault, among the Moderns, pufhed their Ridicule very far upon him, on account of fome fuch Sentiments. There is no Blemish to be obferved in Virgil, under this Head, and but a very few in Milton.

I fhall give but one Infiance 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 Vulcan and Therfites, in his Story of Mars and Venus, in his Behaviour of Irus, and in other Paffages, has been obferved to have lapfed into the Burlesque 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 Æneid, which rifes in the fifth Book upon Monates, where he is reprefented as thrown overboard and drying himself upon a Rock. But this Piece of Mirth is fo well timed, that the feverest Critic can have 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 Paradife Loft, is where the evil Spirits are defcribed as rallying the Angels upon the Succefs 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 thofe too very indifferent.

Satan beheld their Plight,

And to his Mates thus in Derifion call'd.

O Friends, why come not on thofe Victors proud!
Ere while they fierce were coming, and when we,

MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. To entertain them fair with open Front,

And Breaft (what could we more?) propounded Terms
Of Compofition; ftraight they chang'd their Minds,
Flew off, and into ftrange Vagaries fell

As they would dance; yet for a Dance they feem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For Joy of offer'd Peace; but I suppose
If our Propofals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick Result.

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 understood, this Gift they have befides,
They fhew us when our Foes walk not upright.
Thus they among themselves in pleasant Vein
Stood fcoffing-

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19

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SPECTATOR, N° 285.

Ne, quicunque Deus, quicunque adhibebitur heros,
Regali confpectus in auro nuper & oftro,
Migret in obfcuras humili fermone tabernas :
Aut dum vitat humum, nubes & inania captet.

But then they did not wrong themselves fo much,
To make a God, a Hero, or a King

(Stript of his golden Crown, and purple Robe)
Defcend to a Mechanic Dialect;

Nor (to avoid fuch Meannefs) foaring high,

Hor.

With empty Sound, and airy Ntions, fly. RoscoMMON.

HA

AVING already treated of the Fable, the Characters, and Sentiments in the Paradise Loft, we are in the laft Place to confider the Language; and

as

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 thofe who judge the most advantageously of the Author.

IT is requifite that the Language of an Heroic Poem fhould be both Perfpicuous and Sublime. In Proportion as either of these two Qualities are wanting, the Language is imperfect. Perfpicuity is the first and most neceffary Qualification; infomuch that a good-natur'd Reader fometimes overlooks a little Slip even in the Grammar or Syntax, where it is impoffible for him to mistake the Poet's Senfe. Of this kind is that Paffage in Milton, wherein he speaks of Satan.

-God and his Son except,

Created thing nought valu'd be nor fhunn'd.

And that in which he defcribes Adam and Eve.

Adam the goodlieft 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 Syntax, the Divine Perions mentioned in the firft Line are reprefented as created Beings; and that in the other, Adam and Eve are confounded with their Sons 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 Candour, rather than that of Cavilling, invented certain Figures of Speech, on purpose to palliate little Errors of this Nature in the Writings of thofe Authors who had so many greater Beauties to atone for them.

IF