Defcent and fall To us is adverfe. Who but felt of late, In another place, he defcribes the gentle glide of ebbing waters in a line remarkably rough and halting; Tripping ebb; that stole With foft foot tow'rds the deep who now had stopp'd It is not indeed to be expected, that the found should always affift the meaning, but it ought never to counteract it; and therefore Milton has here certainly committed a fault like that of the player, who looked on the earth when he implored the heavens, and to the heavens when he addreffed the earth. Those who are determined to find in Milton an affemblage of all the excellencies which have ennobled all other poets, will perhaps be offended that I do not celebrate his verfification in higher terms; for there are readers who difcover that in this paffage, So ftretch'd out huge in length the arch fiend lay, a long form is described in a long line; but the truth is, that length of body is only mentioned in a flow line, to which it has only the resemblance of time to space, of an hour to a maypole. The fame turn of ingenuity might perform wonders upon the description of the ark: Then from the mountains hewing timber tall, Measur'd by cubit, length, and breadth, and height. In these lines the poet apparently defigns to fix the attention upon bulk; but this is effected by the enumeration, not by the measure; for what analogy can there be between modulations of found, and corporeal dimenfions? Milton indeed feems only to have regarded this fpecies of embellishment fo far as not to reject it when it came unfought; which would often happen to a mind fo vigorous, employed upon a subject fo various and extenfive. He had, indeed, a greater and a nobler work to perform; a single sentiment of moral or religious truth, a fingle image of life or nature, would have been cheaply loft for a thousand echoes of the cadence to the sense; and he who had undertaken to vindicate the ways of God to man, might have been accused of neglecting his cause, had he lavished much of his attention upon fyllables and founds. NUMB. 95. TUESDAY, February 12, 1751. A fugitive from heav'n and prayer, To that bleft harbour, which I left before. HOR. FRANCIS. SIR, To the RAMBLER. THERE are many diseases both of the body and mind, which it is far easier to prevent than to cure, and therefore I hope you will think me employed in an office not useless either to learning or virtue, if I describe the symptoms of an intellectual malady, which, though at first it seizes only the paffions, will, if not speedily remedied, infect the reason, and, from blafting the bloffoms of knowledge, proceed in time to canker the root. I was born in the house of difcord. My parents were of unsuitable ages, contrary tempers, and different religions, and therefore employed the spirit and acutenefs which nature had very liberally beftowed upon both, in hourly disputes, and inceffant contriv. fo contrivances to detect each other in the wrong; that from the firft exertions of reafon I was bred a difputant, trained up in all the arts of domeftic fophistry, initiated in a thousand low ftratagems, nimble shifts, and fly concealments; verfed in all the turns of altercation, and acquainted with the whole difcipline of fending and proving. It was neceffarily my care to preserve the kindnefs of both the controvertists, and therefore I had very early formed the habit of fufpending my judgnient, of hearing arguments with indifference, inclining as occafion required to either fide, and of holding myself undetermined between them till I knew for what opinion I might conveniently de clare. Thus, Sir, I acquired very early the fkill of dif putation; and, as we naturally love the arts in which we believe ourselves to excel, I did not let my abilities lie ufelefs, nor fuffer my dexterity to be loft for want of practice. I engaged in perpetual wrangles with my school-fellows, and was never to be convinced or repreffed by any other arguments than blows, by which my antagonists commonly determined the controverfy, as I was, like the Roman orator, much more eminent for eloquence than courage. At the university I found my predominant ambition completely gratified by the ftudy of logick. I impreffed upon my memory a thousand axioms, and ten thousand diftinctions, practifed every form of fyllogifm, passed all my days in the schools of difputation, and flept every night with Smiglecius on my pillow. You You will not doubt but fuch a genius was foon raised to eminence by fuch application: I was celebrated in my third for the most artful opponent year that the university could boast, and became the terror and envy of all the candidates for philofophical reputation. My renown, indeed, was not purchased but at the price of all my time and all my studies. I never fpoke but to contradict, nor declaimed but in defence of a pofition univerfally acknowledged to be false, and therefore worthy, in my opinion, to be adorned with all the colours of false representation, and strengthened with all the art of fallacious fubtilty. My father, who had no other wish than to fee his fon richer than himself, easily concluded that I should distinguish myself among the profeffors of the law; and therefore, when I had taken my first degree, dispatched me to the Temple with a paternal admonition, that I fhould never fuffer myself to feel fhame, for nothing but modesty could retard my fortune. Vitiated, ignorant, and heady as I was, I had not yet loft my reverence for virtue, and therefore could not receive fuch dictates without horror; but however was pleafed with his determination of my course of life, because he placed me in the way that leads fooneft from the prefcribed walks of difcipline and education, to the open fields of liberty and choice. I was now in the place where every one catches the contagion of vanity, and foon began to diftinguish myself by sophisms and paradoxes. I declared war |