clares himself moved by a fecret impulfe to comply, and utters fome dark prefages of a great event to be brought to pass by his agency, under the direction of Providence : Samf. Be of good courage; I begin to feel While Samson is conducted off by the meffenger, his father returns with Hopes of fuccefs in his folicitation, upon which he confers with the chorus till their dialogue is interrupted, firft by a fhout of triumph, and afterwards by fcreams of horror and agony. As they ftand deliberating where they shall be fecure, a man who had been prefent at the fhow enters, and relates how Samfon, having prevailed on his guide to fuffer him to lean against the main pillars of the theatrical edifice, tore down the roof upon the spectators and himself: Those two maffy pillars, With horrible confufion to and fro, He tugg'd, he fhook, till down they came, and drew -Samfon with these immixt, inevitably Pull'd down the fame deftruction on himself. This is undoubtedly a juft and regular catastrophe, and the poem, therefore, has a beginning and an end which Ariftotle himself could not have disapproved; but it must be allowed to want a middle, fince nothing paffes between the first act and the laft, that either haftens or delays the death of Samfon. The whole drama, if its fuperfluities were cut off, would scarcely fill a fingle act; yet this is the tragedy which ignorance has admired, and bigotry applauded. NUMB. 140. SATURDAY, July 20, 1751. Quis tam Lucili fautor inepte eft, Ut non hoc fateatur. What doating bigot, to his faults fo blind, HOR. IT is common, fays Bacon, to defire the end without enduring the means. Every member of fociety feels and acknowledges the neceffity of detecting crimes, yet fcarce any degree of virtue or reputation is able to fecure an informer from publick hatred. The learned world has always admitted the usefulness of critical difquifitions, yet he that attempts to fhew, however modeftly, the failures of a celebrated writer, fhall furely irritate his admirers, and incur the imputation of envy, captioufness, and malignity. With this danger 'full in my view, I fhall proceed to examine the fentiments of Milton's tragedy, which, though though much less liable to cenfure than the difpofi tion of his plan, are, like fometimes exposed to just care, or want of difcernment. thofe of other writers, exceptions for want of Sentiments are proper and improper as they confift more or lefs with the character and circumftances of the perfon to whom they are attributed, with the rules of the compofition in which they are found, or with the fettled and unalterable nature of things. It is common among the tragick poets to introduce their perfons alluding to events or opinions, of which they could not poffibly have any knowledge. The barbarians of remote or newly discovered ́regions often display their skill in European learning. The god of love is mentioned in Tamerlane with all the familiarity of a Roman epigrammatift; and a late writer has put Harvey's doctrine of the circulation of the blood into the mouth of a Turkish statesman, who lived near two centuries before it was known even to philofophers or anatomists. Milton's learning, which acquainted him with the manners of the ancient eastern nations, and his invention, which required no affiftance from the common cant of poetry, have preferved him from frequent outrages of local or chronological propriety. Yet he has mentioned Chalybean Steel, of which it is not very likely that his chorus fhould have heard, and has made Alp the general name of a mountain, in a region where the Alps could fcarcely be known: No medicinal liquor can affuage, Nor breath of cooling air from fnowy Alp. He has taught Samfon the tales of Circe, and the Syrens, at which he apparently hints in his colloquy with Delilah: I know thy trains, Tho' dearly to my coft, thy gins and toils; But the groffeft error of this kind is the folemn introduction of the Phoenix in the last scene; which is faulty, not only as it is incongruous to the perfonage to whom it is afcribed, but as it is fo evidently contrary to reafon and nature, that it ought never to be mentioned but as a fable in any serious poem: Virtue giv'n for loft, Depreft, and overthrown, as feem'd In the Arabian woods embost That no fecond knows, nor third, And lay ere while a holocauft; From out our ashy womb now teem'd Revives, reflourishes, then vigorous most When moft unactive deem'd, And tho' her body die, her fame survives, Another fpecies of impropriety is the unfuitableness of thoughts to the general character of the poem. The ferioufnefs and folemnity of tragedy neceffarily rejects all pointed or epigrammatical expreffions, all remote conceits and oppofition of ideas. Samfon's complaint is therefore too elaborate to be natural: As As in the land of darkness, yet in light, By privilege of death and burial, From worft of other evils, pains and wrongs. All allufions to low and trivial objects, with which contempt is ufually affociated, are doubtlefs unfuitable to a species of compofition which ought to be always awful though not always magnificent. The remark therefore of the chorus on good and bad news feems to want elevation: Manoah. A little stay will bring some notice hither. Chor. Of good or bad fo great, of bad the fooner; For evil news rides poft, while good news baits. But of all meannefs that has least to plead which is produced by mere verbal conceits, which depending only upon founds, lose their existence by the change of a fyllable. Of this kind is the following dialogue: Chor. But had we best retire? I fee a form. Samf. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain. Chor. But this another kind of tempest brings. Samf. Be lefs abftrufe, my riddling days are past. Chor. Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear And |