THE Beginning of this Speech, and the Preparation to it, are animated with the fame Spirit as the Conclufion, which I have here quoted.

THE feveral Wiles which are put in practice by the Tempter, when he found Eve feparated from her Husband, the many pleafing Images of Nature which are intermix'd in this part of the Story, with its gradual and regular Progrefs to the fatal Cataftrophe, are fo very remarkable, that it would be fuperfluous to point out their respective Beauties,

I have avoided mentioning any particular Similitudes in my Remarks on this great Work, because I have given a general Account of them in my Paper on the first Book. There is one, however, in this part of the Poem, which I fhall here quote, as it is not only very beautiful, but the clofeft of any in the whole Poem; I mean that where the Serpent is defcrib'd as rolling forward in all his Pride, animated by the evil Spirit, and conducting Eve to her Destruction, while Adam was at too great a distance from her to give her his Affiftance. Thefe feveral Particulars are all of them wrought into the following Similitude.

Hope elevates, and Foy

Brightens his Creft; as when a wand'ring Fire,
Compact of unctuous Vapour, which the Night
Condenfes, and the Cold invirons round,
Kindled through Agitation to a Flame,

(Which oft, they fay, fome evil Spirit attends)
Hovering and blazing with delufive Light,
Misleads th' amaz'd Night-wanderer from his Way
Through Bogs and Mires, and oft through Pond or Fool,
There fwallow'd up and loft, from fuccour far.

THAT fecret Intoxication of Pleasure, with all thofe tranfient Flushings of Guilt and Joy, which the Poet reprefents in our firft Parents upon their eating the forbidden Fruit, to thofe flaggings of Spirit, damps of Sorrow, and mutual Accufations which fucceed it, are conceiv'd with a wonderful Imagination, and described in very natural Sentiments.

WHEN

WHEN Dido in the fourth Æneid yielded to that fatal Temptation which ruin'd her, Virgil tells us the Earth trembled, the Heavens were filled with Flashes of Lightning, and the Nymphs howled upon the Mountain-Tops. Milton, in the fame poetical Spirit, has defcribed all Nature as difturbed upon Eve's eating the forbidden Fruit.

So faying, her rafh Hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the Fruit, fhe pluckt, fhe eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her Seat
Sighing, through all her Works gave signs of Woe
That all was loft-

UPON Adam's falling into the fame Guilt, the whole Creation appears a fecond time in Convulfions.

He fcrupled not to eat

Against his better knowledge; not deceiv'd,
But fondly overcome with female Charm.
Earth trembled from her Entrails, as again
In Pangs, and Nature gave a fecond Groan,
Sky lowred, and muttering Thunder, fome fad Drops
Wept at compleating of the mortal Sin

AS all Nature fuffer'd by the Guilt of our firft Parents, thefe Symptoms of Trouble and Confternation are wonderfully imagined, not only as Prodigies, but as Marks of her fympathizing in the Fall of Man.

ADAM's Converfe with Eve, after having eaten the forbidden Fruit, is an 'exact Copy of that between Jupiter and Juno in the fourteenth Iliad. Juno there approaches Jupiter with the Girdle which the had received from Ve nus; upon which he tells her, that the appeared more charming and defirable than fhe had ever done before, even when their Loves were at the higheft. The Poet afterwards defcribes them as repofing on a Summet of Mount Ida, which produced under them a Bed of Flowers, the Lotos, the Crocus, and the Hyacinth; and concludes his Defcription with their falling asleep.

LET

LET the Reader compare this with the following Paffage in Milton, which begins with Adam's Speech to Eve.

For never did thy Beauty, fince the Day
Ifaw thee firft and wedded thee, adorn'd
With all Perfections, fo enflame my Sease
With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now
Than ever, Bounty of this virtuous Tree,
So faid he, and forbore not Glance or Toy
Of amorous Intent, well understood
of Eve, whofe Eye darted contagious Fire.
Her Hand be feiz'd, and to a fhady Bank
Thick over-head with verdant Roof embower'd,
He led her nothing loth: Flow'rs were the Couchi
Panfies, and Violets, and Afphodel,

And Hyacinth, Earth's fresheft foftest Lap.
There they their fill of Love, and Love's difport,
Took largely, of their mutual Guilt the Seal,
The Solace of their Sin, till dewy Sleep
Oppress'd them

AS no Poet feems ever to have ftudied Homer more, or to have more resembled him in the Greatness of Genius than Milton, I think I fhould have given but a very imperfect Account of his Beauties, if I had not obferved the most remarkable Paffages which look like Parallels in these two great Authors. I might, in the course of thefe Criticifms, have taken notice of many particular Lines and Expreffions which are tranflated from the Greek Poet; but as I thought this would have appeared too minute and over-curious, I have purposely omitted them. The greater Incidents, however, are not only fet off by being fhewn in the fame Light with several of the fame nature in Homer, but by that means may be alfo guarded against the Cavils of the Taftelefs or Ignorant.

Monday,

N° 352.

Monday, April 14.

-Si ad honeftatem nati fumus, ea aut fola expetenda eft, aut certe omni ponderé gravior eft habenda` quam reliqua omnia. Tull.

W

ILL. HONEYCOMB was complaining to me yesterday, that the Converfation of the Town is fo altered of late Years, that a fire Gentleman is at a lofs for matter to start Difcourfe, as well as unable to fall in with the Talk he generally meets with. WILL. takes notice, that there is now an Evil under the Sun which he fuppofes to be entirely new, becaufe not mentioned by any Satyrift or Moralist in any Age: Men, faid he, grow Knaves fooner than they ever did fince the Creation of the World before. If you read the Tragedies of the laft Age, you find the artful Men, and Perfons of Intrigue, are advanced very far in Years, and beyond the Pleasures and Sallies of Youth; but now WILL. obferves, that the Young have taken in the Vices of the Aged, and you fhall have a Man of Five and Twenty crafty, falfe, and intriguing, not ashamed to over-reach, cozen, and beguile. My Friend adds, that till about the latter end of King Charles's Reign, there was not a Rafcal of any Eminence under Forty: In the Places of Refort for Converfation, you now hear nothing but what relates to the improving Mens Fortunes, without regard to the Methods toward it. This is fo fashionable, that young Men form themselves upon a certain Neglect of every thing that is candid, fimple, and worthy of true Efteem; and affect being yet worse than they are, by acknowledging in their general turn of Mind and Difcourfe, that they have not any remaining Value for true Honour and Honefty; preferring the Capacity of being artful to gain their Ends, to the Me

of defpiting thofe Ends when they come in competi

tion

tion with their Honefty. All this is due to the very filly Pride that generally prevails, of being valued for the Ability of carrying their point; in a word, from the Opinion that fhallow and unexperienced People entertain of the fhort-liv'd Force of Cunning. But I fhall, before I enter upon the various Faces which Folly cover'd with Artifice puts on to impofe upon the Unthinking, produce a great Authority for afferting, that nothing but Truth and Ingenuity has any lafting good Effect, even upon a Man's Fortune and Interest.

TRUTH and Reality have all the Advantages of Appearance, and many more. If the Shew of any thing be good for any thing, I am fure Sincerity is better: For why does any Man diffemble, or feem to be that which ⚫ he is not, but because he thinks it good to have fuch a Quality as he pretends to? for to counterfeit and diffemble, is to put on the Appearance of fome real Excellency. Now the best way in the World for a Man to feem to "be any thing, is really to be what he would feem to be. Befides that it is many times as troublefom to make good the Pretence of a good Quality, as to have it; and if a Man have it not, it is ten to one but he is discover'd to want it, and then all his Pains and Labour to feem to have it is loft. There is fomething unnatural in Painting, which a skilful Eye will eafily discern from native Beauty and. Complexion..

IT is hard to perfonate and act a Part long; for where Truth is not at the bottom, Nature will always ⚫be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray ⚫ her felf one time or other. Therefore if any Man think ⚫it convenient to feem good, let him be fo indeed, and ⚫ then his Goodness will appear to every body's Satisfa• &tion; fo that upon all accounts Sincerity is true Wisdom. Particularly as to the Affairs of this World, Integrity bath many Advantages over all the fine and artificial ways of Diffimulation and Deceit; it is much the plainer < and easier, much the fafer and more fecure way of dealing in the World; it has lefs of Trouble and Difficulty. of Entanglement and Perplexity, of Danger and Hazard in