from the Triumph of their Guilt through Remorse, Shame, Defpair, Contrition, Prayer, and Hope, to a perfect and complete Repentance. At the End of the Tenth Book they are reprefented as proftrating themfelves upon the Ground, and watering the Earth with their Tears: To which the Poet joins this beautiful Circumstance, that they offered up their penitential Prayers on the very Place where their Judge appeared to them when he pronounced their Sentence.

-They forthwith to the Place

Repairing where he judg'd them, troflrate fell
Before him reverent, and both confefs'd

Humbly their Faults, and Pardon begg'd, with Tears
Watering the Gound-

THERE is a Beauty of the fame Kind in a Tragedy of Sophocles, where Oedipus, after having put out his own Eyes, instead of breaking his Neck from the Palace Battlements (which furnishes fo elegant an Entertainment for our English Audience) defires that he may be conducted to Mount Citheron, in order to end his Life in that very Place where he was expofed in his Infancy, and where he should then have died, had the Will of his Parents been executed.

AS the Author never fails to give a poetical Turn to his Sentiments, he defcribes in the Beginning of this Book the Acceptance which thefe their Prayers met with, in a fhort Allegory, formed upon that beautiful Paffage in Holy Writ: "And another Angel came and stood at "the Altar, having a golden Cenfer; and there was given unto him much Incenfe, that he fhould offer it "with the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar, "which was before the Throne: And the Smoke of "the Incenfe which came with the Prayers of the "Saints, afcended up before God.”

To Heav'n their Pray'rs

Flew up, nor miss'd the Way, by envious Winds
Blown vagabond or fruftrate: in they pass'd
Dimenfioniefs through heav'nly Doors, then clad
With Incenfe, where the golden Altar, fum'd
By their great Interceffor, came in Sight
Before the Father's Throne

WE have the fame Thought expreffed a fecond Time in the Interceffion of the Meffiah, which is conceived in very emphatical Sentiments and Expreffions.

AMONG the poetical Parts of Scripture, which Milton has fo finely wrought into this Part of his Narration, I must not omit that wherein Ezekiel, fpeaking of the Angels who appeared to him in a Vifion, adds, that every one had four Faces," and that "their whole "Bodies, and their Backs, and their Hands, and their "Wings, were full of Eyes round about."

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The Cohort bright

Of watchful Cherubim, four Faces each
Had, like a double Janus, all their Shape
Spangled with Eyes-

THE affembling of all the Angels of Heaven to hear the folemn Decree paffed upon Man, is reprefented in very lively Ideas. The Almighty is here defcribed as remembering Mercy in the midft of Judgment, and commanding Michael to deliver his Meffage in the mildest Terms, left the Spirit of Man, which was already broken with the Senfe of his Guilt and Misery, fhould fail before him.

-Yet left they faint

At the fad Sentence rigorously urg'd,

For I behold them foftned, and with Tears
Bewailing their Excess, all Terror hide.

THE

THE Conference of Adam and Eve is full of moving Sentiments. Upon their going abroad after the melancholy Night which they had paffed together, they difcover the Lion and the Eagle purfuing each of them their Prey towards the Eaftern Gates of Paradife. There is a double Beauty in this Incident, not only as it prefents great and juft Omens, which are always agreeable in Poetry, but as it expreffes that Enmity which was now produced in the Animal Creation. The Poet, to fhew the like Changes in Nature, as well as to grace his Fable with a noble Prodigy, reprefents the Sun in an Eclipfe. This particular Incident has likewife a fine Effect upon the Imagination of the Reader in regard to what follows; for at the fame Time that the Sun is under an Eclipfe, a bright Cloud defcends in the Western Quarter of the Heavens, filled with an Hoft of Angels, and more luminous than the Sun itself. The whole Theatre of Nature is darkned, that this glorious Machine may appear in all its Luftre and Magnificence.

-Why in the Eaft

Darknefs ere Day's Mid-courfe? and Morning-light
More orient in that Western Cloud that draws
O'er the blue Firmament a radiant White,
And flow defcends with something heav'nly fraught ?.
He err'd not; for by this the heav'nly Bands
Down from a Sky of Fafper lighted now

In Paradife, and on a Hill made halt ;
A glorious Apparition-

I need not obferve how properly this Author, who always fuits his Parts to the Actors whom he introduces, › has employed Michael in the Expulfion of our First Parents from Paradife. The Archangel on this Occafion neither appears in his proper Shape, nor in that fami- liar Manner with which Raphael the fociable Spirit entertained the Father of Mankind before the Fall. His

Perfon, his Port, and Behaviour, are fuitable to a Spirit of the highest Rank, and exquifitely defcribed in the following Paffage :

-Th' Archangel foon drew nigh,

Not in his hape celestial; but as Mar
Clad to meet Man: Over his lucid Arms
A military Veft of Purple flor'd,

Livelier than Melibœan, or the Grain
Of Sarra, worn by Kings and Heroes old,
In Time of Truce: Iris had dipt the Wooff:
His ftarry Helm, unbuckled, fhew'd him prime
In Manh.od where Youth ended; by his Side,
As in a gliftring Zodiac, hung the Sword,
Satan's dire Dread, and in his Hand the Spear.
Adam bow'd low; he kingly from his State
Inclin'd not, but his coming thus declar'd.

EVE's Complaint, upon hearing that she was to be removed from the Garden of Paradife, is wonderfully beautiful: The Sentiments are not only proper to the Subject, but have fomething in them particularly foft and womanish.

Muft I then leave thee, Paradife? thus leave
Thee, native Soil, thefe happy Walks and Shades,
Fit Haunt of Gods? Where I had Hope to Spend
Quiet, though fad, the Refpite of that Day
That must be mortal to us both. O Flow'rs
That never will in other Climate grow,
My early Vifitation, and my last

At Even, which I bred up with tender Hand
From the first op'ning Bud, and gave you Names,
Who now fhall rear you to the Sun, or rank
Your Tribes, and water from th' ambrofial Fount ?

Thee

Thee, laftly, nuptial Bower, by me adorn'd

With what to Sight or Smell was fweet: From thes
How fhall I part, and whither wander down
Into a lower World, to this obfcure

And wild? How shall we breathe in other Air
Lefs pure, accuftom'd to immortal Fruits?

ADAM's Speech abounds with Thoughts which are equally moving, but of a more mafculine and elevated Turn. Nothing can be conceived more fublime and poetical than the following Paffage in it:

This most afflicts me, that departing hence
As from his Face I fhall be bid, depriv'd
His bleffed Count'nance; here I could frequent,
With Worship, Place by Place where he vouchsaf'd
Prefence divine, and to my Sons relate,

On this Mount he appear'd, under this Tree
Stood vifible, among thefe Pines his Voice

I heard, here with him at this Fountain talk'd:
So many grateful Altars I would rear
Of graffy Turf, and pile up ev'ry Stone
Of Lufre from the Brock, in Memory
Or Monument to Ages, and thereon

Offer fweet Smelling Gums and Fruits and Flowers.
In yonder nether World where fhall I feek
His bright Appearances, or Foorfleps trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet recall'd
To Life prolong'd and promis'd Race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost Skirts
Of Glory, and far off his Steps aaore.

THE Angel afterwards leads dam to the highest Mount of Paradife, and lays before him a whole Hemisphere, as a proper Stage for thofe Vifions which were to be reprefented on it. I have before obferved

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