Meffiah their Friend, and the Almighty their Protector. In fhort, every thing that is great in the whole Circle of Being, whether within the Verge of Nature, or out of it, has a proper Part affigned it in this admirable Poem.

IN Poetry, as in Architecture, not only the Whole, but the principal Members, and every Part of them, fhould be Great. I will not prefume to fay, that the Book of Games in the Eneid, or that in the Iliad, are not of this Nature, nor to reprehend Virgil's Simile of the Top, and many other of the fame Kind in the Iliad, as liable to any Cenfure in this Particular; but I think We may fay, without derogating from thofe wonderful Performances, that there is an Indifputable and Unqueftioned Magnificence in every Part of Paradife Loft, and indeed a much greater than could have been formed upon any Pagan Syftem.

BUT Ariftotle, by the Greatnefs of the Action, does not only mean that it fhould be great in its Nature, but alfo in its Duration; or in other Words, That it should have a due Length in it, as well as what we properly call Greatness. The juft Measure of this Kind of Magnitude, he explains by the following Similitude. An Animal, no bigger than a Mite, cannot appear perfect to the Eye, becaufe the Sight takes it in at once, and has only a confufed Idea of the Whole, and not a diftinct Idea of all its Parts: If on the contrary you should fuppofe an Animal of ten thoufand Furlongs in Length, the Eye would be fo filled with a fingle Part of it, that it could not give the Mind an Idea of the Whole. What thefe Animals are to the Eye, a very fhort, or a very long Action would be to the Memory. The firit would be, as it were, loft and swallowed up by it, and the other difficult to be contained in it. Homer and Virgi, have fhewn their principal Art in this Particular; the Action of the Iliad, and that of the Eneid, were in themfelves exceeding fhort, but are fo beautifully extended B 4

and

and diverfified by the Invention of Epifodes, and the Machinery of Gods, with the like poetical Ornaments, that they make up an agreeable Story fufficient to employ the Memory without overcharging it. Milton's Action is enriched with fuch a Variety of Circumfances, that I have taken as much Pleasure in reading the Contents of his Books, as in the best invented Story I ever met with. It is poffible, that the Traditions, on which the Iliad and Eneid were built, had more Circumftances in them than the History of the Fall of Man, as it is related in Scripture. Befides, it was eafier for Homer and Virgil to dafh the Truth with Fiction, as they were in no Danger of offending the Religion of their Country by it.

But

as for Milton, he had not only a very few Circumftances upon which to raise his Poem, but was also obliged to proceed with the greatest Caution in every Thing that he added out of his own Invention. And, indeed, notwithstanding all the Restraints he was under, he has filled his Story with fo many furprising Incidents, which bear fo close an Analogy with what is delivered in Holy Writ, that it is capable of pleafing the most delicate Reader, without giving Offence to the moft fcrupulous.

THE modern Critics have collected from several Hints in the Iliad and neid the Space of Time, which is taken up by the Action of each of those Poems; but as a great Part of Milton's Story was tranfacted in Regions that lie out of the Reach of the Sun, and the Sphere of Day, it is impoffible to gratify the Reader with fuch a Calculation, which indeed would be more curious than instructive; none of the Critics, either Ancient or Modern, having laid down Rules to circumfcribe the Action of an Epic Poem with any Determined Number of Years, Days, or Hours.

But of this more particularly hereafter.

Vid. Spe&t. 308.

SPEC

SPECTATOR, N° 273.

-Notandi funt tibi Mores.

Note well the Manners.

H

Hor.

AVING examined the Action of Paradife Loft, let us in the next Place confider the Actors. This is Ariftotle's Method of confidering; first the Fable, and fecondly the Manners, or, as we generally call them in English, the Fable and the Characters.

HOMER has excelled all the Heroic Poets that ever wrote, in the Multitude and Variety of his Characters. Every God that is admitted into his Poem, acts a Part which would have been fuitable to no other Deity. His Princes are as much diftinguished by their Manners as by their Dominions; and even thofe among them, whofe Characters feem wholly made up of Courage, differ from one another as to the particular Kinds of Courage in which they excel. In short, there is fcarce a Speech or Action in the Iliad, which the Reader may not afcribe to the Perfon that fpeaks or acts, without feeing his Name at the Head of it.

HOMER does not only outfhine all other Poets in the Variety, but alfo in the Novelty of his Characters. He has introduced among his Grecian Princes a Perfon, who had lived in three Ages of Men, and converfed with Thefeus, Hercules, Polyphemus, and the firft Race of Heroes. His principal Actor is the Son of a Goddess, not to mention the Offspring of other Deities, who have likewise a Place in his Poem, and the venerable Trojan Prince who was the Father of fo many Kings and Heroes.

B 5

There is in

thefe

thefe feveral Characters of Homer, a certain Dignity as well as Novelty, which adapts them in a more peculiar Manner to the Nature of an heroic Poem. Tho' at the fame Time, to give them the greater Variety, he has defcribed a Vulcan, that is, a Buffoon, among his Gods, and a Therfites among his Mortals.

VIRGIL falls infinitely fhort of Homer in the Characters of his Poem, both as to their Variety and Novelty. Eneas is indeed a perfect Character, but as for Achates, tho' he is filed the Heroe's Friend, he does nothing in the whole Poem, which may deferve that Title. Gyas, Mneftheus, Sergeftus, and Cloanthus, are all of them Men of the fame Stamp and Character.

fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum.

Virg.

THERE are indeed feveral very natural Incidents in the Part of Afcanius; as that of Dido cannot be fufficiently admired. I do not fee any Thing new or particular in Turnus. Pallas and Evander are remote Copies of Hector and Priam, as Laufus and Mezentius are almoft Parallels to Pallas and Evander. The Characters of Nifus and Euryalus are beautiful, but common. We must not forget the Parts of Sinon, Camilla, and fome few others, which are fine Improvements on the Greek Poet. In fhort, there is neither that Variety nor Novelty in the Perfons of the Eneid, which we meet with in those of the Iliad.

IF we look into the Characters of Milton, we fhall find that he has introduced all the Variety his Fable was capable of receiving. The whole Species. of Mankind was in two Perfons at the Time to which the Subject of his Poem is confined. We have, however, four diftinct Characters in thefe, two Perfons. We fee Man and Woman in the higheft Innocence and Perfection, and in the moft abject State of Guilt and Infirmity. The two laft Characters are, indeed,. very common and obvious, but the two first are not only more magnificent, but more new than any Cha

racters

racters either in Virgil or Homer, or indeed in the whole Circle of Nature.

MILTON was fo fenfible of this Defect in the Subject of his Poem, and of the few Characters it would afford him, that he has brought into it two Actors of a fhadowy and fictitious Nature, in the Per fons of Sin and Death, by which Means he has wrought into the Body of his Fable a very beauti ful and well invented Allegory. But

notwithflanding the Finencfs of this Vid. Spect. Allegory may atone for it in fome Meafure; I cannot think that Perfons

279.

of fuch a chimerical Exiftence are proper Actors in an Epic Poem; because there is not that Measure of Probability annexed to them, which is requifite in Writings of this Kind, as I fhall fhew more at largehereafter.

VIRGIL has, indeed, admitted Fame as an Actrefs in the Eneid, but the Part the acts is very fhort, and none of the most admired Circumftances in that Divine Work. We find in Mock Heroic Poems, particularly in the Difpenfary and the Lutrin, feveral allegorical Perfons of this Nature, which are very beautiful in thofe Compofitions, and may, perhaps, be ufed as an Argument, that the Authors of them were of Opinion, fuch Characters might have a Place in an Epic Work. For my own Part, I fhould be glad the Reader would think fo, for the fake of the Poem I am now examining, and muft further add, that if fuch empty unfubftantial Beings may be ever made use of on this Occafion, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in more proper Actions, than thofe of which I am now speaking.

ANOTHER principal Actor in this Poem is the great Enemy of Mankind. The Part of Ulyffes in Homer's Odyjey is very much admired by Ariftotle,, as perplexing that Fable with very agreeable Plots ad Intricacies, not only by the many Adventures in his Voyage, and the Subtilty of his Behaviour,, but by

B 6

the