where, complaining of this her dreadful iffue, fhe adds, Before mine eyes in oppofition fits "Grim Death, my fon and foe; who fets them on, "And me his parent would full foon devour "For want of other prey, but that he knows "His end with mine involv'd " I need not mention to the reader the beautiful circumstance in the laft part of this quotation. He will likewife obferve how naturally the three perfons, concerned in this allegory, are tempted, by one common interest, to enter into a confederacy together; and how properly Sin is made the portrefs of Hell, and the only Being that can open the gates to that world of tortures. The defcriptive part of this allegory is likewife very strong, and full of fublime ideas. The figure of Death, the regal crown upon his head, the menace of Satan, his advancing to the combat, the outcry at his birth, are circumftances too noble to be paffed over in filence, and extremely fuitable to this King of Terrours. I need not mention the juftnefs of thought, which is obferved in the generation of thefe feveral fymbolical perfons; that Sin was produced upon the firft revolt of Satan, that Death appeared foon after he was caft into Hell, and that the terrours of confcience were conceived at the gate of this place of torments. The defcription of the gates is very poetical, as the opening of them is full of Milton's fpirit. the portress of Hell,] See the Note on B. ii. 746. TODD. In Satan's voyage through the Chaos there are feveral imaginary perfons defcribed, as refiding in that immenfe wafte of matter. This may perhaps be conformable to the taste of thofe criticks, who are pleased with nothing in a poet which has not life and manners afcribed to it; but, for my own part, I am pleafed moft with thofe paffages in this description which carry in them a greater measure of probability, and are fuch as might poffibly have happened. Of this kind is his firft mounting in the fmoke that rifes from the infernal pit; his falling into a cloud of nitre, and the like combustible materials, that by their explofion still hurried him forward in his voyage; his fpringing upward like a pyramid of fire; with his laborious feveral imaginary perfons &e.] Dr. Newton has obferved that Addison feems to difapprove of thefe fictitious beings, thinking them perhaps, like Sin and Death, improper for an epick poem: But he contends that Milton may be allowed to place such imaginary perfons in the regions of Chaos, as Virgil defcribes fimilar beings within the confines of Hell, En. vi. 273-281; a paffage of acknowledged beauty: And it is impoffible, he adds, to be pleased with Virgil, and to be difpleafed with Milton. In further juftification of Milton, doctor Newton alfo refers to the introduction of fimilar fhadowy beings in Seneca, Herc. Fur. 686, in Statius, Theb. vii. 47, in Claudian, In Rufin. i. 30, and in Spenfer, Faer. Qu. ii. vii. 21, &c. To thefe inftances might be added the beautiful perfonifications of Sackville in the Mirrour for Magiftrates. See Note on Par. Loft, B. xi. 489. In Mafenius's infernal council, Death, Difeafes, Cares, Labour, Grief, Poverty, and Hunger, are perfons. Sarcotis, B. i. But Milton has introduced, with much fublimity, long before this author, many fhadowy beings, in his poem In Quintum Novembris. TOUD. paffage through that confusion of elements, which the poet calls "The womb of Nature, and perhaps her grave." t The glimmering light which shot into the Chaos from the utmoft verge of the creation, and the diftant. difcovery of the earth that hung clofe by the moon, are wonderfully beautiful and poetical. Horace advises a poet to confider thoroughly the nature and force of his genius. Milton feems to have known perfectly well, wherein his ftrength lay, and has therefore chofen a fubject entirely conformable to thofe talents, of which he was mafter. As his genius was wonderfully turned to the fublime, his fubject is the nobleft that could have entered into the thoughts of man. Every thing that is truly great, and aftonishing, has a place in it. The whole fyftem of the intellectual world; the Chaos, and the Creation; Heaven, Earth, and Hell; enter into the conftitution of his Poem. Having in the firft and fecond books represented the infernal world with all its horrours; the thread of his fable naturally leads him into the oppofite regions of blifs and glory. "If Milton's majefty forfakes him any where, it is in those parts of his Poem, where the Divine of the earth &c.] This is a mistake, into which Dr. Bentley alfo fell; and is corrected in the Note on v. 1052. TODD. * If Milton's majefty forsakes him any where, &c.] It has been often obferved, that Milton's chief deficiency is in the THIRD BOOK. "The attempt to describe God Almighty himself, and to recount dialogues between the Father and the Son," fays Dr. 4 Perfons are introduced as fpeakers. One may, I think, obferve, that the author proceeds with a kind of fear and trembling, whilft he defcribes the fentiments of the Almighty. He dares not give his imagination its full play, but chooses to confine himself to fuch thoughts as are drawn from the books of the most orthodox divines, and to fuch expreffions as may be met with in Scripture. The beauties, therefore, which we are to look for in thefe fpeeches, are not of a poetical nature; nor fo proper to fill the mind with sentiments of grandeur, as with thoughts of devotion. The paffions, which they are defigned to raife, are a divine love and religious fear. The particular beauty of the fpeeches in the THIRD BOOK, confifts in that fhortnefs and perfpicuity of ftyle, in which the poet has couched the greateft myfteries of Chriftianity, and drawn together, in a regular fcheme, the whole difpenfation of Providence with respect to Man. He has reprefented all the abftrufe doctrines of predeftination, free-will, and grace; as alfo the great points of incarnation and redemption, (which naturally grow up in a Poem that treats of the Fall of Man,) with great energy of expreffion, and in a clearer and ftronger light than I have ever met with in any other writer. As thefe points are dry in themselves to the generality of readers, Blair," was too bold and arduous; and is that wherein the poet, as was to have been expected, has been moft unsuccessful.” -Milton indeed was confcious that he had foared toɔ high; and therefore, with exemplary Lumility, acknowledges, B. vii, 23. "Standing on cart, not rapt above the pole, the concise and clear manner, in which he has treated them, is very much to be admired; as is likewife that particular art which he has made ufe of in the interfperfing of all thofe graces of poetry, which the fubject was capable of receiving. The furvey of the whole creation, and of every thing that is tranfacted in it, is a profpect worthy of Omnifcience; and as much above that, in which Virgil has drawn his Jupiter, as the Chriftian idea of the Supreme Being is more rational and fublime than that of the Heathens. The particular objects, on which he is defcribed to have caft his eye, are reprefented in the moft beautiful and lively manner. Satan's approach to the confines of the creation is finely imaged in the beginning of the fpeech which immediately follows. The effects of this fpeech in the bleffed Spirits, and in the Divine Perfon to whom it was addreffed, cannot but fill the mind of the reader with a fecret pleafure and complacency. I need not point out the beauty of that circumftance, wherein the whole hoft of Angels are reprefented as standing mute; nor fhow how proper the occafion was to produce fuch a filence in Heaven. The clofe of this divine colloquy, and the hymn of angels which follows upon it, are wonderfully beautiful and poetical. Satan's walk upon the outside of the univerfe, which at a distance appeared to him of a globular form, but, upon his nearer approach, looked like. an unbounded plain, is natural and noble: as his roaming upon the frontiers of the creation be |