To us is adverfe.

Descent and fall

Who but felt of late,

When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear
Insulting, and purfu'd us through the deep,
With what confufion and laborious flight
We funk thus low? Th' afcent is easy then.

In another place, he defcribes the gentle glide of ebbing waters in a line remarkably rough and halting;

Tripping ebb; that stole

With foft foot tow'rds the deep who now had stopp'd
His fluices.

It is not indeed to be expected, that the found fhould always affift the meaning, but it ought never to counteract it; and therefore Milton has here certainly committed a fault like that of the player, who looked on the earth when he implored the heavens, and to the heavens when he addreffed the earth.

Those who are determined to find in Milton an affemblage of all the excellencies which have ennobled all other poets, will perhaps be offended that I dọ not celebrate his verfification in higher terms; for there are readers who discover that in this paffage,

So stretch'd out huge in length the arch fiend lay, a long form is described in a long line; but the truth is, that length of body is only mentioned in a flow line, to which it has only the resemblance of time to space, of an hour to a maypole.

The fame turn of ingenuity might perform wonders upon the defcription of the ark:

Then from the mountains hewing timber tall,
Began to build a veffel of huge bulk;

Meafur'd by cubit, length, and breadth, and height.

In these lines the poet apparently defigns to fix the attention upon bulk; but this is effected by the enumeration, not by the measure; for what analogy can there be between modulations of found, and corporeal dimenfions?

Milton indeed feems only to have regarded this fpecies of embellishment fo far as not to reject it when it came unfought; which would often happen to a mind fo vigorous, employed upon a fubject fo various and extenfive. He had, indeed, a greater and a nobler work to perform; a fingle fentiment of moral or religious truth, a fingle image of life or nature, would have been cheaply loft for a thousand echoes of the cadence to the fenfe; and he who had undertaken to vindicate the ways of God to man, might have been accused of neglecting his cause, had he lavished much of his attention upon fyllables and founds./

NUMB. 95. TUESDAY, February 12, 1751.

To that bleft harbour, which I left before. FRANCIS.

SIR,

ΤΗ

To the RAMBLER.

HERE are many diseases both of the body and mind, which it is far easier to prevent than to cure, and therefore I hope you will think me employed in an office not ufelefs either to learning or virtue, if I defcribe the fymptoms of an intellectual malady, which, though at firft it feizes only the paffions, will, if not speedily remedied, infect the reafon, and, from blafting the bloffoms of knowledge, proceed in time to canker the root.

I was born in the house of discord. My parents were of unfuitable ages, contrary tempers, and different religions, and therefore employed the fpirit and acutenefs which nature had very liberally beftowed upon both, in hourly difputes, and inceffant

contriv.

contrivances to detect each other in the wrong; fo that from the firft exertions of reafon I was bred a difputant, trained up in all the arts of domeftic fophistry, initiated in a thousand low ftratagems, nimble fhifts, and fly concealments; versed in all the turns of altercation, and acquainted with the whole difcipline of fending and proving.

It was neceffarily my care to preferve the kindness of both the controvertists, and therefore I had very early formed the habit of fufpending my judgment, of hearing arguments with indifference, inclining as occafion required to either fide, and of holding myself undetermined between them till I knew for what opinion I might conveniently declare.

Thus, Sir, I acquired very early the fkill of dif putation; and, as we naturally love the arts in which we believe ourselves to excel, I did not let my abilities lie useless, nor fuffer my dexterity to be loft for want of practice. I engaged in perpetual wrangles with my fchool-fellows, and was never to be convinced or repreffed by any other arguments than blows, by which my antagonists commonly determined the controverfy, as I was, like the Roman orator, much more eminent for eloquence than courage.

At the university I found my predominant ambition completely gratified by the ftudy of logick. I impreffed upon my memory a thoufand axioms, and ten thousand diftinctions, practifed every form of fyllogifm, paffed all my days in the fchools of dif putation, and flept every night with Smiglecius on my pillow.

You

You will not doubt but such a genius was soon raised to eminence by fuch application: I was celefor the most artful opponent

third my

brated in year that the university could boaft, and became the terror and envy of all the candidates for philofophical reputation.

My renown, indeed, was not purchased but at the price of all my time and all my ftudies. I never fpoke but to contradict, nor declaimed but in defence of a pofition univerfally acknowledged to be false, and therefore worthy, in my opinion, to be adorned with all the colours of false representation, and strengthened with all the art of fallacious fubtilty.

My father, who had no other wish than to fee his fon richer than himself, eafily concluded that I should distinguish myself among the profeffors of the law and therefore, when I had taken my first degree, dispatched me to the Temple with a paternal admonition, that I fhould never fuffer myself to feel fhame, for nothing but modesty could retard my fortune.

Vitiated, ignorant, and heady as I was, I had not yet loft my reverence for virtue, and therefore could not receive fuch dictates without horror; but however was pleafed with his determination of my course of life, because he placed me in the way that leads fooneft from the prescribed walks of difcipline and education, to the open fields of liberty and choice.

I was now in the place where every one catches the contagion of vanity, and foon began to distinguifh myself by fophifms and paradoxes. I declared

war