"Pallas untouched, and curfe the day on which he "dreffed himself in thefe fpoils." As the great event of the Æneid, and the death of Turnus, whom Æneas flew because he faw him adorned with the fpoils of Pallas, turns upon this incident, Virgil went out of his way to make this reflexion upon it, without which so small a circumftance might poffibly have flipt out of his reader's memory. Lucan, who was an injudicious poet, lets drop his ftory very frequently for the fake of his unneceffary digreffions, or his Diverticula, as Scaliger calls them. If he gives us an account of the prodigies which preceded the civil war, he declaims upon the occafion, and fhews how much happier it would be for man, if he did not feel his evil fortune before it comes to pafs; and fuffer not only by its real weight, but by the apprehenfion of it. Milton's complaint for his blindness, his panegyric on marriage, his reflexions on Adam and Eve's going naked, of the angels eating, and feveral other paffages in his poem, are liable to the fame exception, though I must confefs there is fo great a beauty in thefe very digreffions, that I would not wifh them out of his poem. I have, in a former paper, fpoken of the characters of Milton's Paradife Loft, and declared my opinion, as to the allegorical perfons who are introduced in it. If we look into the fentiments, I think they are fometimes defective under the following heads; firit, as there are several of them too much pointed, and fome that degenerate even into puns. Of this laft kind I am afraid is that in the first book, where, fpeaking of the pygmies, he calls them, Another blemish that appears in fome of his thoughts, is his frequent allufion to heathen fables, which are not certainly of a piece with the divine fubject of which he treats. I do not find fault with thefe allufions, where the poet himself reprefents them as fabulous, as he does in fome places, but where he mentions them as truths and matters of fact. The limits of my paper will not give me leave to be particular in inftances of this kind; the reader will easily remark them in his perufal of the poem. A third A third fault in his fentiments, is an unneceffary oftentation of learning, which likewife occurs very frequently. It is certain that both Homer and Virgil were mafters of all the learning of their times, but it fhews itself in their works after an indirect and concealed manner. Milton feems ambitious of letting us know, by his excurfions on free will and predeftination, and his many glances upon hiftory, aftronomy, geography, and the like, as well as by the terms and phrafes he fometimes makes ufe of, that he, was acquainted with the whole circle of arts and fciences. : If in the laft place we confider the language of this great poet, we must allow what I have hinted at in a former paper, that it is often too much laboured, and fometimes obfcured by old words, tranfpofitions, and foreign idioms.. Seneca's objection to the ftile of a great author, Riget ejus oratio, nibil in ea placidum, nihil lene, is what many critics make to Milton as I cannot wholly refute it, fo I have already apologized for it in another paper to which I may further add, that Milton's fentiments and ideas were fo wonderfully fublime, that it would have been impoffible for him to have reprefented them in their full ftrength and beauty, without having recourfe to thefeforeign affiftances. Our language funk under him, and was unequal to that greatnefs of foul, which furnished him with fuch glorious conceptions. A fecond fault in his language is that he often affects a kind of jingle in his words, as in the following paffages, and many others: And brought into the World a World of woe. Befeeching or befieging This tempted our attempt At one flight bound high overleapt all bound. I know there are figures for this kind of fpeech, that fome of the greatest ancients have been guilty of it, and that Ariftotle himself has given it a place in his rhetoric among the beauties of that art. But as it is in itself poor and trifling, it is I think at prefent univerfally exploded by all the mafters of polite writing. The The laft fault which I fhall take notice of in Milton's file, is the frequent ufe of what the learned call Technical Words, or terms of art. It is one of the greatest beauties of poetry, to make hard things intelligible, and to deliver what is abftrufe of itself in fuch eafy language as may be understood by ordinary readers: befides, that the knowledge of a poet fhould rather feem born with him, or infpired, than drawn from books and fyftems. I have often wondered how Mr. Dryden could tranflate a paffage out of Virgil after the following manner. "Tack to the larboard, and ftand off to fea, Milton makes ufe of larboard in the fame manner. When he is upon building he mentions "Doric pillars, pilafters, cornice, freeze, architrave." When he talks of heavenly bodies, you meet with "ecliptic, and eccentric, the trepidation, ftars dropping from the zenith, rays culminating from the equator:" to which might be added many inftances of the like kind in feveral other arts and sciences. I fhall in my next papers give an account of the many particular beauties in Milton, which would have been too long to infert under thofe general heads I have already treated of, and with which I intend to conclude this piece of criticism. Monday, • Mr. Spectator, I London, Feb. 9, 1711-12. gave once Am a virgin, and in no cafe defpicable; but yet fuch as I am I muft remain, or else become, it is to ⚫ be feared, lefs happy; for I find not the leaf good effect from the juft correction you fome time fince that too free, that loofer part of our fex which fpoils the men; the fame connivance at the vices, the fame easy • admittance of addresses, the same vitiated relish of the converfation of the greatest of rakes, or, in a more fashionable way of expreffing one's felf, of fuch as have ⚫feen the world moft, ftill abounds, increases, multiplies. The humble petition therefore of many of the most ftrictly virtuous, and of myself, is, that more exert your authority, and that according to your you will late promife, your full, your impartial authority, on this fillier branch of our kind: for why fhould they be the uncontroulable miftreffes of our fate? Why fhould they with impunity indulge the males in licentioufnefs whilst fingle, and we have the dismal hazard and plague of reforming them when married? Strike home, Sir, then, and fpare not, or all our maiden hopes, our gilded hopes of nuptial felicity are fruftrated, are vanished, and you yourself, as well as Mr. Courtly, will, by fmoothing over immodeft practices with the glofs of foft and ⚫ harmless names, for ever forfeit our esteem. Nor think that I am herein more fevere than need be: if I have not reafon more than enough, do you and the world judge from this enfuing account, which, I think, will prove the evil to be univerfal. You must know then, that fince your reprehenfion of this female degeneracy came out, I have had a tender of refpects refpects from no less than five perfons, of tolerable figure too as times go: but the misfortune is, that four of the five are profeffed followers of the mode. They would face me down, that all women of good fenfe ever and ever will be, latitudinarians in wedlock; and always did, and will give and take what they profanely term conjugal liberty of confcience. were, The two firft of them, a captain and a merchant, to ftrengthen their argument, pretend to repeat after a couple of ladies of quality and wit, that Venus was always kind to Mars; and what foul, that has the least fpark of generofity, can deny a man of bravery any thing and how pitiful a trader that, whom no woman but his own wife will have correfpondence and dealings with? Thus thefe; whilft the third, the country 'fquire, confeffed, that indeed he was surprised into good-breeding, and entered into the knowledge of the world unawares; that dining the other day at a gentleman's house, the perfon who entertained was obliged to leave him with his wife and nieces; where they spoke with fo much contempt of an abfent gentleman for being fo flow at a hint, that he refolved never to be drowfy, unmannerly, or ftupid for the future at a friend's houfe; and on a hunting morning, not to purfue the game either with the husband abroad, or with the wife at home. The next that came was a tradesman, no less full of the age than the former; for he had the gallantry to tell me, that at a late junket which he was invited to, the motion being made, and the question being put, it was by maid, wife and widow refolved, nemine contradicente, that a young fprightly journeyman is abfolutely neceffary in their way of bufinefs: to which they had the affent and concurrence of their husbands prefent. I dropped him a courtefy, and gave him to underftand that was his audience of leave. I am reckoned pretty, and have had very many advances befides thefe; but have been very averse to hear · any of them, from my observation on these above-mentioned, until I hoped fome good from the character of my prefent admirer, a clergyman. But I find even amongst them there are indirect practices in relation to 'love, |