Err not) another World, the happy Seat

Of fome new Race call'd MAN, about this Time
To be created like to us, though less

In Power and Excellence, but favour'd more
Of him who rules above; fo was his Will
Pronounc'd among the Gods, and by an Oath,
That fbook Heav'n's whole Circumference, confirm'd.

THE Reader may obferve how juft it was, not to omit in the first Book the Project upon which the whole Poem turns: As alfo that the Prince of the fallen Angels was the only proper Person to give it Birth, and that the next to him in Dignity was the fitteft to fecond and fupport it.

THERE is befides, I think, fomething wonderfully beautiful, and very apt to affect the Reader's Imagination, in this antient Prophefy or Report in Heaven, concerning the Creation of Man. Nothing could fhew more the Dignity of the Species, than this Tradition which ran of them before their Existence. They are reprefented to have been the Talk of Heaven, before they were created. Virgil, in compliment to the Romon Commonwealth, makes the Heroes of it appear in their State of Pre-existence; but Milton does a far greater Honour to Mankind in general, as he gives us a Glimpse of them even before they are in Being.

THE rifing of this great Affembly is described in a very fublime and poetical Manner.

Their rifing all at once was as the Sound

Of Thunder heard remote

THE Diverfions of the fallen Angels, with the particular Account of their Place of Habitation, are de, fcribed with great Pregnancy of Thought, and Copioufnefs of Invention. The Diverfions are every way fuitable to Beings who had nothing left them but Strength, and Knowledge mifapplied. Such are their Conten

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tions

tions at the Race, and in Feats of Arms, with their Entertainment in the following Lines.

Others, with waft Typhæan Rage more fell,
Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air
In Whirlwind; Hel fcarce holds the wild Uproar.

THEIR Mufic is employed in celebrating their own crimin1 Exploits, and their Difcourfe in founding the unfathomable Depths of Fate, Free will, and Foreknowledge.

THE feveral Circumftances in the Defcription of Hell are finely imagined; as the four Rivers which difgorge themselves into the Sea of Fire, the Extremes of Cold and Heat, and the River of Oblivion.

The

monftrous Animals produced in that infernal World are reprefented by a fingle Line, which gives us a more horrid Idea of them, than a much longer Description would have done.

-Nature breeds,

Perverfe, all monftrous, all prodigious Things,
Abominable, inutterable, and worse

Than Fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire.

THIS Episode of the fallen Spirits and their Place of Habitation, comes in very happily to unbend the Mind of the Reader from its Attention to the Debate. An ordinary Poet would indeed have spun out fo many Circumstances to a great Length, and by that Means have weakned, inftead of illuftrated, the principal Fable.

THE Flight of Satan to the Gates of Hell is finely imaged.

I have already declared my Opinion of the Allegory concerning Sin and Death, which is however a very finished Piece in its Kind, when it is not confidered as a

Part

Part of an Epic Poem. The Genealogy of the feveral Perfons is contrived with great Delicacy. Sin is the Daughter of Satan, and Death the Offspring of Sin. The incestuous Mixture between Sin and Death produces thofe Monsters and Hell-hounds which from Time to Time enter into their Mother, and tear the Bowels of her who gave them Birth. These are the Terrors of an evil Confcience, and the proper Fruits of Sin, which naturally rife from the Apprehenfions of Death. This laft beautiful Moral is, I think, clearly intimated in the Speech of Sin, where complaining of this her dreadful Iffue, fhe adds,

Before mine Eyes in Oppofition fits,

Grim Death thy Son 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 Circumftance 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 Intereft 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, his Menace of Satan, his advancing to the Combat, the Outcry at his Birth, are Circumftances too noble to be palt over in Silence, and extremely fuitable to this King of Terrors. I need not mention the Juftnefs of Thought which is obferved in the Generation of thefe feveral Symbolical Perfons, that Sin was produced upon the firft Revolt of Satan, that Death appeared foon after he was caft into Hell, and that the Terrors of Con

fcience 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 Spirit.

-On a fudden open fly

With impetuous Recoil and jarring Sound
Th' infernal Doors, and on their Hinges grate
Harf Thunder, that the lowest Bottom book
Of Erebus. She open'd, but to fut

Excell'd her Power; the Gates wide open flood,
That with extended Wings a banner'd Hoft
Under Spread Enfigns marching might pass through
With Horfe and Chariots rank'd in loose Array ;
So ride they food, and like a Furnace Mouth
Caft forth redounding Smoke and ruddy Flame.

IN Satan's Voyage through the Chaos there are feveral imaginary Perfons defcribed, as refiding in that immenfe Waste of Matter. This may perhaps be conformable to the tafte of thofe Critics who are pleased with nothing in a Poet which has not Life and Manners afcribed to it; but for my own Part, I am pleased moft with thofe Paffages in this Defcription which carry in them a greater Measure of Probability, and are fuch as might poflibly have happened. Of this Kind is his firft mounting in the Smoke that rifes from the infernal Pit, his falling into a Cloud of Nitre, and the like combuftible Materials, that by their Explosion ftill hurried him forward in his Voyage; his fpringing upward like a Pyramid of Fire, with his laborious Paffage through that Confufion of Element, which the Poet calls

The Womb of Nature, and perhaps her Grave.

THE Glimmering Light which shot into the Chaos from the utmost Verge of the Creation, with the diftant Difcovery of the Earth that hung clofe by the Moon, are wonderfully beautiful and poetical.

SPEC

H

SPECTATOR, N° 315.

Nec deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus
Inciderit-

Never prefume to make a God appear,

HOR,

But for a Bufinefs worthy of a God. ROSCOMMON.

ORACE advifes a Poet to confider thoroughly the Nature and Force of his Genius. Milten seems to have known perfectly well wherein his Strength lay, and has therefore chofe a Subject entirely conformable to thofe Talents of which he was Mafter. As his Génius was wonderfully turned to the Sublime, his Subject is the nobleft that could have entred into the Thoughts of Man. Every thing that is truly great and aftonishing, has a Place in it. The whole Syftem of the intellectual World; the Chaos, and the Creation; Heaven, Earth, and Hell; enter into the Conftitution of his Poem.

HAVING in the First and Second Book reprefented the Infernal World with all its Horrors, 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 Perfons are introduced as Speakers. One may, I think, obferve that the Author proceeds with a kind of Fear and Trembling, whilft he defcribes the Sentiments of the Almighty. He dares not give his Imagination its full Play, but chufes to confine himself to fuch Thoughts as are drawn from the Books of the moft Orthodox Divines, and to fuch Expreffions as may be met with in Scripture. The Beauties, therefore, which we are D 4.

to