is redundant or puerile in the Latin Poet. We do not here fee the Wolf swimming among the Sheep, nor any of those wanton Imaginations, which Seneca found fault with, as unbecoming the great Cataftrophe of Nature. If our Poet has imitated that Verfe in which Ovid tells us that there was nothing but Sea, and that this Sea had no Shore to it, he has not fet the Thought in fuch a Light as to incur the Cenfure which Criticks have paffed upon it. The latter part of that Verfe in Ovid is idle and fuperfluous, but juft and beautiful in Milton.

Famque mare & tellus nullum difcrimen habebant,
Nil nifi pontus erat, deerant quoque littora fonto.

·Sea cover'd Sea,

Sea without Shore

Ovid.

Milton.

IN Milton the former Part of the Description does not foreftall the latter. How much more great and folemn on this Occafion is that which follows in our English Poet,

And in their Palaces

Where Lux'ry late reign'd, Sea-Monsters whelp'd
And ftabl'd-

than that in Ovid, where we are told that the Sea-Calfs lay in thofe Places where the Goats were used to browze? The Reader may find feveral other parallel Paffages in the Latin and English Defcription of the Deluge, wherein our Poet has vifibly the advantage. The Sky's being overcharged with Clouds, the defcending of the Rains, the rifing of the Seas, and the appearance of the Rainbow, are fuch Defcriptions as every one must take notice of. The Circumftance relating to Paradife is fo finely imagined, and fuitable to the Opinions of many learned Authors, that I cannot forbear giving it a place in this Paper.

Then fhall this Mount

Of Paradife by might of Waves be mov'd
Out of his Place, push'd by the horned Flood.
With all his Verdure spoil'd, and Trees adrift
Down the great River to the op'ning Gulf,

And

And there take root, an Ifland falt and bare,

The haunt of Seals and Orcs and Sea-Mews clang.

THE Tranfition which the Poet makes from the Vifion of the Deluge, to the Concern it occafioned in Adam, is exquifitely graceful, and copied after Virgil, though the firft Thought it introduces is rather in the Spirit of Ovid.

How didft thou grieve then, Adam, to behold
The End of all thy Offspring, End fo fad,
Depopulation! thee another Flood

Of Tears and Sorrow, a Flood thee alfo drown'd,
And funk thee as thy Sons; till gently rear'd
By th Angel, on thy Feet thou foodft at last,
Tho' comfortless, as when a Father mourns
His Children, all in view deftroy'd at once.

I have been the more particular in my Quotations out of the eleventh Book of Paradife Loft, because it is not generally reckoned among the most fhining Books of this Poem; for which reafon the Reader might be apt to overlook thofe many Paffages in it which deferve our Admiration, The eleventh and twelfth are indeed built ups on that fingle Circumftance of the Removal of our first Parents from Paradife; but tho' this is not in it felf fo great a Subject as that in moft of the foregoing Books, it is extended and diverfified with fo many furprizing Incidents and pleafing Episodes, that these two laft Books can by no means by looked upon as unequal Parts of this Divine Poem. I muft further add, that had not Milton reprefented our firft Parents as driven out of Paradife, his Fall of Man would not have been compleat, and confequently his Action would have been imperfect.

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Monday,

No 364. Monday, April 28.

Navibus atque

Quadrigis petimus bene vivere.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

Hor.

Lady of my Acquaintance, for whom I have too

'A much Refpect to be eafy while the is doing an

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'indifcreet Action, has given occafion to this Trouble: She is a Widow, to whom the Indulgence of a tender Husband has entrusted the Management of a very great Fortune, and a Son about Sixteen, both which The is extremely fond of. The Boy has Parts of the middle fize, neither fhining nor defpicable, and has paffed the common Exercises of his Years with tolerable Advan tage; but is withal what you would call a forward Youth: By the Help of this laft Qualification, which ferves as a Varnish to all the rest, he is enabled to make the beft Ufe of his Learning, and difplay it at full length upon all occafions. Laft Summer he diftinguish ed himself two or three times very remarkably, by puz zling the Vicar before an Affembly of most of the La dies in the Neighbourhood; and from fuch weighty • Confiderations as thefe, as it too often unfortunately falls out, the Mother is become invincibly perfuaded that her Son is a great Scholar; and that to chain him down the ordinary Methods of Education with others of his Age, would be to cramp his Faculties, and do an irreparable Injury to his wonderful Capacity.

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I happened to vifit at the Houfe laft Week, and miffing the young Gentleman at the Tea-Table, where he feldom fails to officiate, could not upon fo extraordinary a Circumftance avoid enquiring after him. My Lady told me, he was gone out with her Woman, in order to make fome Preparations for their Equipage;

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for that the intended very speedily to carry him to travel. The Oddness of the Expreffion fhock'd me alittle, however, I foon recovered my felf enough to let her know, that all I was willing to underfland by it was, that the defigned this Summer to fhew her Son his Eftate in a diftant County, in which he had never yet been. But fhe foon took care to rob me of that agreeable Mistake, and let me into the whole Affair. She enlarged upon young Mafter's prodigious Improvements, and his comprehentive Knowledge of all Book-Learning; concluding, that it was now high time he fhould be made acquainted with Men and Things; that he had refolved he should make the Tour of France and Italy, but could not bear to have him out of her fight, and therefore intended to go along with him.

I was going to rally her for fo extravagant a Refolution, but found my felf not in fit humour to meddle 'with a Subject that demanded the most foft and delicate Touch imaginable. Ewas afraid of dropping fomething f that might feem to bear hard either upon the Son's Abil lities, or the Mother's Diferetion; being fenfible that in 'both thefe Cafes, tho' fupported with all the Powers of • Reafon, I fhould, inftead of gaining her Ladyship over to my Opinion, only expofe my felf to her Defreem: I therefore immediately determined to refer the whole matter to the SPECTATOR.

WHEN I came to reflect at night, as my cuftom is, upon the Occurrences of the Day, I could not but believe that this Humour of carrying a Boy to travel in his Mo ther's Lap, and that upon pretence of learning Men and Things, is a Cafe of an extraordinary nature, and carries on it a particular Stamp of Folly. I did notremem⚫ber to have met with its Parallel within the compass of my Obfervation, tho' I could call to mind fome not extremely unlike it: From hence my Thoughts took occafion to ramble into the general Notion of travelling, ⚫ as it is now made a Part of Education. Nothing is more frequent than to take a Lad from Grammar and Taw, and under the Tuition of fome poor Scholar, who is wiltling to be banished for thirty Pounds a year, and a lit

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*tle Victuals, fend him crying and faiveling into foreign Countries. Thus he fpends his time as Children do at Puppet-Shows, and with much the fame Advantage, in ftaring and gaping at an amazing Variety of ftrange things; ftrange indeed to one who is not prepared to comprehend the Reasons and Meaning of them; whilst he fhould be laying the folid Foundations of Knowledge ⚫ in his Mind, and furnishing it with juft Rules to direct 'his future Progrefs in Life under fome skilful Mafler of the Art of Iuftruction.

CAN there be a more aftonishing Thought in Nature, 'than to confider how Men fhould fall into fo palpable Va Miftake? It is a large Field, and may very well exercife a fprightly Genius; but I don't remember you have yet taken a Turn to it. I wifh, Sir, you would make People understand, that Travel is really the laft Step to be taken in the Inftitution of Youth; and to fet out with it, is to begin where they fhould end.

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CERTAINLY the true End of vifiting Foreign • Parts, is to look into their Cuftoms and Policies, and obferve in what Particulars they excel or come short of our own; to unlearn fome odd Peculiarities in our Man· ners, and wear off fuch aukward Stiffneffes and Affect:rions in our Behaviour, as may poffibly have been contracted from conftantly affociating with one Nation of Men, by a more free, general, and mixed Converfation. But how can any of thefe Advantages be attained by one who is a mere Stranger to the Customs and Policies of his native Country, and has not yet fixed in his Mind the firft Principles of Manners and Beha⚫viour? To endeavour it, is to build a gawdy Structure without any Foundation; or, if I may be allow'd the Expreffion, to work a rich Embroidery upon a Cob • web.

ANOTHER End of travelling which deserves to be confider'd, is the Improving our Tafte of the best Authors of Antiquity, by feeing the Places where they lived, and of which they wrote; to compare the natural "Face of the Country with the Descriptions they have gi ven us, and obferve how well the Picture agrees with the Original

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