to act our part well; you ought, methinks, rather to turn your inftructions for the benefit of that part of our fex who are yet in their native innocence, and ignorant of the vices and that variety of unhappineffes that reigh amongst us. I must tell you, Mr. Spectator, that it is as much a part of your office to oversee the education of the female part of the nation, as well as of the male; and to convince the world you are not partial, may proceed to detect the mal-adminiftration of governelles as fuccessfully as you have expofed that of pedagogues; and rescue our fex from the prejudice and tyranny of education as well as that of your own, who without your feafonable Interpofition are like to improve upon the vices that are now in vogue. I who know the dignity of your poft, as Spectator, and the authority a fkilful eye ought to bear in the female world, could not forbear confulting you, and beg your advice in fo critical a point, as is that of the edu cation of young gentlewomen. Having already provided myfelf with a very convenient houfe in a good air, I am not without hope but that you will promote this generous defign. I muft farther tell you, Sir, that all who shall be committed to my conduct, befides the usual accomplishments of the needle, dancing, and the French tongue, fhall not fail to be your conftant readers. It is therefore my humble petition, that you will entertain the town on this important fubject, and fo far oblige a ftranger, as to raise a curiofity and inquiry in my behalf, by publishing the following advertisement. 'I am, Sir, • Your constant admirer, ADVERTISEMENT. · M. W.' The boarding-school for young gentlewomen, which was formerly kept on Mile-End-Green, being laid down, there is now one fet up almost oppofite to it at the two Golden-Balls, and much more convenient in "every refpect; where, befides the common instructions re M 2 66 "given to young gentlewomen, they will be taught the "whole art of pastry and preserving, with whatever may "render them accomplished. Those who please to make "trial of the vigilance and ability of the perfons con"cerned, may inquire at the two Golden-Balls on Mile"End-Green near Stepney, where they will receive fur"ther fatisfaction. "This is to give notice, that the Spectator has taken upon him to be vifitant of all boarding-fchools where young women are educated; and defigns to proceed in the faid office after the fame manner that vifitants of colleges do in the two famous univerfities of this land. "All lovers who write to the Spectator, are defired to "forbear one expreffion which is in moft of the let"ters to him, either out of laziness or want of invention, " and is true of not above two thousand women in the "whole world; viz. She has in her all that is valua Never prefume to make a God appear, ROSCOMMON. H ORACE advifes 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 intirely 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. 5 Every 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 first and fecond books 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 thofe parts of his poem, where the divine perfons are introduced as fpeakers. One may, I think, observe, 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 chufes to confine himfelf to fuch thoughts as are drawn from the books of the moft orthodox divines, and to fuch expreffions as may be met with in fcripture. 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 fentiments 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 ftile, in which the poet has couched the greateft myfteries of chriftianity, and drawn together, in a regular scheme, the whole difpenfation of Providence with refpect 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 ever met with in any other writer. As thefe points are dry in themfelves to the generality of readers, the concife 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 omniscience; and as much above that, in which Virgil. M 3 has 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 most beautiful and lively manner. Now had th' Almighty Father from above High thron'd above all height, bent down his eye, In blissful folitude. He then furvey'd To ftoop with wearied wings, and willing feet 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 fpirits, and in the divine perfon to whom it was addreffed, cannot but fill the mind of the reader with a fecret pleasure and complacency. Thus while God fpake, ambrofial fragrance fill'd Subftantially Subftantially exprefs'd; and in his face Love without end, and without measure grace. I need not point out the beauty of that circumftance, wherein the whole hoft of angels are reprefented as ftanding muté; nor fhew how proper the occafion was to produce fuch a filence in heaven. The clofe of this divine colloquy, with the hymn of angels that follows upon it, are fo wonderfully beautiful and poetical, that I fhould not forbear inferting the whole paffage, if the bounds of my paper would give me leave. No fooner had th' Almighty ceafed, but all (Loud as from numbers without number, fweet Th' eternal regions; &c. &c.. Satan's walk upon the outfide 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 between that mass of matter, which was wrought into a world, and that fhapeless un. formed heap of materials, which still lay in chaos and confufion, ftrikes the imagination with fomething aftonishingly great and wild. I have before fpoken of the limbo of vanity, which the poet places upon this outermoft furface of the univerfe, and fhall here explain myfelf more at large on that, and other parts of the poem, which are of the fame fhadowy nature. Aristotle obferves, that the fable of an epic poem fhould abound in circumftances that are both credible and astonishing; or as the French critics choose to phrafe it, the fable fhould be filled with the probable and the marvellous. This rule is as fine and juft as any in Ariftotle's whole art of poetry. If the fable is only probable, it differs nothing from a true hiftory; if it is only marvellous, it is no better than a romance. The great fecret therefore of heroic poetry is to relate fuch circumftances as may produce M 4 in |
