THE Part of Moloc is likewife in all its Circumftanees full of that Fire and Fury which diftinguish this Spi rit from the rest of the fallen Angels. He is defcribed in the first Book as besmeared with the Blood of human Sacrifices, and delighted with the Tears of Parents and the Cries of Children. In the fecond Book he is marked out as the fierceft Spirit that fought in Heaven: And if we confider the Figure which he makes in the fixth Book where the Battle of the Angels is defcribed, we find it every way answerable to the fame furious enraged Character.

Where the might of Gabriel fought,

And with fierce Enfigns pierc'd the deep array
Of Moloc, furious King, who him defy'd,
And at his Chariot Wheels to drag him bound
Threaten'd, nor from the Holy One of Heaven
Refrain'd his Tongue blafphemous; but anon
Down cloven to the Wafte, with fhatter'd Arms
And uncouth Pain fled bellowing.

IT may be worth while to observe, that Milton has reprefented this violent impetuous Spirit, who is hurried on by fuch precipitate Paffions, as the firft that rifes in that Affembly, to give his Opinion upon their present Pofture of Affairs. Accordingly he declares himself abruptly for War, and appears incenfed at his Companions, for lofing fo much Time as even to deliberate upon it. All his Sentiments are rash, audacious and defperate. Such is that of arming themselves with their Tortures, and turning their Punishments upon him who inflicted them.

-No, let us rather chufe,

Arm'd with Hell Flames and Fury, all at once
O'er Heaven's high Tow'rs to force refiftless way,
Turning our Tortures into horrid Arms

Against the Tort'rer; when to meet the Noise
Of his mighty Engine he shall hear
Infernal Thunder, and for Lightning fee
Black Fire and Horror foot with equal Rage
Among bis Angels; and bis Throne it felf
Mixt with Tartarean Sulphur, and ftrange Fire,
His own invented Torments-

His preferring Annihilation to Shame or Milery, is alfo highly fuitable to his Character; as the Comfort he draws from their disturbing the Peace of Heaven, that if it be not Victory it is Revenge, is a Sentiment truly Diabolical, and becoming the Bitterness of this implacable Spirit.

BELIAL is defcribed in the first Book, as the Idol of the Lewd and Luxurious. He is in the fecond Book, pursuant to that Description, characterifed as timorous and flothful; and if we look into the fixth Book, we find him celebrated in the Battle of Angels for nothing but that fcoffing Speech which he makes to Satan, on their fuppofed Advantage over the Enemy. As his Appearance is uniform, and of a Piece, in these three seve ral Views, we find his Sentiments in the Infernal Affembly every way conformable to his Character. Such are his Apprehenfions of a fecond Battle, his Horrors of Annihilation, his preferring to be miserable rather than not to be. I need not observe, that the Contraft of Thought in this Speech, and that which precedes it, gives an agreeable Variety to the Debate.

MAMMON's Character is fo fully drawn in the first Book, that the Poet adds nothing to it in the fecond. We were before told, that he was the firft who taught Mankind to ranfack the Earth for Gold and Silver, and that he was the Architect of Pandemonium, or the Infernal Palace, where the Evil Spirits were to meet in Council. His Speech in this Book is every way fuitable to fo depraved a Character. How proper is that Reflection of their being unable to tafte the Happiness of Heaven were they actually there, in the Mouth of one, who while he was in Heaven, is faid to have had his Mind dazled with the outward Pomps and Glories of the Place, and to have been more intent on the Riches of the Pavement, than on the Beatifick Vifion. I fhall alfo leave the Reader to judge how agreeable the following Sentiments are to the fame Character.

This deep World

Of Darkness do we dread? How oft amidst
Thick Cloud and dark doth Heav'ns all-ruling Sire
Chufe to refide, his Glory unobfcured,

And

And with the Majefty of Darkness round
Covers his Throne; from whence deep Thunders roar
Muftering their Rage, and Heaven refembles Hell?
As be our Darkness, cannot we his Light
Imitate when we pleafe? This defart Soil
Wants not her hidden Lufire, Gems and Gold;
Nor want we Skill or Art from whence to raise
Magnificence; and what can Heav'n fhew more?

BEELZEBUB, who is reckoned the fecond in Dignity that fell, and is, in the First Book, the fecond that awakens out of the Trance, and confers with Satan upon the Situation of their Affairs, maintains his Rank in the Book now before us. There is a wonderful Majefty defcribed in his rifing up to fpeak. He acts as a Kind of Moderator between the two oppofite Parties, and propofes a third Undertaking, which the whole Affembly gives into. The Motion he makes of detaching one of their Body in fearch of a new World is grounded upon a Project devifed by Satan, and curforily propofed by him in the following Lines of the first Book.

Space may produce new Worlds, whereof fa rife
There went a Fame in Heav'n, that he ere-long
Intended to create, and therein plant

A Generation, whom his choice Regard
Should favour equal to the Sons of Heav'n ;
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
Our firft Eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this Infernal Pit hall never hold
Celeftial Spirits in Bondage, nor th' Abyss
Long under Darkness cover. But thefe Thoughts
Full Counsel muft mature:

IT is on this Project that Beelzebub grounds his Pros

pofal.

What if we find

Some eafier Enterprize? There is a Place
(If ancient and prophetick Fame in Heav'n
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 book 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 fittest to second and fupport it.

THERE is befides, I think, fomething wonderfully beautiful, and very apt to affect the Reader's Imagination in this ancient Prophecy 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 represented to have been the Talk of Heaven before they were created. Virgil, in compliment to the Roman 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 Sublime 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 described 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 Contentions at the Race, and in Feats of Arms, with their Entertain ment in the following Lines,

Others with vaft Typhaan Rage more fell
Rend up both Rocks and Hills, and ride the Air
In Whirlwind; Hell fcarce holds the wild Uproar.

THEIR Mufick is employed in celebrating their own criminal Exploits, and their Discourse in founding the unfathomable Depths of Fate, Free-will and Fore-knowledge.

THE feveral Circumftances in the Description of Hell are very finely imagined; as the four Rivers which difgorge themselves into the Sea of Fire, the Extreams 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,

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

Than Fables yet have feign'd, or Fear conceiv'd,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.

THIS Epifode 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 fpun out fo many Circumftances to a great Length, and by that Means have weakned, instead of illuftrated, the principal Fable.

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

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 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