and fit on the Throne of David? Their proud and difdainful Hearts, which were petrified with the Love and Pride of this World, were impregnable to the Reception of fo mean a Benefactor, and were now enough exafperated with Benefits to confpire his Death. Our Lord was fenfible of their Design, and prepared his Difciples for it, by recounting to 'em now more diftinctly what fhould befal him; but Peter with an ungrounded Refolution, and in a Flush of Temper, made a fanguine Proteftation, that tho' all Men were offended in him, yet would not he be offended. It was a great Article of our Saviour's Business in the World, to bring us to a Sense of our Inability, without God's Affiftance, to do any thing great or good; he therefore told Peter, who thought fo well of his Courage and Fidelity, that they would both fail him, and even he should deny him thrice that very Night.

BUT what Heart can conceive, what Tongue utter the Sequel? Who is that yonder buffeted, mock'd, and spurn'd? Whom do they drag like a Felon? Whither do they carry my Lord, my King, my Saviour, and my God? And will he die to expiate thofe very Injuries? See where they have nailed the Lord and Giver of Life! How his Wounds blacken, his Body writhes, and Heart moves with Pity and with Agony! Oh Almighty Sufferer, look down, look down from thy triumphunt Infamy: Lo he inclines his Head to his facred Bofom! Hark, he groans! fee, he expires! The Earth trembles, the Temple rends, the Rocks burst, the Dead arife: Which are the Quick; Which are the Dead? Sure Nature, all Nature is departing with her Creator.

T

N° 357. Saturday, April 19.

Quis talia fando.

Temperet a lachrymis ?

T

Virg.

HE tenth Book of Paradife Loft has a greater variety of Perfons in it than any other in the whole Poem. The Author upon the winding up of his Action introduces all those who had any Concern in it, and thews with great Beauty the Influence which it had upon each of them. It is like the laft Act of a well-written Tragedy, in which all who had a part in it are generally drawn up fore the Audience, and represented under thofe Circumftances in which the Determination of the Action places them.

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I fhall therefore confider this Book under four Heads, in relation to the Celestial, the Infernal, the Human, and the Imaginary Perfonis, who have their respective Parts allotted in it.

TO begin with the Celeftial Perfons: The Guardian Angels of Paradife are defcribed as returning to Heaven upon the Fall of Man, in order to approve their Vigilance; their Arrival, their Manner of Reception, with the Sorrow which appear'd in themfelves, and in thofe Spirits who are faid to rejoice at the Converfion of a Sinner, are very finely laid together in the following Lines.

Up into Heav'n from Paradife in hafte
Th' Angelick Guards afcended, mute and fad
For Man; for of his State by this they knew:
Much wond'ring how the fubtle Fiend had ftoľn
Entrance unfeen. Soon as th' unwelcome News
From Earth arrived at Heaven-Gate, difpleas'd
All were who heard: dim Sadness did not spare
That time Celestial Vifages; yet mixt
With Pity, violated not their Blifs.

About

About the new-arriv'd, in multitudes.
Th' Ethereal People ran, to hear and know
How all befel: They tow'rds the Throne fupreme
Accountable made hafte, to make appear
With righteous Plea, their utmost vigilance,
And easily approv'd; when the Most High
Eternal Father, from his fecret cloud
Amidft, in thunder utter'd thus his voice.

THE fame Divine Perfon, who in the foregoing Parts of this Poem interceded for our firft Parents before their Fall, overthrew the Rebel Angels, and created the World, is now reprefented as defcending to Paradife, and pronouncing Sentence upon the three Offenders. The Cool of the Evening, being a Circumftance with which Holy Writ introduces this great Scene, it is poetically defcribed by our Author, who has alfo kept religiously to the Form of Words, in which the three feveral Sentences were paffed upon Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. He has rather chofen to neglect the Numeroufnefs of his Verfe, than to deviate from thofe Speeches which are recorded on this great occafion. The Guilt and Confufion of our first Parents ftanding naked before their Judge, is touched with great Beauty. Upon the Arrival of Sin and Death into the Works of the Creation, the Almighty is again introduced as fpeaking to his Angels that furrounded him.

See! with what heat thefe Dogs of Hell advance,
To waste and havock yonder World, which I
So fair and good created; &c.

THE following Paffage is formed upon that glorious Image in Holy Writ, which compares the Voice of an innumerable Hoft of Angels, uttering Hallelujahs, to the Voice of mighty Thunderings, or of many Waters.

He ended and the Heav'nly Audience loud
Sung Hallelujah, as the found of Seas,
Through Multitude that fung: Fuft are thy Ways,
Righteous are thy Decrees on all thy Works,

Who can extenuate thee?

THO' the Author in the whole Courfe of his Poem, and particularly in the Book we are now examining, has infinite Allufions to Places of Scripture, I have only taken notice in my Remarks of fuch as are of a Poetical Nature, and which are woven with great Beauty into the Body of this Fable. Of this kind is that Paffage in the prefent Book, where defcribing Sin and Death as marching thro' the Works of Nature, he adds,

Behind her Death

Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale Horfe.

Which alludes to that Paffage in Scripture, fo wonderfully Poetical, and terrifying to the Imagination. And I look'd, and beheld a pale Horfe, and his Name that fat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him: and Power was given unto them over the fourth Part of the Earth, to kill with Sword, and with Hunger, and with Sickness, and with the Beafts of the Earth. Under this firft Head of Celestial Perfons we must likewise take notice of the Command which the Angels receiv'd, to produce the feveral Changes in Nature, and fully the Beauty of the Creation. Accordingly they are reprefented as infecting the Stars and Planets with malignant Influences, weakning the Light of the Sun, bringing down the Winter into the milder Regions of Nature, planting Winds and Storms in feveral Quarters of the Sky, ftoring the Clouds with Thunder, and in short, perverting the whole Frame of the Univerfe to the Condition of its criminal Inhabitants. As this is a noble Incident in the Poem, the following Lines, in which we fee the Angels heaving up the Earth, and placing it in a different Pofture to the Sun from what it had before the Fall of Man, is conceived with that fublime Imagination which was fo peculiar to this great Author.

Some fay he bid his Angels turn afcanfe
The Poles of Earth twice ten Degrees and more
From the Sun's Axle; they with Labour push'd
Oblique the Centrick Globe

WE

WE are in the fecond place to confider the Infernal Agents under the view which Milton has given us of them in this Book. It is obferved by those who would fet forth the Greatness of Virgil's Plan, that he conducts his Reader thro' all the Parts of the Earth which were difcover'd in his time. Afia, Afric, and Europe are the feveral Scenes of his Fable. The Plan of Milton's Poem is of an infinitely greater Extent, and fills the Mind with many more aftonishing Circumftances. Satan, having furrounded the Earth seven times, departs at length from Paradife. We then fee him fteering his Courfe among the Conftellations, and after having traverfed the whole Creation, purfuing his Voyage thro' the Chaos, and entring into his own Infernal Dominions.

HIS firft Appearance in the Affembly of fallen Angels, is work'd up with Circumftances which give a delightful Surprize to the Reader; but there is no Incident in the whole Poem which does this more than the Transformation of the whole Audience, that follows the Account their Leader gives them of his Expedition, The gradual Change of Satan himself is defcrib'd after Ovid's manner, and may vie with any of thofe celebrated Transformations which are look'd upon as the most beautiful Parts in that Poet's Works. Milton never fails of improving his own Hints, and bestowing the laft finishing Touches to every Incident which is admitted into his Poem. The unexpected Hifs which rifes in this Episode, the Dimenfions and Bulk of Satan fo much fuperior to thofe of the Infernal Spirits who lay under the fame Transformation, with the annual Change which they are fuppofed to fuffer, are Inftances of this kind. The Beauty of the Diction is very remarkable in this whole Episode, as I have obferved in the fixth Paper of these my Remarks the great Judgment with which it was contrived..

THE Parts of Adam and Eve, or the human Perfons, come next under our Confideration. Milton's Art is no where more fhewn than in his conducting the Parts of thefe our first Parents. The Reprefentation he gives of them, without falfifying the Story, is wonderfully contriv'd to influence the Reader with Pity and Compaffion towards them.

H. 5.