THE Scene which our first Parents are furprized with, upon their looking back on Paradife, wonderfully ftrikes the Reader's Imagination, as nothing can be more natural than the Tears they fhed on that Occafion.

They looking back, all th' Eaftern fide beheld
Of Paradife, fo late their happy Seat,

Wav'd over by that flaming Brand, the Gate
With dreadful Faces throng'd and fiery Arms:
Some natural Tears they dropp'd, but wiped them foon;
The World was all before them, where to chufe
Their Place of Reft, and Providence their Guide.

IF I might prefume to offer at the smallest Alteration in this divine Work, I fhould think the Poem would end better with the Paffage here quoted, than with the two Verfes which follow:

They hand in hand with wandering steps and flow,
Through Eden took their folitary Way.

THESE two Verfes, though they have their Beauty, fall very much below the foregoing Paffage, and renew in the Mind of the Reader that Anguish which was pretty well laid by that Confideration,

The World was all before them, where to chufe
Their Place of Reft, and Providence their Guide.

THE Number of Books in Paradife Loft is equal to thofe of the Eneid. Our Author in his firft Edition had divided his Poem into ten. Books, but afterwards broke. the feventh and the eleventh each of them into two different Books, by the help of fome fmall Additions. This fecond Divifion was made with great Judgment, as any. one may fee who will be at the pains of examining it. It was not done for the fake of fuch a Chimerical Beauty as that of refembling Virgil in this particular, but for the more juft and regular Difpofition of this great Work.

THOSE

1

THOSE who have read Bossu, and many of the Criticks who have written fince his Time, will not pardon me if I do not find out the particular Moral which is inculcated in Paradife Loft. Though I can by no means. think, with the laft-mentioned French Author, that an Epick Writer first of all pitches upon a certain Moral, as the Ground-Work and Foundation of his Poem, and afterwards finds out a Story to it: I am, however, of opinion, that no juft Heroick Poem ever was or can be made, from whence one great Moral may not be deduced. That which reigns in Milton, is the moft univerfal and most useful that can be imagined; it is in fhort this, That Obedience to the Will of God makes Men happy, and that Difobedience makes them miferable. This is vifibly the Moral of the principal Fable, which turns upon. Adam and Eve, who continued in Paradife, while they kept the Command that was given them, and were driven. out of it as foon as they had tranfgreffed. This is likewife the Moral of the principal Epifode, which fhews us how an innumerable Multitude of Angels fell from their State of Blifs, and were caft into Hell upon their Difobedience. Befides this great Moral, which may be looked upon as the Soul of the Fable, there are an Infinity of Under-Morals which are to be drawn from the feveral parts of the Poem, and which makes this Work more ufeful and inftructive than any other Poem in any Language.

THOSE who have criticized on the Odyffey, the Iliad, and neid, have taken a great deal of pains to fix the Number of Months and Days contained in the Action of each of thofe Poems. If any one thinks it worth his while to examine this Particular in Milton, he will find that from Adam's firft Appearance in the fourth Book, to his Expulfion from Paradife in the twelfth, the Author reckons ten Days. As for that part of the Action which is defcribed in the three firft Books, as it does not pafs within the Regions of Nature, I have before obferved that it is not fubject to any Calculations of Time.

I have now finished my Obfervations on a Work which does an Honour to the English Nation. I have

taken

taken a general View of it under those four Heads, the Fable, the Characters, the Sentiments, and the Language,, and made each of them the Subject of a particular Paper. I have in the next Place spoken of the Cenfures which our Author may incur under each of thefe Heads, which I have confined to two Papers, though I might have enlarged the Number, if I had been difpofed to dwell on fo ungrateful a Subject. I believe, however, that the feverest Reader will not find any little Fault in Heroick Poetry, which this Author has fallen into, that does not come under one of thofe Heads among which I have distributed = his feveral Blemishes. After having thus treated at large of Paradife Loft, I could not think it fufficient to have celebrated this Poem in the whole, without defcending to particulars. I have therefore bestowed a Paper upon each Book, and endeavoured not only to prove that the Poem is beautiful in general, but to point out its particular Beauties, and to determine wherein they confift. have endeavoured to fhew how fome Paffages are beau-. tiful by being Sublime, others by being Soft, others by being Natural; which of them are recommended by the Paffion, which by the Moral, which by the Sentiment, and which by the Expreffion. I have likewife endeavoured to fhew how the Genius of the Poet fhines by a happy Invention, a diftant Allufion, or a judicious Imitation; how he has copied or improved Homer or Virgil, and raised his own Imaginations by the Ufe which he has made of feveral Poetical Paffages in Scripture. I might have inferted alfo feveral Paffages of Taffo, which our Author has imitated; but as I do not look upon Taffe to be a fufficient Voucher, I would not perplex my Reader with fuch Quotations, as might do more Honour to the Italian than the English Poet. In fhort, I have endeavoured to particurlaize thofe innumerable kinds of Beauty, which it would be tedious to recapitulate, but which are effential to Poetry, and which may be met with ins the Works of this great Author. Had I thought, at my firft engaging in this defign, that it would have led me. to fo great a length, I believe I fhould never have entered upon it; but the kind Reception which it has met with among those whofe Judgments I have a value for,

as

as well as the uncommon Demands which my Bookfeller tells me have been made for thefe particular Difcourfes, give me no reafon to repent of the Pains I have been at in compofing them.

L

M

Monday, May 5.

Totus Mundus agit Hiftrionem.

ANY of my fair Readers, as well as very gay and well-received Perfons of the other Sex, are extremely perplexed at the Latin Sentences at the Head of my Speculations; I do not know whether I ought not to indulge them with Translations of each of them: However, I have to-day taken down from the Top of the Stage in Drury-Lane a bit of Latin which often ftands in their View, and fignifies that the whole World acts the Player. It is certain that if we look all round us, and behold the different Employments of Mankind, you hardly fee one who is not, as the Player is, in an affumed Chara&ter. The Lawyer, who is vehement and loud in a Caufe wherein he knows he has not the Truth of the Queftion on his fide, is a Player as to the perfonated Part, but incomparably meaner than he as to the Proftitution of himself for hire; because the Pleader's Falfhood introduces Inju ftice, the Player feigns for no other end but to divert or inftruct you. The Divine, whofe Paffions tranfport him to fay any thing with any View but promoting the Interefts of true Piety and Religion, is a Player with a fill greater Imputation of Guilt, in proportion to his depreciating a Character more facred. Confider all the dif ferent Purfuits and Employments of Men, and you will find half their Actions tend to nothing else but Disguise and Impofture; and all that is done which proceeds not from a Man's very felf, is the Action of a Player. For

this

this reafon it is that I make fo frequent mention of the Stage: It is, with me, a Matter of the highest Confideration what Parts are well or ill performed, what Paf fions or Sentiments are indulged or cultivated, and confequently what Manners and Customs are transfufed from the Stage to the World, which reciprocally imitate each other as the Writers of Epick Poems introduce fhadowy Perfons, and represent Vices and Virtues under the Cha racters of Men and Women; fo I, who am a SPECTA TOR in the World, may perhaps fometimes make use of the Names of the Actors on the Stage, to reprefent or admonish those who tranfact Affairs in the World. When I am commending Wilks for reprefenting the Tenderness of a Husband and a Father in Mackbeth, the Contrition of a reformed Prodigal in Harry the Fourth, the winning Emptiness of a young Man of Good-nature and Wealth in the Trip to the Jubilee, the Officioufnefs of an artful Servant in the Fox: when thus I celebrate Wilks, I talk to all the World who are engaged in any of thofe Cir cumftances. If I were to fpeak of Merit neglected, mifapplied, or misunderstood, might not I fay Eftcourt bas a great Capacity? But it is not the Intereft of others who bear a Figure on the Stage that his Talents were understood; it is their Business to impose upon him what cannot become him, or keep out of his hands any thing in which he would fhine. Were one to raise a Sufpicion of himself in a Man who paffes upon the World for a fine Thing, in order to alarm him, one might fay, if Lord Foppington were not on the Stage, (Cibber acts the falfe Pretentions to a genteel Behaviour fo very justly) he would have in the generality of Mankind more that would admire than deride him. When we come to Characters directly Comical, it is not to be imagin'd what Effect a well-regulated Stage would have upon Mens Manners. The Craft of an Ufurer, the Abfurdity of a rich Fool, the aukward Roughness of a Fellow of half Courage, the ungraceful Mirth of a Creature of half Wit might be for ever put out of Countenance by proper Parts for Dogget. Johnson by acting Corbacchio the other Night, muft have given all who faw him a thorough De

teftation