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The breaking up of this infernal affembly is alfo well defcribed.

Their rifing all at once was as the found

Of thunder heard remote

The following speech of Satan to the Sun is very beautiful, and, as Mr. Addison obferves, has fome tranfient touches of remorfe and felf-accufation.

O thou that, with furpaffing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy fole dominion like the god
Of this new world, at whose fight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads, to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.

We cannot leave Milton, without pointing out other pafages that are as fublime as those we have already quoted : for fuch are his undrawn chariots that inove by instinct; his everlasting gates of heaven, that felf-open'd wide on golden hinges moving; and the Meffiah attended by angels, looking down into Chaos, calming its confufion, and drawing the first out-lines of the creation; which is thus happily described.

On heav'nly ground they ftood, and from the fhore
They view'd the vast immeasurable abyfs,
Outrageous as a fea, dark, wafteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And furging waves, as mountains to affault
Heav'n's height, and with the centre mix the pole.
Silence ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then th' omnific word, your discord end:
Nor ftaid, but on the wings of cherubim
Up-lifted, in paternal glory rode

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Followed in bright proceffion to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
T'hen ftaid the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compaffes, prepar'd
In God's eternal ftore, to circumfcribe

This univerfe, and all created things:
One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vaft profundity obscure,
And faid, thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy juft circumference, O World.

The defcription he has given us of the angel Raphael is Jikewife nobly conceived, and finely delineated.

-Six wings he wore, to shade

His lineaments divine; the pair that clad
Each fhoulder broad, came mantling o'er his breaft
With regal ornament; the middle pair

Girt like a ftarry zone his waift, and round
Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold
And colours dipp'd in heav'n; the third his feet
Shadow'd from either heel with feather'd mail,
Sky-tinctur'd grain! Like Maia's fon he flood,
And fhook his plumes, that heav'nly fragrance fill'd
The circuit wide

There is fomething fingularly fublime and beautiful in the following paffage, tranfcribed from a poem, entituled, The Omnifcience of the divine Being, by Mr. Smart.

When Philomela, ere the cold domain

Of crippled winter 'gins t' advance, prepares
Her annual flight, and in fome poplar fhade
Takes her melodious leave, who then's her pilot?
Who points her paffage thro' the pathless void
To realms from us remote, to us unknown?
Her fcience is the fcience of her God.
Not the magnetic index to the north

E'er afcertains her courfe, nor buoy, nor beacon.
She, heav'n-taught voyager, that fails in air,
Courts nor coy weft nor eaft, but instant knows
What NEWTON or not fought, or fought in vain *.
Illuftrious name, irrefragable proof

Of man's vaft genius, and the foaring foul!
Yet what wert thou to him, who knew his works,
Before creation form'd them, long before

He meafur'd in the hollow of his hand
Th' exulting ocean, and the highest heav'ns
* The Longitude.

He comprehended with a span, and weigh'd
The mighty mountains in his golden fcales:
Who fhone fupreme, who was himself the light,
E'er yet refraction learn'd her skill to paint,
And bend athwart the clouds her beauteous bow.

It would here be unpardonable to pass over all thofe fublime and animated defcriptions we have of the Morning; which the writers of heroic and tragic poetry have labour'd fo much to heighten and variegate, that one would think they had exerted their utmost skill and genius, to see who could render that feason the moft endearing.

Homer leads the way, and by a beautiful and well-conceived fiction, describes the morning as a goddess arrayed in a faffron robe, flying in the air, and with her rofy fingers unbarring the gates of light. She leaves the bed of Tithon her lover, arises from the fea in a golden throne to usher in the fun, or in a chariot drawn by celestial horfes, bearing with her the day, and is preceded by a ftar, which is her harbinger, and gives signal of her approach.

Virgil follows Homer, and never lofes fight of him, as will appear by the following descriptions.

Aurora now had left her faffron bed,

And beams of early light the Heav'ns o'erspread.

The morn began from Ida to display

Her rofy cheeks, and phosphor led the day.

And now the rofy morn began to rise,

And wav'd her faffron ftreamer thro' the skies.

Now rofe the ruddy morn from Tithon's bed,
And with the dawn of day the skies o'erfpread;
Nor long the fun his daily courfe with-held,
But added colours to the world reveal'd.

The morn enfuing from the mountain's height
Had fcarcely spread the fkies with rofy light;
Th' ethereal courfers, bounding from the fea,
From out their flaming noftrils breath'd the day.

Toffo had moft probably Homer or Virgil in view when he wrote the following lines:

C

The purple morning left her crimson bed,
And donn'd her robes of pure vermilion hue;
Her amber locks the crown'd with rofes red,
In Eden's flow'ry gardens gather'd new.

And Spenfer, who excels in description, has the fame fort of images diverfified.

Now when the rofy-finger'd morning fair,
Weary of aged Tithon's faffron bed,
Had fpread her purple robes thro' dewy air,
And the high hills Titan difcovered;
The royal virgin fhook off drowsy head,
And rifing forth out of her baser bower,
Look'd for her knight

-The day forth-dawning from the east,
Night's humid curtains from the heav'ns withdrew,
And early calling forth both man and beast,

Commanded them their daily works renew.

Milton's defcriptions of the Morning are exquifitely drawn ; and though he has departed as much as poffible from the beaten track, yet fome traces of the former poets may be evidently feen.

Now morn her rofy fteps in th' eaftern clime
Advancing, fow'd the earth with orient pearl.
-The morn,

Wak'd by the circling hours, with rofy hand.
Unbarr'd the gates of light-

-And now went forth the morn,
Such as in higheft heav'n, array'd in gold
Empyreal; from before her vanish'd night,
Shot thro' with orient beams

No defcriptions of the morning can be more animated and fublime than thofe of SHAKESPEAR; yet his thoughts bear great affinity to the preceding.

Look where the morn in ruffet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eaftern hill.
Look, Love, what envious ftreaks

Do lace the fevering clouds in yonder east.
Night's tapers are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

These paffages may be justly rank'd among grand and fublime thoughts; and though the out-lines seem to have been drawn by Homer, on which they have run their several divifions, yet they have all acquitted themselves, so as to obtain the applaufe of the learned and judicious; for men of judgment will ever confider that nature is still the fame, and that where the fame object is to be described, the fame thoughts, and often the fame words, will occur, if the descriptions are just and natural.

We have attributed the first inftance of defcribing the morning in this beautiful manner to Homer, yet it is to be obferv'd, that there is much of this fublime imagery in the facred writings, from whence fome hints may probably have been taken. Thus it is faid of the fun, that He cometh forth out of his chamber as a bridegroom, and exulteth as a giant who is to run his race.

Befides thefe thoughts, which captivate with their grandeur and fublimity, there are others that equally affect us by their agreeablenefs or beauty. The firft pleafe, because they have fomething great, which always charms the mind, whereas these pleafe only because they are agreeable. Comparisons and defcriptions, taken from florid and delightful fubjects, form agreeable thoughts, in the fame manner as those we take from grand fubjects form those that are fublime.

The writings of the holy penmen are replete with these thoughts; but as the beauties of the bible are in every hand, and to be seen every day, we fhall felect what examples we have room to admit from our English poets. The defcription, however, which Solomon has given us of Wisdom, ought not to be omitted, because it is fufficient, one would think, to make every man in love with her.

Length of days are in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

There are many paffages in Mr. Smart's poem on the Immenfity of the Supreme Being, which contain agreeable thoughts; but that of the Ring-dove's neft is, I think, remarkably fo:

What are yon tow'rs,

The work of lab ring man and clumsy art,

Seen with the ring-dove's neft ?-On that tall beeck

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