Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the fprings Of Ganges or Hydafpes, Indian ftreams; 435 as there was a man lately at Bath who attempted fomething of the fame nature, and could really drive his machine without horfes by the help of wind and fail upon Marlborough Downs, but it would not ferve upon the road; it did well enough upon the plain, but he could not make it go up hill. 442. in this place] I have before fpoken of the Limbo of Vanity, which the poet places upon the 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. Ariftotle obferves, that the fable of an epic poem fhould abound in circumftances that are both credible and aftonishing; or as the French critics choofe to phrafe it, the fable should be filled with the probable and the marvelous. This rule is as fine and just 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 marvelous, it is no better than a romance. The great fecret therefore of heroic poetry is to relate fuch circumftances, as But may produce in the reader at the fame time both belief and aftonishment. This is brought to pass in a well-chofen fable, by the account of fuch things as have really happen'd, or at least of fuch things as have happen'd according to the received opinions of mankind. Milton's fable is a mafter-piece of this nature; as the war in Heaven, the condition of the fallen Angels, the ftate of innocence, the temptation of the Serpent and the fall of Man, though they are very aftonishing in themselves, are not only credible, but actual points of faith. The next method of reconciling miracles with credibility, is by a happy invention of the poet; as in particular, when he introduces agents of a fuperior nature, who are capable of effecting what is wonderful, and what is not to be met with in the ordinary courfe of things. Ulyffes's fhip being turned into a rock, and Eneas's fleet into a fhoal of Water-nymphs, though they are very furprifing accidents, are neverthelefs probable, when we are told that they were the Gods who thus transformed them. It is this kind of But in his way lights on the barren plains With fails and wind their cany waggons light: of machinery which fills the poems both of Homer and Virgil with fuch circumftances as are wonderful, but not impoffible, and fo frequently produce in the reader the moft pleafing paffion that can rife in the mind of man, which is admiration. If there be any inftance in the Æneid liable to exception upon this account, it is in the beginning of the third book, where Eneas is reprefented as tearing up the myrtle that dropped blood. To qualify this wonderful circumftance, Polydorus tells a story from the root of the myrtle, that the barbarous inhabitants of the country having pierced him with fpears and arrows, the wood which was left in his body took root in his wounds, and gave birth to that bleeding tree. This circumftance feems to have the marvelous without the probable, because it is reprefented as proceeding from natural caufes, without the interpofition of any God, or other fupernatural power capable of producing it. The fpears and arrows grow of themselves, without fo much as the modern help of an inchantment. If we look into the 440 Living fiction of Milton's fable, though we find it full of furprising incidents, they are generally fuited to our notions of the things and perfons defcribed, and tempered with a due measure of probability. I muft only make an exception to the Limbo of Vanity, with his epifode of Sin and Death, and fome of the imaginary persons in his Chaos. Thefe paffages are aftonishing, but not credible; the reader cannot fo far impose upon himself, as to fee a poffibility in them; they are the defcription of dreams and fhadows, not of things or perfons. I know that many critics look upon the ftories of Circe, Polypheme, the Sirens, nay the whole Odyffey and Iliad, to be allegories; but allowing this to be true, they are fables, which confidering the opinions of mankind that prevailed in the age of the poet, might poffibly have been according to the letter. The perfons are fuch as might have acted what is afcribed to them, as the circumftances in which they are reprefented, might poffibly have been truths and realities. This appearance of probability is fo abfolutely 23 requifite Living or lifeless to be found was none; Of all things tranfitory' and vain, when fin All who have their reward on earth, the fruits requifite in the greater kinds of poetry, that Ariftotle obferves the ancient tragic writers made use of the names of fuch great men as had actually lived in the world, tho' the tragedy proceeded upon adventures they were never engaged in, on purpose to make the fubject more credible. In a word, befides the hidden meaning of an epic allegory, the plain litteral fenfe ought to appear probable. The story should be fuch as an ordinary reader may acquiefce in, whatever natural, moral, or political truth may be difcovered in it by men of greater penetration. Addifon. 443.- lifeless] Milton writes it lives but I conceive the word to be compounded of less and the fubftantive life, and not of the verb lives lifeless without life, as fearless without fear, liflefs without lift or defire, peerless, ruthless, pheapelifs, &c. 445 450 Of ge 444. None yet, &c.] Dr. Bentley is for rejecting this verfe and fifty four more which follow as an infertion of the editor; but I think there can be no doubt of their nuinnefs, whatever there may be of their goodness. Mr. Richardfon thinks the Paradife of Fools is finely imagin'd, but it must be own'd that it is formed more upon the tafte of the Italian poets than of the Ancients. der in vain as commonly underand in vain,] To wanftood would be a weak expreffion, but it has the force of the Greek OUT, the Latin fruftrà, temerè, fortuitò, nullo confilio, at random. Richardfon 459. Not in the neighb'ring moon, as fome have dream'd;] Ariofto particularly, who in his Orlando Furiofo, Cant. 34. St. gives a much larger defcription of 70, &c. things loft upon earth and treafar'd up Of painful superstition and blind zeal, All th' unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand, 455 Abortive, monftrous, or unkindly mix'd, Diffolv'd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain, Till final diffolution, wander here, Not in the neighb'ring moon, as fome have 460 Those argent fields more likely habitants, 466 Of is certainly lefs confiderable in itfelf than our earth, it is not likely that its inhabitants fhould be fo much more confiderable. 463. Hither of ill-join'd fons and daughters born &c.] He means the fons of God ill-join'd with the daughters of men, alluding to that text of Scripture, Gen. VI. 4. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the fons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the fame became mighty men, which were of old, men of renown: where by the fons of God fome Fathers and Commentators have underftood Angels, as if the Angels had been enamour'd and married to women; but the true meaning is that the pofterity of Seth and other patriarchs, who were worfhippers of the true God, and therefore call'd the fons of God, intermarried with the idolatrone fterity of wicked Cain. 467. Of Sennaar, ] Or for they are both the fam are of this province of Babylon Ts Milton follows the Vulgat 4 7 frecar |