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PARADISE LOST.

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For that warning voice, which he who faw
Th'Apocalyps heard cry in Heav'n aloud,

Thofe, who know how many volumes have been written on the poems of Homer and Virgil, will eafily pardon the length of my difcourfe upon Milton. The Paradife Loft is looked upon, by the beft judges, as the greateft production, or at leaft the nobleft work of genius in our language, and therefore deferves to be fet before an English reader in its full beauty. For this reafon, tho' I have endevor'd to give a general idea of its graces and imperfections in my fix firft papers, I thought myself obliged to bestow one upon every book in particular. The three first books I have already difpatched, and am now entring upon the fourth. I need not acquaint my reader that there are multitudes of beauties in this great author, efpecially in the descriptive parts of his poem, which I have not touched upon, it being my intention to point out thofe only, which appear to me the most exquifite, or thofe which are not fo obvious to ordinary readers. Every one that has read the critics who have written upon the Odyssey, the Iliad, and the Eneid, knows very well, that

Then

though they agree in their opinions of the great beauties in thofe poems, they have nevertheless each of them difcovered feveral masterftrokes, which have efcaped the obfervation of the reft. In the fame manner, I question not, but any writer who fhall treat of this fubject after me, may find feveral beauties in Milton, which I have not taken notice of. I must likewife obferve, that as the greatet mafters of critical learning differ among one another, as to fome particular points in an epic poem, I have not bound myself fcrupuloufly to the rules which any one of them has laid down upon that art, but have taken the liberty fometimes to join with one, and fometimes with another, and fometimes to differ from all of them, when I have thought that the reafon of the thing was on my fide.

Addifon.

1. O for that warning voice, &c.] The poet opens this book with a wifh in the manner of Shakefpcar, O for a Mufe of fire &c. Prolog, to Henry V. O for a fulkner's nice &c. Romeo and Juliet, A& II. and in order to raife the horror and at

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Then when the Dragon, put to fecond rout,

Came furious down to be reveng'd on men,

Woe to th' inhabitants on earth! that now,

While time was, our first parents had been warn'd
The coming of their fecret foe, and fcap'd,
Haply fo fcap'd his mortal fnare; for now
Satan, now first inflam'd with rage, came down,
The tempter ere th'accufer of man-kind,
To wreck on innocent frail man his lofs

Of that first battel, and his flight to Hell:
Yet not rejoicing in his fpeed, though bold
Far off and fearlefs, nor with cause to boat,
Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth
Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast,

tention of his reader, introduces his relation of Satan's adventures upon earth by wishing that the fame warning voice had been utter'd now at Satan's firft coming, that St. John, who in a vifion faw the Apocalyps or Revelation of the moft remarkable events which were to befall the Chriftian Church to the end of the world, heard when the Dragon (that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan) was put to fecond rout. Rev. XII. 12. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the fea, for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath.

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th' accufer of man-kind,]

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As he is reprefented in that fame chapter of the Revelation, which the poet is ftill alluding to. For the accufer of our brethren is caft down, which accufed them before our God day and night, ver. 10.

Does not this confirm what I have 13. Yet not rejoicing in his speed,] obferved of ver. 741. of the preceding book, and prove that Milton did not intend by it to attribute any sportive motion to Satan for joy that he was fo near his journey's end? Thyer.

No more than II. 1011. But glad that now his fea should find a shore, and III. 740. Sped with hop'd fuccefs,

And like a devilish engin back recoils

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Upon himself; horror and doubt diftract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom ftir
The Hell within him; for within him Hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
One step no more than from himself can fly
By change of place: now confcience wakes defpair
That flumber'd, wakes the bitter memory
Of what he was, what is, and what must be
Worfe; of worfe deeds worfe fufferings muft enfue.
Sometimes towards Eden, which now in his view
Lay pleasant, his griev'd look he fixes fad;
Sometimes towards Heav'n and the full-blazing fun,
Which now fat high in his meridian tower :

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Then much revolving, thus in fighs began.

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O thou that with furpaffing glory crown'd, Look'ft 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; Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless king:

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from whence he fell, and breaks forth into a speech that is soften'd with feveral tranfient touches of

remorfe and felf-accufation: but at length he confirms himself in impenitence, and in his defign of drawing Man into his own state of guilt and mifery. This conflict of paffions is raised with a great deal of art, as the opening of his speech to the fun is very bold and noble. This fpeech is, I think, the finest that is afcribed to Satan in the whole poem. Addifon.

When Milton defign'd to have made only a tragedy of the Paradife Loft, it was his intention to have begun it with the firft ten lines of the following fpeech, which he fhow'd to his nephew Edward Philips and others, as Philips informs us in his account of

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Ah wherefore! he deferv'd no fuch return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his fervice hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompenfe, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up fo high

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I fdeind subjection, and thought one step higher 5›
Would fet me hig'heft, and in a moment quit
The debt immenfe of endless gratitude,

So

into the most execrable acts to accomplish their haughty defigns; which makes our author ftigmatize ambition as a worse fin than pride.

Hume.

the life of his uncle. And what a inordinate defires that break forth noble opening of a play would this have been! The lines were certainly too good to be loft, and the author has done well to employ them here, they could not have been better employ'd any where. Satan is made to addrefs the fun, as it was the most confpicuous part of the creation; and the thought is very natural of addreffing it like the God of this world, when so many of the Heathen nations have worshipped and adored it as fuch.

40. Till pride and worse ambition] Pride is a kind of exceffive and vicious felf-esteem, that raises men in their own opinions above what is juft and right: but ambition is that which adds fuel to this flame, and claps fpurs to thefe furious and

Dr. Bentley reads and curs'd ambition, because he thinks it hard to fay whether pride or ambition is worfe: but Milton feems to mean by pride the vice confider'd in itself, and only as it is the temper of the proud man; and by ambition the vice that carry'd him to aim at being equal with God: and was not this vice the worst of the two? I obferve that Satan always lays the blame on his ambition, as in ver. 61 and 92. Pearce.

50. I fdeind] For difdain'd; an imitation of the Italian fdegnare.

Hume.

The

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