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order to this, he fet before him a fack of wheat as it had been juft threshed out of the fheaf. He then bid him 'pick out the chaff from among the corn, and lay it aside by itself. The critic applied himfelf to the task with great induftry and pleasure, and after having made the due feparation, was prefented by Apollo with the chaff for his pains.

AFTER what I have faid, I shall enter on the fubject without farther preface, and remark the feveral defects which appear in the fable, the characters, the fentiments, and the language of Milton's Paradife Loft; not doubting but the reader will pardon me, if I allege at the fame time whatever may be faid for the extenuation of fuch defects. The firft imperfection which I fhall obferve in the fable is, that the event of it is unhappy.

The fable of every poem is according to Ariftotle's divifion either fimple or implex. It is called fimple when there is no change of fortune in it, implex when the fortune of the chief actor changes from bad to good, or from good to bad. The implex fable is thought the moft perfect; I fuppofe, because it is more proper to ftir up the paffions of the reader, and to furprife him with a greater variety of accidents.

The implex fable is therefore of two kinds: In the firft the chief actor makes his way through a long feries of dangers and difficulties, till he arrives at honor and profperity, as we fee in the ftory of Ulyffes. In the fecond, the chief actor in the poem falls from fome eminent pitch of honor and profperity into mifery and difgrace. Thus we fee

Adam and Eve finking from a ftate of innocence and happiness into the most abject condition of fin and forrow.

The most taking tragedies among the Ancients were built on this laft fort of implex fable, particularly the tragedy of Edipus, which proceeds upon a ftory, if we may believe Aristotle, the moft proper for tragedy that could be invented by the wit of man. I have taken fome pains in a former paper to fhow, that this kind of implex fable, wherein the event is unhappy, is more apt to affect an audience than that of the first kind; notwithstanding many excellent pieces among the Ancients, as well as most of those which have been written of late years in our own country, are raifed upon contrary plans. I muft however own, that I think this kind of fable, which is the moft perfect in tragedy, is not so proper for an heroic poem.

Milton feems to have been fenfible of this imperfection in his fable, and has therefore endevored to cure it by feveral expedients; particularly by the mortification which the great adversary of mankind meets with upon his return to the affembly of infernal Spirits, as it is defcribed in a beautiful paffage of the tenth book; and likewife by the vifion, wherein Adam at the clofe of the poem fees his ofspring triumphing over his great enemy, and himself reftored to a happier Paradife than that from which he fell.

There is another objection against Milton's fable, which is indeed almoft the fame with the former, tho' placed in a different light, namely,

That

Ariftotle, that the author of an he roic poem fhould feldom fpeak himself, but throw as much of his work as he can into the mouths of thofe who are his principal actors. Ariftotle has given no reafon for this precept; but I prefume it is because the mind of the reader is more awed and elevated when he hears Eneas or Achilles fpeak, than when Virgil or Homer talk in their own perfons. Befides that affuming the character of an eminent man is apt to fire the imagination, and raise the ideas of the author. Tully tells us, mentioning his dialogue of old age, in which Cato is the chief fpeaker, that upon a review of it he was agreeably impofed 'upon, and fancied that it was Cato, and not he himself, who uttered his thoughts on that fubject.

That the hero in the Paradife Loft is unfuccessful, and by no means a match for his enemies. This gave occafion to Mr. Dryden's reflection, that the Devil was in reality Milton's hero. I think I have obviated this objection in my firft paper. The Paradife Loft is an epic, or a narrative poem, and he that looks for an hero in it, searches for that which Milton never intended; but if he will needs fix the name of an hero upon any perfon in it, 'tis certainly the Meffiah is the hero, both in the principal action, and in the chief episodes. Paganifm could not furnish out a real action for a fable greater than that of the Iliad or Æneid, and therefore an heathen could not form a higher notion of a poem than one of that kind which they call an heroic. Whether Milton's is not of a sublimer nature I will not prefume to 'determin: It is fufficient that I fhow there is in the Paradife Loft all the greatnefs of plan, regularity of defign, and mafterly beauties which we difcover in Homer and Virgil.

I must in the next place obferve, that Milton has interwoven in the texture of his fable fome particulars which do not feem to have probability enough for an epic poem, particularly in the actions which he afcribes to Sin and Death, and the picture which he draws of the Limbo of Vanity, with other paffages in the fecond book. Such allegories rather favor of the fpirit of Spenfer and Ariofto, than of Homer and Virgil.

In the structure of this poem he has likewife admitted of too many digreffions. It is finely obferved by

If the reader would be at the pains to fee how the story of the Iliad and Æneid is delivered by those perfons who act in it, he will be furprised to find how little in either of these poems proceeds from the authors. Milton has, in the general difpofition of his fable, very finely obferved this great rule; infomuch, that there is fcarce a third part of it which comes from the poet; the rest is spoken either by Adam and Eve, or by fome good or evil Spirit who is engaged either in their deftruction or defense.

From what has been here obferved, it appears, that digreffions are by no means to be allowed of in an epic poem. If the poet, even in the ordinary courfe of his narration, should speak as little as poffible, he fhould certainly never let his narration fleep for the fake of any reflections of his own. I have

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often obferved, with a fecret admiration, that the longeft reflection in the Æneid is in that paffage of the tenth book, where Turnus is represented as dreffing himself in the fpoils of Pallas, whom he had flain. Virgil here lets his fable ftand ftill for the fake of the following remark. "How is the mind of man ignorant of futurity, and "unable to bear profperous for"" tune with moderation? The time "will come when Turnus fhall "with that he had left the body of "Pallas untouched, and curfe the "day on which he dreffed himself "in thefe fpoils." As the great event of the Eneid, and the death of Turnus, whom Eneas flew, because he saw him adorned with the fpoils of Pallas, turns upon this incident, Virgil went out of his way to make this reflection upon it, without which fo fmall a circumftance might poffibly have flipped out of his reader's memory. Lucan, who was an injudicious poet, lets drop his ftory very frequently for the fake of his unneceffary digreffions, or his diverticula, as Scaliger calls them. If he gives us an account of the prodigies which preceded the civil war, he declames upon the occafion, and fhows how much happier it would be for man, if he did not feel his evil fortune before it comes to pafs, and fuffer not only by its real weight, but by the apprehenfion of it. Milton's complaint of his blindness, his panegyric on marriage, his reflections on Adam and Eve's going naked, of the Angels eating, and several other paffages in his poem, are liable to the fame exception, tho' I must confefs there is fo great a

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the fmall infantry

Warr'd on by cranes

Another blemish that appears in fome of his thoughts, is his frequent allufion to heathen fables, which are not certainly of a piece with the divine fubject, of which he treats. I do not find fault with these allufions, where the poet himfelf reprefents them as fabulous, as he does in fome places, but where he mentions them as truths and matters of fact. The limits of my paper will not give me leave to be particular in inftances of this kind: The reader will eafily remark them in his perufal of the poem.

A third fault in his fentiments, is an unneceffary oftentation of learning, which likewife occurs very frequently. It is certain, that both Homer and Virgil were mafters of all the learning of their times, but it fhows itself in their works, after an indirect and concealed manner. Milton feems ambitious of letting us know, by his excurfions on free-will and predestination,

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If, in the last place, we confider Ithe language of this great poet, we muft allow what I have hinted in a former paper, that it is often too much labored, and fometimes obfcured by old words, tranfpofitions, and foreign idioms. Seneca's objection to the ftile of a great author, Riget ejus oratio, nihil in ea placidum, nihil lene, is what many critics make to Milton: As I cannot wholly refute it, fo I have already apologized for it in another paper; to which I may further add, that Milton's fentiments and ideas were fo wonderfully fublime, that it would have been impoffible for him to have reprefented them in their full ftrength and beauty, without having recourfe to these foreign affiftances. Our language funk under him, and was unequal to that greatnefs of foul, which furnifhed him with fuch glorious conceptions. A fecond fault in his language is, that he often affects a kind of jingle in his words, as in the following paffages, and many others:

That brought into this world a
world of woe.

Begirt th' almighty throne
Befeeching or befieging-
This tempted our attempt
At one flight bound high over-leapt
all bound,

of it, and that Ariftotle himself has
given it a place in his Rhetoric a-
mong the beauties of that art. But
as it is in itfelf poor and trifling, it
is I think at prefent univerfally
exploded by all the mafters of po-
lite writing.

I know there are figures for this kind of speech, that fome of the greatest Ancients have been guilty

The laft fault which I fhall take

notice of in Milton's ftile, is the
frequent ufe of what the learned
call technical words, or terms of
art. It is one of the great beauties
of poetry, to make hard things in-
telligible, and to deliver what is
abftruse of itself in fuch eafy lan-
guage as may be understood by or-
dinary readers: Befides that the
knowledge of a poet fhould rather
feem born with him, or infpired,
than drawn from books and fyftems.
I have often wondered, how Mr.
Dryden could tranflate a paffage
out of Virgil, after the following
manner,

Tack to the larboard, and stand
off to fea,
Veer ftar-board fea and land.

Milton makes ufe of larboard in the
fame manner. When he is upon
building, he mentions Doric pillars,
pilafters, cornice, freeze, architrave.
When he talks of heavenly bodies,
you meet with ecliptic, and eccen-
tric, the trepidation, ftars dropping
from the zenith, rays culminating
from the equator. To which might
be added many inftances of the
like kind in feveral other arts and
fciences.

и

I shall in my next papers give an account of the many particular beauties in Milton, which would have been too long to infert under thofe general heads I have already treated of, and with which

"

.

I intend to conclude this piece of parts of the luminous body abovecriticism.

I HAVE feen in the works of a modern philofopher, a map of the fpots in the fun. My laft paper of the faults and blemishes in Milton's Paradife Loft, may be confidered as a piece of the fame na ture. To purfue the allufion: As it is obferved, that among the bright

mentioned, there are fome which glow more intenfely, and dart a ftronger light than others'; fo, notwithstanding I have already shown Milton's poem to be very beautiful in general, I fhall now proceed to take notice of fuch beauties as appear to me more exquisite than the reft.

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