to devour than eat it. What her next sally will be 1 cannot guess ; but in the mean time my request to you is, that if there be any way to come at these wild unaccountable rovings of imagination by reason and argument, you'd speedily afford us your assistance. This exceeds the grievance of pin-money, and I thiuk in every settlement there ought to be a clause inserted, that the father should be answerable for the longings of his daughter. But I shall impatiently expect your thoughts in this matter; and am, " Sir, your most obliged aud " Most faithful humble servant, "T. B. " Let me know whether you think the next child will love horses as much as Molly does china-ware." STEELE. T. No 327. SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1711-12. —Major rerum mihi nascitur ordo. Vieo. Sh. vn. 44. A larger scene of action is display'd. Drteen. We are told in the foregoing book, how the evil spirit practised upon Eve as she lay asleep, in order to inspire her with thoughts of vanity, pride, and ambition. The author, who shows a wonderful art throughout his whole poem, in preparing the reader for the several occurrences that arise in it, founds, upon the above-mentioned circumstance, the first part of the fifth book. Adam upon his awaking finds Eve still asleep, with an unusual discomposure in her looks. The posture in which he regards her is described with a wonderful tenderness, as the whisper with which he awakens her is the softest that ever was conveyed to a lover's ear. " His wonder was, to find nnwaken'd Eve Such whispering wak'd her, but with startled eye ' 0 sole, in whom my thoughts find all repose, I cannot but take notice, that Milton, in the conferences between Adam and Eve, bad bis eye very frequently upon the book of Canticles, in which there is a noble spirit of eastern poetry, and very often not unlike what we meet with in Homer, who is generally placed near the age of Solomon. I think there is no question but the poet in the preceding speech remembered those two passages, which are spoken of on the like occasion, and filled with the same pleasing images of nature.* " My beloved spake, and said unto me, Kise up, my love, my fair one, and come away; for, lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The tig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. " Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud forth." His preferring the garden of Eden to that " Where the sapient king Held dalliance with his fair Egyptian spouse," shows that the poet had the delightful scene in bis mind. Eve's dream is full of those high conceits engendering pride, which, we are told, the devil endeavoured to instil into her. Of this kind is that part of it where she fancies herself awakened Iin Adam, in the following beautiful lines.— " Why sleep'st thou Eve t Now is the pleasant time, Au injudicious poet would have made Adam talk through the whole work in such sentiments as these: but flattery and falsehood • See No. 888. a second life they saw. spoke, leaped, and ran. In affection to him, and admiration of his actions, the crowd could not leave him, but waited near him till they were almost as faint and helpless a6 others they brought for succour. He had compassion on them, and by a miracle supplied their necessities. Oh, the ecstatic entertainment, when they could behold their food immediately increase to the distributor's hand, and see their God in person feeding and refreshing his creatures! Oh envied happiness! But why do I say envied? as if our God did not still preside over our temperate meals, cheerful hours, and innocent conversations. But though the sacred story is every where full of miracles not inferior to this, and though in the midst of those acts of divinity he never gave the least hint of a design to become a secular prince, yet had not hitherto the apostles themselves any other than hopes of worldly power, preferment, riches, and pomp; for Peter, upon an accident of ambition among the apostles, hearing his master explain that his kingdom was not of this world, was so scandalized, that he whom he had so long followed should suffer the ignominy shame and death which he foretold, that he took him aside and said, " Be itfar from thee, Lord; this shall not he unto thee:" for which he suffered a severe reprehension from his Master, as having in his view the glory of man rather than that of God. The great change of things began to draw near, when the Lord of Nature thought lit as a Saviour aud Deliverer, to make his public entry into Jerusalem with more than the power and joy, but none of the ostentation and pomp, of a triumph; he came humble, meek, and lowly: with an unfelt new ecstacy, multitudes strewed his way with garments and olive branches, crying with loud gladness and acclamation, " Hosannah to the son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord !" At this great King's accession to his throne, men were not ennobled, but saved; crimes were not remitted, but sins forgiven. He did not bestow medals, honours, favours; but health, joy, sight, speech. The first object the blind ever saw was, the Author of sight, while the lame ran before, and the dumb repeated the Hosannah. Thus attended, he entered into his own house, the sacred temple, aud by his divine authority expelled traders and worldlings that profaned it; and thus did he for a time use a great and despotic power, to let unbelievers understand that it was not want of, but superiority to, all worldly dominion, that made him not exert it. But is this then the Saviour? Is this the Deliverer? Shall this obscure Nazarene command Israel, and sit on the throne of David ? Their proud and disdainful hearts, which were petrified with the love and pride of this world, were impregnable to the reception of so mean a benefactor, and were now euough exasperated with benefits to conspire his death. Our Lord was sensible of their design, and prepared his disciples for it, by recounting to them now more dis VOL. IH. I tinctly what should befall him; but Peter, with an ungrounded resolution, and in a flush of temper, made a sanguine protestation, that though all men were offended in him, yet would he not be offended. It was a great article of our Saviour's business in the world to bring us to a sense of our inability, without God's assistance, to do anything great and good ; he therefore told Peter, who thought so well of his courage and fidelity, that they would both fail him, and even he should deny him thrice that very night. "But what heart can conceive, what tongue utter the sequel? Who is.that yonder, buffeted, mocked, and spurned? Whom do they drag like a felon ? Whither do they carry my Lord, my King, my Saviour, and my God ? and will he die to expiate these very injuries ? See where they have nailed the Lord and Giver of life! How his wounds blacken, his body writhes, and heart heaves with pity and with agony! Oh almighty sufferer, look down, look down from thy triumphant infamy. Lo, he inclines his head to his sacred bosom ! Hark! he groans! See, he ex Sires! The earth trembles, the temple rends, the rocks burst, tBe ead arise. Which are the quick? Which are the dead? Sure nature, all nature, is departing with her Creator.*" STEELE. T. No. 357. SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1712. Quia talia fando Temperet a lachrymis 1 vino. ss. II. 6. Who can relate such woes without a tear 1 Tue tenth book of " Paradise Lost " has a greater variety of persons in it than any other in the whole poem. The author, upon the winding up of his action, introduces all those who had any concern in it, and shows with great beauty the influence which it had upon each of them. It is like the last act of a well written tragedy, in which all who had a part in it are generally drawn up before the audience, and represented under those circumstances in which the determination of the action places them. I shall therefore consider this book under four heads, in relation to the celestial, the infernal, the human, and the imaginary persons who have their respective parts allotted in it To begin with the celestial persons. The guardian angels of Paradise are described as returning to heaven upon the fall of man, in order to approve their vigilance; their arrival, their man * This last paragraph is a transcript bv Steele from his own " Christian Hero." ner of reception, with the sorrow which appeared in themselves, «nd in those spirits who are said to rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, are very finely laid together in the following lines.— " Up into heav'n from Paradise in haste The same Divine person who, in the foregoing parts of this poem, interceded for our first parents hefore their fall, overthrew the rebel angels, and created the world, is now represented as descending to Paradise, and pronouncing sentence upon the three offenders. The cool of the evening being a circumstance with which holy writ introduces this great scene, it is poetically described by our author, who has also kept religiously to the form of words in which the three several sentences were passed upon Adam, Eve, and the serpent He has rather chosen to neglect the numerousness of his verse, than to deviate from those speeches which are recorded on this great occasion. The guilt and confusion of our first parents, standing naked before their Judge, is touched with great beauty. Upon the arrival of Sin and Death into the works of the creation, the Almighty is again introduced as speaking to his angels that surrounded him.— " See I with what heat these dogs of hell advance The following passage is formed upon that glorious image in holy writ, which compares the voice of an innumerable host of angels, uttering hallelujahs, to the voice of mighty thunderings, or of many waters.— " He ended, and the heav'nly audience loud |