6 6 • also I chearfully granted, for fear of being Father to an Indian Pagod. Hitherto I found her Demandsrose upon every Conceffion; and had the gone on, I had been ruin'ed: But by good Fortune, with her third, which was Peggy, the Height of her Imagination came down to the • Corner of a Venison Pasty, and brought her once even upon her Knees to gnaw off the Ears of a Pig from the • Spit. The Gratifications of her Palate were eafily pre• ferred to those of her Vanity; and sometimesa Partridge or a Quail, a Wheat-Ear, or the Pestle of a Lark, were chearfully purchased; nay, I could be contented tho' I were to feed her with green Pease in April, or Cherries ' in May. But with the Babe she now goes, she is turned • Girl again, and fallen to eating of Chalk, pretending ' 'twill make the Child's Skin white; and nothing will • serve her but I must bear her Company, to prevent its having a Shade of my Brawn: In this however I have • ventur'd to deny her. No longer ago than yesterday, as we were coming to Town, the saw a parcel of Crows • so heartily at Breakfast upon a piece of Horse-flesh, that • she had an invincible Defire to partake with them, and (to my infinite Surprise) begged the Coachman to cut • her off a Slice as if it were for himself, which the Fellow ' did; and as soon as the came home the fell to it with such an Appetite, that she seemed rather to devour than eat • it. What her next Sally will be, I cannot guess: but in • the mean timemy 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 think 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, and most faithful humble Servant, Т. В. 'LET me know whether you think the next Child • will love Horses as much as Molly does China-Ware. T Saturday, No 327. Saturday, March 15. - Major rerum mihi nafcitur ordo. Virg. W E were told in the foregoing Book how the evil order to inspire her with Thoughts of Vanity, Pride, and Ambition. The Author, who shews a wonderful Art throughout his whole Poem, in preparing the Reader for the several Occurrences that arife in it, founds, upon the above-mention'd Circumstance, the first Part of the fifth Book. Adam upon his awaking finds Eve still afleep, with an unusual Difcomposure in her Looks. The Posture in which he regards her, is defcrib'd with a Tenderness not to be express'd, as the Whifper with which he awakens her, is the fofteft that ever was convey'd to a Lover's Ear. : His wonder was, to find unwaken'd Eve Such whispring awak'd her, but with startled Eye VOL. V. On Adam, whom embracing, thus she spake: B 0 O Sole, in whom my Thoughts find all Repose, I cannot but take notice, that Milton, in the Conferences between Adam and Eve, had his 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 remember'd those two Passages which are spoken on the like Occasion, and fill'd with the same pleasing Images of Nature. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my Love, my Fair one, and come away; for lo the Winter is pat, the Rain is over and gone, the Flowers appear on the Earth, the Time of the finging of Birds is come, and the Voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land. The Fig-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 fee if the Vine flourish, whether the tender Grape appear, and the Pomegranates bud forth. HIS preferring the Garden of Eden to that Held Dalliance with his fair Egyptian Spouse, fhews that the Poet had this delightful Scene in his Mind. EVE's Dream is full of those high Conceits engendring Pride, which, we are told, the Devil endeavoured to instil into her. Of this kind is that Part of it where the fanfies herself awaken'd by Adam in the following beautiful Lines. Why fleep'st thou Eve? now is the pleasant Time, Shadowy Shadowy sets off the Face of things: In vain, AN injudicious Poet would have made Adam talk thro the whole work in such Sentiments as these: But Flattery and Falshood are not the Courtship of Milton's Adam, and could not be heard by Eve in her State of Innocence, excepting only in a Dream produc'd on purpose to taint her Imagination. Other vain Sentiments of the fame kind in this Relation of her Dream, will be obvious to every Reader. Tho' the Catastrophe of the Poem is finely presaged on this Occafion, the Particulars of it are so artfully shadow'd, that they do not anticipate the Story which fol, lows in the ninth Book. I shall only add, that tho' the Vision it self is founded upon Truth, the Circumstances of it are full of that Wildness and Inconfiftency which are natural to a Dream. Adam, conformable to his fuperior Character for Wisdom, instructs and comforts Eve upon this occafion. So chear'd be his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd, THE Morning Hymn is written in Imitation of one of those Pfalms, where, in the overflowings of Gratitude and Praise, the Pfalmift calls not only upon the Angels, but upon the most confpicuous Parts of the inanimate Creation, to join with him in extolling their common Maker. Invocations of this nature fill the Mind with glorious Ideas of God's Works, and awaken that Divine Enthusiasm, which is so natural to Devotion. But if this calling upon the dead Parts of Nature, is at all times a proper kind of Worship, it was in a particular manner fuitable to our first Parents, who had the Creation fresh upon their Minds, and had not seen the various Difpen B2 fations + fations of Providence, nor confequently could be acquainted with those many Topicks of Praise which might afford Matter to the Devotions of their Posterity. I need not remark the beautiful Spirit of Poetry, which runs through this whole Hymn, nor the Holiness of that Refolution with which it concludes. HAVING already mentioned those Speeches which are affigned to the Persons in this Poem, I proceed to the Description which the Poet gives of Raphael. His Departure from before the Throne, and his Flight thro' the Choirs of Angels, is finely imaged. As Milton every where fills his Poem with Circumstances that are marvellous and aftonishing, he describes the Gate of Heaven as framed after such a manner, that it open'd of it felf upon the Approach of the Angel who was to pass through it. 'Till at the Gate Of Heav'n arriv'd, the Gate felf-open'd wide, THE Poet here seems to have regarded two or three Passages in the 18th Iliad, as that in particular, where speaking of Vulcan, Homer says, that he had made twenty Tripodes running on Golden Wheels; which, upon occafion, might go of themselves to the Affembly of the Gods, and, when there was no more Ufe for them, return again after the fame manner. Scaliger has rallied Homer very feverely upon this Point, as M. Dacier has endeavoured to defend it. I will not pretend to determine, whether in this particular of Homer, the Marvellous does not lose fight of the Probable. As the miraculous Workmanship of Milton's Gates is not so extraordinary as this of the Tripodes, so I am perfuaded he would not have mentioned it, had not he been supported in it by a Passage in the Scripture, which speaks of Wheels in Heaven that had Life in them, and moved of themselves, or stood still, in conformity with the Cherubims, whom they accompanied. THERE is no question but Milton had this Circumitance in his Thoughts, because in the following Book he defcribes the Chariot of the Messiah with living Wheels, according to the Plan in Ezekiel's Vifion. Forth |