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So far the happier lot, enjoying thee
Preeminent by fo much odds, while thou

Like confort to thyself can no where find, &c.

The remaining part of Eve's speech, in which the gives an account of herself upon her first creation, and the manner in which she was brought to Adam, is I think as beautiful a paffage as any in Milton, or perhaps in any other poet whatsoever. These paffages are all worked off with fo much art, that they are capable of pleafing the most delicate reader, without offending the most severe.

That day I oft remember, when from sleep, &c.

A poet of lefs judgment and invention than this great author, would have found it very difficult to have filled thefe tender parts of the poem with fentiments proper for a ftate of innocence; to have defcribed the warmth of love, and the profeffions of it, without artifice or hy. perbole; to have made the man speak the most endearing things, without defcending from his natural dignity, and the woman receiving them without departing from the modefty of her character; in a word, to adjust the prerogatives of wisdom and beauty, and make each appear to the other in its proper force and loveliness. This mutual fubordination of the two fexes is wonderfully kept up in the whole poem, as particularly in the fpeech of Eve I have before mentioned, and upon the conclufion of it in the following lines.

So Spake our general mother, and with eyes
Of conjugal attraction unreprov'd,
And meek furrender, half embracing lean'd
On our first father; half her swelling breast
Naked met his under the flowing gold
Of her loofe treffes hid; he in delight
Both of her beauty and fubmiffive charms
Smil'd with fuperior love.

The poet adds, that the devil turn'd away with envy at the fight of fo much happiness.

We have another view of our first parents in their evening difcourfes, which is full of pleafing images and fentiments fuitable to their condition and characters. The

speech

fpeech of Eve, in particular, is dreffed up in fuch a foft and natural turn of words and fentiments, as cannot be fufficiently admired.

I fhall close my reflexions upon this book, with obferving the mafterly tranfition which the poet makes to their evening worship in the following lines.

Thus at their fhady lodge arriv'd, both flood,
Both turn'd, and under open sky, ador'd

The God that made both sky, air, earth, and heav'n,
Which they beheld, the moon's refplendent globe,
And ftarry pole: Thou also mad ft the night,
Maker omnipotent, and thou the day,

c.

Most of the modern heroick poets have imitated the ancients in beginning a speech without premifing, that the person said thus or thus; but as it is easy to imitate the ancients in the omission of two or three words, it requires judgment to do it in fuch a manner as they fhall not be miffed, and that the fpeech may begin naturally without them. There is a fine inftance of this, kind out of Homer, in the twenty-third chapter of Longinus.

L

THE

INDE X.

A

A.

Cademy for politics, Number 305. The regulations of it, &c. ibid.

Admiration, fhort-liv'd, N. 256.

Age. A comfortable old age, the reward of a wellfpent youth, N. 260.

Agreeable man, who, N. 280.

Ambition, never fatisfy'd, N. 256. The end of it, N. 255. The effects of it in the mind, N. 256. Subjects us to many troubles, N. 257. The true object of a laudable ambition, ibid,

Appetites the incumbrances of old age, N. 260. Ariftotle, his definition of an intire action of epic poetry, N. 267. His fenfe of the greatnefs of the action in a poem; his method of examining an epic poem, N. 273. An obfervation of that critic's, ibid. One of the beft logicians in the world, N. 291. His divifion of a poem, N. 297. Another of his obfervations, ibid. His obfervation on the fable of an epic poem,

N. 315

Art of criticism, the Spectator's account of that poem, N. 253.

Audiences, at prefent void of common fenfe, N. 290. Auguftus, his request to his friends at his death, N. 317.

B

B..

EAU's head, the diffection of one, N. 275.

Beauty in a virtuous woman makes her more vir tuous, N. 302.

Bills of mortality, the ufe of them, N. 289.

Boccalini, his animadverfions upon criticks, N. 201.

Cafar,

C

C.

Efar, (Julius) a frequent faying of his, N. 256. Calamities, the merit of fuffering patiently under them, N. 312.

Camillus, his deportment to his fon, N. 263.

Canidia, an antiquated beauty defcribed, N. 301. Capacities of children not duly regarded in their edu cation, N. 307.

Cenfor of marriages, N. 308.

Charity-Schools, great inftances of a publick spirit,

N. 294.

Clavius, proving incapable of any other ftudies, became a celebrated mathematician, N. 307.

Comparisons in Homer and Milton, defended by Monfieur
Boileau against Monfieur Perrault, N. 303.
Coquette's heart diffected, N. 281.

Coverley (Sir Roger de) his return to town, and converfa-
tion with the Spectator in Gray's-Inn walks, N. 269.
His intended generofity to his widow, N. 295.
Courtship, the pleasanteft part of a man's life, N. 261.
Credit undone with a whisper, N. 320.

Criminal love, fome account of the ftate of it, N. 274. Critick, the qualities requifite to a good one, N. 291.

D.

Din paffages in hiftory, N. 289.

Eath; deaths of eminent perfons, the most improv

Decency, nearly related to virtue, Ñ. 292.

Decency of behaviour, generally tranfgreffed, N. 292.
Delicacy; the difference betwixt a true and falfe deli-
cacy, N. 286. The standard of it, ibid.
Dependents, objects of compaffion, N. 282.

Diftreft Mother, a new tragedy, recommended by the
Spectator, N. 290.

E.

Ating, drinking, and fleeping, with the generality of people, the three important articles of life, N. 317. Education; whether the education at a publick school, or under a private tutor, be to be preferred. N. 313. The advantage of a publick education, ibid.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth, (Queen) her medal on the defeat of the Spanish Armada, N. 293.

Emilia, an excellent woman, her character, N. 302. Envy; the abhorrence of envy, a certain note of a great mind, N. 253..

Eyes; the prevailing influence of the eye inftanced in feveral particulars, N. 252.

F

F.

Able of a drop of water, N. 293.

Fame, the difficulty of obtaining and preferving it, N. 255. The inconveniences attending the defire of it, ibid.

Fop, what fort of perfons deferve that character, N. 280. Fortune often unjustly complained of, N. 282. To be controlled by nothing but infinite wifdom, N. 293. Fortune Healers, who they are that fet up for fuch, N. 311. Diftinguished from fortune-hunters, ibid. Fribblers, who, N. 288.

G.

Ifts of fortune, more valued than they ought to be,

GN. 294.

Government, what form of it the most reasonable, N. 287. Gracefulness of action, the excellency of it, N. 292. Greeks and Romans, the different methods obferved by them in the education of their children, N. 313.

H

H.

Omer's excellence in the multitude and variety of his characters, N. 273. He degenerates fometimes into burlesque, N. 279.

Honeycomb (Will) his great infight into gallantry, N. 265. His application to rich widows, N. 311. Hoods, coloured, a new invention, N. 265.

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J Idlenefs, a great diffemper, N. 316.

ANE (Mrs.) a great pickthank, N. 272.

Jefuits their great fagacity in discovering the talent of a

young ftudent, N. 307.

Indolence an enemy to virtue, N. 306

Journal,

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