o'er the furface of the earth by an uniform fwimming of the whole body. The reader may observe with how poetical a defcription Milton has attributed the fame kind of motion to the angels who were to take possesfion of Paradife. So fpake our mother Eve, and Adam beard Ris'n from a river, o'er the marish glides, The author helped his invention in the following paffage, by reflecting on the behaviour of the angel, who, in holy writ, has the conduct of Lot and his family. The circumftances drawn from that relation are very gracefully made ufe of on this occafion. In either hand the bafining angel caught The fcene which our first parents are furprised with, upon their looking back on Paradife, wonderfully ftrikes the reader's imagination, as nothing can be more natural than the tears they fhed on that occafion. They looking back, all th' eaftern fide beheld Some natural tears they dropp'd, but wip'd them foon ;. If If I might prefume to offer at the smallest alteration in this divine work, I fhould think the poem would end better with the paffage here quoted, than with the two verfes which follow: They hand in hand, with wand'ring steps and flow, These two verfes, though they have their beauty, fall very much below the foregoing paffage, and renew in the mind of the reader that anguish which was pretty well laid by that confideration; The world was all before them, where to choose The number of books in Paradife Loft is equal to thofe of the Æneid. Our author in his first edition had divided his poem into ten books, but afterwards broke the feventh and eleventh each of them into two dif ferent books by the help of fome fmall additions. This fecond divifion was made with great judgment, as any one may fee who will be at the pains of examining it. It was not done for the fake of fuch a chimerical beauty as that of refembling Virgil in this particular, bus for the more juft and regular difpofition of this great work. Those who have read Bou, and many of the critics who have written fince his time, will not pardon me if I do not find out the particular moral which is inculcated in Paradife Loft. Though I can by no means think with the laft mentioned French author, that an epic writer first of all pitches upon a certain moral, as the ground-work and foundation of his poem, and afterwards finds out a story to it: I am, however, of opinion, that no juft heroic poem ever was or can be made, from whence one great moral may not be deduced. That, which reigns in Milton, is the most univerfal and most ufeful that can be imagined: It is in fhort this, That obedience to the Will of God makes men happy, and that dif obedience makes them miferable. This is vifibly the moral of the principal fable, which turns upon Adam and Eve, who who continued in Paradife, while they kept the command that was given them, and were driven out of it as foon as they had tranfgreffed. This is likewife the moral of the principal epifode, which fhews us how an innumerable multitude of angels fell from their ftate of blifs, and were caft into hell upon their dif obedience. Befides this great moral, which may be looked upon as the foul of the fable, there are an infinity of under morals which are to be drawn from the feveral parts of the poem, and which makes this work more ufeful and inftructive than any other poem in any language. Those who have criticifed on the Odyfey, the Iliad, and Eneid, have taken a great deal of pains to fix the number of months and days contained in the action of each of those poems. If any one thinks it worth his while to examine this particular in Milton, he will find that from Adam's first appearance in the fourth book, to his expulfion from Paradife in the twelfth, the author reckons ten days. As for that part of the action which is defcribed in the three first books, as it does not pafs within the regions of nature, I have before observed that it is not subject to any calculations of time. I have now finished my obfervations on a work which does an honour to the English nation. I have taken a general view of it under thefe four heads, the fable, the characters, the fentiments, and the language, and made each of them the fubject of a particular paper. I have in the next place spoken of the cenfures which our author may incur under each of thefe heads, which I have confined to two papers, though I might have enlarged the number, if I had been difpofed to dwell on fo ungrateful a fubject. I believe, however, that the fevereft reader will not find any little fault in heroic poetry, which this author has fallen into, that does not come under one of those heads among which I have diftributed his feveral blemithes After having thus treated at large of Paradife Loft, I could not think it fufficient to have celebrated this poem in the whole, without defcending to particulars. I have therefore bestowed a paper upon each each book, and endeavoured not only to prove that the poem is beautiful in general, but to point out its particular beauties, and to determine wherein they confift. I have endeavoured to fhew how fome paffages are beautified by being fublime, others by being foft, others by being natural; which of them are recommended by the paffion, which by the moral, which by the fenti ment, and which by the expreffion. I have likewife endeavoured to fhew how the genius of the poet fhines by a happy invention, a diftant allufion, or a judicious imitation; how he has copied or improved Homer or Virgil, and raifes his own imaginations by the ufe which he has made of feveral poetical paffages in fcripture. I might have inferted alfo feveral paffages in Taffo, which our author has imitated; but as I do not look upon Tao to be a fufficient voucher, I would not perplex my reader with fuch quotations, as might do more honour to the Italian than the English poet. In short, I have endeavour'd to particularize thofe innumerable kinds of beauty, which it would be tedious to recapitulate, but which are effential to poetry, and which may be met with in the works of this great au thor. Had I thought, at my firft engaging in this defign, that it would have led me to fo great a length, I believe I fhould never have entered upon it; but the kind reception which it has met with among thofe whose judgments I have a value for, as well as the uncommon demands which my bookfeller tells me have been made for thefe particular difcourfes, give me no reafon to repent of the pains I have been at in compofing them, Monday N° 370 Monday, May 5. M Totus mundus agit hiftrionem. ANY of my fair readers, as well as very gay and well-received perfons of the other fex, are extremely perplexed at the Latin fentences, at the head of my fpeculations; I do not know whether I ought not to indulge them with tranflations of each of them: However, I have to day taken down from the top of the ftage in Drury-Lane a bit of Latin which often ftands in their view, and fignifies that The whole world acts the player. It is certain that if we look all round us, and behold the different employments of mankind, you hardly fee one who is not, as the player is, in an affum'd character. The lawyer, who is vehement and loud in a caufe wherein he knows he has not the truth of the question on his fide, is a player as to the perfonated part, but incomparably meaner than he as to the proftitution of himself for hire; because the pleader's falfhood introduces injuftice, the player feigns for no other end but to divert or inftruct you. The divine, whofe paffions tranfport him to fay any thing with any view but promoting the interefts of true piety and religion, is a player with a ftill greater imputation of guilt, in proportion to his depreciating a character more facred. Confider all the different purfuits and employments of men, and you will find half their actions tend to nothing elfe but difguife and impofture; and all that is done which proceeds not from a man's very felf is the action of a player. For this reafon it is that I make fo frequent mention of the ftage: It is, with me, a matter of the highest confideration what parts are well or ill performed, what paffions or fentiments are indul ged or cultivated, and confequently what manners and cuftoms are transfus'd from the ftage to the world, which |