fort of cupping, and tell them at the fame time the ha⚫zard of treating with night-walkers, you will perhaps • oblige others, as well as Your very humble Servant, Jack Lightfoot. P. S. My friend will have me acquaint you, That though he would not willingly detract from the merit ⚫of that extraordinary ftrokes-man Mr. Sprightly, yet it is his real opinion, that fome of those fellows, who are employ'd as rubbers to this new fashioned bagnio, have ftruck as bold ftrokes as ever he did in his life. I had fent this four and twenty hours fooner, if I had not had the misfortune of being in a great doubt about the orthography of the word bagnio. I con• fulted several dictionaries, but found no relief; at last having recourfe both to the bagnio in Newgate-ftreet, and to that in Chancery-lane, and finding the original -manufcripts upon the fign pofts of each to agree literally with my own fpelling, I returned home, full of fatisfaction, in order to difpatch this epiftle. Mr. SPECTATOR, A S you have taken moft of the circumstances of human life into your confideration, we the under-written thought it not improper for us also to reprefent to you our condition. We are three ladies who live in the country, and the greatest improvements we make is by reading. We have taken à small journal of our lives, and find it extremely oppofite to your last Tuesday's fpeculation. We rife by feven, and pafs the beginning of each day in devotion, and looking into thofe affairs that fall within the occurrences of a retired life; in the afternoon we fometimes enjoy the company of fome friend or neighbour, or else work or read; at night we retire to our chambers, and take leave of each other for the whole night at ten o'clock. • We take particular care never to be fick of a Sunday. Mr. SPECTATOR, we are all very good maids, but are ambitious of characters which we think more lau⚫dable, that of being very good wives. If any of your ⚫ correfpondents inquire for a fpoufe for an honeft coun try try gentleman, whofe eftate is not dipped, and wants a wife that can fave half his revenue, and yet make a better figure than any of his neighbours of the fame eftate, with finer bred women, you shall have further ⚫ notice from, WE E are now entring upon the fixth book of Paradife Loft, in which the poet defcribes the battle of angels; having raifed his readers expectation, and prepared him for it by feveral paffages in the preceding books. I omitted quoting thefe paffages in my obfervations on the former books, having purposely referved them for the opening of this, the fubject of which gave occafion to them. The author's imagination was fo inflamed with this great fcene of action, that where ever he speaks of it, he rifes if poffible, above himself. Thus where he mentions Satan in the beginning of his poem. Him the almighty Power Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' ethereal fes, We have likewife feveral noble hints of it in the in fernal conference. VOL. V. O prince! O chief of many throned porers, Of heav'n receiv'd us falling: and the thunder, There are feveral other very fublime images on the fame fubject in the first book, as alfo in the fecond. What when we fled amain, purfu'd and firook In short, the poet never mentions any thing of this battle, but in fuch images of greatnefs and terror as are fuitable to the fubject. Among feveral others I cannot forbear quoting that paffage, where the Power, who is defcribed as prefiding over the chaos, fpeaks in the fecond book. Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old, Made head against heav'n's King, tho' overthrown. With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, Confufion worfe confounded; and heav'n gates It requir'd great pregnancy of invention, and ftrength of imagination, to fill this battle with fuch circumstances as every as fhould raise and aftonish the mind of the reader; and at the fame time an exactnefs of judgment, to avoid thing that might appear light or trivial. Those who look into Homer, are furpris'd to find his battles ftill rifing one above another, and improving in horror to the conclufion of the Iliad. Milton's fight of angels is wrought up with the fame beauty. It is ufher'd in with fuch figns of wrath as are fuitable to Omnipotence incenfed. The firft engagement is carried on under a cope of fire, occafioned by the flights of innumerable burning darts and arrows which are difcharged from either hoft. The fe cond onfet is ftill more terrible, as it is filled with thofe artificial thunders, which feem to make the victory doubtful, and produce a kind of confternation even in the good angels. This is followed by the tearing up of mountains and promontories; till in the laft place the Meffiah comes forth in the fulness of majesty and terror. The pomp of his appearance amidst the roarings of his thunders, the flashes of his lightnings, and the noife of his chariot-wheels, is defcrib'd with the utmost flights of human imagination. There is nothing in the first and last day's engagement which does not appear natural, and agreeable enough to the ideas most readers would conceive of a fight between two armies of angels. The fecond day's engagement is apt to ftartle an imagination, which has not been raifed and qualify'd for fuch a defcription, by the reading of the ancient poets, and of Homer in particular. It was certainly a very bold thought in our author, to afcribe the firft ufe of artillery to the rebel angels. But as fuch a pernicious invention may be well fuppos'd to have proceeded from fuch authors, fo it enters very properly into the thoughts of that being, who is all along defcrib'd as afpiring to the majefty of his Maker. Such engines were the only inftruments he could have made use of to imitate those thunders, that in all poetry, both facred and profane, are reprefented as the arms of the Almighty. The tearing up the hills was not altogether fo daring. a thought as the former. We are, in fome measure, prepared for fuch an incident by the defcription of the giants war, which we meet with among the ancient C 2 poets, poets. What ftill made this circumftance the more proper for the poet's ufe, is the opinion of many learned men, that the fable of the giants war, which makes fo great a noife in antiquity, and gave birth to the fublimeft defcription in Hefiod's works, was an allegory founded upon this very tradition of a fight between the good and bad angels. It may, perhaps, be worth while to confider with what judgment Milton, in this narration, has avoided every thing that is mean and trivial in the defcriptions of the Latin and Greek poets; and at the fame time improved every great hint which he met with in their works upon this fubject. Homer in that paffage, which Longinus has celebrated for its fublimeness, and which Virgil and Ovid have copied after him, tells us, that the giants threw Offa upon Olympus, and Pelion upon Offa. He adds an epithet to Pelion (tivoσíquaλor) which very much fwells the idea, by bringing up to the readers imagination all the woods that grew upon it. There is further a greater beauty in his fingling out by names thefe three remarkable mountains, fo well known to the Greeks. This laft is fuch a beauty, as the fcene of Milton's war could not poffibly furnish him with. Claudian, in his fragment upon the giants war, has given full fcope to that wildnefs of imagination which was natural to him. He tells us that the giants tore up whole islands by the roots, and threw them at the Gods. He defcribes one of them in particular taking up Lemnos in his arms, and whirling it to the skies, with all Vulcan's fhop in the midft of it. Another tears up mount Ida, with the river Enipeus, which ran down the fides of it; but the poet, not content to defcribe him with this mountain upon his fhoulders, tells us that the river flowed down his back, as he held it up in that pofture. It is vifible to every judicious reader, that fuch ideas favour more of burlefque, than of the sublime. They proceed from a wantonnefs of imagination, and rather, divert the mind than astonish it. Milzon has taken every thing that is fublime in these feveral paffages, and compofes out of them the following great image. From |