any of its Readers, whatever Nation, Country or People he may belong to, not to be related to the Perfons who are the principal Actors in it; but what is ftill infinitely more to its Advantage, the principal Actors in this Poem are not only our Progenitors, but our Reprefentatives. We have an actual Interest in every thing they do, and no less than our utmost Happiness is concerned, and lies at stake in all their Behaviour.

I fhall fubjoin as a Corollary to the foregoing Remark, an admirable Obfervation out of Ariftotle, which hath been very much mifreprefented in the Quotations of fome Modern Criticks. If a Man of perfect and confummate Virtue falls into a Misfortune, it raises · our Pity, but not our Terror, because we do not fear that it may be our own "Cafe, who do not resemble the Suffering Perfon.' But, as that great Philofopher adds, If we fee a Man of Virtues mixt with Infirmities, fall into any Misfortune, it does not only raise our Pity but our Terror; because we are afraid that the like Misfortunes 'may happen to our felves, who refemble the Character of the fuffering Perfon.

I

I fhall take another Opportunity to obferve, that a Perfon of an abfolute and confummate Virtue fhould never be introduced in Tragedy, and fhall only remark in this Place, that the foregoing Observation of Ariftotle, though it may be true in other Occafions, does not hold in this, because in the present Cafe, though the Perfons who fall into Misfortune are of the most perfect and confummate Virtue, it is not to be confidered as what may poffibly be, but what actually is our own Cafe, fince we are embarked with them on the fame Bottom, and must be Partakers of their Happiness or Mifery.

IN this, and fome other very few Inftances, Ariftotle's Rules for Epic Poetry (which he had drawn from his Reflections upon Homer) cannot be fupposed to quadrate exactly with the Heroic Poems which have been made fince his time; fince it is plain his Rules would ftill have been more perfect, could he have perufed the Eneid, which was made fome hundred Years after his Death.

IN my next, I fhall go through other parts of Milton's Poem; and hope that what I fhall there advance, as well

as

as what I have already written, will not only ferve as a Comment upon Milton, but upon Ariftotle.

L

N 274

Monday, January 14.

Audire eft operæ prætium procedere recte
Qui machis non vultis-

I

Hor.

Have upon feveral Occafions (that have occurred fince I firft took into my Thoughts the prefent State of Fornication) weighed with my felf, in behalf of guilty Females, the Impulfes of Flesh and Blood, together with the Arts and Gallantries of crafty Men; and reflect with fome Scorn that moft part of what we in our Youth think gay and polite, is nothing else but an Habit of indulging a Pruriency that way. It will coft fome Labour to bring People to fo lively a Senfe of this, as to recover the manly Modefty in the Behaviour of my Men Readers, and the bafhful Grace in the Faces of my Women: But in all Cafes which come into

De

Debate, there are certain things previoufly to be done before we can have a true Light into the Subject Matter; therefore it will, in the first Place, be neceffary to confider the impotent Wenchers and induftrious Haggs, who are fupplied with, and are conftantly supplying new Sacrifices to the Devil of Luft. You are to know then, if you are fo happy as not to know it already, that the great Havock which is made in the Habitations of Beauty and Innocence, is committed by fuch as can only lay waste and not enjoy the Soil. When you obferve the prefent State of Vice and Virtue, the Offenders are fuch as one would think should have no Impulse to what they are pursuing; as in Bufinefs, you fee fometimes Fools pretend to be Knaves, fo in Pleasure, you will find old Men fet up for Wenchers. This latter fort of Men are the great Bafis and Fund of Iniquity in the kind we are fpeaking of: You fhall have an old rich Man often receive Scrawls from the feveral Quarters of the Town, with Defcriptions of the new Wares in their Hands, if he will please to fend word when he will be waited on. This Interview is contrived, and the Innocent is brought to fuch Indecencies

2

cencies as from time to time banish Shame and raise Defire. With thefe Preparatives the Haggs break their Wards by little and little, 'till they are brought to lofe all Apprehenfions of what fhall befall them in the Poffeffion of younger Men. It is a common Poftscript of an Hagg to a young Fellow whom he invites to a new Woman, She has, I affure you, feen none but old Mr. Such-a-one. It pleases the old Fellow that the Nymph is brought to him unadorned, and from his Bounty the is accommodated with enough to dress her for other Lovers. This is the moft ordinary Method of bringing Beauty and Poverty into the Poffeffion of the Town: But the particular Cafes of kind Keepers, skilful Pimps, and all others who drive a feparate Trade, and are not in the general Society or Commerce of Sin, will require diftinct Confideration. At the fame time that we are thus fevere on the abandoned, we are to represent the Cafe of others with that Mitigation as the Circumftances demand. Calling Names does no Good; to speak worfe of any thing than it deferves, does only take off from the Credit of the Accufer, and has implicitly the Force of an Apology in the behalf of the Per

fon