tions at the Race, and in Feats of Arms, with their Entertainment in the following Lines. Others, with vaft Typhaan Rage more fell, THEIR Mufic is employed in celebrating their own crimin 1 Exploits, and their Difcourfe in founding the unfathomable Depths of Fate, Free will, and Foreknowledge. THE feveral Circumftances in the Defcription of Hell are finely imagined; as the four Rivers which difgorge themselves into the Sea of Fire, the Extremes of Cold and Heat, and the River of Oblivion. The monftrous Animals produced in that infernal World are represented by a fingle Line, which gives us a more horrid Idea of them, than a much longer Description would have done. -Nature breeds, Perverfe, all monftrous, all prodigious Things, Than Fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, THIS Epifode of the fallen Spirits and their Place of Habitation, comes in very happily to unbend the Mind of the Reader from its Attention to the Debate. An ordinary Poet would indeed have fpun out fo many Circumftances to a great Length, and by that Means have weakned, inftead of illuftrated, the principal Fable. THE Flight of Satan to the Gates of Hell is finely imaged. T I have already declared my Opinion of the Allegory concerning Sin and Death, which is however a very finished Piece in its Kind, when it is not confidered as a Part Part of an Epic Poem. The Genealogy of the feveral Perfons is contrived with great Delicacy. Sin is the Daughter of Satan, and Death the Offspring of Sin. The incestuous Mixture between Sin and Death produces thofe Monsters and Hell-hounds which from Time to Time enter into their Mother, and tear the Bowels of her who gave them Birth. These are the Terrors of an evil Conscience, and the proper Fruits of Sin, which naturally rife from the Apprehenfions of Death. This laft beautiful Moral is, I think, clearly intimated in the Speech of Sin, where complaining of this her dreadful Iffue, fhe adds, Before mine Eyes in Oppofition fits, Grim Death thy Son and Foe who fets them on. For want of other Prey, but that he knows I need not mention to the Reader the beautiful Circumftance in the laft Part of this Quotation. He will likewife obferve how naturally the three Perfons concerned in this Allegory are tempted by one common Intereft to enter into a Confederacy together, and how properly Sin is made the Portrefs of Hell, and the only Being that can open the Gates to that World of Tortures. THE defcriptive Part of this Allegory is likewife very strong, and full of fublime Ideas. The Figure of Death, the Regal Crown upon his Head, his Menace of Satan, his advancing to the Combat, the Outcry at his Birth, are Circumftances too noble to be palt over in Silence, and extremely fuitable to this King of Terrors. I need not mention the Juftnefs of Thought which is obferved in the Generation of these several Symbolical Perfons, that Sin was produced upon the first Revolt of Satan, that Death appeared foon after he was caft into Hell, and that the Terrors of Con fcience were conceived at the Gate of this Place of Torments. The Defcription of the Gates is very Poetical, as the opening of them is full of Milton's Spirit. -On a fudden open fly With impetuous Recoil and jarring Sound IN Satan's Voyage through the Chaos there are feveral imaginary Perfons defcribed, as refiding in that immenfe Waste of Matter. This may perhaps be conformable to the taste of thofe Critics who are pleased with nothing in a Poet which has not Life and Manners afcribed to it; but for my own Part, I am pleased most with thofe Paffages in this Defcription which carry in them a greater Measure of Probability, and are fuch as might poffibly have happened. Of this Kind is his first mounting in the Smoke that rifes from the infernal Pit, his falling into a Cloud of Nitre, and the like combuftible Materials, that by their Explofion ftill hurried him forward in his Voyage; his fpringing upward like a Pyramid of Fire, with his laborious Paffage through that Confufion of Element, which the Poet calls The Womb f Nature, and perhaps her Grave. THE Glimmering Light which fhot into the Chaos from the utmoft Verge of the Creation, with the diftant. Difcovery of the Eaith that hung clofe by the Moon, are wonderfully beautiful and poetical. SPEC XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX SPECTATOR, N° 315. Nec deus interfit, nifi dignus vindice nodus H Never prefume to make a Gd appear, Ho But for a Bufinefs worthy of a God. ROSCOMMON. ORACE advises a Poet to confider thoroughly the Nature and Force of his Genius. Miiton feems to have known perfectly well wherein his Strength lay, and has therefore chote a Subject entirely conformable to thofe Talents of which he was Mailer. As his Genius was wonderfully turned to the Sublime, his Subject is the nobleft that could have entred into the Thoughts of Man. Every thing that is truly great and aftonishing, has a Place in it. The whole Syftem of the intellectual World; the Chaos, and the Creation ; Heaven, Earth, and Hell; enter into the Conftitution of his Poem. HAVING in the First and Second Book reprefented the Infernal World with all its Horrors, the Thread of his Fable naturally leads him into the oppofite Regions of Bliss and Glory. IF Milton's Majefty forfakes him any where, it is in thofe Parts of his Poem where the Divine Perfons are introduced as Speakers. One may, I think, ob. serve that the Author proceeds with a kind of Fear and Trembling, whilft he describes the Sentiments of the Almighty. He dares not give his Imagination its full Play, but chufes to confine himfelf to fuch Thoughts as are drawn from the Books of the most Orthodox Divines, and to fuch Expreffions as may be met with in Scripture. The Beauties, therefore, which we are to look for in thefe Speeches, are not of a Poetical Nature, nor fo proper to fill the Mind with Sentiments of Grandeur, as with Thoughts of Devotion. The Paffions, which they are defigned to raise, are a Divine Love and Religious Fear. The particular Beauty of the Speeches in the Third Book, confifts in that Shortnefs and Perfpicuity of Stile, in which the Poet has couched the greatest Myfteries of Chriftianity, and drawn together, in a regular Scheme, the whole Difpenfation of Providence with respect to Man. He has reprefented all the abftrufe Doctrines of Predeftination, Free-will and Grace, as alfo the great Points of Incarnation and Redemption (which naturally grow up in a Poem that treats of the Fall of Man) with great Energy of Expreífion, and in a clearer and ftronger Light than I ever met with in any other Writer. As thefe Points are dry in themselves to the Generality of Readers, the concife and clear Manner in which he has treated them is very much to be admired, as is likewife that particular Art which he has made ufe of, in the interfperfing of all thofe Graces of Poetry, which the Subject was capable of receiving. THE Survey of the whole Creation, and of every thing that is transacted in it, is a Profpect worthy of Omniscience; and as much above that in which Virgil has drawn his Jupiter, as the Chriftian Idea of the Supreme Being is more Rational and Sublime than that of the Heathens. The particular Objects on which he is described to have caft his Eye, are reprefented in the most beautiful and lively Manner. Now had th' Almighty Father from above, High-thron'd above all Height, bent down his Eye, Stood thick as Stars, and from his Sight receiv'd The 7 |