THIS Speech, is, I think, the finest that is afcribed to Satan in the whole Poem. The Evil Spirit afterwards proceeds to make his Difcoveries concerning our first Parents, and to learn after what Manner they may be beft attacked. His bounding over the Walls of Paradife; his fitting in the Shape of a Cormorant upon the Tree of Life, which stood in the Center of it, and overtopped all the other Trees of the Garden; his alighting among the Herd of Animals, which are fo beautifully reprefented as playing about Adam and Eve; together with his transforming himfelf into different Shapes, in order to hear their Converfation; are Circumftances that give an agreeable Surprize to the Reader, and devised with great Art, to connect that Series of Adventures, in which the Poet has engaged this great Artificer of Fraud.

THE Thought of Satan's Transformation into a Cormorant, and placing himself on the Tree of Life, feems raised upon that Paffage in the Iliad, where two Deities are defcribed, as perching on the Top of an Oak in the Shape of Vultures.

HIS planting himself at the Ear of Eve under the Form of a Toad, in order to produce vain Dreams and Imaginations, is a Circumftance of the fame Nature; as his ftarting up in his own Form is wonderfully fine, both in the literal Description, and in the Moral which is concealed under it. His Answer upon his being difcovered, and demanded to give an Account of himself, is conformable to the Pride and Intrepidity of his Character.

Know ye not then, said Satan, fill'd with Scorn,
Know ye not me ? knew me once no Mate

ye

For you, there fitting where you durft not foar;
Not to know me argues yourselves unknown,
The lowest of your Throng;

ZEPHON's Rebuke, with the Influence it had on Satan, is exquifitely graceful and moral. Satan is

7

afterwards

afterwards led away to Gabriel, the chief of the guardian Angels, who kept Watch in Paradife. His difdainful Behaviour on this Occafion is fo remarkable a Beauty, that the most ordinary Reader cannot but take notice of it. Gabriel's discovering his Approach at a Distance, is drawn with great Strength and Liveliness of Imagination.

O Friends, 1 bear the Tread of nimble Feet
Haffning this Way, and now by Glimple difcern
Ithuriel and Zephon through the Shade;
And with them comes a third of regal Port,
But faded Splendor wan; who by his Gait
And fierce Demeanour feems the Prince of Hell,
Not likely to part hence without Contest;
Stand firm, for in his Look Defiance lours.

THE Conference between Gabriel and Satan abounds with Sentiments proper for the Occafion, and fuitable to the Perfons of the two Speakers. Satan's cloathing himself with Terror, when he prepares for the Combat, is truly fublime, and at leaft equal to Homer's Defcription of Difcord, celebrated by Longinus, or to that of Fame in Virgil, who are both reprefented with their Feet standing upon the Earth, and their Heads reaching above the Clouds.

While thus he fpake, th' Angelic Squadron bright
Turn'd fiery red, sharpning in mooned Horns
Their Phalanx, and began to hem him round
With ported Spears, &c.

On th' other Side, Satan alarm'd,

Collecting all his Might dilated food

Like Teneriff or Atlas unremov'd.

His Stature reach'd the Sky, and on his Creft
Sat Horrour plum'd ;-

I must

I muft here take notice, that Milton is every where full of Hints, and fometimes literal Translations, taken from the greatest of the Greek and Latin Poets. But this I may referve for a Difcourfe by itself, because I would not break the Thread of thefe Speculations, that are defigned for English Readers, with fuch Reflexions as would be of no Ufe but to the Learned.

I must however obferve in this Place, that the breaking off the Combat between Gabriel and Satan, by the hanging out of the golden Scales in Heaven, is a Refinement upo Homer's Thought, who tells us, that before the Battle between Hector and Achilles, Jupiter weighed the Event of it in a Pair of Scales. The Reader may fee the whole Paffage in the 22d Ilad.

VIRGIL, before the last decifive Combat, defcribes Jupiter in the fame Manner, as weighing the Fates of Turnus and Eneas. Milton, though he fetched this beautiful Circumftance from the Iliad and Æneid, does not only infert it as a poetical Embellishment, like the Authors above-mentioned; but makes an artful Ufe of it for the proper carrying on of his Fable, and for the breaking off the Combat between the two Warriors, who were upon the point of engaging. To this we may further add, that Milton is the more juftified in this Paffage, as we find the fame noble Allegory in Holy Writ, where a wicked Prince, fome few Hours before he was affaulted and flain, is faid to have been weighed in the Scales, and to have been found wanting.

I muft here take notice, under the Head of the Machines, that Uriel's gliding down to the Earth upon a Sun-beam, with the Poet's Device to make him defcend, as well in his Return to the Sun, as in his coming from it, is a Prettiness that might have been admired in a little fanciful Poet, but feems below the Genius of Milton. The Defcription of the Hoft of armed Angels walking their nightly Round in Paradise, is of another Spirit;

as that Account of the Hymns, which our firft Parents used to hear them fing in thefe their Midnight-Walks, is altogether divine, and inexpreffibly amufing to the Imagination.

WE are, in the last Place, to confider the Parts which Adam and Eve act in the Fourth Book. The Defcription of them as they first appeared to Satan, is exquifitely drawn, and fufficient to make the fallen Angel gaze upon them with all that Aftonishment, and thofe Emotions of Envy, in which he is represented.

Two of far nobler Shape, erect and tall,
God-like erect, with native Honour clad
In naked Majefty feem'd Lords of all,
And worthy feem'd; for in their Looks divine
The Image of their glorious Maker fhone,
Truth, Wifdom, Sanctitude fevere and pure;
Severe, but in true filial Freedom plac'd :
For Contemplation he and Valour form'd,
For Softnefs foe and fweet attractive Grace;
He for God only, she for God in him :
His fair large Front, and Eye fublime declar'd
Abfolute Rule, and Hyacinthin Locks
Round from his parted Forelock manly hung
Cluftring, but not beneath his Shoulders broad;
She as a Vail down to her flender Waist
Her unadorned golden Treffes wore

Difbevel'd, but in wanton Ringlets wav'd.
So pass'd they naked on, nor fhun'd the Sight
Of God or Angel, for they thought no ill:
So Hand in Hand they pass'd, the loveliest Pair
That ever fince in Love's Embraces met.

THERE

THERE is a fine Spirit of Poetry in the Lines which follow, wherein they are defcribed as fitting on a Bed of Flowers by the Side of a Fountain, amidst a mixed Affembly of Animals.

THE Speeches of thefe two firft Lovers flow equally from Paffion and Sincerity. The Profeffions they make to one another are full of Warmth; but at the fame Time founded on Truth. In a Word, they are

the Gallantries of Paradife.

-When Adam, firft of Men

Sole Partner and fole Part of all these Joys,
Dearer thyself than all ;-

But let us ever praise him, and extol

His Bounty, following our delightful Task,

To prune thofe growing Plants, and tend these Flowers,
Which were it toilfome, yet with thee were fweet.
To whom thus Eve reply'd: O thou for whom
And from whom I was form'd, Flesh of thy Flesh,
And without whom am to no End, my Guide
And Head, what thou haft said is just and right,
For we to him indeed all Praises owe,
And daily Thanks, I chiefly who enjoy
So far the happier Lot, enjoying thee
Preeminent by fo much odds, while thou
Like Confort to thyself canft no where find, &c.

THE remaining Part of Eve's Speech, in which fhe gives an Account of herself upon her firft 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 up 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