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poem of epic form, where the fublimeft moral inftruction is fo forcibly and abundantly united to poetical delight the fplendor of the poet does not blaze, indeed, fo intenfely as in his larger production; here he resembles the Apollo of Ovid, foftening his glory in speaking to his fon, and avoiding to dazzle the fancy, that he may descend into the heart. His dignity is not impaired by his tenderness. The Paradife Regained is a poem, that deferves to be peculiarly recommended to ardent and ingenuous yonth, as it is admirably calculated to inspire that spirit of felf-command, which is, as Milton esteemed it, the trueft heroism, and the triumph of christianity.

It is not my intention to enter into a critical analysis of the beauties and the blemishes that are visible in the poetry of Milton, not only becaufe Addison and Johnson have both written admirably on his greatest work, but because my most excellent friend, the poet (whose spirit I efteem moft congenial to that of Milton) is engaged in fuch illuftration of his honored predeceffor; I fhall therefore confine myself to a fingle effay, detached from this narrative, under the title of "Conjectures on the Origin of the Paradife Loft."

I must not, however, omit to speak here, as I have engaged to do, of the character beftowed by Johnson on the principal performance of the poet; the greatest part of that character is, perhaps, the moft fplendid tribute that was ever paid

by one powerful mind to another. Ariftotle, Longinus, and Quintilian, have not spoken of their favorite Homer with more magnificence of praise; yet the character, taken altogether, is a golden image, that has lower parts of iron and of clay. The critic feems to prepare a diadem of the richest jewels; he places them, moft liberally, on the head of the poet; but in the moment of adjusting his radiant gift, he breathes upon it such a vapor of spleen, as almoft annihilates its luftre.

After difplaying, in the nobleft manner, many of the peculiar excellencies in the poem, he fays, "its perufal is a duty rather than a pleasure; we read Milton for inftruction, retire haraffed and overburdened, and look elsewhere for recreation; we desert our mafter, and feek for companions.

Injurious as thefe remarks are to the poet, let us afcribe them, not to the virulence of intended detraction, but to the want of poetical fenfibility in the critic; a want that may be fufficiently proved, by comparing this account of the effect produced by Paradife Loft on his own feelings with its effect on a fpirit truly poetical. That enchanting poem, The Tafk, very happily furnishes fuch an illuftration; it is thus that a mind attuned by nature to poetry describes the effect in question, as produced even in childhood.

Then Milton had indeed a poet's charms
New to my tafte; his Paradise furpaffed

The struggling efforts of my boyish tongue
To fpeak its excellence: I danc'd for joy."

But the little delight that Johnson confeffes himself to have taken in the poetry of Milton was rather his misfortune than his fault; it merits pity more than reproach, as it partly arofe from conftitutional infelicity, and the very wide difference between the native turn of his mind and that of the poet : never were two spirits less congenial, or two chriftian scholars, who differed more completely in their fentiments of poetry, politics, and religion. In temperament, as well as in opinions, they were the reverse of each other; the one was fanguine to excefs, the other melancholy in the extreme. Milton

"Might fit in the centre and enjoy bright day;"

but Johnson,

"Benighted walk'd under the mid-day fun;
"Himself was his own dungeon. J

Such was the great contraft between these two extraordinary men, that although they were both equally fincere in their attachment to chriftianity, and both distinguished by noble intellectual exertions in the service of mankind, the critic was naturally difqualified from being a fair and a perfect judge of the poet. My regard for a departed

and meritorious writer (of great powers, but conftitutionally unhappy) is fuch, that I would rather ascribe to any caufe, than to mere envious malignity, his outrages against the poetical glory of Milton, which from the force and celebrity of the very admirable but too auftere work that contains them, it becomes the duty of a more recent biographer to expofe.

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For example, when Johnson fays that Milton "wrote no language, but formed a Babylonish dialect, harsh and barbarons," though it would be difficult to pronounce a critical cenfure more bitter or more injurious, we may impute it, not to a malevolent defire of depreciating the poet, but to a natural want of ear for that harmony, which the critic condemns as difcord. On this article, the most harmonious of our bards has been very happily vindicated by men of science and taste. Dr. Fofter and Lord Mon-' boddo have fhown Milton to be one of the most confummate artificers of language, that ever gave either energy or grace to words; and Mr. Loft, in the preface to his recent edition of Paradife Loft, defcribes the majestic flow of his numbers with fuch truth and eloquence, as render ample juftice to the infulted dignity of the poet.

The infult, grofs as it may be thought, loses much of its force when we recollect the inconfiftency of the critic, who, though in his latter work he condemns the language of Milton as harfh and barbarous, had before obferved, with

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more truth, in the Rambler, that the poet celled as much in the lower as in the higher parts of his art, and that his skill in harmony was not less than his invention or his learning;" but the praise as well as the cenfure of Johnson, on this article, could not be the refult of perfect perception, for the monotony of his own blank verfe, and fome of his remarks in the Rambler on particular lines of Milton, are ftriling proofs, that although he was a melodious writer himself in the common measures of rhyme, and in dignified profe, yet he never entered with perfect intelligence and feeling into the mufical graces of Miltonic compofition; he was, indeed, as far from enjoying the poct's ear for the varied modulation and extenfive compafs of metrical harmony, as he was from poffeffing the mild elegance of his manners, or the cheerful elevation of his mind.

There is a ftriking resemblance between the poetical and the moral character of Milton; they were both the refult of the fineft difpofitions for the attainment of excellence that nature could bestow, and of all the advantages that ardor and perfeverance in ftudy and difcipline could add, in a long course of years, to the beneficent prodigality of nature even in infancy he difcovered a paffion for glory; in youth he was attached to temperance; and, arriving at manhood, he formed the magnanimous defign of building a lofty name upon the moft folid and fecure foundation.