OBSCURE, JINGLING, AND TECHNICAL.

49

drawn from Books and Syftems. I have often wondered how Mr. Dryden could tranflate a Paffage of Virgil after the following manner.

Tack to the Larboard, and fland off to Sea,

Veer Star-board Sea and Land.

Milton makes ufe of Larboard in the fame manner. When he is upon Building, he mentions Doric Pillars, Pilafters, Cornice, Freeze, Architrave. When he talks of Heavenly Bodies, you meet with Eccliptick, and Eccentric, the trepidation, Stars dropping from the Zenith, Rays culminating from the Equator. To which might be added many Inftances of the like kind in several other Arts and Sciences.

I shall in my next Saturday's Paper [Papers] give an Account of the many particular Beauties in Milton, which would have been too long to infert under thofe general Heads I have already treated of, and with which I intend to conclude this Piece of Criticism.

The SPECTATOR.

-volet hæc fub luce videri,

Fudicis argutum quæ non formidat acumen. Hor.

{

-Some choofe the clearest Light,

And boldly challenge the moft piercing Eye. Rofcommon.}

Nature.

Saturday, February 16. 1712.

Have feen in the Works of a Modern Philofopher, a Map of the Spots in the Sun. My laft Paper of the Faults and Blemishes in Milton's Paradife Loft, may be confider'd as a Piece of the fame To pursue the Allufion: As it is obferv'd, that among the bright parts of the Luminous Body above-mentioned, there are some which glow more intensely, and dart a ftronger Light than others; fo, notwithstanding I have already fhewn Milton's Poem to be very beautiful in general, I shall now proceed to take notice of fuch Beauties as appear to me more exquisite than the rest. Milton has proposed the Subject of his Poem in the following Verses.

Of Mans firft difobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whofe mortal tafle
Brought Death into the World and all our woe,
With lofs of Eden, 'till one greater Man
Reftore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Mufe-

These Lines are perhaps as plain, fimple and unadorned as any of the whole Poem, in which particular the Author has conform'd himself to the Example of Homer, and the Precept of Horace.

His Invocation to a Work which turns in a great

measure upon the Creation of the World, is very properly made to the Muse who inspired Mofes in thofe Books from whence our Author drew his Subject, and to the Holy Spirit who is therein represented as operating after a particular manner in the first Production of Nature. This whole Exordium rises very happily into noble Language and Sentiment, as I think the Tranfition to the Fable is exquifitely beautiful and natural.

The nine Days Astonishment, in which the Angels lay entranced after their dreadful Overthrow and Fall from Heaven, before they could recover either the ufe of Thought or Speech, is a noble Circumstance, and very finely imagined. The Division of Hell into Seas of Fire, and into firm Ground impregnated with the fame furious Element, with that particular Circumftance of the exclusion of Hope from those Infernal Regions, are Inftances of the fame great and fruitful Invention.

The Thoughts in the first Speech and Description of Satan, who is one of the principal Actors in this Poem, are wonderfully proper to give us a full Idea of him. His Pride, Envy and Revenge, Obstinacy, Despair and Impenitence, are all of them very artfully interwoven. In short, his first Speech is a Complication of all thofe Paffions which discover themselves separately in feveral other of his Speeches in the Poem. The whole part of this great Enemy of Mankind is filled with fuch Incidents as are very apt to raise and terrifie the Reader's Imagination. Of this Nature, in the Book now before us, is his being the first that awakens out of the general Trance, with his Posture on the burning Lake, his rifing from it, and the Description of his Shield and Spear.

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate,
With head up-lift above the wave, and eyes
That fparkling blazed, his other parts befide
Prone on the Flood, extended long and large,

Lay floating many a rood

Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool
His mighty Stature; on each hand the flames
Driv'n backward flope their pointing Spires, and rowl'd
In Billows, leave i' th' midst a horrid vale.
Then with expanded wings he fteers his flight
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky Air
That felt unufual weight-

-His pondrous Shield

Ethereal temper, maffie, large and round
Behind him caft; the broad circumference
Hung on his Shoulders like the Moon, whofe orb
Thro' Optick Glafs the Tuscan Artists view
At Ev'ning from the top of Fefole,
Or in Valdarno to defery new Lands,
Rivers or Mountains on her fpotty Globe.
His Spear to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian Hills to be the Maft
Of fome great Ammiral, were but a wand
He walk'd with to fupport uneafie Steps
Over the burning Marl-

To which we may add his Call to the fallen Angels that lay plunged and stupified in the Sea of Fire,

He call'd fo loud, that all the hollow deep

Of Hell refounded

But there is no fingle Paffage in the whole Poem worked up to a greater Sublimity, than that wherein his Perfon is described in those celebrated Lines:

He, above the reft

In fhape and gefture proudly eminent
Stood like a Tower, &c.

His Sentiments are every way answerable to his Character, and are* fuitable to a created Being of the most exalted and most depraved Nature. Such is that in which he takes Poffeffion of his Place of Torments.

-Hail Horrors, hail

Infernal World, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Poffeffor, one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
And afterwards,

Here at leaft

We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign fecure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, tho' in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven.

Amidst those Impieties which this Enraged Spirit utters in other Places of the Poem, the Author has taken care to introduce none that is not big with abfurdity, and incapable of shocking a Religious Reader; his Words, as the Poet himself describes them, bearing only a femblance of Worth, not Subflance. He is likewife with great Art described as owning his Adverfary to be Almighty. Whatever perverfe Interpretation he puts on the Juftice, Mercy, and other Attributes of the Supreme Being, he frequently confeffes his Omnipotence, that being the Perfection he was forced to allow him, and the only Confideration which could fupport his Pride under the Shame of his Defeat.

Nor must I here omit that beautiful Circumstance of his bursting out in Tears, upon his Survey of those innumerable Spirits whom he had involved in the fame Guilt and Ruin with himself.

-He now prepared

To fpeak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half enclofe him round
With all his Peers: Attention held them mute.
Thrice he affay'd, and thrice in fpite of Scorn
Tears fuch as Angels weep, burft forth

The Catalogue of Evil Spirits has a great deal [Abundance] of Learning in it, and a very agreeable turn of