Boffu is of opinion that the poet's first work is to find a moral, which his fable is afterwards to illustrate and establish. This feems to have been the process only of Milton; the moral of other poems is incidental and confequent; in Milton's only it is effential and intrinfic. His purpose was the most useful and the most arduous; to vindicate the ways of God to man; to fhew the reasonableness of religion, and the ncceffity of obedience to the Divine Law.

To convey this moral there must be a fable, a narration artfully conftructed, fo as to excite curiofity, and furprise expectation. In this part of his work, Milton must be confeffed to have equalled every other poet. He has involved in his account of the Fall of Man the events which preceded, and those that were to follow it he has interwoven the whole fyftem of theology with fuch propriety, that every part appears to be neceffary; and scarcely any recital is wished shorter for the fake of quickening the progrefs of the main action.

The fubject of an epick poem is naturally an event of great importance. That of Milton is not the destruction of a city, the conduct of a colony, or the foundation of an empire. His fubject is the fate of worlds, the revolutions of heaven and earth; rebellion against the Supreme King, raised by the highest order of created beings; the overthrow of their hoft, and the punishment of their crime; the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures; their original happiness and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality, and their restoration to hope and peace.

P 2

Great

Great events can be haftened or retarded only by perfons of elevated dignity. Before the greatnefs difplayed in Milton's poem, all other greatnefs fhrinks away. The weakest of his agents are the higheft and noblest of human beings, the original parents of mankind; with whofe actions the elements confented; on whofe rectitude, or deviation of will, depended the state of terreftrial nature, and the condition of all the future inhabitants of the globe.

Of the other agents in the

poem, the chief are fuch as it is irreverence to name on flight occafions. The reft were lower powers; of which the least could wield

Those elements, and arm him with the force Of all their regions.

powers, which only the controul of Omnipotence restrains from laying creation waste, and filling the vast expanfe of space with ruin and confufion. To difplay the motives and actions of beings thus fuperiour, fo far as human reafon can examine them, or human imagination represent them, is the task which this mighty poet has undertaken and performed.

In the examination of epick poems much fpeculation is commonly employed upon the characters. The characters in the Paradife Loft, which admit of examination, are those of angels and of man; of angels good and evil; of man in his innocent and finful ftate.

Among the angels, the virtue of Raphael is mild and placid, of eafy condefcenfion and free communication; that of Michael is regal and lofty, and, as may feem, attentive to the dignity of his own nature. Abdiel and Ga

briel appear occafionally, and act as every incident requires; the folitary fidelity of Abdiel is very amiably painted.

Of the evil angels the characters are more diverfified. To Satan, as Addison obferves, such sentiments are given as fuit the most exalted and most depraved being. Milton has been cenfured, by Clarke, for the impiety which fometimes breaks from Satan's mouth. For there are thoughts, as he justly remarks, which no observation of character can justify, because no good man would willingly permit them to pass, however tranfiently, through his own mind. To make Satan speak as a rebel, without any fuch expreffions as might taint the reader's imagination, was indeed one of the great difficulties in Milton's undertaking, and I cannot but think that he has extricated himself with great happiness, There is in Satan's speeches little that can give pain to a pious ear. The language of rebellion cannot be the fame with that of obedience, The malignity of Satan foams in haughtiness and obftinacy; but his expreffions are commonly general, and no otherwise offensive than as they are wicked.

The other chiefs of the celeftial rebellion are very judiciously discriminated in the first and fecond books; and the ferocious character of Moloch appears, both in the battle and the council, with exact confistency.

To Adam and to Eve are given, during their innocence, fuch fentiment as innocence can generate and utter. Their love is pure benevolence and mutual veneration; their repafts are without luxury, and their diligence

without

without toil. Their addreffes to their Maker have little more than the voice of admiration and gratitude. Fruition left them nothing to afk, and Innocence left them nothing to fear.

But with guilt enter diftruft and difcord, mutual accufation, and stubborn felf-defence; they regard each other with alienated minds, and dread their Creator as the avenger of their tranfgreffion. At laft they feek shelter in his mercy, foften to repentance, and melt in fupplication. Both before and after the Fall, the fuperiority of Adam is diligently sustained.

Of the probable and the marvellous, two parts of a vulgar epick poem, which immerge the critick in deep confideration, the Paradife Loft requires little to be faid. It contains the hiftory of a miracle of Creation and Redemption; it difplays the power and the mercy of the Supreme Being; the probable therefore is marvellous, and the marvellous is probable. The fubftance of the narrative is truth; and as truth allows no choice, it is, like neceffity, fuperior to rule. To the accidental or adventitious parts, as to every thing human, fome flight exceptions may be made. But the main fabrick is immovably fupported.

It is juftly remarked by Addison, that this poem has, by the nature of its fubject, the advantage above all others, that it is univerfally and perpetually interefting. All mankind will, through all ages, bear the fame rélation to Adam and to Eve, and muft partake of that good and evil which extend to themfelves.

Of the machinery, fo called from ☺tós a'ñó xas, by which is meant the occafional inter

pofition

pofition of fupernatural power, another fertile topick of critical remarks, here is no room to fpeak, because every thing is done under the immediate and visible direction of Heaven; but the rule is fo far obferved, that no part of the action could have been accomplished by any other means.

Of epifodes, I think there are only two, contained in Raphael's relation of the war in heaven, and Michael's prophetick account of the changes to happen in this world. Both are closely connected with the great action; one was neceffary to Adam as a warning, the other as a confolation.

To the compleatnefs or integrity of the defign nothing can be objected; it has diftinctly and clearly what Ariftotle requires, a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is perhaps no poem, of the fame length, from which fo little can be taken without apparent mutilation. Here are no funeral games, nor is there any long defcription of a fhield. The fhort digreffions at the beginning of the third, feventh, and ninth books, might doubtless be fpared; but fuperfluities fo beautiful, who would take away? or who does not wifh that the author of the Iliad had gratified fucceeding ages with a little knowledge of himself? Perhaps no paffages are more frequently or more attentively read than thofe extrinfick paragraphs; and, fince the end of poetry is pleasure, that cannot be unpoetical with which all are pleafed.

The queftions, whether the action of the poem be strictly one, whether the poem can be properly termed heroick, and who is the hero,