253 PARADISE LOST. For that warning voice, which he who faw Thofe, who know how many volumes have been written on the poems of Homer and Virgil, will eafily pardon the length of my difcourfe upon Milton. The Paradife Loft is looked upon, by the beft judges, as the greateft production, or at leaft the nobleft work of genius in our language, and therefore deferves to be fet before an English reader in its full beauty. For this reafon, tho' I have endevor'd to give a general idea of its graces and imperfections in my fix firft papers, I thought myself obliged to bestow one upon every book in particular. The three first books I have already difpatched, and am now entring upon the fourth. I need not acquaint my reader that there are multitudes of beauties in this great author, efpecially in the descriptive parts of his poem, which I have not touched upon, it being my intention to point out thofe only, which appear to me the most exquifite, or thofe which are not fo obvious to ordinary readers. Every one that has read the critics who have written upon the Odyssey, the Iliad, and the Eneid, knows very well, that Then though they agree in their opinions of the great beauties in thofe poems, they have nevertheless each of them difcovered feveral masterftrokes, which have efcaped the obfervation of the reft. In the fame manner, I question not, but any writer who fhall treat of this fubject after me, may find feveral beauties in Milton, which I have not taken notice of. I must likewife obferve, that as the greatet mafters of critical learning differ among one another, as to fome particular points in an epic poem, I have not bound myself fcrupuloufly to the rules which any one of them has laid down upon that art, but have taken the liberty fometimes to join with one, and fometimes with another, and fometimes to differ from all of them, when I have thought that the reafon of the thing was on my fide. Addifon. 1. O for that warning voice, &c.] The poet opens this book with a wifh in the manner of Shakefpcar, O for a Mufe of fire &c. Prolog, to Henry V. O for a fulkner's nice &c. Romeo and Juliet, A& II. and in order to raife the horror and at Bb 3 Then when the Dragon, put to fecond rout, Came furious down to be reveng'd on men, Woe to th' inhabitants on earth! that now, While time was, our first parents had been warn'd Of that first battel, and his flight to Hell: tention of his reader, introduces his relation of Satan's adventures upon earth by wishing that the fame warning voice had been utter'd now at Satan's firft coming, that St. John, who in a vifion faw the Apocalyps or Revelation of the moft remarkable events which were to befall the Chriftian Church to the end of the world, heard when the Dragon (that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan) was put to fecond rout. Rev. XII. 12. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the fea, for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath. 10. th' accufer of man-kind,] 5 15 And As he is reprefented in that fame chapter of the Revelation, which the poet is ftill alluding to. For the accufer of our brethren is caft down, which accufed them before our God day and night, ver. 10. Does not this confirm what I have 13. Yet not rejoicing in his speed,] obferved of ver. 741. of the preceding book, and prove that Milton did not intend by it to attribute any sportive motion to Satan for joy that he was fo near his journey's end? Thyer. No more than II. 1011. But glad that now his fea should find a shore, and III. 740. Sped with hop'd fuccefs, And like a devilish engin back recoils 20 Upon himself; horror and doubt diftract 25 30 Then much revolving, thus in fighs began. 35 O thou that with furpaffing glory crown'd, Look'ft from thy fole dominion like the God Of this new world; at whose fight all the stars Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere; Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless king: 40 Ah from whence he fell, and breaks forth into a speech that is soften'd with feveral tranfient touches of remorfe and felf-accufation: but at length he confirms himself in impenitence, and in his defign of drawing Man into his own state of guilt and mifery. This conflict of paffions is raised with a great deal of art, as the opening of his speech to the fun is very bold and noble. This fpeech is, I think, the finest that is afcribed to Satan in the whole poem. Addifon. When Milton defign'd to have made only a tragedy of the Paradife Loft, it was his intention to have begun it with the firft ten lines of the following fpeech, which he fhow'd to his nephew Edward Philips and others, as Philips informs us in his account of the Ah wherefore! he deferv'd no fuch return 45 I fdeind subjection, and thought one step higher 5› So into the most execrable acts to accomplish their haughty defigns; which makes our author ftigmatize ambition as a worse fin than pride. Hume. the life of his uncle. And what a inordinate defires that break forth noble opening of a play would this have been! The lines were certainly too good to be loft, and the author has done well to employ them here, they could not have been better employ'd any where. Satan is made to addrefs the fun, as it was the most confpicuous part of the creation; and the thought is very natural of addreffing it like the God of this world, when so many of the Heathen nations have worshipped and adored it as fuch. 40. Till pride and worse ambition] Pride is a kind of exceffive and vicious felf-esteem, that raises men in their own opinions above what is juft and right: but ambition is that which adds fuel to this flame, and claps fpurs to thefe furious and Dr. Bentley reads and curs'd ambition, because he thinks it hard to fay whether pride or ambition is worfe: but Milton feems to mean by pride the vice confider'd in itself, and only as it is the temper of the proud man; and by ambition the vice that carry'd him to aim at being equal with God: and was not this vice the worst of the two? I obferve that Satan always lays the blame on his ambition, as in ver. 61 and 92. Pearce. 50. I fdeind] For difdain'd; an imitation of the Italian fdegnare. Hume. The |