have taken notice of feveral beauties of this kind in the course of these remarks, and particularly of the varying of the paufes, which is the life and foul of all verfification in all languages. It is this chiefly which makes Virgil's verfe better than Ovid's, and Milton's fuperior to any other English poet's: and it is for want of this chiefly that the French heroic verfe has never, and can never come up to the English. There is no variety of numbers, but the fame paufe is preferved exactly in the fame place in every line for ten or ten thousand lines together: and fuch a perpetual repetition of the fame paufe, fuch an eternal fameness of verse must make any poetry tedious, and either offend the ear of the reader, or lull him afleep: and this in the opinion of feveral French writers themfelves. There can be no good poetry without mufic, and there can be no mufic without variety.

do not find out the particular moral which is inculcated in Paradise Loft. Though I can by no means think, with the last mention'd French author, that an epic writer first of all pitches upon a certain moral, as the ground-work and foundation of his poem, and afterwards finds out a fitory to it: I am however of opinion, that no juft heroic poem ever was or can be made, from whence one great moral may not be deduced. That which reigns in Milton, is the most univerfal and moft ufeful that can be imagin'd; it is in fhort this, That obedience to the will of God makes men happy, and that disobedience makes them miferable. This is vifibly the moral of the principal fable, which turns upon Adam and Eve, who continued in Paradife, while they kept the command that was given them, and were driven out of it as foon as they had tranfgreffed. This is likewife the moral of the principal episode, which fhows us how an innumerable multitude of Angels fell from their state of bliss, and were caft into Hell upon their difobedience. Befides this great moral, which may be looked upon as the foul of the fable, there are an infinity of under morals, which are to be drawn from the feveral parts of the poem, and which make this work more useful and inftructive than any other poem in any language. Those who have criticized on the Odyffey, the Iliad, and Æneid, have taken a great deal of pains to fix the number of months and days contained in the action of each of those poems. If any one thinks it worth his while to examin this particular in Milton, he will find that from Adam's firft appearance in the fourth book, to his expulfion from Paradise

in the twelfth, the author reckons ten days. As for that part of the action which is described in the three first books, as it does not pass within the regions of nature, I have before obferved that it is not fubject to any calculations of time. I have now finished my observations on a work, which does an honor to the English nation. I have taken a general view of it under these four heads, the fable, the characters, the fentiments, and the language, and made each of them the fubject of a particular paper. I have in the next place ipoken of the cenfures which our author may incur under each of these heads, which I have confined to two papers, though I might have inlarged the number, if I had been difpofed to dwell on fo ungrateful a fubject. I believe however that the feverest reader will not find any little fault in heroic poetry, which this author has fallen into, that does not come under one of thofe heads, among which I have diftributed his feveral blemishes. After having thus treated at large of Paradife Loft, I could not think it fufficient to have celebrated this poem in the whole, without defcending to particulars. Í have therefore beflowed a paper upon each book, and endevored not only to prove that the poem is beautiful in general, but to point out its particular beauties, and to determin wherein they confift. I have endevored to fhow how fome paffages are beautiful by being fublime, others by being foft, others by being natural; which of them are recommended by the paffion, which by the moral, which by the fentiment, and which by the expreffion. I have likewife endevored to fhow how the genius of the poet fhines

by a happy invention, a distant allufion, or a judicious imitation; how he has copied or improved Homer or Virgil, and raifed his own imaginations by the ufe which he has made of feveral poetical paffages in Scripture. I might have inferted alfo feveral paffages of Taffo, which our author has imitated; but as I do not look upon Taffo to be a fufficient voucher, I would not perplex my reader with fuch quotations, as might do more honor to the Italian than the English poet. In fhort I have endevored to particularize those innumerable kinds of beauty, which it would be tedious to recapitulate, but which are effential to poetry, and which may be met with in the works of this great author. Had I thought, at my firft engaging in this defign, that it would have led me to fo great a length, I believe I fhould never have enter'd upon it; but the kind reception which it has met with among thofe whofe judgments I have a value for, as well as the uncommon demands which my bookfeller tells me have been made for thefe particular difcourfes, give me no reafon to repent of the pains I have been at in compofing them.

Addifon. And thus have we finifh'd our collections and remarks on this divine poem. The reader probably may have obferved that these two laft books fall fhort of the fublimity and majefty of the reft: and fo likewife do the two laft books of the Iliad, and for the fame reafon, because the fubject is of a different kind from that of the foregoing ones. fubject of these two laft books of the Paradife Loft is history rather than poetry. However we may ftill difcover the fame great genius, and

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there are intermix'd as many ornaments and graces of poetry, as the nature of the fubject, and the author's fidelity and strict attachment to the truth of Scripture hiftory, and the reduction of fo many and fuch various events into fo narrow a compafs, would admit. It is the fame ocean, but not at its highest tide; it is now ebbing and retreating. It is the fame fun, but not in its full blaze of meridian glory; it now fhines with a gentler ray as it is fetting. Throughout the whole the author appears to have been a moft critical reader and a moft paffionate admirer of holy Scripture. He is indebted to Scripture infinitely more than to Homer and Virgil and all other books whatever. Not only his principal fable, but all his epi

fodes are founded upon Scripture. The Scripture hath not only furnifh'd him with the nobleft hints, rais'd his thoughts and fir'd his imagination; but hath alfo very much enrich'd his language, given a certain folemnity and majefty to his diction, and fupplied him with many of his choiceft happieft expreffions. Let men therefore learn from this inftance to reverence thofe facred Writings. If any man can pretend to deride or despise them, it must be faid of him at leaft, that he has a tafte and genius the most different from Milton's that can be imagin'd. Whoever has any true taste and genius, we are confident, will efteem this poem the beft of modern productions, and the Scriptures the best of all ancient ones.

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