nishing fentiments where he is not fired by the Iliad: he every where charms and pleases us by the force of his own genius, but feldom elevates and transports us where he does not fetch his hints from Homer.

Milton's chief talent, and indeed his distinguishing excellence, lies in the fublimity of his thoughts. There are others of the Moderns who rival him in every other part of poetry; but in the greatness of his Sentiments he triumphs over all the poets, both modern and ancient, Homer only excepted. It is impossible for the imagination of man to distend itself with greater ideas than those which he has laid together in his First, Second, and Sixth Books. The Seventh, which defcribes the creation of the world, is likewife wonderfully fublime, tho' not fo apt to ftir up emotion in the mind of the reader, nor, consequently, so perfect in the epic way of writing; because it is filled with lefs action. Let the judicious reader compare what Longinus has obferved on feveral paffages in Homer, and he will find parallels for most of them in the Paradife Loft.

From what has been faid we may infer, that as there are two kinds of Sentiments, the natural and the fublime, which are always to be pursued in an heroic poem, there are also two kinds of thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The firft are fuch as are affected and unnatural, the fecond fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the first kind of thoughts, we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil; he has none of thofe trifling points and puerilities that are

fo often to be met with in Ovid, none of the epigrammatic turns of Lucan, none of thofe fwelling fentiments which are so frequently in Statius and Claudian, none of those mixed embellishments of Taffo. Every thing is juft and natural. His Sentiments fhow that he had a perfect insight into human nature, and that he knew every thing which was the most proper to affect it.

Mr. Dryden has in fome places, which I may hereafter take notice of, mifreprefented Virgil's way of thinking as to this particular, in the translation he has given us of the Æneid. I do not remember that Homer any where falls into the faults above mentioned, which were indeed, the falfe refinements of later ages. Milton, it must be confeft, has fometimes. erred in this refpect, as I fhall shew more at large in another paper; though, confidering all the poets of the age in which he writ were infected with this wrong way of thinking, he is rather to be admired that he did not give more into it, than that he did fometimes comply with the vicious taste which still prevails fo much among modern writers.

But since several thoughts may be natural which are low and grovelling, an epic poet should not only avoid fuch fentiments as are unnatural or affected, but also fuch as are mean and vulgar. Homer has opened a great field of raillery to men of more delicacy than greatnefs of genius, by the homelinefs of fome of his fentiments: but, as I have before faid,

thefe are rather to be imputed to the fimplicity of the age in which he lived, to which I may also add, of that which he defcribed, than to any imperfection in that divine poet. Zoilus among the Ancients, and Monfieur Perrault among the Moderns, pushed their ridicule very far upon him, on account of fome fuch fentiments. There is no blemish to be observed in Virgil under this head, and but a very few in Milton.

I shall give but one inftance of this impropriety of thought in Homer, and at the fame time compare it with an instance of the fame nature both in Virgil and Milton. Sentiments which raise laughter can very feldom be admitted with any decency into an heroic poem, whose business is to excite passions of a much nobler nature. Homer, however, in his characters of Vulcan and Therfites, in his hiftory of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of Irus, and in other paffages, has been obferved to have lapsed into the burlesque character, and to have departed from that serious air which feems effential to the magnificence of an epic poem. I remember but one laugh in the whole Æneid, which rifes in the Fifth Book upon Monetes, where he is represented as thrown over-board, and drying himself upon a rock. But this piece of mirth is fo well timed, that the feverest critic can have nothing to fay against it, for it is in the book of Games and Diverfions, where the reader's mind may be supposed to be fufficiently relaxed for fuch an entertainment. The only piece of pleasantry in Paradise Loft, is where the

evil fpirits are defcribed as rallying the angels upon the fuccefs of their new-invented artillery. This paffage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole Poem, as being nothing else but a string of pun's, and thofe, too, very indifferent.

......Satan beheld their plight,

And to his mates thus in derifion call'd.

O Friends, why come not on thefe victors proud!
Ere while they fierce were coming, and when we,
To entertain them fair with open front,
And breaft, (what could we more) propounded terms
Of compofition; ftrait, they chang'd their minds,
Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,

As they would dance, yet for a dance they feem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For joy of offer'd peace; but I fuppofe
If our propofals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick refult.

To whom thus Belial, in like gamefome mood.
Leader, the terms we fent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,
Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,
And stumbled many; who receives them right
*** Had need, from head to foot, well understand;
Not understood, this gift they have befides,

They fhow us when our foes walk not upright.
Thus they among thenifelves in pleafant vein
Stood fcoffing-

Having already treated of the Fable, the Characters, and Sentiments, in the Paradife Loft, we are, in the laft place, to confider the Language; and as the learned world is very much divided upon Milton as to this point, I hope they will excufe me if I appear particular in any of my opinions, and incline to those who judge the most advantageously of the Author.

It is requfite that the Language of an heroic poem

fhould be both perspicuous and sublime. In proportion as either of these two qualities are wanting the Language is imperfect. Perspicuity is the first and most neceffary qualification; infomuch that a good-natured reader fometimes overlooks a little flip even in the grammar or fyntax, where it is impoffible for him to mistake the poet's sense. Of this kind is that paffage in Milton, wherein he speaks of Satan,

...God and his Son except,

Greated thing nought valu'd he nor fhunn'd.

And that in which he describes Adam and Eve;

Adam the goodlieft man of men fince born
His fons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.

It is plain that, in the former of these passages, according to the natural syntax, the divine persons mentioned in the first line are represented as created beings; and that in the other, Adam and Eve are confounded with their fons and daughters. Such little blemishes as these, when the thought is great and natural, we should, with Horace, impute to a pardonable inadvertency, or to the weakness of human nature, which cannot attend to each minute particular, and give the last finishing to every circumstance in fo long a work. The ancient critics, therefore, who were acted by a spirit of candour rather than that of cavilling, invented certain figures of speech on purpose to palliate little errors of this nature in the writings of those authors who had fo many greater beauties to atone for them.