If clearness and perfpicuity were only to be confulted, the poet would have nothing else to do but to clothe his thoughts in the most plain and natural expreffions. But fince it often happens that the most obvious phrases, and those which are used in ordinary converfation, become too familiar to the ear, and contract a kind of meannefs by passing through the mouths of the vulgar, a poet should take particular care to guard himself against idiomatic ways of speaking. Ovid and Lucan have many poorneffes of expreffion upon this account, as taking up with the first phrases that offered, without putting themselves to the trouble of looking after such as would not only be natural, but also elevated and fublime. Milton has but a few failings in this kind, of which, however, you may meet with fome instances, as in the following paffages. Embrios and idiots, eremites and friers White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery, ------A while difcourfe they hold, No fear left dinner cool; when thus began Our author----- Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling The great masters in composition know very well that many an elegant phrase becomes improper for a poet or an orator when it has been debased by common ufe. For this reason the works of ancient authors, which are written in dead languages, have a great advantage over those which are written in languages that are now spoken. Were there any mean phrases or idioms in Virgil and Homer, they would not fhock the ear of the most delicate modern reader for much as they would have done that of an old Greek or Roman, because we never hear them pronounced in our streets, or in ordinary conversation. It is not therefore fufficient that the Language of an epic poem be perfpicuous, unless it be alfo fublime. To this end it ought to deviate from the common forms and ordinary phrases of speech. The judgment of a poet very much discovers itself in fhunning the common roads of expreffion, without falling into fuch ways of fpeech as may seem stiff and unnatural; he muft not fwell into a falfe fublime, by endeavouring to avoid the other extreme. Among the Greeks Æfchylus, and fometimes Sophocles, were guilty of this fault; among the Latins Claudian and Statius; and among our own countrymen Shakespeare and Lee. In these authors the affectation of greatness often hurts the perfpicuity of the style, as in many others the endeavour after perspicuityprejudices its greatness. Ariftotle has obferved, that the idiomatic style may be avoided, and the fublime formed, by the following methods. First, by the use of metaphors: fuch are those in Milton. Imparadis'd in one another's arms. Volume I. E ...And in his hand a reed Stood waving tipt with fire...... In these, and innumerable other inftances, the metaphors are very bold, but juft; I muft, however, obferve, that the metaphors are not thick fown in Milton, which always favours too much of wit; that they never clash with one another, which, as Aristotle obferves, turns a sentence into a kind of enigma or riddle; and that he feldom has recourfe to them where the proper and natural words will do as well. Another way of raifing the Language, and giving it a poetical turn, is to make use of the idioms of other tongues. Virgil is full of the Greek forms of fpeech, which the critics call Hellenifms, as Horace, in his Odes, abounds with them much more than Virgil. I need not mention the feveral dialects which Homer has made use of for this end. Milton, in conformity with the practice of the ancient poets, and with Ariftotle's rule, has infused a great many Latinifms as well as Græcifms, and fometimes Hebraifms, into the language of his Poem; as towards the beginning of it; Nor did they not perceive the evil plight In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel. And through the palpable obfcure find out Under this head may be reckoned the placing the adjective after the substantive, the transposition of words, the turning the adjective into a substantive, with feveral other foreign modes of speech, which this Poet has naturalized to give his verse the greater found, and throw it out of profe. The third method mentioned by Aristotle is what agrees with the genius of the Greek language more than with that of any other tongue, and is therefore more used by Homer than by any other poet; I mean the lengthening of a phrase by the addition of words which may either be inserted or omitted, as alfo by the extending or contracting of particular words, by the infertion or omiffion of certain fyllables. Milton has put in practice this method of raising his language, as far as the nature of our tongue will permit, as in the paffage above mentioned, eremite, for what is hermit, in common difcourfe. If you observe the meafure of his verse, he has with great judgment fuppreffed a fyllable in several words, and shortened those of two fyllables into one, by which method, befides the abovementioned advantage, he has given a greater variety to his numbers: but this practice is more particularly remarkable in the names of perfons and of countries, as Beelzebub, Hessebon, and in many other particulars, wherein he has either changed the name, or made ufe of that which is not the most commonly known, that he might the better depart from the language of the vulgar. Eij The fame reason recommended to him feveral old words, which also makes his Poem appear the more venerable, and gives it a greater air of antiquity. I must likewise take notice that there are in Milton feveral words of his own coining, as Cerberean, mifcreated, hell-doom'd, embryon atoms, and many others. If the reader is offended at this liberty in our English poet, I would recommend him to a discourse in Plutarch, which shows us how frequently Homer has made ufe of the fame liberty. Milton, by the above-mentioned helps, and by the choice of the noblest words and phrases which our tongue would afford him, has carried our Language to a greater heighth than any of the English poets have ever done before or after him, and made the fublimity of his Style equal to that of his Sentiments. I have been the more particular in these observations on Milton's Style, because it is that part of him in which he appears the most fingular. The remarks I have here made upon the practice of other poets, with my obfervations out of Aristotle, will perhaps alleviate the prejudice which fome have taken to his Poem upon this account; though, after all, I must confefs that I think his Style, though admirable in general, is in fome places too much stiffened and ob❤ fcured by the frequent ufe of thofe methods which Ariftotle has prescribed for the raising of it. This redundancy of those several ways of speech, which Aristotle calls Foreign Language,and with which |