not feen the various Difpenfations of Providence, nor confequently could be acquainted with thofe many Topics of Praife which might afford Matter to the Devotions of their Pofterity. I need not remark the beautiful Spirit of Poetry which runs through this whole Hymn, nor the Holiness of that Refolution with which it concludes.

HAVING already mentioned those Speeches which are affigned to the Perfons in this Poem, I proceed to the Defcription which the Poet gives of Raphael. His Departure from before the Throne, and his Flight through the Choirs of Angels, is finely imaged. As Milton every where fills his Poem with Circumftances that are marvellous and aftonishing, he describes the Gate of Heaven as framed after fuch a Manner that it opened of itself upon the Approach of the Angel who was to pass through it.

-till at the Gate

Of Heav'n arriv'd, the Gate felf-open'd wide,
On golden Hinges turning, as by Work
Divine the Sov'reign Architect had fram'd.

The Poet here feems to have regarded two or three Paffages in the 18th Iliad, as that in particular, where, fpeaking of Vulcan, Homer fays, that he had made twenty Tripodes, running on golden Wheels, which, upon Occasion, might go of themselves to the Affembly of the Gods, and, when there was no more Ufe for them, return again after the fame Manner. Scaliger has rallied Homer very feverely upon this Point, as M. Dacier has endeavoured to defend it. I will not pretend to determine, whether in this Particular of Homer, the Marvellous does not lofe Sight of the Probable. As the Miraculous Workmanship of Milton's Gates is not fo extraordinary as this of the Tripodes, fo I am perfuaded he would not have mentioned it, had not he been fupported in it by a Paffage in the Scripture, which fpeaks of Wheels in Heaven that had Life in

them,

them, and moved of themselves, or stood ftill, in Con formity with the Cherubims whom they accompanied.

THERE is no Question but Milton had this Circumftance in his Thoughts, because in the following Book he describes the Chariot of the Meah with living Wheels, according to the Plan in Ezekiel's Vifion.

-Forth rush'd with Whirlwind Sound

The Chariot of Paternal Deity,

Flashing thick Flames, Wheel within Wheel undrawn; Itfelf inftinct with Spirit.

I queftion not but Bou, and the two Daciers, who are for vindicating every Thing that is cenfured in Homer by fomething parallel in Holy Writ, would have been very well pleased, had they thought of confronting Vulcan's Tripodes with Ezekiel's Wheels.

RAPHAEL's Defcent to the Earth, with the Figure of his Perfon, is reprefented in very lively Colours. Several of the French, Italian, and English Poets have given a loose to their Imaginations in the Defcription of Angels: But I do not remember to have met with any fo finely drawn, and fo conformable to the Notions which are given of them in Scripture, as this in Milton. After having fet him forth in all his heavenly Plumage, and reprefented him as alighting upon the Earth, the Poet concludes his Defcription with a Circumstance, which is altogether new, and imagined with the greatest Strength of Fancy.

-Like Maia's Son he flood,

And book his Plumes, that heav'nly Fragrance fill'd The Circuit wide

RAPHAEL's Reception by the Guardian Angels ; his paffing through the Wilderness of Sweets; his diftant Appearance to Adam; have all the Graces that Poetry is capable of beftowing. The Author afterwards

E-3

gives

I muft here take notice, that Milton is every where full of Hints, and fometimes literal Tranflations, taken from the greatest of the Greek and Latin Poets. But this I may referve for a Difcourfe by itself, because I would not break the Thread of thefe Speculations, that are defigned for English Readers, with fuch Reflexions as would be of no Ufe but to the Learned.

I must however observe in this Place, that the breaking off the Combat between Gabriel and Satan, by the hanging out of the golden Scales in Heaven, is a Refinement upo Homer's Ihought, who tells us, that before the Battle between Hector and Achilles, Jupiter weighed the Event of it in a Pair of Scales. The Reader may fee the whole Paffage in the 22d Ilad.

VIRGIL, before the lait decifive Combat, defcribes Jupiter in the fame Manner, as weighing the Fates of Turnus and Eneas. Milton, though he fetched this beautiful Circumftance from the Iliad and Eneid, does not only infert it as a poetical Embellishment, like the Authors above-mentioned; but makes an artful Ufe of it for the proper carrying on of his Fable, and for the breaking off the Combat between the two Warriors, who were upon the point of engaging. To this we may further add, that Milton is the more juftified in this Paffage, as we find the fame noble Allegory in Holy Writ, where a wicked Prince, fome few Hours before he was affaulted and flain, is faid to have been weighed in the Scales, and to have been found wanting.

I must here take notice, under the Head of the Machines, that Uriel's gliding down to the Earth upon a Sun-beam, with the Poet's Device to make him defcend, as well in his Return to the Sun, as in his coming from it, is a Prettiness that might have been admired in a little fanciful Poet, but feems below the Genius of Milton. The Description of the Hoft of armed Angels walking their nightly Round in Paradife, is of another Spirit;

So

as that Account of the Hymns, which our firft Parents ufed to hear them fing in these their Midnight-Walks, is altogether divine, and inexpreffibly amufing to the Imagination.

WE are, in the last Place, to confider the Parts which Adam and Eve act in the Fourth Book. The Defcription of them as they firft appeared to Satan, is exquifitely drawn, and fufficient to make the fallen Angel gaze upon them with all that Aftonishment, and thofe Emotions of Envy, in which he is represented.

Two of far nobler Shape, erect and tall,
God-like erect, with native Honour clad
In naked Majefty feem'd Lords of all,
And worthy feem'd; for in their Looks divine
The Image of their glorious Maker fhone,
Truth, Wisdom, Sanctitude fevere and pure;
Severe, but in true filial Freedom plac'd:
For Contemplation he and Valour form'd,
For Softnefs foe and sweet attractive Grace;
He for God only, she for God in him :
His fair large Front, and Eye fublime declar'd
Abfolute Rule, and Hyacinthin Locks
Round from his parted Forelock manly hung
Cluftring, but not beneath his Shoulders broad;
She as a Vail down to her flender Waift
Her unadorned golden Treffes wore

Difbevel'd, but in wanton Ringlets wav’d.
So pass'd they naked on, nor shun'd the Sight
Of God or Angel, for they thought no ill:
So Hand in Hand they pass'd, the loveliest Pair
That ever fince in Love's Embraces met.

THERE

THERE is a fine Spirit of Poetry in the Lines which follow, wherein they are described as fitting on a Bed of Flowers by the Side of a Fountain, amidst a mixed Affembly of Animals.

THE Speeches of these two firft Lovers flow equally from Paffion and Sincerity. The Profeffions they make to one another are full of Warmth; but at the fame Time founded on Truth. In a Word, they are the Gallantries of Paradife.

-When Adam, first of Men-

Sole Partner and fole Part of all these Joys,
Dearer thyself than all ;-

But let us ever praise him, and extol

His Bounty, following our delightful Task,

To prune thofe growing Plants, and tend thefe Flowers,
Which were it toilfome, yet with thee were fweet.
To whom thus Eve reply'd: O thou for whom
And from whom I was form'd, Flesh of thy Flesh,
And without whom am to no End, my Guide
And Head, what thou haft said is just and right,
For we to him indeed all Praifes owe,
And daily Thanks, I chiefly who enjoy
So far the happier Lot, enjoying thee
Preeminent by fo much odds, while thou
Like Confort to thyself canft no where find, &c.

THE remaining Part of Eve's Speech, in which fhe gives an Account of herself upon her firft Creation, and the Manner in which fhe was brought to Adam, is, I think, as beautiful a Paffage as any in Milton, or perhaps in any other Poet whatsoever. Thefe Paffages are all worked up with fo much Art, that they are capable of pleafing the moft delicate Reader, without offending the most severe.

That Day I oft remember, when from Sleep, &c.

A Poet