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Eneas is reprefented as tearing up the Myrtle that dropped Blood. To qualify this wonderful Circumftance, Polydorus tells a Story from the Root of the Myrtle, that the barbarous Inhabitants of the Country having pierced him with Spears and Arrows, the Wood which was left in his Body took Root in his Wounds, and gave Birth to that bleeding Tree. This Circumftance feems to have the Marvellous without the Probable, because it is reprefented as proceeding from natural Caufes, without the Interpofition of any God, or other Supernatural Power capable of producing it. The Spears and Arrows grow of themselves, without fo much as the Modern Help of an Enchantment. If we look into the Fiction of Milton's Fable, though we find it full of furprising Incidents, they are generally fuited to our Notions of the Things and Perfons described, and tempered with a due Measure of Probability. I muft only make an Exception to the Limbo of Vanity, with his Episode of Sin and Death, and fome of the imaginary Perfons in his Chaos. Thefe Paffages are aftonishing, but not credible; the Reader cannot fo far impofe upon himself as to fee a Poffibility in them; they are the Defcription of Dreams and Shadows, not of Things or Perfons. I know that many Criticks look upon the Stories of Circe, Polypheme, the Sirens, nay the whole Ody fey and Iliad, to be Allegories; but allowing this to be true, they are Fables, which confidering the Opnions of Mankind that prevailed in the Age of the Poet, might poffibly have been according to the Letter. The Perfons are fuch as might have acted what is afcribed to them, as the Circumstances in which they are reprefented, might poffibly have been Truths and Realities. This Appearance of Probability is fo abfolutely requifite in the greater kinds of Poetry, that Ariftotle obferves the Ancient Tragick Writers made ufe of the Names of fuch great Men as had actually lived in the World, tho' the Tragedy proceeded upon Adventures they were never engaged in, on purpose to make the Subject more Credible. In a Word, befides the hidden Meaning of an Epic Allegory, the Plain literal Senfe ought to appear Probable. The Story fhould be fuch as an ordinary Reader may acquiefce in, whatever Natural, Moral or Political Truth may be difcoverd in it by Men of greater Penetration.

SATAN,

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SATAN, after having long wander'd upon the Surface, or outmoft Wall of the Univerfe, difcovers at laft a wide Gap in it, which led into the Creation, and is defcribed as the opening through which the Angels pass to and fro into the lower World, upon their Errands to Mankind. His Sitting upon the Brink of this Paffage, and taking a Survey of the whole Face of Nature that appeared to him new and fresh in all its Beauties, with the Simile illuftrating this Circumftance, fills the Mind of the Reader with as furprizing and glorious an Idea as any that arifes in the whole Poem. He looks down into that vaft Hollow of the Universe with the Eye, or (as Milton calls it in his first Book) with the Kenn of an Angel. He furvey's all the Wonders in this immenfe Amphitheatre that lie between both the Poles of Heaven, and takes in at one View the whole round of the Creation.

HIS Flight between the feveral Worlds that fhined on every fide of him, with the particular Defcription of the Sun, are fet forth in all the Wantonnefs of a luxuriant Imagination. His Shape, Speech and Behaviour upon his transforming himself into an Angel of Light, are touched with exquifite Beauty. The Poet's Thought of directing Satan to the Sun, which in the vulgar Opinion of Mankind is the moft confpicuous Part of the Creation, and the placing in it an Angel, is a Circumftance very finely contrived, and the more adjusted to a Poetical Probability, as it was a received Doctrine among the most famous Philofophers, that every Orb had its Intelligence; and as an Apoftle in Sacred Writ is faid to have feen fuch an Angel in the Sun. In the Anfwer which this Angel returns to the difguifed evil Spirit, there is fuch a becoming Majefty as is altogether fuitable to a fuperior Being. The Part of it in which he reprefents himfelf as prefent at the Creation, is very noble in it felf, and not only proper where it is introduced, but requifite to prepare the Reader for what follows in the Seventh Book.

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I saw when at his Word the formless Mass,
This World's material Mould, came to a Heap:.
Confufion heard his Voice, and wild Uproar
Stood rul'd, flood vaft Infinitude confin'd;
Till at his fecond Didding Darkness fled,
Light Thon, &c.

IN

IN the following Part of the Speech he points out the Earth with fuch Circumftances, that the Reader can fcarce forbear fancying himself employed on the fame diftant View of it.

Look downward on the Globe whofe hither Side
With Light from hence, tho' but reflected, shines;
That place is Earth, the Seat of Man, that Light
His Day, &c.

I must not conclude my Reflexions upon this Third Book of Paradife Loft, without taking Notice of that celebrated Complaint of Milton with which it opens, and which certainly deferves all the Praises that have been given it; tho' as I have before hinted, it may rather be looked upon as an Excrefcence, than as an effential Part of the Poem. The fame Obfervation might be applied to that beautiful Digreffion upon Hypocrify, in the fame Book.

L

N° 316.

Monday, March 3.

Libertas; quæ fera tamen refpexit Inertem. Virg. Ecl. 1.

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Mr. SPECTATOR,

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F you ever read a Letter which is fent with the more Pleasure for the Reality of its Complaints, this may have Reason to hope for a favourable Acceptance; and if Time be the most irretrievable Lofs, the Regrets which follow will be thought, I hope, the moft juftifiable. The regaining of my Liberty from a long State of Indolence and Inactivity, and the Defire of refifting the farther Encroachments of Idlenes, make me apply to you; and the Uneafinefs with which I recollect the paft Years, and the Apprehenfions with which I expect the Future, foon determined me to it.

IDLENESS is fo general a Diftemper, that I can← not but imagine a Speculation on this Subject will be of univerfal Ufe. There is hardly any one Perfon with

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out fome Allay of it; and thousands befides my felf fpend more Time in an idle Uncertainty which to begin first of two Affairs, than would have been fufficient to have ended them both. The Occafion of this feems to be the Want of fome neceffary Employment, to put 'the Spirits in Motion, and awaken them out of their Lethargy. If I had lefs Leifure, I fhould have more; ⚫ for I fhould then find my Time diftinguished into Por⚫tions, fome for Business, and others for the indulging of Pleasures: But now one Face of Indolence overspreads "the whole, and I have no Land-mark to direct my felf by. Were one's Time a little ftraitned by Business, like • Water inclos'd in its Banks, it would have fome deter⚫mined Course; but unless it be put into fome Channel it has no Current, but becomes a Deluge without ⚫ either Ufe or Motion.

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• WHEN Scanderbeg Prince of Epirus was dead, the Turks, who had but too often felt the Force of his Arm in the Battles he had won from them, imagined that by wearing a piece of his Bones near their Heart, they ⚫fhould be animated with a Vigour and Force like to that which inspired him when living. As I am like to be ⚫ but of little ufe whilft I live, I am refolved to do what • Good I can after my Deceafe; and have accordingly ' ordered my Bones to be difpofed of in this Manner for the Good of my Countrymen, who are troubled with too exorbitant a Degree of Fire. All Fox-hunters upon wearing me, would in a fhort Time be brought to en⚫dure their Beds in a Morning, and perhaps even quit ⚫ them with Regret at Ten: Inftead of hurrying away to teize a poor Animal, and run away from their own Thoughts, a Chair or a Chariot would be thought the • most defirable Means of performing a Remove from one Place to another. I fhould be a Cure for the unnatural Defire of John Trott for Dancing, and a Spe⚫cifick to leffen the Inclination Mrs. Fidget has to Motion, and caufe her always to give her Approbation to the prefent Place fhe is in. In fine, no Egyptian Mummy was ever half fo useful in Phyfick, as I fhould be to these feverish Conftitutions, to reprefs the violent • Sallies of Youth, and give each Action its proper Weight and Repose.

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I can ftifle any violent Inclination, and oppose a Tor6 rent of Anger, or the Solicitations of Revenge, with Success. But Indolence is a Stream which flows flowly on, but yet undermines the Foundation of every Vir6 tue. A Vice of a more lively Nature were a more 'defirable Tyrant than this Rust of the Mind, which gives a Tincture of its Nature to every Action of ones Life. It were as little Hazard to be loft in a Storm, as to lie thus perpetually becalmed: And it is to no Purpofe to have within one the Seeds of a thoufand good Qualities, if we want the Vigour and Refolution neceffary for the exerting them. Death brings all Perfons 'back to an Equality; and this Image of it, this Slumber ⚫ of the Mind, leaves no Difference between the greatest • Genius and the Meaneft Understanding: A Faculty of doing things remarkably praise-worthy thus concealed, is of no more use to the Owner, than a Heap of Gold to the Man who dares not use it.

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'TO-MORROW is still the fatal Time when all is to be rectified: To-morrow comes, it goes, and ftill I please my self with the Shadow, whilft I lose the Reality; unmindful that the present Time alone is ours, the future is yet unborn, and the paft is dead, and can ⚫ only live (as Parents in their Children) in the Actions it has produced.

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THE Time we live ought not to be computed by ⚫ the Number of Years, but by the Ufe has been made of it; thus 'tis not the Extent of Ground, but the yearly • Rent which gives the Value to the Estate. Wretched ⚫ and thoughtless Creatures, in the only Place where Co⚫ vetousness were a Virtue we turn Prodigals! Nothing lies upon our hands with fuch Uneafiness, nor has there been fo many Devices for any one Thing, as to make it flide away imperceptibly and to no Purpose. A Shilling fhall be hoarded up with Care, whilft that ⚫ which is above the Price of an Eftate, is flung away ⚫ with Difregard and Contempt. There is nothing nowa-days fo much avoided, as a folicitous Improvement ⚫ of every Part of Time; 'tis a Report must be fhunned as one tenders the Name of a Wit and a fine Genius, and as one fears the Dreadful Character of a laborious Plodder: But notwithstanding this, the greatest Wits VOL. IV.

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