THIS Speech is, I think, the finest that is ascribed to Satan in the whole Poem. The Evil Spirit afterwards proceeds to make his Discoveries concerning our firft Parents, and to learn after what manner they may be best attacked. His bounding over the Walls of Paradife; his fitting in the Shape of a Cormorant upon the Tree of Life, which stood in the Centre of it, and overtopped all the other Trees of the Garden, his alighting among the Herd of Animals, which are fo beautifully represented as playing about Adam and Eve, together with his transforming himself into different Shapes, in order to hear their Converfation, are Circumstances that give an agreeable Surprize to the Reader, and are devifed with great Art, to connect that Series of Adventures in which the Poet has engaged this Artificer of Fraud.

THE Thought of Satan's Transformation into a Cormorant, and placing himself on the Tree of Life, feems raifed upon that Paffage in the Iliad, where two Deities are described, as perching on the Top of an Oak in the Shape of Vulturs.

HIS planting himself at the Ear of Eve under the form of a Toad, in order to produce vain Dreams and Imaginations, is a Circumftance of the fame nature; as his ftarting up in his own Form is wonderfully fine both in the Literal Description, and in the Moral which is concealed under it. His Anfwer upon his being difcovered, and demanded to give an Account of himself, is conformable to the Pride and Intrepidity of his Character.

Know ye not then, said Satan, fill'd with Scorn,
Know ye not Me? ye knew me once no mate
For you, there fitting where you durft not foar ;
Not to know Me argues your felves unknown,
The loreft of your throng;

ZEPHON's Rebuke, with the Influence it had on Satan, is exquifitely Graceful and Moral. Satan is afterwards led away to Gabriel, the chief of the Guardian Angels, who kept watch in Paradife. His difdainful Behaviour on this Occafion is fo remarkable a Beauty, that the moft ordinary Reader cannot but take notice of it. Gabriel's

Gabriel's discovering his Approach at a Distance, is drawn with great Strength and Livelinefs of Imagination.

O Friends, I hear the tread of nimble Feet
Hafting this Way, and now by glimpse discern
Ithuriel and Zephon through the shade,
And with them comes a third of Regal Port,
But faded fplendor wan; who by his gait
And fierce demeanor feems the Prince of Hell:
Not likely to part hence without contest:
Stand firm, for in his look defiance low'rs.

THE Conference between Gabriel and Satan abounds with Sentiments proper for the Occafion, and fuitable to the Perfons of the two Speakers. Satan clothing himfelf with Terror when he prepares for the Combat is truly fublime, and at leaft equal to Homer's Defcription of Difcord celebrated by Longinus, or to that of Fame in Virgil, who are both reprefented with their Feet standing upon the Earth, and their Heads reaching above the Clouds.

While thus he fpake, th' Angelick Squadron bright
Turn'd fiery red, Sharp'ning in mooned Horns
Their Phalanx, and began to hem him round
With ported Spears, &c.

On th' other fide Satan alarm'd,

Collecting all his might dilated flood
Like Teneriff, or Atlas, unremov'd:
His Stature reach'd the Sky, and on his Creft
Sat Horror plum'd;

I must here take notice, that Milton is every where full of Hints and fometimes literal Translations, taken from the greatest of the Greek and Latin Poets. But this 1 may referve for a Difcourfe by it felf, 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 upon Homer's Thought, who tells us, that before

the

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 Iliad.

VIRGIL, before the last 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 Æneid, does not only infert it as a Poetical Embellishment, like the Authors above-mentioned; but makes an artful use 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 muft here take notice under the Head of the Machines, that Uriel's gliding down to the Earth upon a Sunbeam, 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 faying, on he led his radiant files,
Dazling the Moon ;

as that Account of the Hymns which our first Parents used 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 Description of them as they firft appeared to Satan, is exquifitely drawn, and fufficient to make the fallen Angel gaze upon them with all that Astonishment, and those 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

And worthy feem'd: for in their looks divine
The image of their glorious Maker fhon,
Truth, Wifdom, Sanctitude fevere and pure;
Severe, but in true filial freedom plac'd:
For contemplation he and valour form'd,
For foftnefs fhe and fweet attractive grace;
He for God only, fhe 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
Cluft'ring, but not beneath his Shoulders broad.
She, as a Veil, down to her flender wafle
Her unadorned golden tresses wore

Diffbevel'd, but in wanton ringlets wav'd.
So pass'd they naked on, nor fhun'd the Sight
Of God or Angel, for they thought no ill:
So band in hand they pass'd, the loveliest pair
That ever fince in love's embraces met.

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 fide 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 firft of Men

Sele partner and fole part of all these joys,
Dearer thy felf than all;

But let us ever praise him, and extol

His bounty, following our delightful Task,

To prune thofe growing plants, and tend thefe flow'rs
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 fleft,
And without whom am to no end, my Guide
And Head, what thou haft faid is juft and right
For we to him indeed all praifes owe,

And daily thanks; I chiefly, who enjoy
VOL IV.

N

Si

So for the happier Lot, enjoying thee

Praeminent by fo much odds, while thou

Like confort to thy felf canft no where find, &c.

THE remaining part of Eve's Speech, in which fhe gives an Account of her felf 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 whatfoever. Thefe Paffages are all worked off with fo much Art, that they are capable of pleafing the most delicate Reader, without offending the most severe.

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

A Poet of lefs Judgment and Invention than this great Author, would have found it very difficult to have filled thefe tender Parts of the Poem with Sentiments proper for a State of Innocence; to have described the Warmth of Love, and the Profeffions of it, without Artifice or Hyperbole; to have made the Man fpeak the most endearing things, without defcending from his natural Dignity, and the Woman receiving them without departing from the Modefty of her Character; in a Word, to adjult the Prerogatives of Wisdom and Beauty, and make each appear to the other in its proper Force and Loveliness. This mutual Subordination of the two Sexes is wonderfully kept up in the whole Poem, as particularly in the Speech of Eve I have before mentioned, and upon the Conclufion of it in the following Lines.

So fpake our general Mother, and with eyes
Of Conjugal attraction unreproved,
And meek furrender, half embracing lean'd
On our firft father; half her fwelling breaft
Naked met his under the flowing Gold
Of her loofe treffes bid: be in delight
Both of her beauty and fubmiffive charms

Smil'd with fuperior Love.

THE Poet adds, that the Devil turned away with Envy at the fight of fo much Happiness.

WE