THE SENTIMENTS MUST BE BOTH NATURAL AND SUBLIME. 27 his Defect as to this Particular in feveral parts of the Iliad and Odyffey, tho' at the same time those who have treated this great Poet with Candour, have attri buted this Defect to the Times in which he lived. It was the fault of the Age, and not of Homer, if there wants that Delicacy in fome of his Sentiments, which appears in the Works of Men of a much inferior Genius. Befides, if there are Blemishes in any particular Thoughts, there is an infinite Beauty in the greatest part of them. In short, if there are many Poets who wou'd not have fallen into the mea[n]ness of fome of his Sentiments, there are none who cou'd have rife[n] up to the Greatness of others. Virgil has excelled all others in the Propriety of his Sentiments. Milton fhines likewife very much in this Particular : Nor must we omit one Consideration which adds to his Honour and Reputation. Homer and Virgil introduced Persons whose Characters are commonly known among Men, and fuch as are to be met with either in History, or in ordinary Conversation. Milton's Characters, most of them, lie out of Nature, and were to be formed purely by his own Invention. It fhews a greater Genius in Shakespear to have drawn his Calyban, than his Hotspur or Julius Cæfar: The one was to be supplied out of his own Imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon Tradition, History and Observation. It was much easier therefore for Homer to find proper Sentiments for an Affembly of Grecian Generals, than for Milton to diverfifie his Infernal Council with proper Characters, and infpire them with a variety of Sentiments. Loves of Dido and Æneas are only Copies of what has paffed between other Perfons. Adam and Eve, before the Fall, are a different Species from that of Mankind, who are defcended from them; and none but a Poet of the most unbounded Invention, and the moft exquifite Judgment, cou'd have filled their Converfation and Behaviour with fuch Beautiful Circumftances during their State of Innocence. The Nor is it fufficient for an Epic Poem to be filled with fuch Thoughts as are Natural, unless it abound alfo with fuch as are Sublime. Virgil in this Particular falls fhort of Homer. He has not indeed fo many Thoughts that are Low and Vulgar; but at the fame time has not so many Thoughts that are Sublime and Noble. The truth of it is, Virgil feldom rises into very astonishing Sentiments, 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 Sublimity 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 impoffible for the Imagination of Man to diftend it felf with greater Ideas, than those which he has laid together in his first, [fecond,] and fixth* [tenth] Book[s]. The feventh, which defcribes the Creation of the World, is likewife wonderfully Sublime, tho' not fo apt to ftir up Emotion in the Mind of the Reader, nor confequently fo perfect in the Epic way of Writing, becaufe it is filled with lefs Action. Let the Reader compare what Longinus has obferved on several Paffages of 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 Sublime, which are always to be pursued in an Heroic Poem, there are also two kinds of Thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The first 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 those little Points and Puerilities that are so often to be met with in Ovid, none of the LOW THOUGHTS ARE TO BE AVOIDED. 29 Epigrammatick Turns of Lucan, none of those swelling Sentiments which are so frequent[ly] in Statius and Claudian, none of those mixed Embellishments of Taffo. Everything is just and natural. His Sentiments shew that he had a perfect Insight into Human Nature, and that he knew every thing which was the most proper to affect it. *I remember but one Line in him which has been objected against, by the Criticks, as a point of Wit. It is in his ninth Book, where Func speaking of the Trojans, how they furvived the Ruins of their City, expreffes her self in the following Words; Num capti potuere capi, num incenfa cremarunt Pergama? Were the Trojans taken even after they were Captives, or did Troy burn even when it was in Flames? Mr. Dryden has in fome Places, which I may hereafter take notice of, mifrepresented Virgil's way of thinking as to this Particular, in the Tranflation 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 Respect, as I fhall fhew more at large in another Paper; tho' confidering how 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 that [the] vicious Tafte which prevails so much among Modern Writers. But fince several Thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an Epic Poet fhould not only avoid fuch Sentiments as are unnatural or affected, but alfo fuch as are low and vulgar. Homer has opened a great Field of Raillery to Men of more Delicacy than Greatness of Genius, by the Homeliness of some of his Sentiments. But, as I have before said, these * From I remember' to Flames?' omitted in second edition. 30 SENTIMENTS EXCITING LAUGHTER SHOULD BE EXCLUDED. are rather to be imputed to the Simplicity of the Age in which he lived, to which I may also add, of that which he described, 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 Sentiments. There is no Blemish to be observed in Virgil under this Head, and but very few in Milton. I shall give but one Inftance of this Impropriety of Sentiments in Homer, and at the fame time compare it with an Instance of the same nature, both in Virgil and Milton. Sentiments which raife Laughter, can very seldom be admitted with any decency into an Heroic Poem, whose Business it* is to excite Paffions of a much nobler Nature. Homer, however, in his Characters of Vulcan and Therfites, in his Story of Mars and Venus, in his Behaviour of Irus, and in other Paffages, has been observed to have lapsed into the Burlefque Character, and to have departed from that ferious Air which feems effential to the Magnificence of an Epic Poem. I remember but one Laugh in the whole Eneid, which rifes in the Fifth Book upon Monates, where he is reprefented as thrown overboard, and drying himself upon a Rock. But this Piece of Mirth is fo well timed, that the fevereft Critick can have nothing to say 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 such an Entertainment. The only Piece of Pleasantry in Paradife Loft, is where the Evil Spirits are described as rallying the Angels upon the Success of their new invented Artillery. This Paffage I look upon to be the fillieft [moft exceptionable] in the whole Poem, as being nothing else but a string of Punns, and those too very indifferent ones. -Satan beheld their Pight, And to his Mates thus in derifion call'd. O Friends, why come not on thefe Victors proud! THE ONLY PIECE OF PLEASANTRY IN PARADISE LOST.' 31 And Breaft, (what could we more) propounded terms As they would dance, yet for a Dance they feem'd To whom thus Belial in like gamefome mood. |