and grow out of one another in the most natural Method.

The third Qualification of an Epic Poem is its Greatnefs. The Anger of Achilles was of fuch Confequence, that it embroiled the Kings of Greece, deftroy'd the Heroes of Troy, and engaged all the Gods in Factions. Eneas's Settlement in Italy produced. the Cafars, and gave Birth to the Roman Empire. Milton's Subject was ftill greater than either of the former; it does not determine the Fate of single Perfons or Nations, but of a whole Species.

The united Powers of Hell are joyned together for the Deftruction of Mankind, which they effected in part, and would have completed, had not Omnipotence it felf interpofed. The principal Actors are Man in his greatest Perfection, and Woman in her highest Beauty. Their Enemies are the fallen Angels: The Meffiah their Friend, and the Almighty their Protector. In short, every thing that is great in the whole Circle of Being, whether within the Verge of Nature, or out of it, has a proper Part affigned it in this noble Poem.

In Poetry, as in Architecture, not only the whole, but the principal Members, and every part of them, should be Great. I will not presume to say, that the Book of Games in the Eneid, or that in the Iliad, are not of this nature, nor to reprehend Virgil's Simile of a Top, and many other of the fame nature in the Iliad, as liable to any Cenfure in this Particular; but I think we may fay, without offence to [derogating from] thofe wonderful Performances, that there is an unqueftionable Magnificence in every Part of Paradife Loft, and indeed a much greater than could have been formed upon any Pagan System.

But Ariftotle, by the Greatness of the Action, does not only mean that it should be great in its Nature, but alfo in its Duration, or in other Words, that it fhould have a due length in it, as well as what we properly call Greatness. The juft Measure of this kind of Magnitude, he explains by the following

IN ITS NATURE, BUT IN ITS DURATION.

19

Similitude. An Animal, no bigger than a Mite, cannot appear perfect to the Eye, because the Sight takes it in at once, and has only a confused Idea of the whole, and not a distinct Idea of all its Parts; If on the contrary you should fuppofe an Animal of ten thousand Furlongs in length, the Eye would be fo filled with a single Part of it, that it could not give the Mind an Idea of the whole. What these Animals are to the Eye, a very short or a very long Action would be to the Memory. The first would be, as it were, lost and swallowed up by it, and the other difficult to be contained in it. Homer and Virgil have shewn their principal Art in this Particular; the Action of the Iliad, and that of the Æneid, were in themselves exceeding short, but are fo beautifully extended and diversified by the Intervention [Invention] of Epifodes, and the Machinery of Gods, with the like Poetical Ornaments, that they make up an agreeable Story fufficient to employ the Memory without overcharging it. Milton's Action is enriched with fuch a variety of Circumstances, that I have taken as much Pleasure in reading the Contents of his Books, as in the best invented Story I ever met with. It is poffible, that the Traditions on which the Iliad and Æneid were built, had more Circumstances in them than the History of the Fall of Man, as it is related in Scripture. Befides it was easier for Homer and Virgil to dash the Truth with Fiction, as they were in no danger of offending the Religion of their Country by it. But as for Milton, he had not only a very few Circumstances upon which to raise his Poem, but was alfo obliged to proceed with the greatest Caution in every thing that he added out of his own Invention. And, indeed, notwithstanding all the Restraints he was under, he has filled his Story with fo many furprising Incidents, which bear fo close an Analogy with what is delivered in Holy Writ, that it is capable of pleasing the most delicate Reader, without giving Offence to the most scrupulous.

20 THE ACTION NOT LIMITED TO ANY PARTICULAR TIME.

The Modern Criticks have collected from feveral Hints in the Iliad and Eneid the Space of Time, which is taken up by the Action of each of those Poems; but as a great Part of Milton's Story was tranfacted in Regions that lie out of the reach of the Sun and the Sphere of Day, it is impoffible to gratifie the Reader with fuch a Calculation, which indeed would be more curious than inftructive; none of the Criticks, either Ancient or Modern, having laid down. Rules to circumfcribe the Action of an Epic Poem with any determined number of Years, Days, or Hours.†

This piece of Criticifm on Milton's Paradise Loft, fhall be carried on in following [Saturdays] Papers.

The SPECTATOR.

-Notandi funt tibi Mores.

Hor.

{Note well the Manners.}

Saturday, January 12. 1712.

AVING examined the Action of Paradife Loft, let us in the next place confider the Actors. These are what Ariflotle means by [This is Ariftotle's Method of confidering; firft] the Fable, and [fecondly] the Manners, or, as we generally call them in English, the Fable and the Characters.

Homer has excelled all the Heroic Poets that ever wrote, in the multitude and variety of his Characters. Every God that is admitted into his Poem, acts a Part which would have been fuitable to no other Deity. His Princes are as much distinguished by their Manners as by their Dominions; and even those among them, whofe Characters feem wholly made up of Courage, differ from one another as to the particular kinds of Courage in which they excell. In short, there is scarce a Speech or Action in the Iliad, which the Reader may not ascribe to the Person that speaks or acts, without feeing his Name at the Head of it.

Homer does not only out-shine all other Poets in the Variety, but also in the Novelty of his Characters. He has introduced among his Gracian Princes a Perfon, who had lived thrice the Age of Man, and converfed with Thefeus, Hercules, Polyphemus, and the first Race of Heroes. His principal Actor is the Off-spring [Son] of a Goddess, not to mention the Son [Offfpring] of Aurora [other Deities], who has [have] likewife a Place in his Poem, and the venerable Trojan Prince, who was the Father of fo many Kings and Heroes. There is in these several Characters of Homer,

22 CHARACTERS OF HOMER, VIRGII., AND MILTON COMPARED. a certain Dignity as well as Novelty, which adapts them in a more peculiar manner to the Nature of an Heroic Poem. Tho', at the same time, to give them the greater variety, he has described a Vulcan, that is, a Buffoon among his Gods, and a Therfites among his Mortals.

Virgil falls infinitely short of Homer in the Characters of his Poem, both as to their Variety and Novelty. Æneas is indeed a perfect Character, but as for Achates, tho' he is ftiled the Hero's Friend, he does nothing in the whole Poem which may deserve that Title. Gyas, Mnefleus, Sergeftus, and Cloanthus, are all of them Men of the fame Stamp and Character,

-Fortemque Gyan, fortemque Cloanthum [Virg.] There are indeed several very natural Incidents in the Part of Afcanius; as that of Dido cannot be sufficiently admired. I do not fee any thing new or particular in Turnus. Pallas and Evander are [remote] Copies of Hector and Priam, as Laufus and Mezentius are almost Parallels to Pallas and Evander. The Characters of Nifus and Eurialus are beautiful, but common. [We must not forget the Parts of Sinon, Camilla, and fome few others, which are beautiful Improvements on the Greek Poet.] In fhort, there is neither that Variety nor Novelty in the Perfons of the Eneid, which we meet with in those of the Iliad.

If we look into the Characters of Milton, we shall find that he has introduced all the Variety that his Poem was capable of receiving. The whole Species of

Mankind was in two Perfons at the time to which the Subject of his Poem is confined. We have, however, four diftinct Characters in these two Perfons. We fee Man and Woman in the highest Innocence and Perfection, and in the most abject State of Guilt and Infirmity. The two last Characters are, indeed, very common and obvious, but the two first are not only more magnificent, but more new than any Characters either in Virgil or Homer, or indeed in the whole Circle of Nature.

Milton was fo fenfible of this Defect in the Subject of his Poem, and of the few Characters it would afford