TIIE SENTIMENTS MUST BE BOTH NATURAL AND SUBLIME. 27 his Defect as to this Particular in feveral parts of the Iliad and Odyssey, tho' at the fame time those who have treated this great Poet with Candour, have attributed 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 shines likewise very much in this Particular: Nor muit we omit one Confideration which adds to his Honour and Reputation. Homer and Virgil introduced Persons whofe Characters are commonly known among Men, and fuch as are to be met with either in History, or in ordinary Converfation. 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 Shakefpear to have drawn his Calyban, than his Hotspur or Fulius 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 inspire them with a variety of Sentiments. The 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 Circumstances during their State of Innocence. Nor is it fufficient for an Epic Poem to be filled with fuch Thoughts as are Natural, unless it abound also with such as are Sublime. Virgil in this Particular falls short of Homer. He has not indeed fo many Thoughts that are Low and Vulgar; but at the fame time has not fo many Thoughts that are Sublime and Noble. The truth of it is, Virgil feldom rifes into very aftonishing 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 self with greater Ideas, than those which he has laid together in his first, [second,] and fixth Book[s]. The seventh, 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, because it is filled with less Action. Let the Reader compare what Longinus has observed 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 alfo two kinds of Thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The firft 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 fwelling Sentiments which are fo frequent[ly] in Statius and Claudian, none of thofe mixed Embellishments of Taffo. Everything is juft and natural. His Sentiments fhew that he had a perfect Insight into Human Nature, and that he knew every thing which was the moit proper to affect it. *I remember but one Line in him which has been objected againit, by the Criticks, as a point of Wit. It is in his ninth Book, where Funo fpeaking of the Trojans, how they turvived the Ruins of their City, expreifes herself in the following Words; Num capti potucre 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, mifreprefented Virgil's way of thinking as to this Particular, in the Tranflation he has given us of the Eneid. 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 confest, has sometimes erred in this Respect, as I shall shew 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 sometimes comply with that [the] vicious Taste 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 also such 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, puthed 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 fhall give but one Initance of this Impropriety of Sentiments in Homer, and at the fame time compare it with an Inftance of the fame nature, both in Virgil and Milton. Sentiments which raife Laughter, can very seldom be admitted with any decency into an Heroic Poem, whofe Butineis it is to excite Paffions of a much nobler Nature. Homer, however, in his Characters of Vulcan and Therjites, in his Story of Mars and Venus, in his Behaviour of Irus, and in other Paffages, has been obferved to have lapfed 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 represented 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 fay against it, for it is in the Book of Games and Diversions, where the Reader's Mind may be supposed to be fufficiently relaxed for fuch an Entertainment. The only Piece of Pleasantry in Paradife Loft, is where the Evil Spirits are described as rallying the Angels upon the Succefs 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 calla. O Friends, why come not on thofe Victors proua 66 THE ONLY PIECE OF PLEASANTRY IN PARADISE LOST." 31 Eer while they fierce were coming, and when we, 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. |