of an epick poem with any determined number of years, days, or hours.

Having examined the ACTION of Paradife Loft, let us in the next place confider the ACTORS. This

fpent in Hell, and Satan's voyage from thence to Paradife; of which there is no account."

Dr. Newton further obferves, that Satan fled from the Mef fiah's prefence when he came down to judge Adam and Eve, and returned by night, B. x. 341. In his return to Hell, he meets Sin and Death in the morning, "while the fun in Aries rofe," B. x. 329. After Sin and Death had arrived in Paradife, the Angels are commanded to make feveral alterations in the heavens and elements: and Adam is reprefented as lamenting aloud to himfelf" through the ftill night," B. x. 846. Adam is afterwards. made to talk fomewhat confufedly, in one place, as if it was still the day of the Fall, B. x. 962; and, in another place, as if it was fome day after the Fall, B. x. 1050. And, having felt the cold damps of the night before, he is confidering how they may provide themselves with fome better warmth before another night comes, B. x. 1069. That other night muft be fuppofed to be paft, fince the morning appears again" to re-falute the world with facred light," B. xi. 134.

So that, according to this addition in the calculation, the morning of the Poem, B. xi. 135, commences the eleventh day of the action. "Addifon," fays doctor Newton, "reckons only ten days to the action of the Poem; that is, he supposes that our firft Parents were expelled out' of Paradife the very next day after the Fall; and indeed at firft fight it appears fo:" But the learned critick acutely adds, " With what propriety then could the fun's rifing in Aries, when Satan met Sin and Death at the brink of Chaos, be mentioned, B. x. 329? and, if it was ftill the night after the Fall, how could Adam fay, as he is represented faying, ere this diurnal ftar leave cold the night, B. x. 1069? Dr. Newton however acknowledges, that Milton is not very exact in the computation of time; and that perhaps he affected fome obfcurity in this particular, not choofing to define, as the Scripture itself has not defined, how foon after the Fall it was that our firût parents were driven out of Paradife. TODD.

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 CHA

RACTERS.

Homer has excelled all the heroick 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 suitable to no other deity. His princes are as much diftinguished by their manners, as by their dominions; and even thofe among them, whofe characters feem wholly made up of courage, differ from one another as to the particular kinds of courage in which they excel. In short, there is scarce a fpeech or action in the Iliad, which the reader may not afcribe to the perfon who fpeaks or acts, without feeing his name at the head of it.

Homer does not only outfhine all other poets in the variety, but alfo in the novelty, of his characters. He has introduced among his Grecian princes a person 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 fon of a goddess; not to mention the offspring of other deities, who have likewise a place in his poem, and the venerable Trojan prince, who was the father of fo many kings and heroes. There is in thefe feveral characters of Homer, a certain dignity, as well as novelty, which adapts them in a more peculiar manner to the nature of an heroick poem. Though at the fame time, to give them a greater variety, he has described a Vulcan,

that is a buffoon among his gods, and a Therfites among his mortals.

Virgil falls infinitely fhort 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, though he is ftyled the hero's friend, he does nothing in the whole poem which may deserve that title. Gyas, Mneftheus, Sergeftus, and Cloanthus, are all of them men of the fame

stamp and character: “ Fortemque Gyan, fortémque Cloanthum."

There are indeed feveral natural incidents in the Part of Afcanius; and that of Dido cannot be fufficienty 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 almoft parallels to Pallas and Evander. The characters of Nifus and Euryalus are beautiful, but common. We must not forget the parts of Sinon, Camilla, and fome few others, which are fine 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 fhall find that he has introduced all the variety his fable was capable of receiving. The whole fpecies of mankind was in two perfons at the time, to which the fubject 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 ftate of guilt and infirmity. The two laft characters

are, indeed, very common and obvious; but the two firft 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 him, that he has brought into it two actors of a fhadowy and fictitious nature, in the perfons of Sin and Death; by which means he has wrought into the body of his fable, a very beautiful and well-invented allegory. But, notwithstanding the fineness of this allegory may atone for it in fome meafure, I cannot think that perfons of fuch a chimerical exiftence are proper actors in an epick poem; because there is not that measure of probability annexed to them, which is requifite in writings of this kind, as I fhall fhow more at large hereafter.

Virgil has, indeed, admitted Fame as an actress in the Eneid; but the part the acts is very fhort, and none of the most admired circumftances in that divine work. We find in mock-heroick poems, particularly in the Difpenfary and the Lutrin, feveral allegorical perfons of this nature; which are very beautiful in thofe compofitions, and may perhaps be used as an argument, that the authors of them were of opinion, fuch characters might have a place in an epick work. For my own part, I fhould be glad the reader would think fo, for the fake of the Poem I am now examining; and must further add, that, if fuch empty unfubftantial beings may be ever made ufe of on this occation, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in

more proper actions, than thofe of which I am now Speaking.

Another principal actor in this Poem is the great Enemy of mankind. The part of Ulyffes in Homer's Odyssey is very much admired by Ariftotle, as perplexing that fable with very agreeable plots and intricacies; not only by the many adventures in his voyage, and the fubtilty of his behaviour, but by the various concealments and difcoveries of his perfon, in feveral parts of that poem. But the crafty being, I have now mentioned, makes a much longer voyage than Ulyffes; puts in practice many more wiles and ftratagems, and hides himself under a greater variety of fhapes and appearances; all of which are feverally detected, to the great delight and surprise of the reader.

We may likewife obferve with how much art the poet has varied feveral characters of the perfons, that speak in his infernal affembly. On the contrary, how has he reprefented the whole Godhead exerting itself towards Man in its full benevolence under the three-fold diftinction of a Creator, a Redeemer, and a Comforter!

Nor muft we omit the perfon of Raphael, who, amidft his tenderness and friendship for Man, fhows fuch a dignity and condefcenfion in all his speech and behaviour, as are fuitable to a fuperiour nature. The Angels are, indeed, as much diverfified in Milton, and distinguished by their proper parts, as the gods are in Homer or Virgil. The reader will find nothing afcribed to Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, or Raphael, which is not in a particular manner fuitable to their refpective characters.