feveral alterations and additions, it appears to have been written with great care and deliberation; and both the draughts have been published by Mr. Birch in his Hiftorical and Critical Account of the life and writings of Milton. There are alfo feveral of his poems, Arcades, At a folemn mufic, On time, Upon the circumcifion, the Mafk, Lycidas, with five or fix of his fonnets, all in his own hand-writing: and there are fome others of his fonnets written by different hands, being most of them compofed after he had loft his fight. It is curious to fee the first thoughts and subsequent corrections of fo great a poet as Milton: but it is remarkable in these manufcript poems, that he doth not often make his ftops, or begin his lines with great letters. There are likewise in his own hand-writing different plans of Paradife Loft in the form of a tragedy: and it is an agreeable amusement to trace the gradual progrefs and improvement of such a work from its first dawnings in the plan of a tragedy to its full luftre in an epic poem. And together with the plans of Paradife Loft there are the plans or fubjects of feveral other intended tragedies, fome taken from the Scripture, others from the British or Scottish hiftories: and of the latter the last mentioned is Macbeth, as if he had an inclination to try his ftrength with Shakespear; and to reduce the play more to the unities, he propofes, beginning at the arrival of Malcolm at "Macduff; the matter of Duncan may be expref

fed by the appearing of his ghoft." These manufcripts of Milton were found by the learned Mr. Profeffor Mafon among fome other old papers, which, he fays, belonged to Sir Henry Newton Puckering,

:

Puckering, who was a confiderable benefactor to the library and for the better preservation of fuch truly valuable reliques, they were collected together, and handfomely bound in a thin folio by the care and at the charge of a person, who is now very eminent in his profeffion, and was always a lover of the Muses, and at that time a fellow of Trinity College, Mr. Clarke, one of his Majefty's counsel.

Ο

UI legis Amiffam Paradifum, grandia magni
Carmina Miltoni, quid nifi cuncta legis?

Res cunctas, & cunctarum primordia rerum,
Et fata, & fines continet ifte liber.
Intima panduntur magni penetralia mundi,
Scribitur & toto quicquid in orbe latet:
Terræque, tractufque maris, cœlumque profundum,
Sulphureumque Erebi, flammivomumque fpecus:
Quæque colunt terras, pontumque, & Tartara cæca,
Quæque colunt fummi lucida regna poli:

Et quodcunque ullis conclufum eft finibus ufquam,
Et fine fine Chaos, & fine fine Deus:

Et fine fine magis, fi quid magis est fine fine,
In Chrifto erga homines conciliatus amor.
Hæc qui fperaret quis crederet effe futura?

Et tamen hæc hodie terra Britanna legit.
O quantos in bella duces! quæ protulit arma !
Quæ canit, & qæanta prulia dira tuba!
Cœleftes acies! atque in certamine cœlum!
Et quæ cœleftes pugna deceret agros!

Quantus

Quantus in æthereis tollit fe Lucifer armis ! Atque ipfo graditur vix Michaele minor! quam funeftis concurritur iris,

Quantis, &

Dum ferus hic ftellas protegit, ille rapit!
Dum vulfos montes ceu tela reciproca torquent,
Et non mortali defuper igne pluunt:
Stat dubius cui fe parti concedat Olympus,
Et metuit pugnæ non fupereffe fuæ.
At fimul in cœlis Meffiæ infignia fulgent,
Et currus animes, armaque digna Deo,
Horrendumque rotæ ftrident, & fæva rotarum
Erumpunt torvis fulgura luminibus,

Et flammæ vibrant, & vera tonitrua rauco
Admiftis flammis infonuere polo:

Excidit attonitis mens omnis, & impetus omnis,
Et caffis dextris irrita tela cadunt

Ad pœnas fugiunt, & ceu foret Orcus afylum,
Infernis certant condere fe tenebris.

Cedite Romani Scriptores, cedite Graii,
Et quos fama recens vel celebravit anus.
Hæc quicunque leget tantùm ceciniffe putabit
Mæonidem ranas, Virgilium culices.

SAMUEL BARROW, M. D,

ON

W

HEN I beheld the Poet blind, yet bold,

In flender book his vaft defign unfold, Meffiah crown'd, God's reconcil'd decree,

Rebelling Angels, the forbidden tree,

Heaven, Hell, Earth, Chaos, all; the argument
Held me a while mifdoubting his intent,
That he would ruin (for I saw him strong)
The facred truths to fable and old fong,
(So Sampfon grop'd the temple's posts in fpite)
The world o'erwhelming to revenge his fight.
Yet as I read, foon growing lefs fevere,
I lik'd his project, the fuccefs did fear;

Through that wide field how he his way fhould find,
O'er which lame faith leads understanding blind;
Left he perplex'd the things he would explain,
And what was easy he should render vain.
Or if a work fo infinite he spann'd,
Jealous I was that fome less skilful hand
(Such as difquiet always what is well,
And by ill imitating would excel)

Might hence prefume the whole creation's day
To change in fcenes, and fhow it in a play.

VOL. I.

Pardon