derfully beautiful: The fentiments are not only proper to the fubject, but have fomething in them particularly foft and womanish. Adam's fpeech abounds with thoughts which are equally moving, but of a more mafculine and elevated turn. Nothing can be conceived more fublime and poetical than the following paffage in it: "This moft afflicts me, that, departing hence, "Of graffy turf, and pile up every stone "Or monument to ages; and thereon "Offer sweet-smelling gums, and fruits, and flowers: The Angel afterwards leads Adam to the highest mount of Paradife, and lays before him a whole being banished from a place where he had fo often been honoured with a manifeftation of the Divine Prefence. The ufe of the apoftrophe in the one cafe, and the omiffion of it in the other, not only gives a beautiful variety to the ftyle, but also marks the fuperior elevation and compofure of mind, by which the poet had all along diftinguifhed the character of Adam." Efay on Poetry and Mufick, fect. iii. TODD. hemifphere, as a proper ftage for thofe vifions which were to be reprefented on it. I have before obferved how the plan of Milton's Poem is in many particulars greater than that of the Iliad or Eneid. Virgil's hero, in the laft of thefe poems, is entertained with a fight of all those who are to defcend from him; but, though that epifode is justly admired as one of the nobleft defigns in the whole Eneid, every one muft allow that this of Milton is of a much higher nature. Adam's vifion is not confined to any particular tribe of mankind, but extends to the whole fpecies. In this great review which Adam takes of all his fons and daughters, the firft objects he is prefented with exhibit to him the ftory of Cain and Abel, which is drawn together with much clofenefs and propriety of expreffion. That curiofity and natural horrour, which arife in Adam at the fight of the firft dying man, are touched with great beauty: "But have I now feen Death? Is this the way "Of terrour, foul and ugly to behold, The fecond vifion fets before him the image of death in a great variety of appearances. The Angel, to give him a general idea of thofe effects which his guilt had brought upon his pofterity, places before him a large hofpital or lazar-houfe, filled with perfons lying under all kinds of mortal difeafes. How finely has the poet told us that the fick perfons languifhed under lingering and in curable diftempers, by an apt and judicious use of fuch imaginary Beings as thofe I have before mentioned: "Dire was the toffing, deep the groans; Despair The paffion, which likewife rifes in Adam on this occafion is very natural: "Sight fo deform what heart of rock could long The difcourfe between the Angel and Adam, which follows, abounds with noble morals. As there is nothing more delightful in poetry, than a contraft and oppofition in incidents, the author, after this melancholy profpect of death and fickness, raifes up a fcene of mirth, love, and jollity. The fecret pleafure that fteals into Adam's heart, as he is intent upon this vifion, is imagined with great delicacy. I muft not omit the defcription of the loofe female troop, who feduced the fons of God, as they are called in Scripture: "For that fair female troop thou saw'st, that feem'd "Of goddeffes, fo blithe, fo fmooth, fo gay, "Yet empty of all good wherein confifts "Woman's domeftick honour, and chief praise; "Bred only and completed to the tafte "To drefs, and troll the tongue, and roll the eye: あ "To thefe that fober race of men, whofe lives 66 Religious titled them the fons of God, "Shall yield up all their virtue, all their fame, "Ignobly, to the trains and to the smiles "Of these fair atheists —” The next vifion is of a quite contrary nature, and filled with the horrours of war. Adain, at the fight of it, melts into tears; and breaks out into that paffionate speech, "O! what are these? "Death's minifters, aot men! who thus deal death Inhumanly to men, and multiply "Ten thoufandfold the fin of him who flew "His brother: for of whom fuch maffacre " Make they, but of their brethren; men of men!" Milton, to keep up an agreeable variety in his vifions, after having raifed in the mind of his reader the feveral ideas of terrour which are conformable to the defcription of war, paffes on to thofe fofter images of triumphs and feftivals, in that vision of lewdness and luxury which ushers in the Flood. As it is vifible that the poet had his eye upon Ovid's account of the univerfal deluge, the reader may obferve with how much judgement he has avoided every thing that is redundant or puerile in the Latin poet. We do not here fee the wolf fwimming among the fheep, or any of thofe wanton imaginations, which Seneca found fault with, as unbecoming the great catastrophe of Nature. our poet has imitated that verfe in which Ovid tells us that there was nothing but fea, and that this fea had no fhore to it, he has not fet the If thought in fuch a light as to incur the cenfure which criticks have paffed upon it. The latter part of that verfe in Ovid is idle and fuperfluous, but juft and beautiful in Milton: "Jamque mare et tellus nullum difcrimen habebant, "Nil nifi pontus erat, deerant quoque littora ponto.” "Sea cover'd fea, In Milton the former part of the defcription does not foreftal the latter. How much more great and folemn on this occafion is that which follows in our English poet; "And in their palaces, "Where luxury late reign'd, fea-monsters whelp'd "And ftabled than that in Ovid, where we are told that the feacalves lay in thofe places where the goats were used to browfe! The reader may find feveral other parallel paffages in the Latin and English defcription of the deluge, wherein our poet has vifibly the advantage. The sky's being overcharged with clouds, the defcending of the rains, the rifing of the feas, and the appearance of the rainbow, are fuch defcriptions as every one muft take notice of. The circumftance relating to Paradife is finely imagined, and fuitable to the opinions of many learned authors: "Then fhall this mount "Of Paradife by might of waves be mov'd |