"Down the great river to the opening gulf,
"And there take root an island salt and bare,
"The haunt of feals, and orcs, and fea-mews' clang."

The tranfition which the poet makes, from the vifion of the deluge, to the concern it occafioned in Adam, is exquifitely graceful, and copied after Virgil, though the first thought it introduces is rather in the spirit of Ovid:

"How didit thou grieve then, Adam to behold
"The end of all thy offspring, end fo fad,
"Depopulation! Thee another flood,

"Of tears and forrow a flood, thee alfo drown'd,
"And funk thee as thy fons; till, gently rear'd
"By the Angel, on thy feet thou stood'it at last,
Though comfortless; as when a father mourns
"His children, all in view deftroyed at once."

I have been the more particular in my quotations out of the eleventh book of Paradife Loft, because it is not generally reckoned among the moft fhining books of this Poem; for which reafon the reader might be apt to overlook thofe many paffages in it which deferve our admiration. The eleventh and twelfth are indeed built upon that fingle circunftance of the removal of our first parents from Paradife; but, though this is not in itfelf fo great a fubject as that in moft of the fore-" going books, it is extended and diverfified with fo many furprising incidents and pleafing epifodes, that these two laft books can by no means be looked upon as unequal parts of this divine Poem. I must further add, that, had not Milton reprefented our first parents as driven out of Paradise, his Fall of Man would not have been complete,

and confequently his action would have been imperfect.

Milton, after having reprefented in vifion the hiftory of mankind to the first great period of nature, defpatches the remaining part of it in narration. He has devised a very handsome reason for the Angel's proceeding with Adam after this manner; though, doubtlefs, the true reafon was the difficulty which the poet would have found to have fhadowed out fo mixed and complicated a ftory in vifible objects. I could with, however, that the author had done it, whatever pains it might have coft him. To give my opinion freely, I think that the exhibiting part of the hiftory of mankind in vifion, and part in narrative, is as if an hiftorypainter fhould put in colours one half of his fubject, and write down the remaining part of it. * If

If Milton's Poem flags any where, it is in this narration ;] "If we have an eye only to poetick decoration," fays Mr. Thyer," the remark is just: but if we view it in another light, and confider in how fhort a compafs he has comprised, and with what ftrength and clearness he has expreffed, the various actings of God towards mankind, and the moft fublime and deep truths. both of the Jewish and Chriftian theology; it muft excite no lefs admiration in the mind of an attentive reader, than the more fprightly fcenes of love and innocence in Eden, or the more turbulent ones of angelick war in Heaven. This con-. trivance of Milton's to introduce into his Poem fo many things pofterior to the time of action fixed in his first plan, by a vifionary prophetick relation of them, is, it must be allowed, common, with our author, to Virgil and moft epick poets fince his time; but there is one thing to be obferved fingular in our: English poet, which is, that whereas they have all done it prin cipally, if not wholly, to have an opportunity of complimenting their own country and friends, he has not the leaft mention of, or friendly allution to, his."

Milton's Poem flags any where, it is in this narration; where in fome places the author has been fo attentive to his divinity, that he has neglected his poetry. The narration, however, rifes very happily on feveral occafions, where the fubject is capable of poetical ornaments, as particularly in the confufion which he defcribes among the builders of Babel, and in his fhort fketch of the plagues of Egypt. The ftorm of hail and fire, and the darknefs that overfpread the land for three days, are defcribed with great ftrength. The beautiful paffage, which follows, is raifed upon noble hints in Scrip

ture:

"Thus with ten wounds

"The river-dragon tam'd at length fubmits
"To let his fojourners depart; and oft
"Humbles his ftubborn heart; but still, as ice

With deference to preceding opinions, it feems to me, however, that Milton has not entirely omitted to bestow poctical decoration on the conclufion of his divine Poem; that the twelfth book can boast a variety of elegant numbers, and a most judicious felection of words. The exhibiting part of the hiftory of mankind in vifion, and part in narrative, is not perhaps exactly fubject to the cenfure of Mr. Addifon. It should be remembered not only that the Angel artfully aligns the reafon for difcontinuing the vifion, and introducing the narration:

"Thy mortal fight to fail; objects divine

Must needs impair and weary human fenfe-"

but alfo that many circumstances in the narration, which fucceeds, were not capable of being reprefented to the fight. And thus the reader may admire the judgement with which Milton planned, as well as the perfpicuity with which he has arranged, the concluding parts of Paradife Loft. TODD.

!

"More harden'd after thaw: till, in his rage

Pursuing whom he late difmifs'd, the fea "Swallows him with his hoft; but them lets pass "As on dry land between two crystal walls; "Aw'd by the rod of Mofes so to stand

The river-dragon is an allufion to the crocodile, which inhabits the Nile, from whence Egypt derives her plenty. This allufion is taken from that fublime paffage in Ezekiel; "Thus faith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lyeth in the midft of his rivers, which hath faid, My river is mine own, and I have made it for my felf." Milton has given us another very noble and poetical image in the fame description, which is copied almost word for word out of the hiftory of Mofes :

"All night he will purfue, but his approach

"Darkness defends between till morning watch; &c."

As the principal defign of this episode was to give Adam an idea of the Holy Perfon who was to reinftate human nature in that happinefs and perfection from which it had fallen, the poet confines himself to the line of Abraham, from whence the Meffiah was to defcend. The Angel is described as feeing the patriarch actually travelling towards the Land of Promife, which gives a particular livelinefs to this part of the narration.

"I fee him, but thou canst not, with what faith "He leaves his Gods, his friends, his native foil, "Ur of Chaldea, paffing now the ford

"To Haran; after him a cumbrous train

"Of herds and flocks, and numerous fervitude;

1

"Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth
"With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
"Canaan he now attains; I fee his tents

"Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighbouring plain
"Of Moreh; there by promife he receives
"Gift to his progeny of all that land,

"From Hamath northward to the Defart fouth;
"(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd.)"

As Virgil's vifion in the fixth Eneid probably gave Milton the hint of this whole epifode, the laft line is a tranflation of that verfe where Anchifes mentions the names of places, which they were to bear hereafter.

"Hæc tum nomina erunt, nunc funt fine nomine terræ.”

The poet has very finely reprefented the joy and gladness of heart which rifes in Adam upon his discovery of the Meffiah. As he fees his day at a diftance through types and fhadows, he rejoices in it; but when he finds the redemption of man completed, and Paradife again renewed, he breaks forth in rapture and transport;

"O Goodness infinite, Goodness immenfe!
"That all this good of evil fhall produce, &c."

I have before hinted, that an heroick poem, according to the opinion of the beft criticks, ought to end happily, and leave the mind of the reader, after having conducted it through many doubts and fears, forrows and difquietudes, in a state of tranquillity and fatisfaction. Milton's fable, which had fo many other qualifications to recommend it, was deficient in this particular. It is here, therefore, that the poet has fhown a moft exquisite