Paradise Lost which admit of examination are those of angels and of man; of angels good and evil, of man in his innocent and sinful state.

Among the angels the virtue of Raphael is mild and placid, of 215 easy condescension and free communication; that of Michael is regal and lofty, and, as may seem, attentive to the dignity of his own nature. Abdiel and Gabriel appear occasionally, and act as every incident requires; the solitary fidelity of Abdiel is very amiably painted 2.

Of the evil angels the characters are more diversified. To 216 Satan, as Addison observes, such sentiments are given as suit 'the most exalted and most depraved being3.' Milton has been censured by Clarke for the impiety which sometimes breaks from Satan's mouth. For there are thoughts, as he justly remarks, which no observation of character can justify, because no good man would willingly permit them to pass, however transiently, through his own mind. To make Satan speak as a rebel, without any such expressions as might taint the reader's imagination, was indeed one of the great difficulties in Milton's undertaking, and I cannot but think that he has extricated himself with great happiness 5. There is in Satan's speeches little that can give pain to a pious ear. The language of rebellion cannot be the same with that of obedience. The malignity of Satan foams in haughtiness and obstinacy; but his expressions are commonly general, and no otherwise offensive than as they are wicked".

The other chiefs of the celestial rebellion are very judiciously 217 discriminated in the first and second books; and the ferocious character of Moloch appears, both in the battle and the council, with exact consistency 7.

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To Adam and to Eve are given during their innocence such sentiments as innocence can generate and utter. Their love is pure benevolence and mutual veneration; their repasts are without luxury and their diligence without toil. Their addresses to their Maker have little more than the voice of admiration and gratitude. Fruition left them nothing to ask, and Innocence left them nothing to fear 1.

But with guilt enter distrust and discord, mutual accusation, and stubborn self-defence; they regard each other with alienated minds, and dread their Creator as the avenger of their transgression. At last they seek shelter in his mercy, soften to repentance, and melt in supplication. Both before and after the Fall the superiority of Adam is diligently sustained.

Of the probable and the marvellous, two parts of a vulgar epick poem which immerge the critick in deep consideration, the Paradise Lost requires little to be said. It contains the history of a miracle, of Creation and Redemption; it displays the power and the mercy of the Supreme Being: the probable therefore is marvellous, and the marvellous is probable. The substance of the narrative is truth; and as truth allows no choice, it is, like necessity, superior to rule. To the accidental or adventitious parts, as to every thing human, some slight exceptions may be made. But the main fabrick is immovably supported.

It is justly remarked by Addison that this poem has, by the nature of its subject, the advantage above all others, that it is universally and perpetually interesting 3. All mankind will,

''En effet, il est à remarquer que dans tous les autres poëmes l'amour est regardé comme une faiblesse ; dans Milton seul il est une vertu. Le poète a su lever d'une main chaste le voile qui couvre ailleurs les plaisirs de cette passion; il transporte le lecteur dans le jardin de délices; il semble lui faire goûter les voluptés pures dont Adam et Eve sont remplis; il ne s'élève pas au-dessus de la nature humaine, mais au-dessus de la nature corrompue.' VOLTAIRE, Œuvres, viii. 421.

2 'Aristotle observes that the fable in an epic poem should abound in circumstances that are both credible and astonishing; or, as the French critics choose to phrase it, the fable should be filled with the probable

through all ages, bear the same relation to Adam and to Eve, and must partake of that good and evil which extend to themselves.

Of the machinery, so called from Oeds àñò μnxavns 2, by which 222 is meant the occasional interposition of supernatural power, another fertile topic of critical remarks, here is no room to speak, because every thing is done under the immediate and visible direction of Heaven; but the rule is so far observed that no part of the action could have been accomplished by any other means.

Of episodes I think there are only two, contained in Raphael's 223 relation of the war in heaven 3 and Michael's prophetick account of the changes to happen in this world'. Both are closely connected with the great action; one was necessary to Adam as a warning, the other as a consolation.

To the compleatness or integrity of the design nothing can be 224 objected; it has distinctly and clearly what Aristotle requires, a beginning, a middle, and an end. There is perhaps no poem of the same length from which so little can be taken without apparent mutilation. Here are no funeral games, nor is there any long description of a shield'. The short digressions at the beginning of the third, seventh, and ninth books might doubtless be spared; but superfluities so beautiful who would take. away? or who does not wish that the author of the Iliad had gratified succeeding ages with a little knowledge of himself? Perhaps no passages are more frequently or more attentively read than those extrinsick paragraphs; and, since the end of poetry is pleasure, that cannot be unpoetical with which all are pleased.

The questions, whether the action of the poem be strictly one, 225 whether the poem can be properly termed heroick, and who is

' Pope, in his Dedication of The Rape of the Lock, says: 'The machinery is a term invented by the critics to signify that part which the deities, angels, or demons are made to act in a poem.' In a note on Iliad, xxiv. 141, he writes :—' It may be thought that so many interpositions of the Gods, such messages from heaven to earth, and down to the seas, are needless machines.' See also post, DRYDEN, 207 n.; POPE, 55, 59; and Boswell's Johnson, iv. 17. 2 See Aristotle's Poetics, xv. 10. 3 Paradise Lost, v. 577-vi. end.

Ib. xi. 334-xii. end.

Addison reckons the creation of the world as part of the first episode. The Spectator, No. 267.

5 Aristotle's Poetics, vii. 3; The Spectator, No. 267; post, DRYDEN, 363.

Iliad, xxiii. 257; Aeneid, v. 104. 1 Iliad, xviii. 478.

8 'There is nothing in nature more irksome than general discourses, especially when they turn chiefly upon words. For this reason I shall waive the discussion of that point which was started some years since,

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the hero, are raised by such readers as draw their principles of judgement rather from books than from reason. Milton, though he intituled Paradise Lost only a 'poem',' yet calls it himself 'heroick song". Dryden, petulantly and indecently, denies the heroism of Adam because he was overcome; but there is no reason why the hero should not be unfortunate except established practice, since success and virtue do not go necessarily together3. Cato is the hero of Lucan, but Lucan's authority will not be suffered by Quintilian to decide. However, if success be necessary, Adam's deceiver was at last crushed; Adam was restored to his Maker's favour, and therefore may securely resume his human rank.

After the scheme and fabrick of the poem must be considered its component parts, the sentiments, and the diction.

The sentiments, as expressive of manners or appropriated to characters, are for the greater part unexceptionably just.

Splendid passages containing lessons of morality or precepts of prudence occur seldom. Such is the original formation of this poem that as it admits no human manners till the Fall, it can

whether Milton's Paradise Lost may be called an heroick poem.' ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 267.

In the title to the second edition
he describes it as 'a Poem in twelve
books.'

26 Since first this subject for Heroick
Song

Pleas'd me, long choosing, and be-
ginning late.

Paradise Lost, ix. 25.

3 Dryden, after maintaining that Homer, Virgil, and Tasso completed 'the file of heroic poets,' and after mentioning 'a crowd of little poets who press for admission,' continues:

-'Spenser has a better plea for his Fairy Queen, had his action been finished, or had been one. And Milton, if the devil had not been his hero instead of Adam, if the giant had not foiled the knight, and driven him out of his stronghold, to wander through the world with his ladyerrant.' Works, xiv. 144. ADDISON, 141.

See post,

'He that looks for an hero in Paradise Lost searches for that which Milton never intended; but if

he will needs fix the name of an hero upon any person in it, it is certainly the Messiah who is the hero, both in the principal action and in the chief episodes.' ADDISON, Spectator, No. 297.

I assert, with Mr. Dryden, that the Devil is in truth the Hero; his plan, which he lays, pursues, and at last executes, being the subject of the poem.' CHESTERFIELD, Letters to his Son, ii. 138.

Burns wrote on June 11, 1787:'Give me a spirit like my favourite Hero, Milton's Satan.' He quotes Paradise Lost,i.250-3. H.Sotheran's Catalogue, 1899, No. 12, lot 21.

'There is neither truth nor wit in saying that Satan is hero of the piece, unless, as is usually the case in human life, he is the greatest hero who gives the widest sway to the worst passions. It is Adam who acts and suffers most, and on whom the consequences have most influence. This constitutes him the main character.' LANDOR, Imag. Conver. iv. 201.

4

Post, ROWE, 35.

give little assistance to human conduct. Its end is to raise the thoughts above sublunary cares or pleasures. Yet the praise of that fortitude, with which Abdiel maintained his singularity of virtue against the scorn of multitudes, may be accommodated to all times; and Raphael's reproof of Adam's curiosity after the planetary motions, with the answer returned by Adam', may be confidently opposed to any rule of life which any poet has delivered.

The thoughts which are occasionally called forth in the pro- 229 gress are such as could only be produced by an imagination in the highest degree fervid and active, to which materials were supplied by incessant study and unlimited curiosity. The heat of Milton's mind might be said to sublimate his learning, to throw off into his work the spirit of science, unmingled with its grosser parts.

He had considered creation in its whole extent, and his de- 230 scriptions are therefore learned. He had accustomed his imagination to unrestrained indulgence, and his conceptions therefore were extensive. The characteristick quality of his poem is sublimity. He sometimes descends to the elegant, but his element is the great. He can occasionally invest himself with grace; but his natural port is gigantick loftiness. He can please when pleasure is required; but it is his peculiar power to astonish.

He seems to have been well acquainted with his own genius, 231 and to know what it was that Nature had bestowed upon him more bountifully than upon others; the power of displaying the vast, illuminating the splendid, enforcing the awful, darkening the gloomy, and aggravating the dreadful: he therefore chose a subject on which too much could not be said, on which he might tire his fancy without the censure of extravagance.

The appearances of nature and the occurrences of life did not 232 satiate his appetite of greatness. To paint things as they are requires a minute attention, and employs the memory rather than the fancy. Milton's delight was to sport in the wide regions of