Printed for A. MILLAR, oppofite Catherine-Street in the Strand: And Sold by M. COOPER, at the Globe in Pater-nofter-Row. 1748.

(Price One Shilling.)

A

CHAP. I.

S Inftruction is the End of Poetry, fo the Powers and Charms which enable it to give Delight are the Means fubfervient to this End. Whatever is most pleasing is most effectual to engage the Attention, and to ftamp lively and lafting Impreffions on the Mind. A Poet therefore ought to make it his fecondary Aim to please, in order to instruct with greater Succefs. With this Aim it was that Proportion and Harmony in Numbers were invented, and that Verfe has been adjusted to fo many different Measures and Rules. From hence fprung Tropes and Figures, and all the Ornaments of Language from hence the whole Art of Poetry derives its Birth.

A Poet who neglects the Inftruction of his Readers, whose Writings import Pleasure without Profit to the Mind, and warm the Imagination without enlightning the Understanding, acts an Under-Part in

his Profeffion, performs but half a Poet's Duty, and fcarce merits half his Praife,

THE Sifter-Arts of Poetry and Painting agree in this, as in other refpects, that their highest Excellence and Perfection alike depend on attaining the End they alike pursue. The Picture that strikes the Fancy without touching the Heart, and excites Pleasure without raifing any moral Sentiment, is far lefs valuable than the Piece that equally fucceeds in both these Attainments. Herds, and Flocks, and Rivers gliding through flowry Meads, with Peasants and Cottages, Hills and Woods, Light and Shade fkilfully intermixed, will form a beautiful Landskip, and will furnish out a pleafing Amusement to the Mind. But when Images of moral Beauty are exhibited to view; when blended Colours are made expreffive of Diftrefs, of Compaffion, of Generofity, of Continence; and the Pencil awakens every tender and kind Affection in our Breafts, as when Alexander vifits the Tent of Darius, and the afflicted, female Captives are fuppliant at the Feet of a self-conquering Hero, how different! how fuperiour a Pleasure must every one feel!

THE foregoing Reflections were occafion'd by an English Poem, which tho' far from being generally read, deferves a general Reading, as well as any Poem either antient or modern. A Performance that abounds with fuch inftructive Doctrines, and with Sentiments of Morality fo juft, so useful, and fo refined, the World has not yet receiv'd. And yet the World has receiv'd

receiv'd it with too much Ingratitude, and with too much Neglect. The Reader will probably be surprized at the mention of Milton's Paradife Regain'd. It labours under so much Difcredit, that fome Perfons question whether it belongs to the Author whofe Name it bears. It's a common Tradition, that Milton always fpoke of it as his favourite Work, and prefer'd it to his Paradife Loft. Few Perfons befides have judg'd fo rightly of it. His other Poem perhaps exceeds it in Fruitfulness of Fancy, in Variety and Compafs of Invention, and in Ornaments of Stile. The Verfe of Paradife Regain'd is more artless, and is lefs embellish'd with Flights of Imagination, and with Figures of Speech. But it supplies a much richer Fund of intellectual Pleasure; it conveys the most important Truths to the Understanding; it infpires the most large and liberal Notions, and every where diffipates vulgar Prejudices and popular Miftakes.

NOR are fine Descriptions and beautiful Images wanting to entertain his Reader, and to add Life and Luftre to his Subject. But he is fparing of thefe, as being less conducive to his main Defign, which was to give a right Direction to the Thoughts and Actions of Men.

THE Subject of the Poem is the Temptation of the Son of God in the Wilderness, and his Victory over the Devil. The Characters both of the one and the other are as finely drawn, and are as fuitable to the Perfons as can be conceiv'd. The one contrives