O Friends, why come not on thefe victors proud? Ere while they fierce were coming; and when we, To entertain them fair with open front 611 And breaft (what could we more?) propounded terms Of compofition, ftrait they chang'd their minds, 616 As they would dance; yet for a dance they feem'd To whom thus Belial in like gamesome mood. 620 620. To whom thus Belial] Whoever remembers the character of Belial in the first and fecond books, and Mr. Addifon's remarks upon it, will eafily fee the pro They priety of making Belial reply to Satan upon this occafion and in this fportive manner, rather than Beelzebub, or Moloch, or any of the evil Angels. 635. Rag They show us when our foes walk not upright. 630 To match with their inventions they prefum'd arms Against such hellish mischief fit to' oppose. Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew; 635 640 Rocks, There is nothing in the first and laft day's engagement which does not appear natural, and agreeable enough to the ideas moft readers would conceive of a fight between two Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops 645 two armies of Angels. The fecond day's engagement is apt to ftartle an imagination which has not been raised and qualify'd for fuch a defcription, by the reading of the ancient poets, and of Homer in particular. It was certainly a very bold thought in our author, to afcribe the firft ufe of artillery to the rebel Angels. But as fuch a pernicious invention may be well fuppos'd to have proceeded from fuch authors, fo it enter'd very properly into the thoughts of that being, who is all along defcribed as afpiring to the majesty of his Maker. Such engins were the only inftruments he could have made ufe of to imitate thofe thunders, that in all poetry, both facred and profane, are reprefented as the arms of the Almighty. The tearing up the bills was not altogether fo daring a thought as the former. We are in fome meafure prepared for fuch an incident by the defcription of the giants war, which we meet with among the ancient poets. What ftill made this circumftance the more proper for the poet's ufe is the opinion of many learned men, that the fable of the giants war, which makes fo great a noife in anti-. quity, and gave birth to the fub When limeft defcription in Hefiod's works was an allegory founded upon this very tradition of a fight between the good and the bad Angels. It may perhaps be worth while to confider with what judgment Milton in this narration has avoided every thing that is mean and trivial in the defcriptions of the Latin and Greek poets; and at the fame time improved every great hint which he met with in their works upon this subject. Homer in that paffage, which Longinus has celebrated for its fublimeness, and which Virgil and Ovid have copy'd after him, tells us that the giants threw Offa upon Olympus, and Pelion upon Offa. He adds an epithet to Pelion (voriQUAAOT) which very much fwells the idea, by bringing up to the reader's imagination all the woods that grew upon it. There is further a great beauty in ungling out by name these three remarkable mountains, fo well known to the Greeks. This laft is fuch a beauty, as the fcene of Milton's war could not poffibly furnish him with. Claudian, in his fragment upon the giants war, has given full fcope to that wildness of imagination which was natural to him. He tells us that the giants tore up whole ilands by the roots, and threw When coming towards them fo dread they faw threw them at the Gods. He describes one of them in particular taking up Lemnos in his arms, and whirling it to the fkies, with all Vulcan's fhop in the midft of it. Another tears up mount Ida, with the river Enipeus, which ran down the fides of it; but the poet, not content to defcribe him with this mountain upon his shoulders, tells us that the river flow'd down his back, as he held it up in that posture. It is vifible to every judicious reader, that fuch ideas favor more of burlesque, than of the fublime. They proceed from a wantonnefs of imagination, and rather divert the mind than astonish it. Milton has taken every thing that is fublime in these several paffages, and composes out of them the following great image; From their foundations loofning to and fro They pluck'd the feated hills with all their load, Rocks, waters, woods, and by the fhaggy tops Uplifting bore them in their hands: We have the full majefty of Homer in this short defcription, improved by the imagination of Clau 650 They dian, without its puerilities. I need not point out the defcription of the fallen Angels feeing the promontories hanging over their heads in fuch a dreadful manner, with the other numberless beanties in this book, which are fo confpicuous, that they cannot efcape the notice of the most ordinary reader. There are indeed fo many wonderful ftrokes of poetry in this book, and fuch a variety of fublime ideas, that it would have been impoffible to have given them a place within the bounds of this paper. Befides that I find it in a great measure done to my hand at the end of my Lord Rofcommon's Effay on tranfiated poetry. I fhall refer my reader thither for fome of the mafterftrokes in the fixth book of Paradife Loft, tho' at the fame time there are many others, which that noble author has not taken notice of. Addifon. 648. When coming towards them fo dread they faw] Does not this verse express the very motion of the mountains, and is not there the fame kind of beauty in the numbers, that the poet recommends in his excellent Effay on Criticism? When They faw them whelm'd, and all their confidence bruis'd 654 Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain |