Degraded: Wisdom in Difcourfe with her As one intended first, not after made THESE Sentiments of Love in our first Parent gave the Angel fuch an Infight into Human Nature, that he feems apprehenfive of the Evils which might be fal the Species in general, as well as Adam in particular, from the Excefs of this Paffion. He therefore fortifies him against it by timely Admonitions; which very artfully prepare the Mind of the Reader for the Occurrences of the next Book, where the Weakness, of which Adam here gives fuch diftant Difcoveries, brings about that fatal Event which is the Subject of the Poem. Difcourfe, which follows the gentle Rebuke he received from the Angel, fhews that his Love, however violent it might appear, was ftill founded in Reason, and confequently not improper for Paradife. Neither her outfide Form fo fair, nor aught From all her Words and Actions, mix'd with Love Harmony to behold in wedded Pair! His ADAM's ADAM's Speech, at parting with the Angel, has in it a Deference and Gratitude agreeable to an inferior Nature, and at the fame I ime a certain Dignity and Greatnefs fuitable to the Father of Mankind in his State of Innocence. XXXX SPECTATOR, N° 351. In te omnis domus inclinata recumbit. VIRG. IF On thee the Fortunes of our Houfe de end. F we look into the three great Heroic Poems which have appeared in the World, we may obferve that they are built upon very flight Foundations. Homer lived near 300 Years after the Trojan War, and, as the Writing of Hiflory was not then in ufe among the Greeks, we may very well fuppofe, that the Tradition of Achilles and Ulyffes had brought down but very few Particulars to his Knowledge, tho' there is no Question but he has wrought into his two Poems fuch of their remarkable Adventures as were ftill talked of among his Contemporaries. THE Story of Æneas, on which Virgil founded his Poem, was likewife very bare of Circumítances, and by that Means afforded him an Opportunity of embellishing it with Fiction, and giving a full Range to his own Invention. We find, however, that he has interwoven, in the Course of his Fable, the principal Particulars, which were generally believed among the Romans, of Eneas's Voyage and Settlement in Italy. THE Reader may find an Abridgment of the whole Story, as collected out of the ancient Hiftorians, and as it was received among the Romans, in Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus. F 6. SINCE SINCE none of the Critics have confidered Virgil's Fable with relation to this Hiftory of Eneas; it may not, perhaps, be amifs to examine it in this Light, so far as regards my prefent purpose. Whoever looks into the Abridgment above-mentioned, will find that the Character of Eneas is filled with Piety to the Gods, and a fuperftitious Obfervation of Prodigies, Oracles, and Predictions. Virgil has not only preferved this Character in the Perfon of Eneas, but has given a Place in his Poem to thofe particular Prophecies which he found recorded of him in History and Tradition. The Poet took the Matters of Fact as they came down to him, and circumftanced them after his own Manner, to make them appear the more natural, agreeable, or furprising. I believe very many Readers have been fhocked at that. ludicrous Prophecy, which one of the Harpies pronounces to the Trojans in the Third Book, namely, that before they had built their intended City, they should be reduced by Hunger to eat their very Tables. But, when they hear, that this was one of the Circumstances that had been tranfmitted to the Romans in the History of Eneas, they will think the Poet did very well in taking notice of it. The Hiftorian above-mentioned acquaints us, a Prophetefs had foretold Æneas, that he fhould take his Voyage Weftward, till his Companions fhould eat their Tables; and that accordingly, upon his landing in Italy, as they were eating their Flesh upon Cakes of Bread for want of other Conveniencies, they afterwards fed on the Cakes themfelves; upon which one of the Company faid merrily, We are eating our Tables. They immediately took the Hint, fays the Hif torian, and concluded the Prophecy to be fulfilled. Virgil did not think it proper to omit fo material a Particular in the Hiftory of Æneas, it may be worth while to confider with how much Judgment he has qualified it, and taken off every thing that might have appeared improper for a Paffage in an Heroic Poem. The Prophetefs who foretells it is an hungry Harpy, as the Perfon who discovers it is young Afcanius. As Heus Heus etiam menfas confumimus, inquit Iulus ! 1 SUCH an Obfervation, which is beautiful in the Mouth of a Boy, would have been ridiculous from any other of the Company. I am apt to think, that the changing of the Trojan Fleet into Water-nymphs, which is the most violent Machine of the whole neid, and. has given Offence to feveral Critics, may be accounted for the fame Way. Virgil himself, before he begins that: Relation, premises that what he was going to tell appeared incredible, but that it was juftified by Tradition. What further confirms me, that this Change of the Fleet was a celebrated Circumstance in the History of Eneas is, that Ovid has given a Place to the fame Metamorphofis in his Account of the Heathen Mythology. NONE of the Critics I have met with having con fidered the Fable of the Æneid in this Light, and taken notice how the Tradition, on which it was founded, au-. thorises those Parts in it which appear the most exception-able; I hope the Length of this Reflexion will not make it unacceptable to the curious Part of my Readers.. THE Hiftory, which was the Bafis of Milton's Poem, is ftill fhorter than either that of the Iliad or Eneid. The Poet has likewife taken care to infert every Circumftance of it in the Body of his Fable. The Ninth Book, which we are here to confider, is raised upon that brief Account in Scripture, wherein we are told that the Serpent was more fubtle than any Beaft of the Field, that he had tempted the Woman to eat of the forbidden Fruit, that she was overcome by this Temptation, and that Adam followed her Example. From these few Particulars Milton has formed one of the most entertaining Fables that Invention ever produced. He has difpofed of these feveral Circumstances among fo many agreeable and natural Fictions of his own, that his whole Story looks only like a Comment upon Sacred Writ, or rather seems to be a full and complete Relation of what the other is only an Epitome. I have infifted the the longer on this Confideration, as I look upon the Difpofition and Contrivance of the Fable to be the principal Beauty of the Ninth Book, which has more Story in it, and is fuller of Incidents, than any other in the whole Poem. Satan's traverfing the Globe, and still keeping within the Shadow of the Night, as fearing to be discovered by the Angel of the Sun, who had before detected him, is one of thofe beautiful Imaginations with which he introduces this his fecond Series of Adventures. Having examined the Nature of every Creature, and found out one which was the most proper for his Purpose, he again returns to Paradife; and, to avoid Difcovery, finks by Night with a River that ran under the Garden, and rifes up again through a Fountain that iffued from it by the Tree of Life. The Poet, who, as we have before taken notice, speaks as little as poffible in his own Person, and, after the Example of Homer, fills every Part of his Work with Manners and Characters, introduces a Soliloquy of this infernal Agent, who was thus reftiefs in the Destruction of Man. He is then defcribed as gliding through the Garden under the Refemblance of a Mift, in order to find out that Creature in which he defigned to tempt our first Parents. This Defcription has fomething in it very poetical and furprifing. So faying, through each Thicket dark or dry, THE Author afterwards gives us a Defcription of the Morning, which is wonderfully fuitable to a Divine Poem, and peculiar to that firft Seafon of Nature: He reprefents the Earth, before it was curft, as a great Altar breathing out its Incense from all Parts, and fending up a pleasant Savour to the Noftrils of its Creator; to |