was capable of receiving. The whole species of mankind was in two perfons, at the time to which the fubject of his Poem is confined. We have, however, four diftinét Characters in these two perfons. We fee man and woman in the highest innocence and perfection, and in the most abject state of guilt and infirmity. The two last Characters are, indeed, very common and obvious, but the two firft are not only more magnificent, but more new than any Characters either in Virgil or Homer,or indeed in the whole circle of Nature.

Milton was so sensible of this defect in the subject of his Poem, and of the few Characters it would afford him, that he has brought into it two actors of a sha dowy and fictitious nature, in the persons of Sin and Death, by which means he has wrought into the body of his fable a very beautiful and well-invented allegory; but notwitstanding the fineness of this allegory may atone for it in fome measure, I cannot think that perfons of fuch a chimerical exiftence are proper Actors in an epic poem; because there is not that measure of probability annexed to them which is requisite in writings of this kind,as I shall show more at large hereafter.

Virgil has, indeed, admitted Fame as an Actress in the Æneid; but the part she acts is very short, and none of the most admired circumftances in that divine work. We find in mock-heroic poems, particularly in the Difpenfary, and the Lutrin, several allegorical perfons of this nature, which are very beautiful in those compositions, and may, perhaps, he used as an argu.

ment that the authors of them were of opinion fuch characters might have a place in an epic work: for my own part, I should be glad the reader would think fo for the fake of the Poem I am now examining, and must farther add, that if such empty unsubstantial beings may be ever made use of on this occasion, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in more proper actions, than those of which I am now speaking.

Another principal actor in this Poem is the great enemy of mankind. The part of Ulyffes in Homer's Odyffey is very much admired by Aristotle, as perplexing that fable with very agreeable plots and intricacies, not only by the many adventures in his voyage, and the fubtlety of his behaviour, but by the various concealments and discoveries of his person in feveral parts of that poem: but the crafty being I have now mentioned makes a much longer voyage than Ulyffes, puts in practice many more wiles and stratagems, and hides himself under a greater variety of shapes and appearances, all of which are severally detected, to the great delight and surprise of the reader.

We may likewise observe with how much art the Poet has varied several characters of the perfons that speak in his infernal affembly. On the contrary, how has he represented the whole Godhead exerting itself towards man, in its full benevolence, under the threeVolume I.

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fold distinction of a Creator, a Redeemer, and a Comforter!

Nor must we omit the person of Raphael, who, amidst his tenderness and friendship for man, fhows fuch a dignity and condefcenfion in all his fpeech and behaviour as are fuitable to a fuperior nature. The angels are indeed as much diverfified in Milton, and distinguished by their proper parts, as the gods are in Homer or Virgil. The reader will find nothing ascribed to Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, or Raphael, which is not in a particular manner suitable to their respective characters.

There is another circumstance in the principal actors of the Iliad and Æneid which gives a peculiar beauty to those two poems, and was therefore contrived with very great judgment; I mean the authors having chofen for their heroes perfons who were fo nearly related to the people for whom they wrote. Achilles was a Greek, and Æneas the remote founder of Rome : by this means their countrymen (whom they principally proposed to themselves for their readers) were particularly attentive to all the parts of their story, and fympathized with their heroes in all their adventures. A Roman could not but rejoice in the escapes, fucceffes, and victories of Æneas, and be grieved at any defeats, misfortunes, or disappointments that befel, him; as a Greek muft have had the fame regard for Achilles; and it is plain that each of those poems have

loft this great advantage, among those readers to whom their heroes are as ftrangers or indifferent perfons. Milton's Poem is admirable in this respect, since it is impoffible for any of its readers, whatever nation, country, or people, he may belong to, not to be related to the perfons who are the principal actors in it; but what is still infinitely more to its advantage, the principal actors in this Poem are not only our proge nitors, but our representatives: we have an actual interest in every thing they do, and no less than our utmost happiness is concerned, and lies at stake, in all their behaviour.

I shall fubjoin, as a corollary to the foregoing remark, an admirable observation out of Aristotle, which hath been very much misrepresented in the quotations of fome modern critics. If a man of perfect and con⚫ fummate virtue falls into a misfortune, it raises our 'pity, but not our terror; because we do not fear that 'it may be our own cafe, who do not resemble the 'fuffering perfon:' but, as that great philosopher adds,' If we fee a man of virtue, mixt with infirmi 'ties, fall into any misfortune, it does not only raise our pity but our terror; because we are afraid that 'the like misfortunes may happen to ourselves, who ' refemble the character of the suffering person.'

I fhall only remark in this place, that the foregoing obfervation of Ariftotle, though it may be true in other occasions, does not hold in this; because in the

prefent cafe, though the persons who fall into misfortune are of the most perfect and confummate virtue, it is not to be confidered as what may poffibly be, but what actually is, our own cafe, fince we are embarked with them on the fame bottom, and must be partakers of their happiness or misery.

In this, and fome other very few inftances, Ariftotle's rules for epic poetry, which he had drawn from his reflections upon Homer, cannot be fupposed to fquare exactly with the heroic poems which have been made fince his time, fince it is evident to every impartial judge his rules would still have been more perfect could he have perused the Æneid, which was made fome hundred years after his death.

We have already taken a general furvey of the Fable and Characters in Milton's Paradise Loft: the parts which remain to be confidered, according to Aristotle's method, are the Sentiments and the Language. Before I enter upon the first of thefe, I must advertise my reader that it is my defign, as foon as I have finished my general reflections on these four several heads, to give particular instances out of the Poem now before us of beauties and imperfections which may be obferved under each of them, as alfo of fuch other particulars as may not properly fall under any of them. This I thought fit to premise, that the reader may not judge too hastily of this piece of Criticism, or look upon it as imperfect, before he has feen the whole

extent of it.