evil spirits are described as rallying the angels upon the fuccefs of their new-invented artillery. This paffage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole Poem, as being nothing else but a string of puns, and those, too, very indifferent.

......Satan beheld their plight,

And to his mates thus in derifion call'd.

O Friends, why come not on these victors proud!
Ere while they fierce were coming, and when we,
To entertain them fair with open front,

And breast, (what could we more) propounded terms
Of composition; ftrait, they chang❜d their minds,
Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,

As they would dance, yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For joy of affer'd peace; but I suppose
If our propofals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick refult.

To whom thus Belial in like gamefome mood.
Leader, the terms we fent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home,
Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,
And stumbled many; who receives them right
Had need, from head to foot, well understand;
Not understood, this gift they have befides,
They show as when our foes walk not upright.
Thus they among themselves in pleasant vein
Stood fcoffing------

Having already treated of the Fable, the Characters, and Sentiments, in the Paradife Loft, we are, in the last place, to consider the Language; and as the learned world is very much divided upon Milton as to this point, I hope they will excufe me if I appear particular in any of my opinions, and incline to those who judge the most advantageously of the Author.

It is requsite that the Language of an heroic poem

fhould be both perfpicuous and fublime. In proportion as either of these two qualities are wanting the Language is imperfect. Perfpicuity is the first and most neceffary qualification; infomuch that a good-natured reader fometimes overlooks a little flip even in the grammar or fyntax, where it is impoffible for him to mistake the poet's sense. Of this kind is that passage in Milton, wherein he speaks of Satan,

......God and his Son except,

Created thing nonght valu'd he nor fhunn'd.

And that in which he describes Adam and Eve;

Adam the goodlieft man of men fince born
His fons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.

It is plain that, in the former of these passages, according to the natural syntax, the divine perfons mentioned in the first line are represented as created beings; and that in the other, Adam and Eve are confounded with their fons and daughters. Such little blemishes as thefe, when the thought is great and natural, we should, with Horace, impute to a pardonable inadvertency, or to the weakness of human nature, which cannot attend to each minute particular, and give the last finishing to every circumstance in fo long a work. The ancient critics, therefore, who were acted by a fpirit of candour rather than that of cavilling, invented certain figures of speech on purpose to palliate little errors of this nature in the writings of those authors who had fo many greater beauties to atone for them,

If clearness and perfpicuity were only to be confulted, the poet would have nothing else to do but to clothe his thoughts in the most plain and natural expreffions. But fince it often happens that the most obvious phrases, and those which are used in ordinary converfation, become too familiar to the ear, and contract a kind of meanness by passing through the mouths of the vulgar, a poet should take particular care to guard himself against idiomatic ways of speaking. Ovid and Lucan have many poorneffes of expreffion upon this account, as taking up with the first phrases that offered, without putting themselves to the trouble of looking after such as would not only be natural, but also elevated and fublime. Milton has but a few failings in this kind, of which, however, you may meet with fome inftances, as in the following paffages.

Embrios and idiots, eremites and friers

White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery,
Here pilgrims roam------

------A while difcourfe they hold,

No fear left dinner cool; when thus began

Our author....

Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling
The evil on him brought by me will curfe
My head, ill fare our ancestor impure,

For this we may thank Adam.......

The great masters in composition know very well that many an elegant phrase becomes improper for a poet or an orator when it has been debased by common ufe. For this reafon the works of ancient authors,

which are written in dead languages, have a great advantage over those which are written in languages that are now spoken. Were there any mean phrases or idioms in Virgil and Homer, they would not shock the ear of the most delicate modern reader fo much as they would have done that of an old Greek or Roman, because we never hear them pronounced in our streets, or in ordinary conversation.

It is not therefore fufficient that the Language of an epic poem be perfpicuous, unless it be also fublime. To this end it ought to deviate from the common forms and ordinary phrases of speech. The judgment of a poet very much discovers itself in shunning the common roads of expreffion, without falling into fuch ways of fpeech as may seem stiff and unnatural; he must not swell into a falfe fublime, by endeavouring to avoid the other extreme. Among the Greeks Æfchylus, and fometimes Sophocles, were guilty of this fault; among the Latins Claudian and Statius; and among our own countrymen Shakespeare and Lee. In these authors the affectation of greatness often hurts the perfpicuity of the style, as in many others the endeavour after perfpicuityprejudices its greatness. Ariftotle has obferved, that the idiomatic style may be avoided, and the fublime formed, by the following methods. First, by the use of metaphors: fuch are thofe in Milton.

Imparadis'd in one another's arms. Volume I.

E

...And in his hand a reed

Stood waving tipt with fire------
The graffy clods now calv'd------
Spangled with eyes------

In these, and innumerable other instances, the metaphors are very bold, but juft; I muft, however, observe, that the metaphors are not thick fown in Milton, which always favours too much of wit; that they never clash with one another, which, as Aristotle obferves, turns a sentence into a kind of enigma or riddle; and that he feldom has recourfe to them where the proper and natural words will do as well.

Another way of raising the Language, and giving it a poetical turn, is to make use of the idioms of other tongues. Virgil is full of the Greek forms of speech, which the critics call Hellenifms, as Horace, in his Odes, abounds with them much more than Virgil. I need not mention the feveral dialects which Homer has made ufe of for this end. Milton, in conformity with the practice of the ancient poets, and with Ariftotle's rule, has infused a great many Latinifms aswell as Græcifms, and sometimes Hebraifms, into the language of his Poem; as towards the beginning of it;

Nor did they not perceive the evil plight

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel.
Yet to their gen'ral's voice they foon obey'd.
----- Who fhall tempt with wand'ring feet

The dark unbottom'd infinite abyss,
And through the palpable obfcure find out
His uncouth way, or fpread his airy flight
Uphorne with indefatigable wings
Over the vaft abrupt!