of Fact as they came down to him, and circumstanced them after his own manner, to make them appear the more natural, agreeable, or furprizing. I believe very many Readers have been fhocked at that ludicrous Prophecy, which one of the Harpyes 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 transmitted to the Romans in the Hiftory of Æneas, 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 should 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 after wards fed on the Cakes themselves; upon which one of the Company faid merrily, We are eating our Tables. They immediately took the hint, fays the Hiftorian, and concluded the Prophecy to be fulfilled. As Virgil did not think it proper to omit fo material a particular in the Hiftory of Eneas, 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 Heroick Poem. The Prophetefs who foretells it, is an Hungry Harpy, as the Perfon who difcovers it is young Afcanius.

Heus etiam menfas confu minus, inquit lulus!

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 moft violent Machine in the whole Eneid, and has given of fence to feveral Criticks, may be accounted for the fame way. Virgil himfelf, before he begins that Relation, premifes, 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 Circumftance in the Hiftory of Eneas, is, that Ovid has given a place to the fame Metamorphofis in his Account of the heathen Mythology..

NONE

NONE of the Criticks I have met with having confidered the Fable of the Eneid in this Light, and taken notice how the Tradition, on which it was founded, authorizes thofe Parts in it which appear moft exceptionable; I hope the length of this Reflection 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 Æneid. 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 tempted the Woman to eat of the forbidden Fruit, that he 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 Circumftances among fo many beautiful and natural Fictions of his own, that his whole Story looks only like a Comment upon facred Writ, or rather feems to be a full and compleat Relation of what the other is only an Epitome. I have infifted 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 dif covered by the Angel of the Sun, who had before detected him, is one of those 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 moft 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, fpeaks as little as poffible in his own Perfon, 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 reftlefs in the Destruction of Man. He is then defcrib'd as gliding through the

F 3

Garden,

Garden, under the resemblance of a Mift, in order to find out that Creature in which he defign'd to tempt our first Parents. This Description has fomething in it very poetical and furprizing.

So faying, through each Thicket dank or dry,
Like a black Mift, low creeping, he held on
His midnight Search, where fooneft he might find
The Serpent: him faft fleeping foon he found
In Labyrinth of many a Round felf-roll'd,

His Head the midft, well ftor'd with fubtle Wiles.

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 Incenfe from all Parts, and fending up a pleasant Savour to the Noftrils of its Creator; to which he adds a noble Idea of Adam and Eve, as offering their Morning-Worfhip, and filling up the Univerfal Confort of Praise and Adoration.

Now when as facred Light began to dawn

In Eden on the humid Flowers, that breathed
Their Morning Incense, when all things that breathe
From th' Earth's great Altar fend up filent Praife
To the Creator, and his Noftrils fill

With grateful Smell; forth came the human Pair,
And join'd their vocal Worship to the Choir
Of Creatures wanting Voice.

THE Difpute which follows between our two first Parents, is reprefented with great Art: It proceeds from a Difference of Judgment, not of Paffion, and is managed with Reason, not with Heat: It is fuch a Difpute as we may fuppofe might have happened in Paradife, had Man continued Happy and Innocent. There is a great Delicacy in the Moralities which are interspersed in Adam's Difcourfe, and which the moft ordinary Reader cannot but take notice of. That Force of Love which the Father of Mankind fo finely defcribes in the eighth Book, and which is inferted in my laft Saturday's Paper, fhews it felf here in many fine Inftances: As in thofe fond Regards he caft towards Eve at her parting from him.

Her

Her long with ardent Look his Eye pursued
Delighted, but defiring more her fay:
Oft he to her his Charge of quick return
Repeated; fhe to him as oft engaged
To be return'd by noon amid the Bower.

IN his Impatience and Amusement during her Absence
Adam the while,

Waiting defirous her return, had wove
Of choiceft Flowers a Garland, to adorn
Her Treffes, and her rural Labours crown:
As Reapers oft are wont their Harvest Queen.
Great Joy he promised to his thoughts, and new
Solace in her return, fo long delay'd.

BUT particularly in that paffionate Speech, where feeing her irrecoverably loft, he refolves to perifh with her rather than to live without her.

Some curfed Fraud

Or Enemy bath beguil'd thee! yet unknown;
And me with thee hath ruin'd; for with thee
Certain my Refolution is to die!

How can I live without thee! how forgo
Thy fweet Converfe and Love fo dearly join'd,
To live again in thefe wild Woods forlorn!
Should God create another Eve, and I
Another Rib afford, yet lofs of thee

Would never from my Heart! no, no! I feel
The Link of Nature draw me: Flesh of Flesh,
Bone of my Bone thou art, and from thy State
Mine never fhall be parted, Blifs or Wo!

THE Beginning of this Speech, and the Preparation to it, are animated with the fame Spirit as the Conclufion, which I have here quoted.

THE feveral Wiles which are put in practice by the Tempter, when he foundEve separated from her Husband, the many pleafing Images of Nature which are intermix'á in this part of the Story, with its gradual and regular Progrefs to the fatal Catastrophe, are fo very remarkable, that it would be fuperfluous to point out their refpective Beauties.

F

I have avoided mentioning any particular Similitudes in my Remarks on this great Work, becaufe I have given a general Account of them in my Paper on the first Book. There is one, however, in this part of the Poem, which I fhall here quote, as it is not only very beautiful, but the clofeft of any in the whole Poem; I mean that where the Serpent is defcrib'd as rolling forward in all his Pride, animated by the evil Spirit, and conducting Eve to her Destruction, while Adam was at too great a distance from her to give her his Affiftance. Thefe feveral Particulars are all of them wrought into the following Similitude.

Hope elevates, and Joy

Brightens his Creft; as when a wand'ring Fire,
Compact of unctuous Vapour, which the Night
Condenfes, and the Cold invirons round,
Kindled through Agitation to a Flame,
(Which oft, they fay, fome evil Spirit attends)
Hovering and blazing with delufive Light,
Misleads th' amaz'd Night-wanderer from his Way
To Bogs and Mires, and oft through Pond or Pool,
There fwallow'd up and loft, from fuccour far.

THAT fecret Intoxication of Pleasure, with all those tranfient Flufhings of Guilt and Joy, which the Poet reprefents in our firft Parents upon their eating the forbidden Fruit, to thofe flaggings of Spirit, damps of Sorrow, and mutual Accufations which fucceed it, are conceiv'd with a wonderful Imagination, and defcribed in very natural Sentiments.

WHEN Dido in the fourth Eneid yielded to that fatal Temptation which ruin'd her, Virgil tells us the Earth trembled, the Heavens were filled with Flashes of Lightning, and the Nymphs howled upon the Mountain-Tops. Milton, in the fame poetical Spirit, has defcribed all Nature as difturbed upon Eve's eating the forbidden Fruit.

So faying, her rash Hand in evil hour

Forth reaching to the Fruit, fhe pluckt, fhe eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her Seat
Sighing, through all her Works gave figns of Woe
That all was loft.

UPON