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Wife that can fave half his Revenue, and yet make a better Figure than any of his Neighbours of the fame Eftate, with finer bred Women, you fhall have further notice from,

N° 333. Saturday, March 22.

vocat in certamina Divos.

W radife

Virg.

E are now entring upon the fixth Book of Pa Loft, in which the Poet defcribes the Battel of Angels; having raifed his Reader's ExpeAation, and prepared him for it by feveral Paffages in the preceding Books. I omitted quoting thefe Paffages in my Obfervations on the former Books, having purposely referved them for the opening of this, the Subject of which gave occafion to them. The Author's Imagination was fo inflam'd with this great Scene of Action, that whereever he fpeaks of it, he rifes, if poffible, above himfelf, Thus where he mentions Satan in the beginning of his Poem:

Him the Almighty Power

Hurl'd headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Sky,
With hideous ruin and combuftion, down
To bottomlefs Perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durft defy th' Omnipotent to Arms.

WE have likewife feveral noble Hints of it in the Infernal Conference.

O Prince! O Chief of many throned Powers,

That led th' imbattel'd Seraphim to War,

Too well I fee and rue the dire Event,

VOL. V.

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That

That with fad Overthrow and foul Defeat
Hath loft us Heav'n; and all this mighty Hoft
In horrible Deftruction laid thus low.
But fee! the angry Victor has recall'd
His Minifters of Vengeance and Purfuit,
Back to the Gates of Heav'n: The fulph'rous Hail
Shot after us in Storm, o'erblown, hath laid
The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice

Of Heaven receiv'd us falling: and the Thunder,
Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous Rage,
Perhaps hath spent his Shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless Deep.

THERE are feveral other very fublime Images on
the fame Subject in the firft Book, as alfo in the fecond.
What when we fled amain, purfu'd and frook
With Heav'n's afflicting Thunder, and befought
The Deep to Shelter us; this Hell then feem'd
A Refuge from thofe Wounds.

IN fhort, the Poet never mentions any thing of this Battel but in fuch Images of Greatnefs and Terror as are fuitable to the Subject. Among feveral others I cannot forbear quoting that Paffage, where the Power, who is defcribed as prefiding over the Chaos, fpeaks in the third Book. Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old With faultring Speech, and Visage incompos'd, Anfwer'd, I know thee, Stranger, who thou art, That mighty leading Angel, who of late

Made head against Heaven's King, tho' overthrown,
I faw and heard, for fuch a numerous Hoft
Fled not in filence through the frighted Deep
With Ruin upon Ruin, Rout en Rout,
Confufion worse confounded; and Heav'n's Gates
Pour'd out by Millions her victorious Bands
Pursuing

IT requir'd great Pregnancy of Invention, and Strength of Imagination, to fill this Battel with fuch Circumftances as should raise and astonish the Mind of the Reader; and at the fame time an Exactness of Judgment, to avoid every thing that might appear light or trivial. Thofe who look

into

into Homer, are furpriz'd to find his Battels ftill rifing one above another, and improving in Horrour, to the Conclufion of the Iliad. Milton's Fight of Angels is wrought up with the fame Beauty. It is ufher'd in with fuch Signs of Wrath as are fuitable to Omnipotence incenfed. The firft Engagement is carry'd on under a Cope of Fire, occafion'd by the Flights of innumerable burning Darts and Arrows which are difcharged from either Hoft. The fecond Onfet is ftill more terrible, as it is filled with thofe artificial Thunders, which feem to make the Victory doubtful, and produce a kind of Confternation even in the good Angels. This is follow'd by the tearing up of Mountains. and Promontories; till, in the laft place, the Meffiah comes forth in the Fulness of Majefty and Terror. The Pomp of his Appearance amidst the Roarings of his Thunders, the Flashes of his Lightnings, and the Noife of his Chariot-Wheels, is defcribed with the utmoft Flights of human Imagination.

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 Fight between two Armies of Angels.

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THE fecond Day's Engagement is apt to ftartle an Imagination, which has not been raifed 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 entered very properly into the Thoughts of that Being, who is all along defcrib'd as afpiring to the Majefty of his Maker. Such Engines were the only Inftruments he could have made use of to imitate those Thunders, that in all Poetry, both facred and profane, are reprefented as the Arms of the Almighty. The tearing up the Hills, was not altogether fo daring a Thought as the former. We are, in fome measure, prepared for fuch an Incident by the Defcription of the Giant's 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 noise in Antiquity, and gave birth to the fublimeft

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fublimeft Defcription in Hefiod's Works was an Allegory founded upon this very Tradition of a Fight between the good and 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 Sublimenefs, and which Virgil and Ovid have copy'à after him, tells us, that the Giants threw Offa upon Olympus, and Pelion upon Offa. He adds an Epithet to Pelion (eivoriquaλov) 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 his fingling out by Name these three remarkable Mountains, fo well known to the Greeks. This laft is fuch a Beauty, as Ahe Scene of Milton's War could not poffibly furnish him with. Claudian, in his Fragment upon the Giants War, has given full fcope to that Wildnefs of Imagination which was natural to him. He tells us, that the Giants tore up whole Iflands by the Roots, and threw them at the Gods. He defcribes one of them in particular taking up Lemnos in his Arms, and whirling it to the Skies, with all Vulcan's Shop in the midst of it. Another tears up Mount Ida, with the River Enipeus, which ran down the Sides of it; but the Poet, not content to describe him with this Mountain upon his Shoulders, tells us that the River flow'd down his Back, as he held it up in that Pofture. It is visible to every judicious Reader, that fuch Ideas favour more of Burlesque, than of the Sublime. 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 feveral Paffages, and compofes out of them the following great Image.

From their Foundations loos'ning to and fro,
They pluck'd the feated Hills with all their Load,
Rocks, Waters, Woods; and by the Shangy Tops
Up-lifting bore them in their Hands

WE

WE have the full Majefty of Homer in this fhort De feription, improv'd by the Imagination of Claudian, 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 numberlefs Beauties in this Book, which are fo confpicuous, that they cannot elcape the Notice of the most ordinary Reader.

THERE are indeed fo many wonderful Strokes 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 tranflated Poetry. I fhall refer my Reader thither for fome of the Mafter-Strokes 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.

MILTON, notwithstanding the fublime Genius het was Mafter of, has in this Book drawn to his Affiftance all the Helps he could meet with among the ancient Poets. The Sword of Michael, which makes fo great a havock among the bad Angels, was given him, we are told, out of the Armory of God..

-But the Sword'

of Michael from the Armory of God

Was giv'n him temper'd fo, that neither keen'
Nor felid might refift that Edge: It met

The Sword of Satan, with steep Force to fmite
Defcending, and in half cut sheer

THIS Paffage is a Copy of that in Virgil, wherein the Poet tells us, that the Sword of Aneas, which was given him by a Deity, broke into Pieces the Sword of Turnus, which came from a mortal Forge. As the Moral in this Place is divine, fo by the way we may obferve, that the bestowing on a Man who is favour'd by Heaven fuch an allegorical Weapon, is very conformable to the old Eaftern way of thinking. Not only Homer has made ufe of it, but we find the Jewish Hero in the Book of Maccabees, who had fought the Battels of the chofen People with fo much Glory and Succefs, receiving in his Dream a Sword from

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the