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umphs and Festivals, in that Vifion of Lewdnefs and Luxury which ufhers in the Flood.

AS it is vifible that the Poet had his Eye upon Ovid's Account of the univerfal Deluge, the Reader may obferve with how much Judgment he has avoided every thing that is redundant or puerile in the Latin Poet. We do not here fee the Wolffwimming among the Sheep, nor any of thofe wanton Imaginations, which Seneca found fault with, as unbecoming the great Cataftrophe of Nature. If our Poet has imitated that Verse in which Ovid tells us that there was nothing but Sea, and that this Sea had no Shore to it, he has not fet the Thought in fuch a Light as to incur the Cenfure which Criticks have paffed upon it. The latter part of that Verfe in Ovid is idle and fuperfluous, but just and beautiful in Milton.

Jamque mare & tellus nullum difcrimen habebant,
Nil nifi pontus erat, deerant quoque littora ponto.

Sea cover'd Sea,

Sea without Shore

Ovid.

Milton.

IN Milton the former Part of the Defcription does not foreftal the latter. How much more great and folemn on this Occafion is that which follows in our English Poet,

And in their Palaces

Where Lux'ry late reign'd, Sea-Monflers whelp'd
And ftabl'd-

than that in Ovid, where we are told that the Sea-Calfs lay in thofe Places where the Goats were us'd to browze ? The Reader may find several other parallel Paffages in the Latin and English Defcription of the Deluge, wherein our Poet has vifibly the Advantage. The Sky's being overcharged with Clouds, the defcending of the Rains, the rifing of the Seas, and the Appearance of the Rainbow, are fuch Defcriptions as every one must take notice of. The Circumstance relating to Paradife is fo finely imagined, and fuitable to the Opinions of many learned Authors, that I cannot forbear giving it a Place in this Paper. Then fhall this Mount

Of Paradife by might of Waves be mov'd

Out

No 363. Out of his Place, push'd by the horned Flood; With all his Verdure spoil'd, and Trees adrift Down the great River to the op'ning Gulf, And there take root; an Island salt and bare, The haunt of Seals and Orcs and Sea-Mews clang.

THE Tranfition which the Poet makes from the Vifion of the Deluge, to the Concern it occafioned in Adam, is exquifitely graceful, and copied after Virgil, though the first Thought it introduces is rather in the Spirit of Ovid.

How did thou grieve then, Adam, to behold
The End of all thy Offspring, End fo fad,
Depopulation! thee another Flood,

Of Tears and Sorrow a Flood, thee also drown'd,
And funk thee as thy Sons; 'till gently rear'd
By th' Angel, on thy Feet thou floods at last,
Tho' comfortless, as when a Father mourns
His Children, all in view destroy'd at once.

I have been the more particular in my Quotations out of the eleventh Book of Paradife Loft, because it is not generally reckoned among the moft fhining Books of this Poem; for which Reafon the Reader might be apt to overlook thofe many Paffages in it which deferve our Admiration. The eleventh and twelfth are indeed built upon that fingle Circumftance of the Removal of our first Parents from Paradife; but tho' this is not in it self so great a Subject as that in moft of the foregoing Books, it is extended and diverfified with fo many furprifing Incidents and pleafing Episodes, that these two laft Books can by no means be looked upon as unequal Parts of this Divine Poem. I must further add, that had not Milton reprefented our firft Parents as driven out of Paradife, his Fall of Man would not have been complete, and confequently his Action would have been imperfect.

L

Monday,

N° 364. Monday, April 28.

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Navibus atque

Quadrigis petimus bene vivere.

Mr. SPECTATOR,

A

Hor.

Lady of my Acquaintance, for whom I have too much Refpect to be eafy while she is doing an indifcreet Action, has given occafion to this Trouble She is a Widow, to whom the Indulgence of a tender Husband has intrusted the Management of a very great Fortune, and a Son about fixteen, both which fhe is extremely fond of. The Boy has Parts of the mid• dle fize, neither fhining nor defpicable, and has paffed ⚫ the common Exercifes of his Years with tolerable Advantage, but is withal what you would call a forward Youth: By the Help of this laft Qualification, which ⚫ ferves as a Varnish to all the reft, he is enabled to make the best Use of his Learning, and difplay it at full ⚫ length upon all Occafions. Laft Summer he distinguish⚫ed himself two or three times very remarkably, by puz⚫zling the Vicar before an Affembly of moft of the

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Ladies in the Neighbourhood; and from fuch weighty • Confiderations as thefe, as it too often unfortunately ⚫ falls out, the Mother is become invincibly perfuaded that her Son is a great Scholar; and that to chain him down to the ordinary Methods of Education with others of his Age, would be to cramp his Faculties, and do an irreparable Injury to his wonderful Capacity.

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I happened to vifit at the House last Week, and miffing the young Gentleman at the Tea-Table, where he feldom fails to officiate, could not upon fo extraordinary a Circumftance avoid inquiring after him. • My Lady told me, he was gone out with her Woman, ⚫ in order to make fome Preparations for their Equipage; for that the intended very speedily to carry him to travel. The Oddness of the Expreffion fhock'd me a lit

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⚫tle;

tle; however, I foon recovered my felfenough to let • her know, that all I was willing to understand by it was, that the defign'd this Summer to fhew her Son his • Estate in a distant County, in which he has never yet ⚫ been. But she foon took care to rob me of that agree⚫able Mistake, and let me into the whole Affair. She enlarged upon young Mafter's prodigions Improvements, and his comprehenfive Knowledge of all BookLearning; concluding, that it was now high time he fhould be made acquainted with Men and Things; that fhe had refolved he fhould make the Tour of France and Italy, but could not bear to have him out of her Sight, and therefore intended to go along with him.

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·

L

I was going to rally her for fo extravagant a Refolution, but found my felf not in a fit Humour to meddle • with a Subject that demanded the most soft and delicate Touch imaginable. I was afraid of dropping fomething that might feem to bear hard either upon the Son's Abilities, or the Mother's Difcretion; being fenfible that in both thefe Cafes, tho' fupported with all the Powers of • Reason, I should instead of gaining her Ladyfhip over to my Opinion, only expofe my felf to her Difefteem: I therefore immediately determined to refer the whole • Matter to the SPECTATOR.

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• WHEN I came to reflect at Night, as my Cuftom is, upon the Occurrences of the Day, I could not but believe that this Humour of carrying a Boy to travel in his Mother's Lap, and that upon pretence of learning Men ⚫ and Things, is a Cafe of an extraordinary Nature, and carries on it a particular Stamp of Folly. I did not re⚫ member to have met with its Parallel within the Com pafs of my Obfervation, tho' I could call to mind fome ⚫ not extremely unlike it: From hence my Thoughts took occafion to ramble into the general Notion of travelling, as it is now made a Part of Education. Nothing. is more frequent than to take a Lad from Grammar ⚫ and Taw, and under the Tuition of fome poor Scholar, who is willing to be banish'd for thirty Pounds a Year, ⚫ and a little Victuals, fend him crying and fniveling into foreign Countries. Thus he spends his time as Children do at Puppet-Shows, and with much the fame Advantage, in ftaring and gaping at an amazing Variety

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of ftrange things; ftrange indeed to one who is not • prepared to comprehend the Reafons and Meaning of them; whilft he should be laying the folid Foundations. ⚫ of Knowledge in his Mind, and furnifhing it with juft Rules to direct his future Progrefs in Life under fome skilful Mafter of the Art of Inftruction.

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'CAN there be a more aftonishing Thought in Na6 ture, than to confider how Men fhould fall into fo palpable a Miftake? It is a large Field, and may very well exercise a sprightly Genius; but I don't remember you ⚫ have yet taken a turn in it. I wifh, Sir, you would make People understand, that Travel is really the last Step to be taken in the Inftitution of Youth; and to fet out with it, is to begin where they should end.

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CERTAINLY the true End of visiting Foreign Parts, is to look into their Customs and Policies, and • obferve in what Particulars they excel or come short of 6 our own; to unlearn fome odd Peculiarities in our Man6 ners, and wear off fuch aukward Stiffneffes and Affecta⚫tions in our Behaviour, as may poffibly have been contracted from conftantly affociating with one Nation of Men, by a more free, general, and mixed Converfation. But how can any of thefe Advantages be attained by one who is a mere Stranger to the Cuftoms ⚫ and Policies of his native Country, and has not yet fixed ⚫ in his Mind the firft Principles of Manners and Beha•viour? To endeavour it, is to build a gaudy Structure without any Foundation; or, if I may be allow'd the Expreffion, to work a rich Embroidery upon a Cob• web.

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ANOTHER End of travelling which deferves to ⚫ be confider'd, is the Improving our Tafte of the best • Authors of Antiquity, by feeing the Places where they • lived, and of which they wrote; to compare the natural Face of the Country with the Defcriptions they have given us, and obferve how well the Picture agrees with the Original. This muft certainly be a moft charming Exercite to the Mind that is rightly turn'd for it; befides that it may in a good meafure be made fubfervient to Morality, if the Perfon is capable of drawing juft Conclufions concerning the Uncertainty of human things, ⚫ from the ruinous Alterations Time and Barbarity have • brought

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