body of this fable.

Of this kind is that passage in the present book, where, describing Sin as marching through the works of nature, he adds,

-Behold her Death,
Close following pace for pace, not mounted yet
On his pale horse-

Which alludes to that passage in scripture so wonderfully poetical and terrifying to the imagination. And I looked, and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him: and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with sickness, and with the beasts of the earth.' Under this first head of celestial persons, we must likewise take notice of the command which the angels received, to produce the several changes in nature, and sully the beauty of the creation. Accordingly, they are represented as infecting the stars and planets with malignant influences, weakening the light of the sun, bringing down the winter into the milder regions of nature, planting winds and storms in several quarters of the sky, storing the clouds with thunder, and, in short, perverting the whole frame of the universe to the condition of its criminal inhabitants. As this is a noble incident in the poem, the following lines, in which we see the angels heaving up the earth, and placing it in a different posture to the sun from what it had before the fall of man, is conceived with that sublime imagination which was so peculiar to this great author:

a

Some say he bid his angels turn askance
The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more
From the sun's axle; they with labour push'd
Oblique the centric globe

We are, in the second place, to consider the infernal agents under the view which Milton has given us of them in this book. It is observed by those who would set forth the greatness of Virgil's plan, that he conducts his reader through all the parts of the earth which were discovered in his time. Asia, Africa, and Europe, are the several scenes of his fable. The plan of Milton's poem is of an infinitely greater extent, and fills the mind with many more astonishing circumstances. Satan, having surrounded the earth seven times, departs at length from Paradise. We then see him steering his course among the constellatioi and after having traversed the whole creation, pursuing his voyage through the chaos and entering into his own infernal dominions.

His first appearance in the assembly of fallen angels is worked up with circumstances which give a delightful surprise to the reader; but there is no incident in the whole poem which does this more than the transformation of the whole audience, that follows the account their leader gives them of his expedition. The gradual change of Satan himself is described after Ovid's manner, and may vie with

any

of those celebrated transformations which are looked upon as the most beautiful parts in that poet's works. Milton never fails of improving his own hints, and bestowing the last finishing touches in every incident which is admitted into his

expected hiss which arises in this episode, the dimensions and bulk of Satan, so much superior to those of the infernal spirits who lay under the same transformation, with the annual change which they are supposed to suffer, are instances of this kind. The beauty of the diction is very remarkable in this whole episode, as I have observed in the sixth paper of these remarks the great judgment with which it was contrived.

The parts of Adam and Eve, or the human persons, come next under our consideration. Milton's art is no where more shown than in his conducting the parts of these our first parents. The representation he gives of them, without falsifying the story, is wonderfully contrived to influence the reader with pity and compassion towards them.

Though Adam involves the whole species in misery, his crime proceeds from a weakness which every man is inclined to pardon and commiserate, as it seems rather the frailty of human nature, than of the person who offended. Every one is apt to excuse a fault which he himself might have fallen into. It was the excess of love for Eve that ruined Adam and his posterity. I need not add, that the author is justified in this particular by many of the fathers and the most orthodox writers. Milton has, by this means, filled a great part of his poem with that kind of writing which the French critics call the tendre, and which is in a particular manner engaging to all sorts of readers.

Adam and Eve, in the book we are now considering, are likewise drawn with such sentiments as do not only interest the reader in their

a

afflictions, but raise in him the most melting passions of humanity and commiseration. When Adam sees the several changes of nature produced about him, he appears in a disorder of mind suitable to one who had forfeited both his innocence and his happiness; he is filled with horror, remorse, despair; in the anguish of his heart hé expostulates with his Creator for having given him an unasked existence.

Did I request thee, Maker, from the clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me? Or here place
In this delicious garden? As my will
Concurr'd not to my being, 'twere but right
And equal to reduce me to my dust,
Desirous to resign, and render back
All I receiv'd-
He immediately after recovers from his

presumption, owns his doom to be just, and begs that the death which is threatened him may be inflicted on him,

-Why delays
His hand to execute what his decree
Fix'd on this day? Why do I overlive?
Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out
To deathless pain? How gladly would í meet
Mortality my sentence, and be earth
Insensible! how glad would lay me down,
As in my mother's lap! there should I rest
And sleep secure, his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears: no fear of worse
To me and to my offspring would torment me

With cruel expectationThis whole speech is full of the like emotion, and yaried with all those sentiments which we

may suppose natural to a mind so broken and disturbed." I must not omit that generous concern which our first father shows in it for his posterity, and which is so proper to affect the reader.

-Hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my height
Of happiness! Yet well, if here would end
The misery; I deserv'd it, and would bear
My own deservings: but this will not serve;
All that I eat, or drink, or shall beget,
Is propagated curse. O voice once heard
Delightfully, 'Increase and multiply;'
Now death to hear!-

-In me all Posterity stands curs'd! Fair patrimony, That I must leave ye, sons! O were I able To waste it all myself, and leave you none! So disinherited, how would you bless Me now your curse! Ah, why should all mankind, For one man's fault, thus guiltless be condemn'd, If guiltless? but from me what can proceed, But all corrupt?Who can afterwards behold the father of man kind extended upon the earth, uttering his mid night complaints, bewailing his existence and wishing for death, without sympathizing with him in his distress?

Thus Adam to himself lamented loud
Through the still night, not now (as ere man fell)
Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air,
Accompanied with damps and dreadful gloom:
Which to his evil conscience represented
All things with double terror. On the ground
Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground! And oft
Curs'd his creation; death as oft accus'd
Of tardy execution-