the Greek poet; but, as I thought this would have appeared too minute and over-curious, I have purposely omitted them. The greater incidents, however, are not only fet off by being shown in the fame light with several of the fame nature in Homer, but by that means may be also guarded against the cavils of the tasteless or ignorant.

The TENTH BOOK of Paradife Loft has a greater variety of perfons in it than any other in the whole Poem. The author, upon the winding up of his action, introduces all thofe who had any concern in it; and shows, with great beauty, the influence which it had upon each of them. It is like the last act of a well-written tragedy; in which all, who had a part in it, are generally drawn up before the audience, and reprefented under those circumftances in which the determination of the action places them.

I fhall therefore confider this book under four heads, in relation to the celeftial, the infernal, the human, and the imaginary, perfons; who have their refpective parts allotted in it.

To begin with the celeftial perfons: The guardian Angels of Paradife are defcribed as returning to Heaven upon the Fall of Man, in order to approve their vigilance; their arrival, their manner of reception, with the forrow which appeared in themselves, and in those Spirits who are faid to rejoice at the conversion of a sinner, are

very finely laid together in the beginning of this book.

The fame Divine Perfon, who in the foregoing parts of this Poem interceded for our first parents before their Fall, overthrew the rebel Angels, and created the world, is now reprefented as descending to Paradise, and pronouncing fentence upon the three offenders. The cool of the evening being a circumstance with which Holy Writ introduces this great scene, it is poetically described by our author; who has alfo kept religiously to the form of words, in which the three feveral fentences were paffed upon Adam, Eve, and the ferpent. He has rather chofen to neglect the numerousness of his verfe, than to deviate from those speeches which are recorded on this great occafion. The guilt and confufion of our first parents standing naked before their judge, is touched with great beauty. Upon the arrival of Sin and Death into the works of the creation, the Almighty is again introduced as fpeaking to his Angels that furrounded him:

"See, with what heat these dogs of hell advance
"To waite and havock yonder world, which I
"So fair and good created; &c."

The following paffage is formed upon that glorious image in Holy Writ, which compares the voice of an innumerable hoft of Angels, uttering hallelujahs, to the voice of mighty thunderings, or of many waters:

"He ended, and the heavenly audience loud
"Sung hallelujah, as the found of feas,

Through multitude that fung: Just are thy ways, Righteous are thy decrees in all thy works; "Who can extenuate thee?"

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Though the author in the whole courfe of his Poem, and particularly in the book we are now examining, has infinite allufions to places of Scripture, I have only taken notice in my remarks of fuch as are of a poetical nature, and which are woven with great beauty into the body of this fable. Of this kind is that paffage in the prefent book, where, defcribing Sin as marching through the works of nature, he adds,

"Behind her Death

"Clofe following pace for pace, not mounted yet "On his pale horse —"

Which alludes to that paffage in Scripture fo wonderfully poetical, and terrifying to the imagination. And I looked and behold a pale horse, and his name that fat 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 fword, and with hunger, and with fickness, and with the beafts of the earth." Under this first head of celeftial perfons we must likewise take notice of the command which the Angels received, to produce the feveral changes in nature, and fully the beauty of the creation. Accordingly they are represented as infecting the stars, and M

VOL. I.

planets, with malignant influences; weakening the light of the fun; bringing down the winter into the milder regions of nature; planting winds, and storms, in several quarters of the sky; ftoring 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 Pocm, the following lines in which we fee the Angels heaving up the earth, and placing it in a different posture to the fun from what it had before the Fall of Man, is conceived with that fublime imagination which was fo peculiar to this great author.

"Some fay he bid his Angels turn ascanse

"The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more "From the fun's axle; they with labour push'd

"Oblique the centrick globe.-"

We are in the second place to confider the infernal agents under the view which Milton has given us of them in this book. It is obferved by those who would fet forth the greatnefs of Virgil's plan, that he conducts his reader through all the parts of the earth which were difcovered in his time. Afia, Africa, and Europe, are the feveral fcenes 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 furrounded the earth feven times, departs at length from Paradife. We then see him fteering his courfe among the

conftellations, 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 affembly of fallen Angels, is worked up with circumstances which give a delightful furprife 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 defcribed after Ovid's manner, and may vie with any of thofe celebrated tranf formations which are looked upon as the most beautiful parts in that post's works. Milton never fails of improving his own hints, and beftowing the last finishing touches, in every incident which is admitted into his Pocm. The unexpected hifs which arifes in this episode; the dimenfions and bulk of Satan, so much fuperiour to those of the infernal Spirits who lay under the fame transformation, with the annual change which they are fuppofed to fuffer; are inftances of this kind. The beauty of the diction is very remarkable in this whole episode, as I have before obferved the great judgement with which it was contrived.

The parts of Adam and Eve, or the human perfons, come next under our confideration. Mil