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in Shakspeare to have drawn his Caliban, than his Hotspur, or Julius Cæfar: the one was to be fupplied out of his own imagination, whereas the other might have been formed upon tradition, hiftory, and obfervation. It was much easier therefore for Homer to find proper sentiments for an affembly of Grecian generals, than for Milton to diverfify his infernal council with proper characters, and inspire them with a variety of sentiments. The loves of Dido and Æneas are only copies of what has paffed between other perfons. Adam and Eve, before the Fall, are a different fpecies from that of mankind, who are defcended from them; and none but a poet of the most unbounded invention, and the most exquifite judgement, could have filled their converfation and behaviour with so many apt circumstances during their state of innocence.

Nor is it fufficient for an epick poem to be filled with fuch thoughts as are natural, unless it abound also with fuch as are fublime. Virgil, in this particular, falls fhort of Homer. He has not indeed fo many thoughts that are low and vulgar; but, at the fame time, has not so many thoughts that are fublime and noble. The truth of it is, Virgil feldom rifes into very astonishing fentiments, where he is not fired by the Iliad. He every where charms and pleases us by the force of his own genius; but seldom elevates and

transports us where he does not fetch his hints from Homer.

Milton's chief talent, and indeed his diftinguishing excellence, lies in the fublimity of his thoughts. There are others of the moderns who rival him in every other part of poetry; but, in the greatness of his fentiments, he triumphs over all the poets both modern and ancient, Homer only excepted. It is impoffible for the imagination of man to diftend itself with greater ideas, than those which he has laid together in his first, fecond, and fixth books. The feventh, which describes the creation of the world, is likewise wonderfully fublime, though not fo apt to ftir up emotion in the mind of the reader, nor confequently fo perfect in the epick way of writing, because it is filled with lefs action. Let the judicious reader compare what Longinus has observed on several paffages in Homer, and he will find parallels for most of them in the Paradife Loft.

From what has been said we may infer, that as there are two kinds of fentiments, the natural and the fublime, which are always to be pursued in an heroick poem, there are also two kinds of thoughts which are carefully to be avoided. The first are such as are affected and unnatural; the fecond, fuch as are mean and vulgar. As for the first kind of thoughts, we meet with little or nothing that is like them in Virgil. He has none

of those trifling points and puerilities that are so often to be met with in Ovid; none of the epigrammatick turns of Lucan; none of those swelling fentiments, which are fo frequent in Statius and Claudian; none of thofe mixed embellishments of Taffo. Every thing is just and natural. His fentiments show that he had a perfect infight into human nature, and that he knew every thing which was the most proper to affect it.

Mr. Dryden has in fome places, which I may hereafter take notice of, mifrepresented Virgil's way of thinking as to this particular, in the translation he has given us of the Æneid. I do not remember that Homer any where falls into the faults abovementioned, which were indeed the false refinements of later ages. Milton, it must be confeffed, has fometimes erred in this respect, as I shall show more at large hereafter; though, confidering how all the poets of the age in which he wrote were infected with this wrong way thinking, he is rather to be admired that he did not give more into it, than that he did fometimes comply with the vicious taste which still prevails fo much among modern writers.

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But, fince several thoughts may be natural which are low and groveling, an epick poet should not only avoid fuch fentiments as are unnatural or affected, but also fuch as are mean and vulgar. Homer has opened a great field of raillery, to

men of more delicacy than greatness of genius, by the homeliness of fome of his sentiments. But, as I have before faid, these are rather to be imputed to the fimplicity of the age in which he lived; to which I may also add, of that which he described; than to any imperfection in that divine poet. Zoilus, among the ancients, and Monfieur Perrault, among the moderns, pushed their ridicule very far upon him, on account of fome fuch fentiments. There is no blemish to be observed in Virgil under this head, and but very few in Milton.

I fhall give but one inftance of this impropriety of thought in Homer, and at the fame time. compare it with an instance of the fame nature, both in Virgil and Milton. Sentiments, which raise laughter, can very feldom be admitted with any decency into an heroick poem, whose business is to excite paffions of a much nobler nature. Homer, however, in his characters of Vulcan and Therfites, in his story of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of Irus, and in other paffages, has been obferved to have lapsed into the burlefque character, and to have departed from that serious air which feems effential to the magnificence of an epick poem. I remember but one laugh in the whole Æneid, which rises in the fifth book, upon Monotes, where he is reprefented as thrown overboard, and drying himself upon a rock. But this piece of mirth is so well

timed, that the fevereft critick can have nothing to fay against it; for it is in the book of games and diverfions, where the reader's mind may be fuppofed to be fufficiently relaxed for fuch an entertainment. The only piece of pleasantry in Paradife Loft, is where the evil Spirits are described as rallying the Angels upon the fuccefs of their new invented artillery. This paffage I look upon to be the most exceptionable in the whole Poem, as being nothing else but a string of puns, and those too very indifferent ones..

"Satan beheld their plight,

"And to his mates thus in derifion call'd.

"O friends, why come not on these victors proud? "Ere while they fierce were coming; and when we, "To entertain them fair with open front

"And breaft, (what could we more?) propounded terms Of compofition, ftraight they chang'd their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,

"As they would dance; yet for a dance they seem'd
"Somewhat extravagant and wild; perhaps
"For joy of offer'd peace: but I fuppofe
"If our propofals once again were heard,
"We fhould compel them to a quick refult.

"To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood.
"Leader, the terms we fent were terms of weight,
"Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home;
"Such as we might perceive amus'd them all,
"And stumbled many: Who receives them right,
"Had need from head to foot well understand;
"Not understood, this gift they have befides,
"They show us when our foes walk not upright

"So they among themselves in pleafant vein

"Stood fcoffing" B. vi. 607, &c.

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