That with fad Overthrow and foul Defeat
Hath loft us Heav'n and all this mighty Hoft
In borrible Deftruction laid thus low.

But fee the angry

Victor hath recall'd

His Minifters of Vengeance and Pursuit

Back to the Gates of Heav'n: The fulphurous Hail,
Shot after us in Storm, d'erblown bath laid
The fiery Surge, that from the Precipice

Of Heav'n receiv'd'us falling, and the Thunder
Wing'd with red Lightning and impetuous Rage,
Perhaps bath Spent his Shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vaft and boundless Deep..

THERE are feveral other very fublime Images on the fame Subject in the First Book, as alfo in the Second.

What when we fled amain, purfu'd and ftrook
With Heav'n's afflicting Thunder, and befought.
The Deep to fhelter us; this Hell then feem`d
A Refuge from thofe Wounds

IN fhort, the Poet never mentions any thing of this Battle, but in fuch Images of Greatnefs and Terror as are fuitable to the Subject. Among feveral others, I cannot forbear quoting that Passage where the Power who is defcribed as prefiding over the Chaos, speaks in: the Third Book.

Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old,
With faultring Speech and Vifage incompos'd,
Anfwer'd, I know thee, Stranger, who thou art,
That mighty leading Angel, who of late
Made head against Heav'n's King, tho' overthrown
I far and heard; for such a numerous Hoft
Fled not in Silence through the frighted Deep

With

With Ruin upon Ruin, Rout on Rout,

Confufion worfe confounded; and Heav'n's Gates
Pour'd out by Millions her victorious Bands

Purfuing

IT required great Pregnancy of Invention, and Strength of Imagination, to fill this Battle with fuch Circumftances as fhould raise and astonish the Mind of the Reader; and, at the fame time, an Exactnefs of Judgment to avoid every thing that might appear light or trivial. Those who look into Homer, are surprised to find his Battles ftill rifing one above another, and improving in Horror, to the Conclufion of the Iliad. Milton's Fight of Angels is wrought up with the fame Beauty. It is ushered in with fuch Signs of Wrath as are fuitable to Omnipotence incenfed. The first Engagement is carried on under a Cope of Fire, occafioned 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 followed by the tearing up of Mountains and Promontories; 'till, in the last Place, the Meffiah comes forth in the Fulness of Majesty and Terror. The Pomp of his Appearance, amidit 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 a Fight between two Armies of Angels.

THE fecond Day's Engagement is apt to ftartle an Imagination, which has not been raifed and qualified for fuch a Defcription by the reading of the antient Poets, and of Homer in particular. It was 6

certainly

certainly a very bold Thought in our Author, to af cribe the first Ufe of Artillery to the Rebel Angels. But as fuch a pernicious Invention may be well fupposed to have proceeded from fuch Authors, fo it entered very properly into the Thoughts of that Being, who is all along defcribed 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 Sacred 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 meafure, prepared for fuch an Incident by the Defcription of the Giants War, which we meet with among the ancient Poets. What ftill made this Circumftancethe 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 Noife in Antiquity, and gave Birth to the 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 copied after him, tells us that the Giants threw Ofa upon Olympus, and Pelion upon Offa. He adds an Epithet to Pelion (wooiquaλov) which very much fwells the Idea, by bringing up to the Reader's Imagination all the Woods that grew upon it. There is further as 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 the Scene of Milton's War could not poffibly furnish him.

7.

with.

with. Claudian, in his Fragment upon the Giants War, has given full Scope to that Wildness of Imagination which was natural to him. He tells us, that the Giants tore up whole Islands 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 defcribe 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 aftonish 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 loofening to and fro

They pluck'd the feated Hills with all their Load,
Rocks, Waters, Woods, and by the shaggy Tops
Up-lifting bore them in their Hands:

WE have the full Majesty of Homer in this fhort Des fcription, improved 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 num berlefs Beauties in this Book, which are fo confpicuous, that they cannot escape the Notice of the most ordinary Reader.

THERE are indeed fo many wonderful Strokes of Poetry in this Book, and fuch a Variety of sublime 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

Hand at the End of my Lord Rofcommon's Effay on Tranflated Poetry. I fhall refer my Reader thither for fome of the Master-ftrokes in the Sixth Book of Paradife Loft, though at the fame time there are many others which that noble Author has not taken notice of.

MILTON, notwithstanding the fublime Genius he was Master 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 Savord

Of Michael from the Armory of God

Was given him temper'd fo, that neither kecn
Nor folid might refift that Edge: it met

The Sword of Satan with fleep Force to smite
Defcending, and in half cut heere

THIS Paffage is a Copy of that in Virgil, wherein the Poet tells us, that the Sword of Æneas, 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 Battles of the chofen People with so much Glory and Succefs, receiving in his Dream a Sword from the Hand of the Prophet Jeremiah. The following Paffage, wherein Satan is defcribed as wounded by the Sword of Michael, is in Imitation of H

mer.

The