« One objection of Milton's design, is, that he attempts what cannot be described, the agency of spirits. He saw that immateriality supplied no images, and that he could not shew angels acting but by instruments of action; he therefore invested them with form and matter. This being necessary, was therefore defensible; but the author should have secured the consistency of his system, by keeping immateralily out of sight, and enticing his readers to drop it from their thoughts. The confusion of spirit and matter, which pervades the whole narration of the war of heaven, fills it with incongruity, › And the Doctor further gives it as his opinion, that the book in which it is related, is the favourite of children, and will be gradually neglected as knowledge is increased. >

« After the operation of material agents, which cannot be explained, may be considered those of allegorical persons, which have no real existence. To exalt causes into agents, to invest abstract ideas with form, and animate them with activity, has always been the right of poetry. But such aerial beings are, for the most part, suffered only to do their natural office, and retire. Thus Fame tells a tale, and Victory hovers over a general, or perches on a standard; but Fame and Victory can do no more. To give them any real employment, or ascribe to them any material agency, is to make them allegorical no longer, but to shock the mind by ascribing effects to non-entity.

Dryden remarks, that Milton has some flats among his elevations. This, the Doctor observes, is only to say, that all the parts are not equal. In every work, one part must be for the sake of others; a palace must have passages; a poem must have transitions. It is no more to be required, that wit should always be blazing, than

Una obbiezione all' opera di Milton è che ei tentò cosa che non si può descrivere, vale a dire l'azione degli spiriti. Ei vide che quell' immaterialità non offeriva imagini, e che ei non poteva presentare angeli operanti solo per istromenti di azione; ei quindi li investi di forma e di materia. Quest' essere necessario era quindi atto a difendersi; ma l'autore avrebbe sicurata la fermezza del suo sistema, non ponendo in in vista l'immaterialità, e coll' allettare i suoi lettori a trarre ciò a poco a poco dai loro pensieri. La confusione di spirito e di materia che pervade tutto il racconto della guerra del cielo l'empie d'incongruenza, » e il Dottore di più aggiugne a suo parere, che il libro in cui è tal narrazione, è il favorito de' giovani, e che gradatamente sarà negletto col crescere la dottrina. »

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‹ Dopo l'operazione di agenti materiali, che non può essere spiegata, si consideri quella di persone allegoriche che non hanno reale esistenza. Esaltare cause negli agenti, investire idee astratte con forme ed animarle di attività è stato sempre il diritto della poesia. Ma tali esseri aerei sono per lo più tolerati solamente a fare il loro ufficio e ritirarsi. Così la Fama reca novelle, e la Vittoria svolazza sopra un capitano o siede su di un vessillo. Ma Fama e Vittoria non fanno di più. Dar loro qualche reale incarico o tribuir loro qualche materiale attività, non è più un farli allegorici, ma uno spingere la mente ad assegnare effetti al non-essere. ›

Dryden osserva, che Milton ha qualche bassezza tra mezzo alle sue elevazioni. Questo, dice il Dottore, è solamente a dirsi, che tutte le parti non sono eguali. In ogni lavoro, una parte debbe essere in grazia delle altre; un palazzo debbe avere passaggi, un poema debbe avere transizioni. Non si dee maggiormente

that the sun should always stand at noon. In a great work, there is a vicissitude of luminous and opaque parts, as there is in the world a succession of day and night. Milton, when he has expatriated on the sky, may be allowed sometimes to revisit earth; for what other author ever soared so high, or sustained his flight so long?

« Such, concludes the critic, are the defects of that wonderful performance Paradise Lost, › which he, who could put in balance with its beauties, must be considered not as nice, but as dull; as less to be censured for want of candour, than pitied for want of sensibility. »

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Of Paradise Regained, Dr. Johnson thinks the general judgement to be right; that it is, in many parts, elegant and every where instructive. It was not to be reasonably supposed, that the writer of Paradise Lost, » could ever write without great effusions of fancy, and exalted precepts of wisdom. The business of Paradise Regained is circumscribed; a dialogue, without action, can never please like a union of the narrative and dramatic powers. Had this poem, says the Dr., been written not by Milton, but by some imitator, it would have claimed and received universal praise. ›

In Samson Agonistes, there are many particular beauties, many just sentiments and striking lines, but it wants that power of attracting the attention which a well-digested plan produces. Milton seems to have been attached to the ancient tragedies, with their encumbrance of a chorus, in preference to the exhibitions on the English stage. He knew human nature only in the gross, and had never studied the shades of character, nor the combinations of concurring, or the perplexity of contending passions. He had read much, and knew what books

pretendere che l'ingegno sia sempre sfavillante, di quel che il sole stia sempre al meriggio. In una grande opera v'è vicissitudine di parti luminose ed opache, siccome v'è nel mondo successione di giorno e di notte. Milton quando ha spaziato pel cielo, scende talvolta a riveder la terra; perchè, qual altro autore volò sempre si alto, o così a lungo sostenne il suo volo?

« Tali, conchiude il critico, sono i difetti di questo mirabile lavorio il paradiso perduto, i quali chi voglia porre in bilancia colle beltà dello stesso; dovrà considerarli non come rilevanti, ma come un nulla; e da dover censurasi più per non mancar di candore, che lamentarsi per delicato sentire. »

Del paradiso riacquistato il D. Johnson pensa ché il generale giudizio sia retto; che egli è in molte parti eleganti e in ogni dove istruttivo. Non si dee ragionevolmente supporre, che lo scrittore del Paradiso perduto serivesse mai senza grande effusione di fantasia, ed elevati precetti di sapienza. Il trattato del Paradiso riacquistato è circonscritto; un dialogo senza azione non può mai piacere come un assieme di pregi Darrativi e drammatici. Se questo poema, dice il dottore, ⚫ fosse stato scritto non da Milton, ma da qualche imitatore, sarebbe stato lodato da tutti. »>

Nel Sansone agonista vi sono molte peculiari beltà, molti giusti sentimenti e tratti sorprendenti; ma vi manca quel potere di allettare l'attenzione cui produce un ben ordinato disegno. Pare che Milton sia stato attaccato alle antiche tragedie col loro ingombro d'un coro, a preferenza delle rappresentanze del teatro Inglese. Ei conobbe la natura umana solamente nek rozzo e non studiò mai le ombre delle indoli, nè le combinazioni di concorrenti o la perplessità di contendenti passion. Egli avea letto molto e conosciuto

could teach; but had mingled little in the world, and was deficient in the knowledge which experience must confer. Through all his greater works, there prevails an uniform peculiarity of diction, a mode and cast of expression, which bears little resemblance to that of any former writer, and which is so far removed from common use, that an unlearned reader, when he first opens the book, finds a new language. This novelty has been imputed by those, who can find nothing wrong in Milton, to his laborious endeavours after words suitable to the grandeur of his ideas. Our language, says Addison, « sank under him; › but, in the opinion of our critic,<«< he had formed his style by a pedantic principle. He was desirous to use English words with a foreign idiom. This, in all his prose, is discovered and censured; but such is the power of his poetry, that his call is obeyed without resistance; the reader feels himself in captivity to a higher and a nobler mind; criticism sinks in admiration.

Milton's style was not modified by his subject; what is shown, with greater extent, in Paradise Lost, may be found in Comus. One source of his peculiarity was his familiarity with the Tuscan poets, and the disposition of bis words appears frequently to be Italian, and sometimes combined with other languages. Dr. Johnson observes, that it may be said of Milton, what a former commentator said of Spencer, that he wrote no language; but has formed what Butler calls a Babylonish dialect; »> in itself, harsh and barbarous; but made, by exalted genius, and extensive learning, the vehicle of so much instruction and so much pleasure, that, like other lovers, we find grace in deformity, and the critic sums up these observations with remarking, that, whatever be the faults his diction, he cannot want the praise of copiousness and