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his Poem is confined. We have, however, four diftin&t Characters in these two Perfons. We fee Man and Woman in the highest Innocence and Perfection, and in the most abject State of Guilt and Infirmity. The two last Characters are, indeed, very common and obvious, but the two first are not only more magnificent, but more new than any Characters either in Virgil or Homer, or

indeed in the whole Circle of Nature.

MILTON was so fenfible of this Defect in the Subject of his Poem, and of the few Characters it would afford him, that he has brought into it two Actors of a Shadowy and Fictitious Nature, in the Perfons of Sin and Death, by which means he has wrought into the Body of his Fable a very beautiful and well-invented Allegory. But notwithstanding the Fineness of this Allegory may atone for it in fome measure; I cannot think that Perfons of fuch a Chimerical Exiftence are proper A&tors in an Epic Poem ; because there is not that measure of Probability annexed to them, which is requifite in Writings of this kind, as I fhall fhew more at large hereafter.

VIRGIL has, indeed, admitted Fame as an Actress in the Eneid, but the Part fhe acts is very fhort, and none of the most admired Circumftances in that divine Work. We find in Mock-heroick Poems, particularly in the Dif penfary and the Lutrin, feveral Allegorical Perfons of this Nature, which are very beautiful in those Compofitions, and may, perhaps, be used as an Argument, that the Authors of them were of Opinion, fuch Characters might have a Place in an Epic Work. For my own part I fhould be glad the Reader would think fo, for the fake of the Poem I am now examining, and muft further add, that if fuch empty unsubstanstial Beings may be ever made use of on this Occafion, never were any more nicely imagined, and employed in more proper Actions, than those of which I am now fpeaking.

ANOTHER Principal Actor in this Poem is the great Enemy of Mankind. The Part of Ulyffes in Homer's Ody fey is very much admired by Ariftotle, as perplexing that Fable with very agreeable Plots and Intricacies, not only by the nny Adventures in his Voyage, and the Subtilty of his Bel aviour, but by the various Concealments and Discoveries of his Perfon in feveral Parts of that Poem. But the

Crafty

Crafty Being I have now mentioned, makes a much longer Voyage than Ulyffes, puts in practice many more Wiles and Stratagems, and hides himfelf under a greater Variety of Shapes and Appearances, all of which are feverally detected, to the great Delight and Surprise of the Reader.

W E may likewife obferve with how much Art the Poet has varied feveral Characters of the Perfons that fpeak in his infernal Affembly. On the contrary, how has he reprefented the whole God-head exerting it felf towards Man in its full Benevolence under the Threefold Diftinction of a Creator, a Redeemer, and a Comforter !

NOR muft we omit the Perfon of Raphael, who amidst his Tenderness and Friendship for Man, fhews such a Dignity and Condefcenfion in all his Speech and Behaviour, as are fuitable to a Superior Nature. The Angels are indeed as much diverfified in Milton, and diftinguished by their proper Parts, as the Gods are in Homer or Virgil. The Reader will find nothing afcribed to Uriel, Gabriel, Michael, or Raphael, which is not in a particular manner fuitable to their respective Characters.

THERE is another Circumftance in the principal Actors of the Iliad and neid, which gives a peculiar Beauty to thofe two Poems, and was therefore contrived with very great Judgment. I mean the Authors having chofen for their Heroes, Perfons who were so nearly related to the People for whom they wrote. Achilles was a Greek, and Æneas the remote Founder of Rome. By this means their Countrymen (whom they principally propofed to themfelves for their Readers) were particularly attentive to all the Parts of their Story, and fympathized with their Heroes in all their Adventures. A Roman could not but rejoice in the Efcapes, Succeffes and Victories of Eneas, and be grieved at any Defeats, Misfortunes or Difappointments that befel him; as a Greek must have had the fame Regard for Achilles. And it is plain, that each of those Poems have loft this great Advantage, among those Readers to whom their Heroes are as Strangers, or indifferent Perfons.

MILTON's Poem is admirable in this refpect, fince it is impoffible for any of its Readers, whatever Nation, Country or People he may belong to, not to be related to

the

the Perfons who are the principal Actors in it; but what is still infinitely more to its Advantage, the principal Actors in this Poem are not only our Progenitors, but our Reprefentatives. We have an actual Interest in every thing they do, and no less than our utmost happiness is concerned, and lies at ftake in all their Behaviour.

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I fhall fubjoin as a Corollary to the foregoing Remark, an admirable Obfervation out of Ariftotle, which hath been very much mifreprefented in the Quotations of fome Modern Criticks. if a Man of perfect and confummate • Virtue falls into a Misfortune, it raises our Pity, but not our Terror, because we do not fear that it may 'be our own Cafe, who do not refemble the Suffering • Perfon.' But as that great Philofopher adds, If we fee a Man of Virtue mixt with Infirmities, fall into any • Misfortune, it does not only raise our Pity but our Ter· ror; because we are afraid that the like Misfortunes may happen to our felves, who refemble the Character of the Suffering Perfon.

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I fhall take another Opportunity to obferve, that a Perfon of an abfolute and confummate Virtue should never be introduced in Tragedy, and fhall only remark in this Place, that the foregoing Obfervation of Ariftotle, tho' it may be true in other Occafions, does not hold in this ; because in the prefent Cafe, though the perfons who fall into Misfortune are of the most perfect and confummate Virtue, it is not to be confidered as what may poffibly be, but what actually is our own Cafe; fince we are embarked with them on the fame Bottom, and must be Partakers of their Happiness or Mifery.

IN this, and fome other very few Inftances, Ariftotle's Rules for Epic Poetry (which he had drawn from his Reflexions upon Homer) cannot be fuppofed to quadrate exactly with the Heroic Poems which have been made fince his Time; fince it is plain his Rules would still have been more perfect, could he have perufed the Eneid which was made fome hundred Years after his Death.

IN my next, I fhall go through other Parts of Milton's Poem; and hope that what I fhall there advance, as well as what I have already written, will not only serve as a Comment upon Milton, but upon Ariftotle.

Monday,

R

N® 274.

I

Monday, Jannary 14.

Audire eft opera pretium, procedere rectè
Qui machis non vultis

Hor.

Have upon feveral Occafions (that have occured fince I first took into my Thoughts the prefent State of Fornication) weighed with my self, in Behalf of guilty Females, the Impulfes of Flesh and Blood, together with the Arts and Galantries of crafty Men; and reflect with fome Scorn that moft Part of what we in our Youth think gay and polite, is nothing else but an Habit of indulging a Pruriency that Way. It will coft fome Labour to bring People to fo lively a Senfe of this, as to recover the manly Modesty in the Behaviour of my Men Readers, and the bashful Grace in the Faces of my Women; but in all' Cafes which come into Debate, there are certain things previously to be done before we can have a true Light into the Subject Matter; therefore it will, in the first Place, be neceffary to confider the impotent Wenchers and industrious Hags, who are fupplied with, and are conftantly fupplying new Sacrifices to the Devil of Luft. You are to know then, if you are fo happy as not to know it already, that the great Havock which is made in the Habitations of Beauty and Innocence, is committed by fuch as can only lay waste and not enjoy the Soil. When you obferve the prefent State of Vice and Virtue, the Offenders are fuch as one would think should have no Impulfe to what they are pursuing; as in Bufinefs, you fee fometimes Fools pretend to be Knaves, fo in Pleasure, you will find old Men fet up for Wenchers. This latter fort of Men are the great Bafis and Fund of Iniquity in the Kind we are speaking of: You fhall have an old rich Man often receive Scrawls from the feveral Quarters of the Town, with Descriptions of the new Wares in their Hands, if he will please to fend Word when he will be waited on. This Interview is contrived, and the Innocent

is brought to fuch Indecencies as from time to time banish Shame and raise Defire. With thefe Preparatives the Hags break their Wards by little and little, 'till they are brought to lofe all Apprehenfions of what shall befal them in the Poffeffion of younger Men. It is a common Poftfcript of a Hag to a young Fellow whom fhe invites to a new Woman, She has, Taffure you feen none but old Mr. Such-a-one. It pleafes the old Fellow that the Nymph is brought to him unadorned, and from his Bounty she is accommodated with enough to dress her for other Lovers. This is the most ordinary Method of bringing Beauty and Poverty into the Poffeffion of the Town: But the particular Cafes of kind Keepers, skilful Pimps, and all others who drive a separate Trade, and are not in the general Society or Commerce of Sin, will require diftinct Confideration. At the same time that we are thus fevere on the Abandoned, we are to reprefent the Cafe of others with that Mitigation as the Circumftances demand. Calling Names does no Good; to fpeak worfe of any thing than it deferves, does only take off from the Credit of the Accufer, and has implicitly the Force of an Apology in the Behalf of the Perfon accufed. We fhall therefore, according as the Circumstances differ, vary our Apellations of thefe Criminals: Those who offend only against themselves, and are not Scandalous toSociety, but out of Deference to the fober Part of the World, have so much Good left in them as to be ashamed, must not be huddled in the common Word due to the worst of Women; but Regard is to be had to their Circumftances when they fell, to the uneafy Perplexity under which they lived under fenfelefs and fevere Parents, to the Importunity of Poverty, to the Violence of a Paffion in its Beginning well grounded, and all other Alleviations which make unhappy Women refign the Characteristick of their Sex, Modefty. To do otherwife than thus, would be to act like a Pedantick Stoick, who thinks all Crimes alike, and not like an impartial SPECTATOR, who looks upon them with all the Circumftances that diminish or enhance the Guilt. I am in hopes, if this Subject be well purfued, Women will hereafter from their Infancy be treated with an Eye to their future State in the World; and not have their Tempers made too untractable from an improper Sournefs

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