For us his ofspring dear? It cannot be
But that fuccefs attends him; if mishap,

Ere this he had return'd, with fury driven
By his avengers, fince no place like this
Can fit his punishment, or their revenge.
Methinks I feel new strength within me rise,
Wings growing, and dominion giv'n me large

240

Beyond

that dreadful circumftance, Before fieur Voltaire and other critics, him went the Peftilence. It is cer- wherein likewise the characters and tain this imaginary perfon might actions of Sin and Death are vindihave been described in all her pur- cated in answer to Mr. Addison. It ple fpots. The Fever might have is hoped that fome skilful hand or marched before her, Pain might other will tranflate this piece for have flood at her right hand, Phren- the benefit of the English reader. zy on her left, and Death in her Milton may rather be juftified for rear. She might have been intro- introducing fuch imaginary beings duced as gliding down from the as Sin and Death, because a great tail of a comet, or darted upon the part of his poem lies in the invifible earth in a flash of lightning: She world, and fuch fictitious beings might have tainted the atmosphere may better have a place there; and with her breath; the very glaring the actions of Sin and Death are at of her eyes might have scatter'd in- least as probable as those ascribed fection. But I believe every reader to the good or evil Angels. Befides will think, that in fuch fublime writ- as Milton's fubject neceffarily adings the mentioning of her as it is mitted fo few real perfons, he was done in Scripture, has fomething in a manner obliged to fupply that in it more juft, as well as great, defect by introducing imaginary than all that the moft fanciful poet ones: and the characters of Sin and could have bestowed upon her in the Death are perfectly agreeable to the richness of his imagination. Addifon. hints and sketches, which are given I have been inform'd, that there of them in Scripture. The Scriphas lately been publish'd in High ture had made perfons of them beDutch a Critical Differtation on the fore in feveral places; only the marvelous in poetry, and its con- Scripture has represented them as I nexion with the probable, in a de- may fay in miniature, and he has fense of Milton's Paradife Loft drawn them in their full length and against several objections of Mon proportions.

245.-what

Beyond this deep; whatever draws me on,
Or fympathy, or fome connatural force
Pow'rful at greatest distance to unite

With fecret amity things of like kind
By secretest conveyance. Thou my
Infeparable must with me along:

fhade

For Death from Sin no pow'r can separate.

But left the difficulty of paffing back

245

250

Stay his return perhaps over this gulf
Impaffable, impervious, let us try

Adventrous work, yet to thy pow'r and mine

255

Not unagreeable, to found a path

Over this main from Hell to that new world
Where Satan now prevails, a monument

Of merit high to all th' infernal host,

Eafing

the fame manner in the best Claffit authors. Hor. Sat. II. VIII. 22.

-quos Mæcenas adduxerat umbrai. Epift. I. V. 28.

-locus eft et pluribus umbris.

But it has a farther propriety d beauty in this place, as Death ferm' a fhadow, II. 669. and was the i feparable companion as well as of fpring of Sin. Shakespear in the fame manner ufes fhadow as the

Eafing their paffage hence, for intercourse,

Or transmigration, as their lot shall lead.
Nor can I miss the way, fo ftrongly drawn
By this new felt attraction and inftinct.

260

Whom thus the meager Shadow answer'd foon. Go whither fate and inclination strong

Leads thee; I fhall not lag behind, nor err
The way, thou leading, such a fent I draw
Of carnage, prey innumerable, and taste

265

The favor of Death from all things there that live: Nor fhall I to the work thou enterprisest

Be wanting, but afford thee equal aid.

So faying, with delight he fnuff'd the smell
Of mortal change on earth. As when a flock
Of ravenous fowl, though many a league remote,

270

Against the day of battel, to a field,

279

Where armies lie incamp'd, come flying, lur'd
With fent of living carcaffes defign'd

For death, the following day, in bloody fight:
So fented the grim Feature, and upturn'd
His noftril wide into the murky air,

284

Sagacious of his quarry from fo far.

Then both from out Hell gates into the wafte
Wide anarchy of Chaos damp and dark
Flew diverfe, and with pow'r (their pow'r was great)
Hovering upon the waters, what they met

that they will fly three days beforehand to places where there are future carcaffes. Triduo autem antea volare eos, ubi cadavera futura funt. Lib. 10. cap. 6. And (what probably gave occafion to this fimilitude in Milton) Lucan has defcribed the ravenous birds that follow'd the Roman camps, and fented the battel of Pharfalia. VII. 831.

28; Solid

diebus ante ea loca circumvolent, in quibus cadavera futura funt, ineptè fanè ad odorandi facultatem refer. tur, cum eorum, quæ necdum funt, cadaverum nullus odor effe pofit. Senfus enim præfentium eft. Quare ad quandam augurandi vim, fi fic loqui poffumus, id pertinere putan dum eft. Ridicule igitur Georgius Pictorius,

Jamque diu volucres civilia caftra Hanc volucrem narrant luces tres

cœlum

noffe cadaver

Venturum, olfactu tam viget hæc volucris.

Aldrov. Ornith. Lib. 2.

Induit, aut plures prefferunt acra I fhall not undertake abfolutely to

pennæ.

And to this let me add, what Mr. Thyer has quoted from Aldrovandus. Quod autem aliqui addunt, tam fagaciter odorari vultures, ut biduo triduove, imo feptenis, ut alii,

defend Milton's introducing a fabu lous ftory by way of fimile; yet think in this place it may be par don'd, fince no other illuftration could have been found fo pat to the prefent cafe.

Solid or flimy, as in raging fea

Toft

up and down, together crouded drove

290

From each fide fhoaling tow'ards the mouth of Hell:
As when two polar winds, blowing adverse
Jpon the Cronian fea, together drive
Mountains of ice, that stop th' imagin'd way
Beyond Petfora eastward, to the rich
Cathaian coaft. The aggregated foil
Death with his mace petrific, cold and dry,
As with a trident fmote, and fix'd as firm
As Delos floting once; the reft his look

295

Bound

280. His noftril wide into the different parts of Chaos, and driv

murky air,] Et patulis captavit naribus aurás. Virg. Georg. I. 376.

Murky air, black tainted air. Spener has mirkfome air. Fairy Queen, B. 1. C. 5. St. 28.

Through mirksome air her ready way fhe makes.

And the Gloffary to Spenfer explains mirkfome by obfcure, filthy. I find Shakespear too ufes the word murky. Lady Macbeth fays in her fleep Hell is murky, A&t. V.

281. Sagacious] Quick of fent. Sagire enim, fentire acute eft; ex quo fagaces dicti canes. Cic. de Divinat. A fit comparison for the chief Hellhound. Hume.

289. As when two polar winds, &c. Sin and Death, flying into

ing all the matter they meet with there in fhoals towards the mouth

of Hell, are compar'd to two pelar winds, north and fouth, blowing adverfe upon the Cronian fea, the northern frozen fea, (A Thule unius diei navigatione mare concretum, Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 4. cap 16.) a nonnullis Cronium appellatur. and driving together mountains of ice, that flop th' imagin'd way, the north-eaft paffage as it is call'd, which fo many have attempted to difcover, beyond Petfora eastward, the most north-eastern province of Muscovy, to the rich Cathaian coaft, Cathay or Catay, a country of Afia and the northern part of China.

296. As Delos floting once; ] An iland in the Archipelago faid to have floted about in the fea, till it became the birth place of Apollo. Q 2

Calli