For us his ofspring dear? It cannot be Ere this he had return'd, with fury driven 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, With fecret amity things of like kind 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 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 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. 260 Whom thus the meager Shadow answer'd foon. Go whither fate and inclination strong Leads thee; I fhall not lag behind, nor err 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 270 Against the day of battel, to a field, 279 Where armies lie incamp'd, come flying, lur'd For death, the following day, in bloody fight: 284 Sagacious of his quarry from fo far. Then both from out Hell gates into the wafte 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: 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 |