CHAP. I.

PART II. tion, as to that of his subject: for we feel no
such lassitude or depression from the same
Of improved subjects, when treated by Tasso or Vida; though,
Perception.
except in the lightness and elasticity of their
versification, we cannot but allow that Milton
has treated them more poetically, as well as
more properly. In the scenes, too, of Paradise,
and the loves of Adam and Eve, Milton's
imagery is gay and beautiful, and his sentiments
warm and rapturous; but, nevertheless, that
very irregularity of the pauses, which certain
critics have so much commended, gives the
character of prose to his verse, and deprives it
of all that fire and enthusiasm of expression,
which Pope has happily preserved in his trans-
lation of the corresponding passages of the
Iliad.

But come, so well refreshed, now let us play,
As meet is, after such delicious fare;
For never did thy beauty, since the day,
I saw thee first, and wedded thee, adorn'd
With all perfections, so inflame my sense
With ardour to enjoy thee; fairer now
Than ever, bounty of this virtuous tree.
PARADISE LOST, ix. 1026.

These softer moments, let delight employ,
And kind embraces snatch the hasty joy.
Not thus I loved thee, when, from Sparta's shore,
My forced, my willing, heavenly prize, I bore;

When first entranced in Cranäe's isle I lay,
Mix'd with thy soul, and all dissolved away!

PART II.

CHAP. I.

POPE'S ILIAD, iii. 549. Of improved

Adam's argument, in this case, is certainly more pointed and logical, than that of the young. Trojan; but pointed and logical argument is not what the case required. The rapturous glow of enthusiastic passion, with which the latter addresses his mistress, would have much more influence upon the affections of an amorous lady, though it may be less satisfactory to the understanding of a learned critic. The language of Homer and of Pope is such as Paris might have really used, and used with effect; but had he made love to Helen in the language of Milton, Menelaus might have trusted him with perfect security.

In such passages, as the following, the admirers of the irregular variety of Miltonic pauses, will find some difficulty in discovering any thing like verse; since even scanning the syllables upon their fingers will surely enable them to measure the lines.

"To whom the angel. Therefore what he gives, whose praise be ever sung, to man, in part spiritual, may, of purest spirits, be found no ungrateful food: and, food alike, those pure intelligential substances require, as doth your rational; and both contain, within them,

Perception.

PART II. every lower faculty of sense, whereby they hear, sec,
smell, touch, taste; tasting concoct, digest, assimilate,
CHAP. I. and corporeal to incorporeal turn."
Of improved
Perception.

Here are ten lines taken from one of the most admired books of the poem: but it appears to me (perhaps for want of taste and discernment) that any ten lines, transcribed from his history of the Heptarchy, might with equal propriety be ranked with poetry*. That they may be excused, however, in a long work, on account of the beauties, by which they are counterbalanced, I readily admit; "sed emendata videri, pulchraque, et exactis minimum distantia, miror."

30. The blank verse of Thomson and Cowper is much more strictly verse than that of Milton: but the complete failure of the latter in his translation of the Iliad is at least a presumptive

*The ancients seem to have had much more nice and accurate powers of discrimination in verse than we have. "In versu quidem theatra tota exclamant, si fit una syllaba aut brevior aut longior. Nec vero multitudo pedes novit, nec ullos numeros tenet; nec illud, quod offendit, aut cur, aut in quo offendat, intelligit: et tamen omnium longitudinum, et brevitatum in sonis, sicut acutarum graviumque vocum judicium ipsa natura in auribus nostris collocavit."Cic. de Orator.

The most learned and refined of a modern audience show no such quickness of perception or nicety of judgment.

proof that this species of verse is not suited to PART II. such compositions: for when Cowper has failed,

CHAP. I.

who shall hope to succeed? The case is, that of improved where it is not stiffened and elevated by some Perception. peculiar dignity and elevation of subject, as in the more splendid parts of the Paradise Lost, it requires so many inversions and transpositions to keep it out of prose, as render it quite unsuitable to the enthusiastic spirit, and glowing simplicity of heroic narrative, which is perfect only "cum ita structa verba sunt,ut numerus non quæsitus sed secutus esse videatur-quod indicat non ingratam negligentiam, de re hominis magis quam de verbis laborantis." Cic. Orator.

31. Not, however, that I would wholly exclude from poetry, or even from animated prose, what are, according to our idiom, inversions and transpositions: for, in many instances, such a collocation of the words is the natural and original order of speech; and when we address the imagination or the passions, the natural and original order will be found the most impressive, though it may differ from that established by ordinary use. To explain this, I shall take the liberty of quoting the words of one of the latest and ablest writers upon philosophical criticism; whose words, in this instance, cannot be altered without being injured.

СНАР. 1.

PART II. 32. "Let us figure to ourselves," says Dr. Blair*, "a savage, who beholds some object, such Of improved as fruit, which raises his desire, and who requests Perception. another to give it to him. Supposing our

savage to be unacquainted with words, he would,
in that case, labour to make himself be under-
stood, by pointing earnestly at the object,
which he desired, and uttering, at the same
time, a passionate cry. Supposing him to
have acquired words, the first word, which he
uttered, would, of course, be the name of that
object. He would not express himself accord-
ing to our English order of construction,
Give me fruit,' but according to the Latin
order, Fruit give me,' Pomum da mihi: for
this plain reason, that his attention was wholly
directed towards fruit, the desired object. This
was the exciting idea; the object which
moved him to speak; and, of course, would
be the first named. Such an arrangement is
precisely putting into words the gesture, which
nature taught the savage to make, before he
was acquainted with words; and, therefore,
it may be depended upon as certain, that he
would fall most readily into this arrangement.
"Accustomed now to a different method of

* Lect. vii.