Boffu is of opinion that the poet's first work is to find a moral, which his fable is afterwards to illuftrate and establish. This feems to have been the procefs only of Milton; the moral of other poems is incidental and confequent; in Milton's only it is effential and intrinfick. His purpofe was the most useful and the most arduous; to vindicate the ways of God to man; to fhew the reafonableness of religion, and the neceffity of obedience to the Divine Law.

To convey this moral there must be a fable, a narration artfully conftructed, fo as to excite curiofity, and furprise expectation. In this part of his work, Milton must be confeffed to have equalled every other poet. He has in

volved in his account of the Fall of Man the events which preceded, and thofe that were to follow it: he has interwoven the whole fyftem of theology with fuch propriety, that every part appears to be neceffary; and scarcely any recital is wifhed fhorter for the fakeof quickening the progrefs of the main action.

The fubject of an epick poem is naturally an event of great importance. That of Milton is not the deftruction of a city, the conduct of a colony, or the foundation of an empire. His fubject is the fate of worlds, the revolu tions of heaven and of earth; rebellion against the Supreme King, raised by the highest order of created beings; the overthrow of their hoft, and the punish

ment

ment of their crime; the creation of a new race of reasonable creatures; their original happiness and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality, and their reftoration to hope and peace.

Great events can be haftened or retarded only by perfons of elevated dignity. Before the greatnefs difplayed in Milton's poem, all other greatness fhrinks away. The weakest of his agents are the higheft and nobleft of human beings, the original parents of mankind; with whofe actions the elements confented; on whofe rectitude, or deviation of will, depended the ftate of terreftrial nature, and the condition of all the future inhabitants of the globe.

Of

Of the other agents in the poem, the chief are fuch as it is irreverence

to name on flight occafions. The reft

-of which the leaft could wield Thofe elements, and arm him with the

force

Of all their regions.

powers, which only the controul of Omnipotence reftrains from laying crea tion wafte, and filling the vast expanfe of fpace with ruin and confufion. To difplay the motives and actions of beings thus fuperiour, fo far as human reafon can examine them, or human imagination represent them, is the tafk which this mighty poct has undertaken and performed.

In the examination of epick poems much fpeculation is commonly employed upon the characters. The characters in the Paradife Loft, which admir of examination, are thofe of angels and of man; of angels good and evil; of man in his innocent and finful ftate.

Among the angels, the virtue of Raphael is mild and placid, of easy condefcenfion and free communication; that of Michael is regal and lofty, and, as may feem, attentive to the dignity of his own nature. Abdiel and Gabriel appear occafionally, and act as every incident requires; the folitary fidelity of Abdiel is very amiably painted.

Of the evil angels the characters are more diverfified. To Satan, as Addi

fon