Under this dreadful preffure he feems inclined to feek relief, even by fubmiffion and fupplication for mercy; but his dormant pride foon revives, and exerts itself in one of its most powerful modifications; in that, in fact, which produces half the moral evils of the world, viz. the dread of being defpifed by thofe on whofe fuffrage we place a value, whether that eftimation be made on juft grounds or otherwife. Contempt is a punishment even harder to be borne by a proud fpirit than pain; for "contempt," as Aristotle obferves, "implies hatred without fear."

He feems again to make a faint effort against the depraved bias of his mind, when he reasons thus:

But fay I could repent, &c.

He, however, concludes like a confirmed Fatalift, that his nature cannot be changed. A fentiment that sometimes encourages the Sensualist, and sometimes inspires the Fanatick ; which some writers have the effrontery to support in publick, and which, it is to be feared, is too often employed in excufe for vice; at leaft, fo far as it ferves as a fecret palliation. It will not be neceffary to dwell at any length on the circumftances of the Temptation, in the ninth Book; it will be only neceffary to remark how judiciously the Poet has managed, in making the Tempter excite, in a new created being of inferiour order, a love of knowledge. It had been before obferved, by Addison, that Eve's Vifion, in the fifth Book, was fkilfully introduced, to prepare her mind for the full effects of Satan's Temptation.

As to the reft, the influence which the tempter obtains over the mind of Eve, is fo far from being incredible, that, fuppofing a mere mortal in the fituation of the ferpent, he, in order to accomplish his designs, would begin with flattery; the self-complacency which that would probably produce, would easily be perceptible to the eye. In a foil fo prepared, Pride would quickly vegetate, nor would Envy fail to find a place there, particularly if conveyed in the vehicle of curiofity: this, operating with Ambition, might bring about all the natural confequences recorded in the narrative, fuppofing the characters not exalted above the ftandard of humanity.

The foregoing obfervations on the character of Satan, are in fome degree applicable to his affociates, as the first impulse

Rhet. b. 2. c. 7.

came from him, and he may be faid to have given to them all a certain tincture of his own character: this fimilarity will cnable us to apply, in a certain fenfe to him, what we shall further remark with regard to them.

The character of Moloch, in the fecond book, is remarkable for extravagance and fury. There are fome traits in it which would lead one to conjecture that the poet had Jonfon's Cethegus in his eye. However that may be, there appears a fublimity and fpirit in his fpeech, which equals it with any thing in the poem. At first fight his fentiments appear very extravagant, as he feems to conclude that Omnipotence could be fubdued by power. We indeed cannot eafily conceive how in this cafe, and in that of Satan, excefs of paffion may cloud the intellect of beings fo much fuperiour to man. But, as observed before, Milton could only draw his ideas from human characters, and there, we know, tranfcendent fuperiority of parts, is by no means a fecurity againft the moft extravagant abfurdity of theory, to fay nothing of practice. Of this the more immediate caufe may be vanity, perhaps fome more malignant pallion. But the remote origin is pride, the fource of almoft every malignant paflion. To give an example of this, when Hume denied that we can have any knowledge of cause or effect, and by inference, none of the firft caufe, he had been led into this opinion firt by literary vanity, but his pride would not allow him to recant or to confefs a feeling of the ridicule with which he must have been ftung, by the fimple cafe put by Beattie, (in his Eflay on Truth,) of a book being found on a table in an apartment where none hud access but himself, which He had not left there, and which, however, could not have grown there, i. e. come without a caufe. It is hardly conceivable, that fuch a man fhould believe his own pofition. It is fcarce let's extraordinary if he did not believe them, that he should venture to give currency to doctrines fo pernicious to fociety, at the rifque at least of incurring guilt of a very deep dye. Yet fo great was the pride of this man, that it must have been the fource of that factitious firmnefs of character, which induced him to perfevere in contriving to beftow on thefe opinions as much celebrity as poffible, when he himself fhould be

The prayer in the Litany to keep us from pride, envy, and unchari tablenets, is juftly and even philofophically arranged.

mouldering in the duft. This is certainly carrying human criminality to the utmoft degree of extravagance equal to that of Moloch, if Moloch could be fuppofed to reprefent an human character. The moft ftriking inftance of the predominance of pride and revenge in this vindictive fpirit is, his enjoying the thought, that though reduced to this fide nothing, yet revenge, even a series of vindictive attempts, would be to him full compenfation.

In many of thefe characters, from the greatest to the more fubordinate, the art of the poet appears confpicuous, in giving them extenfive powers of ratiocination, and yet keeping them clear of any expreflions of compunction or remorfe, or any approximation to that virtue which they had loft. This fkill however feems moft apparent in the character of Belial, who is described as in act more graceful and humane; yet he is as far as the reft from expreffing any fentiment which would entitle even him to compaffion, though he is not reprefented as equal to fome of the others in malignity.

What has been obferved of the fkill of Homer in diverfifying the principle of courage, according to the characters of his feveral warriours, feems equally true of the management of Milton, with refpect to pride and envy, the reigning vices of his pandemonian heroes. We can, for inftance, eally fuppofe the contradiction of Belial to Moloch to have been meant as a fecret gratification of thofe paffions in the former, particularly as he turns the ferocious warriour into ridicule, a talent which he exerts on another occafion*. He is defcribed as a fenfualift, with many epicurean lineaments of character, particularly in his predilection for indolence, or the abfence of pain. His opinions are fupported with great plaufibility. His abhorrence of non-existence, feems copied from that dread of death, exhibited by fome of that fect of old +. In all his character there appears a fpecies of pufillanimity, yet it is remarkable how careful the poet is to keep this perfectly clear from any infufion of tendernefs or fympathy; it is no lefs remarkble, that, of all men in the world, fenfualifts have lefs of that fellow-feeling than any other defcription of men; in other words, they are the mot

* Book VI.

See verfes attributed to Mecenas in Seneca's Epifiles.

Selfish of all mankind; witnefs the ruin they bring on their own families, and that of others, without any visible compunction. In fome inftances alfo, like Belial, fuch characters exhibit a very extraordinary fophiftical acutenefs; this too is natural, for it is au habit they must have acquired in devifing palliations for their hateful enormities. Two remarkable portraitures of this fort occur in Shadwell's play of the Libertine Destroyed, and in the character of Pandarus in Chaucer's Troilus and Creffida.

In the character of Mammon, it would have been highly improper to have introduced thofe elevated fentiments, where grandeur and depravity are fo confpicuously united, as they appear in the speeches of his affociates. This combination would have been incongruous to the natural train of ideas in one who was accustomed to admire the riches of heavens pacement, trodden gold. From him who is defcribed as the least erected Spirit that fell from heaven, we could not expect those ardent excurfions of fancy, which we meet with from others in the course of the debate, and which fill the mind with a mixture of delight and horrour. In Mammon, therefore, we contemplate the paffions of the infernals, envy and revenge in all their native deformity, without any rhetorical decorations, except in one inftance, which feems better adapted to the ftyle of Belial:

This deep world

Of darknefs do we dread? how oft amidst

Thick clouds and dark doth Heaven's all-ruling fire
Choose to refide, his glory unobfcur'd,

And with the majefty of darkness round

Covers his throne; from whence deep thunders roar
Mustering their rage, and Heaven refembles Hell.

But in the courfe of his argument, he makes a fuppofition that shows the depravity of thefe fallen fpirits in a very striking light:

Suppofe he should relent,

And publish grace to all, on promise made
Of new fubjection; with what eyes could we
Stand in his prefence humble, and receive
Strict laws impos'd, to celebrate his throne
With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead fing
Forc'd Halleluiahs; while he lordly fits

Our envied Sovran, and his altar breathes
Ambrofial odours and ambrofial flowers,
Our fervile offerings? This must be our task
In Heaven, this our delight; how wearifome
Eternity fo fpent, in worship paid

To whom we hate!

It is remarkable that he exhibits in his fpeech an opinion which has fince made no fmall figure in fome noted fyftems of morality, viz. that utility is the standard of every thing laudable. This has been carried fo far by Ariftotle, Hume, and others, that every accomplishment, mental and bodily, has þeen dignified by the name of VIRTUE, and confequently, if what we now from old prejudice denominate crimes, fuch as adul tery, fraud, &c. can be in any way fubfervient to publick utility, they become duties, or at leaft are not deferying of either punishment or cenfure!

The character of Beelzebub is diftinguished from the rest by more extenfive views, and more deliberate wickednefs. In malignity he refembles his mafter, but his mind is lefs ardent. In his firft fpeech, his fagacity had at once perceived that their mifery was irremediable. On this topick he expatiates here, and enforces his opinion from the character' under which he reprefents the Supreme Being. Him he defcribes as powerful, vindictive, and arbitrary. He arraigns, by implication, the juftice of the Deity, yet without expreffing any regard to that attribute; for he reprefents the Sovereign of the Universe, as acting on a fyftem which he himself would have adopted in a like fituation.

As the poet's ideas are drawn ab intimis reccfibus mentis, we are here naturally led to obferve the gradations by which the mind is led to judge of others by itself. Sympathy was bestowed upon us, that by our own, we fhould judge of the feelings of others, that we might be taught, not only by precept, but by fentiment, to rejoice with those that rejoice, and to weep with thofe that weep. But as Pope obferves of the RULING PASSION, this alfo may be perverted, and often produces the moft baneful confequences, when this happens; as often is the It would detain cafe with the most precious gifts of nature. us too long to account for this, or to fhow by what degrees

* i. e. to impute its own vices to others.