Our Saviour meek and with untroubled Mind

After his airy Jaunt, tho' hurried fore,

Hungry and cold betook him to his Rest,
Wherever, under fome Concourfe of Shades

Whose branching Arms thick intertwin'd might shield
From Dews and Damps of Night his shelter'd Head,
But shelter'd slept in vain; for at his Head

The Tempter watch'd, and foon with ugly Dreams
Disturb'd his Sleep: and either Tropic now

'Gan thunder, and both Ends of Heav'n; the Clouds
From many a horrid Rift abortive pour'd
Fierce Rain with Lightning mixt, Water with Fire
In Ruin reconcil'd; nor flept the Winds
Within their ftony Caves, but rufh'd abroad
From the four Hinges of the World, and fell
On the vext Wilderness, whofe tallest Pines,
Tho' rooted deep as high, and sturdiest Oaks
Bow'd their stiff Necks, loaden with stormy Blasts,
Or torn up fheer: Ill waft thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only ftoodst

Unfhaken;

Unfhaken; nor yet ftaid the Terrour there

Infernal Ghosts, and hellish Furies round

;

Environ'd thee, fome howl'd, fome yell'd, some shriek'd,
Some bent at thee their fiery Darts, while thou
Satt'ft unappal'd in calm and finless Peace.
Thus pafs'd the Night fo foul till Morning fair
Came forth with Pilgrim-steps in Amice grey,
Who with her radiant Finger ftill'd the Roar
Of Thunder,* chas'd the Clouds, and laid the Winds,
And grifly Spectres which the Fiend had rais'd
To tempt the Son of God with Terrours dire.
And now the Sun with more effectual Beams
Had chear'd the Face of Earth, and dried the Wet
From drooping Plant, or dropping Tree; the Birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
After a Night of Storm fo ruinous,

Clear'd up their choiceft Notes in Bush and Spray
To gratulate the sweet Return of Morn.

*laid the Winds, and chas'd the Clouds,

is a better Reading. To fay, that Spectres were laid by the Morning is filly and childish. But to say that

they, as well as the Clouds, were chased away by it, is equally proper and agreeable to received Opinions.

THAT the Writer of the foregoing Obfervations may not seem partial to Milton, he thinks himself oblig'd, having recounted the Excellencies of Paradife Regain'd, to confefs that this invaluable Poem is not without Defects, and that fome flight Blemishes may be here and there difcern'd,

velut fi

Egregio infperfos reprendas corpore nævos.

IN the firft Book the Poet detains the Reader with a long, and low, and unpleafing Soliloquý of Jesus, made up of feveral Circumftances which are before related, and are partly repeated over again in a Soliloquy of the Virgin Mary in the fecond Book. In

other Parts of his Poem he affects to borrow his Similitudes and Allufions from Romance and Fable, thereby mixing up fuppos'd Realities with acknowledg'd Fictions; disfiguring and deforming his Subject with unfuitable Images; finking where he is called to rife; leffening what he should augment; and over-laying thick Shade where he ought to throw on the strongest Light. There's an Inftance of this in the third Book, where the Devil having given our Saviour a noble View of the Parthian Army marching out to Battel, the Poet adds,

Such

Such Forces met not, nor so wide a Camp
When Agrican with all his Northern Pow'rs
Befieg'd Albracca, as Romances tell,

The City of Gallaphrone, from thence to win
The fairest of her Sex Angelica

His Daughter, fought by many Prowest Knights,
Both Paynim and the Peers of Charlemain.

IT may here be obferved, that the concluding Lines in the Poem I am fpeaking of, as well as in Paradife Loft, are flat and low. Paradife Regained had ended better at Verse 635, without the Addition of these which follow:

Thus they the Son of God, our Saviour meek,
Sung Victor, and from heavenly Feast refreshed
Brought on his Way with Joy; he unobserved
Home to his Mother's House private returned.

THE foregoing are the whole Remarks intended to be made on Paradife Regain'd. If the Remarker has open'd a new Field of Pleasure, or discover'd hidden Stores of Inftruction, he fucceeds in his Aim of prefenting the Fruits of fome Leisure-hours to the Publick, and shall think that he has not mifemployed

his

his Thoughts or his Time. Tho' he is not conceited of his own Judgment, yet he wishes, in refpect to what he has faid of this neglected Poem, with which he confeffes himself delighted, that the Readers may concur in the fame Opinion, as he wishes they may fhare in the fame Delight.

EMEN