on the Greek and Latin Writers, whose Languages I have Acknowledg'd my Self not to Understand. My Time of Learning was Employ'd in Business. but after All, I Have the Greek and Latin Tongues, I have them because a Part of Me Poffeffes them to Whom I can recur at Pleasure, just as I have a Hand when I would Write or Paint, Feet to Walk, and Eyes to See. My Son is my Learning, as I am That to Him which He has Not; We make One Man; and Such a Compound Man (what Sort of One Soever He is whom We make) May Probably, produce what no Single Man Can. When therefore I, in my Own Perfon talk of Things which in my Separate Capacity I am known to be a Stranger to, let Me be Understood as the Complicated RichardJon. 'Twas Neceffary to Say This as having Engag'd in a Work I am,Singly, as Unqualify'd for as the Ear is to Write; but when I want to do That I make ufe of my Hand; fo if I would fee the Satellites of Jupiter, or those of Saturn, or the Belts of One, or the Ring of the Other, I know well enough my Naked Eye is as no Eye at all on This Occafion; I then apply to my Telescope: In what depends on the Knowledge of the Learned Languages my Son is my Telescope. 'tis by the help of This I have feen That in Milton which to Me Otherwise had been Invisible; though before I had my Inftrument I faw a Sky of

fhining

fhining Stars, How much more Throng'd and Bright foever That Sky Now appears.

Milton's Language is English, but 'tis Milton's English; 'tis Latin, 'tis Greek English; not only the Words, the Phrafeology, the Tranfpofitions,but the Ancient Idiom is feen in All he Writes, So that a Learned Foreigner will think Milton the Eafieft to be Understood of All the English Writers. This Peculiar English is moft Confpicuously feen in Paradife Loft, for This is the Work which he Long before Intended fhould Enrich and Adorn his Native Tongue not caring to be once Nam'd Abroad though Perhaps I could Attaine to That, but Content with thefe British Ilands as My World, whofe Fortune hath Hitherto bin, that if the Athenians, as Some fay, made their Small Deeds Great and Renown'd by their Eloquent Writers, England bath had her Noble Atchievements made Small by the Unskillfull Handling of Monks and Mechanicks. See More. to the Present Purpofe in the Preface (Cited more than Once already) to his fecond Book of Church-Government.

to this Miltonick English may be apply'd what Himself Says of the New-TeftamentGreek He therefore who thinks to Scholiaze upon the Gospel, though Greek, according to bis Greek Analogies, and hath not been Auditor to the Oriental Dialects, fhall want in the heat of his Analyfis no Accomodation to Stumble. Tetrachord. Tol. Ed. 365.

Poetry

Poetry pretends to a Language of its Own That of the Italian Poetry is fo remarkably peculiar that a Man may Well understand a Profe Writer, and not a Poet. Words, Tours of Expreffion, the Order of them, All has Somthing not Profaic. This is Obfervable particularly in Shakespear. Milton has Apply'd it to that Sublimity of Subject in which he perpetually Engages his Readers, above what Shakespear ever Aim'd at and where This is Peculiarly Neceffary.

Nor does he want Abundant Inftances of what All Good Poets Have. the Sound of the Words, their Harshness, Smoothness, or Other Properties, and the Ranging, and Mixing them, all help to Express afwell as their Sig nification. We have Ñoted This Occafionally, in Particular on VII. 303.

As his Mind was Rich in Ideas, and in Words of Various Languages to Cloathe them with, and as he had a Vaft Fire, Vigour and Zeal of Imagination, his Style muft Neceffarily Distinguish it Self; it Did So; and even in his Younger days, his Juvenile Poems, English, Latin, and Italian, have a Brilliant not Eafily found Elsewhere; Nor is it not seen in his Controverfial Profe Works; Paradife Loft wants it not, in which there are Specimens of All his Kinds of Styles, the Tender, the Fierce, the Narrative, the Reasoning, the Lofty, Ge. So Early as when he Wrote for Divorce, though he Conceal'd his Name his Hand

was known

My Name I did not Publish

(fays He) as not willing it should Sway the Reader either For me or Against me, but when I was told that the Style, which what it Ails to be fo foon diftinguishable, I cannot tell, was known by moft Men There is Som

thing in Every Man's whereby he is Known, as by his Voice Face, Gait, &c. in Milton there is a certain Vigour, whether Kerfing or Profing, which will Awaken Attention be She never fo Drowfy, and then Perfuade her to be Thankful though She was Difturb'd...

a Reader of Milton must be Always upon Duty; he is Surrounded with Senfe, it rifes in every Line, every Word is to the Purpose; There are no Lazy Intervals, All has been Confider'd, and Demands, and Merits Obfervation. Even in the Beft Writers you Somtimes find Words and Sentences which hang on fo Loofely you may Blow 'em off; Milton's are all Substance and Weight; Fewer would not have Serv'd the Turn, and More would have been Superfluous.

His Silence has the Same Effect, not only that he leaves Work for the Imagination when he has Entertain'd it, and Furnish'd it with Noble Materials; but he Expreffes himself So Concifey, Employs, Words So Sparingly, that whoever will Poffefs His Ideas muft Dig for them, and Oftentimes pretty far below the Surface. if This is call'd Obfcurity let it be remembred 'tis Such a One as is Complaifant

to

to the Reader, not Miftrusting his Ability, Care, Diligence, or the Candidnefs of his Temper; not That Vicious Obscurity which proceeds from a Muddled Inaccurate Head, not Accustomed to Clear, Well Separated and Regularly Order'd Ideas, or from want of Words and Method and Skill to Convey them to Another, from whence Always Arifes Uncertainty, Ambiguity, and a Sort of a MoonLight Profpect over a Landscape at Beft not Beautiful; whereas if a Good Writer is not Understood 'tis because his Reader is Unacquainted with, or Incapable of the Subject, or will not Submit to do the Duty of a Reader, which is to Attend Carefully to what he Reads

What Macrobius fays of Virgil is Applicable to Milton. "He keeps his Eye Fix'd and "Intent upon Homer, and emulates Alike his "Greatness and Simplicity; his Readiness of "Speech and Silent Majefty." by Silent Majefty, he feems to Mean with Longinus: "His Leaving more to the Imagination than "is Exprefs'd."

and Now 'tis of no great Importance whether this be call'd an Heroic or a Divine Poem, or only, as the Author himself has call'd it in his Title-page, a Poem. What if it were a Compofition Intirely New, and not reducible under any Known Denomination? but 'tis Properly and Strictly Heroic, and Such Milton intended it, as he has Intimated