"" which opened thus:

Let the rainbow be the "fiddle-stick of the fiddle of heaven"."

The critic was perfectly right in relinquishing his former idea concerning the Adamus Exul of Grotius; but, in his remark on Volataire, he fhews how dangerous it is to cenfure any writer for what he fays concerning books, which the cenfurer has no opportunity of examining. Voltaire, indeed, from his predominant paffion for ridicule, and from the rash vivacity, that often led him to fpeak too confidently of various works from a very flight inspection of their contents, is no more to be followed implicitly in points of criticism, than he is on the more important article of religion: but his opinions in literature are generally worth examination, as he poffeffed no common degree of taste, a perpetual thirst for univerfal knowledge, and, though not the most intimate, yet, perhaps, the most extenfive acquaintance with literary works and literary men that was ever acquired by any individual.

When Voltaire visited England in the early part of his life, and was engaged in foliciting a fubfcription for his Henriade, which firft appeared under the title of "The League," he publifhed, in our language, an effay on Epic Poetry, a work which, though written under fuch difadvantage, poffeffes the peculiar vivacity of this extraordinary writer, and is indeed fo curious a fpecimen of his verfatile talents, that although it has been fuperfeded by a French compofition of greater extent, under, the fame title, it ought, I think, to have found a place

in that fignal monument to the name of Voltaire, the edition of his works in ninety-two volumes.

As my reader may be gratified in feeing the Englifh ftyle of this celebrated foreigner, I will tranfcribe, without abridgment, what he fays of Andreini :

"Milton, as he was travelling through Italy in "his youth, faw at Florence a comedy called "Adamo, writ by one Andreini, a player, and de"dicated to Mary de Medicis, Queen of France.

The fubject of the play was the Fall of Man ; "the actors, God, the devils, the angels, Adam, "Eve, the Serpent, Death, and the seven mortal "fins that topic, fo improper for a drama, but fo fuitable to the abfurd genius of the Italian stage (as it was at that time) was handled in a manner entirely comformable to the extravagance of the "defign. The scene opens with a chorus of angels, "and a cherubim thus fpeaks for the reft :- Let "the rainbow be the fiddle-ftick of the fiddle of "the heavens! let the planets be the notes of our

6.6

mufic! let time beat carefully the meafure, and "the winds make the fharps, &c.' Thus the play begins, and every fcene rifes above the last in "profufion of impertinence!

Milton pierced through the abfurdity of that "performance to the hidden majesty of the subject, "which, being altogether unfit for the stage, yet "might be (for the genius of Milton, and for his only) the foundation of an epic poem.

"He took from that ridiculous trifle the firft

< hint of the nobleft work, which human imagina

*tion has ever attempted, and which he executed more than twenty years after.

"In the like manner, Pythagoras owed the in"vention of Mufic to the noife of the hammer of

ແ a blacksmith; and thus, in our days, Sir Ifaac "Newton walking in his garden, had the first thought of his fyftem of gravitation upon feeing "an apple falling from a tree."

It was thus that, in the year 1727, Voltaire, then studying in England, and collecting all poffible information concerning our great epic poet, account> ed for the origin of Paradise Loft. Rolli, another foreign ftudent in epic poetry, who refided at that time in London, and was engaged in tranflating Milton into Italian verfe, published fome fevere cenfures, in English, on the English effay of Voltaire, to vindicate both Taflo and Milton from certain strictures of sarcastic raillery, which the volatile Frenchman had. lavished upon both. Voltaire, indeed, has fallen himself into the very inconfiftency, which he mentions as unaccountable in Dryden; I mean the inconfiftency of fometimes praising Milton with such admiration as approaches to idolatry, and fometimes reproving him with fuch keenness of ridicule as borders on contempt. In the courfe of this difcuffion we may find, perhaps, a mode of accounting for the inconfiftency both of Dryden and Voltaire; let us attend at prefent to what the latter has faid of Andreini!-If the Adamo of this author really gave birth to the divine poem of Milton, the Italian dramatift, whatever rank he might hold in his own country, has a fingular

claim to our attention and regard. Johnfon indeed calls the report of Voltaire a wild and unauthoriz ed ftory; and Rolli afferts, in reply to it, that if Milton faw the Italian drama, it must have been at Milan, as the Adamo, in his opinion, was a performance too contemptible to be endured at Florence. "Andreini (fays the critic of Italy) was a ftroller (un iftrione) of the worst age of the Italian letters." Notwithstanding thefe terms of contempt, which one of his countrymen has bestowed upon Andreini, he appears to me highly worthy of our notice; for (although in uniting, like Shakefpeare and Moliere, the two different arts of writing and of acting plays, he discovered not fuch extraordinary powers as have justly immortalized those idols of the theatre) he was yet endowed with one quality, not only uncommon, but such as might render him, if I may hazard the expreffion, the poetical parent of Milton. The quality I mean is, enthufiafm in the highest degree, not only poetical but religious. Even the preface that Andreini prefixed to his Adamo may be thought fufficient to have acted like lightning on the inflammable ideas of the English poet, and to have kindled in his mind the blaze of celeftial imagination.

I am aware, that in refearches like the prefent every conjecture may abound in illusion; the petty circumftances, by which great minds are led to the first conception of great defigns, are so various and volatile, that nothing can be more difficult to difcover fancy in particular is of a nature fo airy, that the traces of her ftep are hardly to be difcern

ed;

ed; ideas are fo fugitive, that if poets, in their life-time, were queftioned concerning the manner in which the feeds of confiderable productions first arose in their mind, they might not always be able to answer the enquiry; can it then be poffible to fucceed in fuch an enquiry concerning a mighty genius, who has been configned more than a century to the tomb, especially when, in the records of his life, we can find no positive evidence on the point in question? However trifling the chances it may afford of fuccefs, the investigation is affuredly worthy our purfuit; for, as an accomplished critic has faid, in fpeaking of another poet, with his ufual felicity of difcernment and expreffion, "the enquiry cannot be void of entertainment "whilft Milton is our conftant theme: whatever may be the fortune of the chace, we are fure it "will lead us through pleasant prospects and a fine country."

66

It has been frequently remarked, that accident and genius generally conspire in the origin of great performances; and the accidents that give an impulfe to fancy are often fuch as are hardly within. the reach of conjecture. Had Ellwood himfelf not recorded the occurrence, who would have fuppofed that a few words, which fell from a fimple youth in converfation, were the real fource of Paradife Regained? Yet the offsprings of imagination, in this point of view, have a striking analogy to the productions of nature. The noble poem just mentioned resembles a rare and valuable tree, not planted with care and forecast, but arifing vigorously from