Mr. Philips obferves, that there was a very remarkable circumstance in the compofure of Paradife Loft," which "I have a particular reafon," fays he, "to remember; for whereas I had the "perufal of it from the very begin

ning, for fome years, as I went from

"time to time to vifit him, in parcels "of ten, twenty, or thirty verses at a "time (which, being written by what"ever hand came next, might poffibly "want correction as to the orthography " and pointing), having, as the Summer "came on, not been fhewed any for a "confiderable while; and defiring the "reafon thereof, was anfwered, that his "vein never happily flowed but from "the Autumnal Equinox to the Vernal;

" and

and that whatever he attempted at other times was never to his fatisfac"tion, though he courted his fancy "never fo much; fo that, in all the

466 years he was about this poem, he may be faid to have fpent half his time "therein."

Upon this relation Toland remarks, that in his opinion Philips has mistaken the time of the year; for Milton, in his. Elegies, declares that with the advance. of the Spring he feels the increase of his poetical force, redeunt in carmina, vires. To this it is anfwered, that Phidips could hardly mistake time fo well marked; and it may be added, that Milton might find different times of the year favourable to different parts of life. h 3

Mr.

Mr. Richardfon conceives it impoffible that fuch a work should be fufpended for fix months, or for one. It may go on fafter or flower, but it must go on. By what ne ceffity it must continually go on, or why it might not be laid afide and refumed, it is not eafy to discover.

This dependance of the foul upon the seasons, those temporary and periodical ebbs and flows of intellect, may, I fuppofe, justly be derided as the fumes of vain imagination. Sapiens dominabitur aftris. The author that thinks himself weather-bound will find, with a little help from hellebore, that he is only idle or exhausted. But while this notion has poffeffion of the head, it produces the inability which it fuppofes.

Our powers owe much of their energy to our hopes; poffunt quia poffe videntur. When fuccefs feems attainable, diligence is enforced; but when it is admitted that the faculties are fuppreffed by a crofs wind, or a cloudy fky, the day is given. up without refiftance; for who can contend with the courfe of Nature?

From fuch prepoffeffions Milton feems not to have been free. There prevailed in his time an opinion that the world was in its decay, and that we have had the misfortune to be produced in the decrepitude of Nature. It was fufpected that the whole creation languifhed, that neither trees nor animals had the height or bulk of their predeceffors, and that every thing was daily finking in gradual h 4 dimi

diminution. Milton appears to fufpect

that fouls partake of the general degeneracy, and is not without fome fear: that his book is to be written in an age too late for heroick poefy.

Another opinion wanders about the world, and fometimes finds reception among wife men; an opinion that reftrains the operations of the mind to particular regions, and supposes that a lucklefs mortal may be born in a degree of latitude too high or too low for wisdom or for wit. From this fancy, wild as it is, he had not wholly cleared his head, when he feared left the climate of his country might be too cold for flights of imagination..