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Or (to descend from this height) if we are enchanted with the dramas of Shakespear, (one of the great idols of the time) we

real hero is Satan. Instead of a rebel against the just authority and laws of his benign Creator, this malignant chief is frequently represented under the character of a generous patriot, who sacrifices his own personal ease and safety to the common cause of liberty and equality, of natural rights and original independence. And as the pride of human nature is not indisposed to set up the same claims, it is probable that their assertion, though from the lips and by the efforts of an apostate spirit, may have contributed its share to the general applause with which the Paradise Lost has been received in the world, and which it merits by much better titles. But my design in this note is not so much to tax the equivocal and captious pretensions now recited, as to put the younger reader upon his guard against the fascination of superior genius, when employed rather to elevate and adorn its subject, than to place it in its due light; and to recommend to his particular attention the following canon of sound criticism, namely, that nothing is truly either sublime or beautiful which is not just. When tried by this maxim, he may probably find that many shining passages in Milton, which before had dazzled his imagination and seduced his judgment, will fade away; though many doubtless will still remain, sufficient to vindicate to their author a place in the very first rank of poets, whether ancient or modern.

should examine, whether it is not rather in consequence of the sympathy we find with the vitiated spirit and manners of the world, than of the pleasure we derive from those just views of nature and human life that frequently occur in the works of this extraordinary genius, It may be said, indeed, that our delight may arise from the talents displayed by an author, separate from the morality of his performance; but the truth is, that, to a truly virtuous mind, misapplied or prostituted talents can only be an object of grief or indignation.

No pleasure can be purer than the spring from which it flows, and the springs of Parnassus are commonly polluted; their ordinary quality is to inspire the irascible or sensual passions, to intoxicate rather than innocently to gladden and elevate the spirits. One of the fathers, somewhat harshly, has denominated poetry the wine of demons, from his opinion of its tendency to inflate the mind with pride; and, by a metaphor not harsher, he might have en

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titled it the Cup of Circe, which, according to the fiction of Homer, transformed the followers of Ulysses into brutes. From the severity of this censure there are, however, many poetical works, both in our own and in other languages, which ought to be exempted; and some which merit a degree of praise, not only as they are suited to amuse the imagination, but also to raise the sentiments and purify the passions. I speak with reserve, because an art, whose professed object is in general to captivate through the medium of pleasure, is liable to just suspicion, and ought never to be entertained with favour, but when it appears under its proper subordinate character, either as a humble assistant to devotion, or when it follows in the train of reason and philosophy.

III. On the Pleasures arising from the Study of Philosophy.

Though almost every part of human learning has, of late, been reduced under

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the empire of philosophy, I shall confine it, in the following observations, within narrower limits, and consider it as divided into natural (including the mathematics), moral, and metaphysical; and, under these several heads, shall briefly enquire, what new sources of pleasure it may supply to the contemplative recluse.

1. Natural Philosophy. The only solid basis on which this science can be erected is natural history, which is a study adapted to almost every taste, and level to every understanding. There are few authors who are read with more general satisfaction than Ray, Derham, Nieuwentyt, de la Pluche, Goldsmith; to whom we may add Buffon, while he keeps to his proper character of a natural historian, and does not play the part of an idle theorist. While, in such works, the imagination is refreshed with an endless variety of pleasing scenes and objects, the understanding and the heart are gratified with those innumerable

characters of wisdom, power, and goodness, which are obviously inscribed on the whole face of creation.

When from particular instances we proceed, by a just induction, to general laws, and from these to others more general, we then ascend into the proper region of philosophy, and at every step obtain more commanding views of nature. The delight afforded by this growing prospect, is something analogous to that which an ingenious traveller* experienced in his journey to the top of mount Etna, when, upon looking around him, after a laborious ascent, the whole island of Sicily appeared as a map beneath his feet; and, as he further increased his elevation, other islands and countries opened gradually to his view. Only, there is this difference in the two cases; that, in the latter, the summit may at last be gained, whereas, in the former, it is absolutely inaccessible. No man can find out the work that God maketh from the

* Brydone.

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