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many gross defects . In order to canvass this matter with order , we must first lay down , that such shadowy heings as death , sin , chaos , are
intolerable , when they are not allegorical For fiction is nothing but truth in disguise . It must be granted too , that an allegory must be short , decent , and noble . For an allegory carried too far or too low is ] ike a beautiful
woman who wears always a mask . An allegory is a long metaphor ; and to speak too long in metaphors must be tiresome , because unnatural . This being premised , I must say , that in general those fictions , those imaginary beings are more agreeable to the
nature of Milton ' s Poem , than to any other ; because he hath but two natural persons for his actors—I mean Adam and Eve . A great part of the action lies in imaginary worlds , and must of course admit of imaginary beings . Then sin springing out of the head
of Satan seems a beautiful allegory of pride , which is looked upon as the first offence committed against God . But let such a picture [ as the production of death ] be never so beautifully drawn , let the allegory be never
so obvious and so clear , still it will be intolerable , on the account of its foulness ; that complication of horrors , that mixture of incest , that heap of monsters , that loathsomeness , so farfetched , cannot but shock a reader of delicate taste .
" But what is more intolerable , there arc parts in that fiction which bearing no allegory at all have no manner of excuse . There is no meaning in the communication between death and sin , 'tis distasteful without any purpose ; or if an 57 allegory lies under it , the filthy abomination of the thiner
is certainly more obvious than the allegory . I see with admiration sin , the portress of hell , opening the gates of the abyss but unable to shut them again . That is really beautiful because ' tis true . But what signifies satan and death quarrelling together , grinning at one another and read y to fight }
u fiction of chaos , night and discord , is rather a picture than an allegory , and for aught I know , deserves to be approved , because it strikes the reader with awe , not with horror . " I know the bridge built by death * na aiii , would be disliked in France .
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The nice criticks of that country would urge against that fiction , that it seems too common , and that it is useless ; for men ' s souls want no paved way to be thrown into hell , after their separation from the body .
** They would laugh justly at the paradise of fools , at the hermits , fryars , cowls , beads , indulgences , bulls , reliques tossed by the winds , at St . Peter ' s waiting with his keys at the
wicket of heaven . And surely the most passionate admirers of Milton could not vindicate those low , comical imaginations , which belong- by right to Ariosto .
•* Now the sublimest of all the fictions calls rue to examine it- I mean the war in heaven . The Earl of Roscommonand Mr . Addison ( whose judgment seems either to guide , or to justify the opinion of his countrymen ) admire chiefly that part of the poem . They bestow all the skill of their
criticism and the strength of their eloquence , to set off that favourite part . I may affirm that the very things they admire would not be tolerated by the French criticks . The reader will perhaps see with pleasure in what consis t ^ so strange a difference , and what may be the ground of it .
" Mrst , they would assert that a war in heaven being an imaginary thing , which lies out of the reach of our nature , should be contracted in two or three pages rather than lengthened out into two books : because we
are naturally impatient of removing from us the objects which are not adapted to our senses . According to that rule they would maintain , that it is an idle task to give the reader the full character of the leaders of that
war and to describe Raphael , Michael , Abdiel , Moloch , and Nisroth , as Homer paints Ajax , Diomed , and Hector . For what avails it to draw at length the picture of these beings , so utterly
strangers to the reader , that he cannot be affected any way towards them ? By the same reason , the long speeches of these imaginary warriors , either before the battle or in the middle o-f the
action , their mutual insults , seem an injudicious imitation of Homer . " The aforesaid critics would not bear with the angels plucking- up the mountains , with their woods , their waters , and their rocks , and flinging them on the heads of their enemies . Such a contrivance ( they Would say )
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Book-Worm . No . XVIIL 99
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1815, page 99, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1757/page/35/
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