Let the Reader compare this with the following Passage in Milton, which begins with Adams Speech to Eve.
For never did thy Beauty, since the Day
I saw thee first and wedded thee, adorn’d
With all Perfections, so enflame my Sense
With ardor to enjoy thee, fairer now
Than ever, Bounty of this virtuous Tree.
So said he, and forbore not Glance or
Toy
Of amorous Intent, well understood
Of Eve, whose Eye darted contagious Fire.
Her hand he seiz’d, and to a shady
Bank
Thick over-head with verdant Roof embower’d,
He led her nothing loth: Flowrs were
the Couch,
Pansies, and Violets, and Asphodel,
And Hyacinth, Earths freshest softest
Lap.
There they their fill of Love, and Loves
disport,
Took largely, of their mutual Guilt the
Seal,
The Solace of their Sin, till dewy Sleep
Oppress’d them—
As no Poet seems ever to have studied Homer more, or to have more resembled him in the Greatness of Genius than Milton, I think I should have given but a very imperfect Account of his Beauties, if I had not observed the most remarkable Passages which look like Parallels in these two great Authors. I might, in the course of these criticisms, have taken notice of many particular Lines and Expressions which are translated from the Greek Poet; but as I thought this would have appeared too minute and over-curious, I have purposely omitted them. The greater Incidents, however, are not only set off by being shewn in the same Light with several of the same nature in Homer, but by that means may be also guarded against the Cavils of the Tasteless or Ignorant.
[Footnote 1: In the first book of his Roman Antiquities.]
[Footnote 2: Dionysius says that the prophecy was either, as some write, given at Dodous, or, as others say, by a Sybil, and the exclamation was by one of the sons of AEneas, as it is related; or he was some other of his comrades.]
[Footnote 3: [run]]
[Footnote 4: [arises]]
[Footnote 5: [that]]
[Footnote 6: [ever had]]
* * * * *
No. 352. Monday, April 14, 1712. Steele.
Si ad honestatem nati sumus, ea aut sola
expetenda est, aut certe
omni pondere gravior est habenda quam
reliqua omnia.
Tull.
Will. Honeycomb was complaining to me yesterday, that the Conversation of the Town is so altered of late Years, that a fine Gentleman is at a loss for Matter to start Discourse, as well as unable to fall in with the Talk he generally meets with. WILL. takes notice, that there is now an Evil under the Sun which he supposes to be entirely new, because not mentioned by any Satyrist or Moralist in any Age: Men, said he, grow Knaves sooner than they ever did since the Creation of the World before. If you read the Tragedies of the last Age, you find the artful