Nor did they not perceive the evil Plight
  In which they were, or the fierce Pains not feel,
  Yet to their Genrals Voice they soon obey’d.—­

 —­Who shall tempt with wandring Feet
  The dark unbottom’d Infinite Abyss,
  And through the palpable Obscure find out
  His uncouth way, or spread his airy Flight
  Upborn with indefatigable Wings
  Over the vast Abrupt!

  [—­So both ascend
  In the Visions of God—­ Book 2.]

Under this Head may be reckon’d the placing the Adjective after the Substantive, the Transposition of Words, the turning the Adjective into a Substantive, with several other Foreign Modes of Speech which this Poet has naturalized to give his Verse the greater Sound, and throw it out of Prose.

The third Method mentioned by Aristotle is what agrees with the Genius of the Greek Language more than with that of any other Tongue, and is therefore more used by Homer than by any other Poet.  I mean the lengthning of a Phrase by the Addition of Words, which may either be inserted or omitted, as also by the extending or contracting of particular Words by the Insertion or Omission of certain Syllables.  Milton has put in practice this Method of raising his Language, as far as the Nature of our Tongue will permit, as in the Passage above-mentioned, Eremite, [for] what is Hermit, in common Discourse.  If you observe the Measure of his Verse, he has with great Judgment suppressed a Syllable in several Words, and shortned those of two Syllables into one, by which Method, besides the above-mentioned Advantage, he has given a greater Variety to his Numbers.  But this Practice is more particularly remarkable in the Names of Persons and of Countries, as Beelzebub, Hessebon, and in many other Particulars, wherein he has either changed the Name, or made use of that which is not the most commonly known, that he might the better depart from the Language of the Vulgar.

The same Reason recommended to him several old Words, which also makes his Poem appear the more venerable, and gives it a greater Air of Antiquity.

I must likewise take notice, that there are in Milton several Words of his own coining, as Cerberean, miscreated, Hell-doom’d, Embryon Atoms, and many others.  If the Reader is offended at this Liberty in our English Poet, I would recommend him to a Discourse in Plutarch, [7] which shews us how frequently Homer has made use of the same Liberty.

Milton, by the above-mentioned Helps, and by the Choice of the noblest Words and Phrases which our Tongue would afford him, has carried our Language to a greater Height than any of the English Poets have ever done before or after him, and made the Sublimity of his Stile equal to that of his Sentiments.

I have been the more particular in these Observations on Milton’s Stile, because it is that Part of him in which he appears the most singular.  The Remarks I have here made upon the Practice of other Poets, with my Observations out of Aristotle, will perhaps alleviate the Prejudice which some have taken to his Poem upon this Account; tho after all, I must confess that I think his Stile, tho admirable in general, is in some places too much stiffened and obscured by the frequent Use of those Methods, which Aristotle has prescribed for the raising of it.