From what has been here observed it appears, that Digressions are by no means to be allowed of in an Epic Poem.  If the Poet, even in the ordinary course of his Narration, should speak as little as possible, he should certainly never let his Narration sleep for the sake of any Reflections of his own.  I have often observed, with a secret Admiration, that the longest Reflection in the AEneid is in that Passage of the Tenth Book, where Turnus is represented as dressing himself in the Spoils of Pallas, whom he had slain.  Virgil here lets his Fable stand still for the-sake of the following Remark.  How is the Mind of Man ignorant of Futurity, and unable to bear prosperous Fortune with Moderation?  The Time will come when Turnus shall wish that he had left the Body of Pallas untouched, and curse the Day on which he dressed himself in these Spoils.  As the great Event of the AEneid, and the Death of Turnus, whom AEneas slew because he saw him adorned with the Spoils of Pallas, turns upon this Incident, Virgil went out of his way to make this Reflection upon it, without which so small a Circumstance might possibly have slipped out of his Readers Memory.  Lucan, who was an Injudicious Poet, lets drop his Story very frequently for the sake of his unnecessary Digressions, or his Diverticula, as Scaliger calls them. [11] If he gives us an Account of the Prodigies which preceded the Civil War, he declaims upon the Occasion, and shews how much happier it would be for Man, if he did not feel his Evil Fortune before it comes to pass; and suffer not only by its real Weight, but by the Apprehension of it.  Milton’s Complaint [for [12]] his Blindness, his Panegyrick on Marriage, his Reflections on Adam and Eves going naked, of the Angels eating, and several other Passages in his Poem, are liable to the same Exception, tho I must confess there is so great a Beauty in these very Digressions, that I would not wish them out of his Poem.

I have, in a former Paper, spoken of the Characters of Milton’s Paradise Lost, and declared my Opinion, as to the Allegorical Persons who are introduced in it.

If we look into the Sentiments, I think they are sometimes defective under the following Heads:  First, as there are several of them too much pointed, and some that degenerate even into Punns.  Of this last kind I am afraid is that in the First Book, where speaking of the Pigmies, he calls them,

 —­The small Infantry
  Warrdon by Cranes—­

Another Blemish [that [13]] appears in some of his Thoughts, is his frequent Allusion to Heathen Fables, which are not certainly of a Piece with the Divine Subject, of which he treats.  I do not find fault with these Allusions, where the Poet himself represents them as fabulous, as he does in some Places, but where he mentions them as Truths and Matters of Fact.  The Limits of my Paper will not give me leave to be particular in Instances of this kind; the Reader will easily remark them in his Perusal of the Poem.