As in the land of darkness, yet in light,
To live a life half dead, a living death,
And bury'd; but, O yet more miserable!
Myfelf my fepulchre, a moving grave!
Bury'd, yet not exempt,'

By privilege of death and burial,

From worst of other evils, pains and wrongs.

All allufions to low and trivial objects, with which contempt is ufually affociated, are doubtlefs unfuitable to a species of compofition which ought to be always awful though not always magnificent, The remark therefore of the chorus on good and bad news feems to want elevation;

Manoah. A little stay will bring fome notice hither. Chor. Of good or bad fo great, of bad the fooner; For evil news rides poft, while good news baits.

But of all meanness that has least to plead which is produced by mere verbal conceits, which, depending only upon founds, lofe their existence by the change of a fyllable, Of this kind is the following dialogue:

Chor. But had we beft retire? I fee a form.
Samf. Fair days have oft contracted wind and rain.
Cher. But this another kind of tempeft brings.
Samf. Be lefs abftrufe, my riddling days are past.
Chor. Look now for no enchanting voice, nor fear
The bait of honied words; a rougher tongue
Draws hitherward, I know him by his stride,
The giant Harapha.

And

And yet more despicable are the lines in which Manoah's paternal kindness is commended by the chorus:

Fathers are wont to lay up for their fons,
Thou for thy fon are bent to lay out all ;-

Samfon's complaint of the inconveniencies of imprifonment is not wholly without verbal quaintness ;

-I, a prifoner chain'd, scarce freely draw

The air, imprifon'd also, close and damp.

From the fentiments we may properly defcend to the confideration of the language, which, in imitation of the ancients, is through the whole dialogue remarkably fimple and unadorned, feldom heightened by epithets, or varied by figures; yet fometimes metaphors find admiffion, even where their confiftency is not accurately preferved. Thus Samfon confounds loquacity with a shipwreck :

How could I once look up, or heave the head,
Who, like a foolish pilot have shipwreck'd
My veffel trufted to me from above,

Glorioufly rigg'd; and for a word, a tear,
Fool, have divulg'd the fecret gift of God
To a deceitful woman ?-

And the chorus talks of adding fuel to flame in a report:

He's gone, and who knows how he may report
Thy words, by adding fuel to the flame?

The verfification is in the dialogue much more fmooth and harmonious than in the parts allotted to the chorus, which are often fo harfh and diffonant, as fcarce to preferve, whether the lines end with

or

or without rhymes, any appearance of metrical regularity:

Or do my eyes mifreprefent? Can this be he,
That heroick, that renown'd,

Irresistible Samfon; whom unarm'd

No strength of man, or fierceft wild beast, could withstand Who tore the lion, as the lion tears the kid?

Since I have thus pointed out the faults of Milton, critical integrity requires that I fhould endeavour to difplay his excellencies, though they will not eafily be discovered in fhort quotations, because they consist in the justness of diffuse reasonings, or in the contexture and method of continued dialogues; this play having none of those descriptions, fimiles, or fplendid fentences, with which other tragedies are fo lavishly adorned.

Yet fome paffages may be felected which feem to deserve particular notice, either as containing fentiments of paffion, representations of life, precepts of conduct, or fallies of imagination. It is not eafy to give a stronger reprefentation of the wearinefs of defpondency, than in the words of Samfon to his father:

I feel my genial fpirits droop,

My hopes all flat; nature within me seems
In all her functions weary of herself;
My race of glory run, and race of shame;

And I shall shortly be with them that rest.

The reply of Samfon to the flattering Delilah affords a juft and ftriking defcription of the ftratagems and allurements of feminine hypocrify:

-These are thy wonted arts,

And arts of every woman falfe like thee,
To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray,

Then

Then as repentant to submit, befeech,

And reconcilement move with feign'd remorse,
Confefs and promise wonders in her change;
Not truly penitent, but chief to try

Her husband, how far urg'd his patience bears,
His virtue or weaknefs which way to affail:
Then with more cautious and inftructed skill
Again tranfgreffes, and again fubmits.

When Samfon has refused to make himself a fpec tacle at the feast of Dagon, he first juftifies his be haviour to the chorus, who charge him with having ferved the Philistines, by a very just distinction; and then destroys the common excufe of cowardice and fervility, which always confound temptation with compulsion:

Chor. Yet with thy ftrength thou ferv'ft the Philiftines. Samf. Not in their idol worship, but by labour Honeft and lawful to deferve my food

Of thofe who have me in their civil power.

Chor. Where the heart joins not, outward acts defile not.
Samf. Where outward force constrains, the sentence

holds,

But who constrains me to the temple of Dagon,
Not dragging? The Philistine lords command.
Commands are no conftraints. If I obey them,
I do it freely, vent'ring to displease

God for the fear of man, and man prefer,
Set God behind.

The complaint of blindness which Samfon pours out at the beginning of the tragedy is equally ad dreffed to the paffions and the fancy. The enumeration of his miferies is fucceeded by a very pleafing train of poetical images, and concluded by fuch expostulations

postulations and wishes, as reason too often fubmits to learn from despair:

O first created beam, and thou great word

Let there be light, and light was over all;

Why am I thus bereav'd thy prime decree 2

The fun to me is dark,

And filent as the moon,

When the deserts the night,

Hid in her vacant interlunar cave.
Since light so neceffary is to life,
And almoft life itfelf; if it be true,
That light is in the foul,

She all in ev'ry part; why was the fight
To fuch a tender ball as the eye confin'd,
So obvious and fo eafy to be quench'd,
And not, as feeling, through all parts diffus'd
That she may look at will thro' ev'ry pore?

Such are the faults and fuch the beauties of Samfon Agonistes, which I have shewn with no other purpose than to promote the knowledge of true criticism. The everlasting verdure of Milton's laurels has nothing to fear from the blafts of malignity; nor can my attempt produce any other effect, than to strengthen their fhoots by lopping their luxuriance.

END OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.

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