O may I with myself agree,
And never covet what I fee!
Content me with an humble shade,
My p..flions tam'd, my wifhts laid;
For while our wishes wildly roll,
We banish quiet from the foul:
'Tis thus the busy beat the air,
And mifers gather wealth and care.
Now, ev'n now, my joys run high,
As on the mountain-turf I lie;
While the wanton zephyr fings,
And in the vale perfumes his wings;
While the waters murmur deep,
While the fhepherd charms his fheep;
While the birds unbounded fly,
And with music fill the sky,

Now, ev'n now, my joys run high.

Be full, ye courts! be great who will; Search for Peace with all your skill; Open wide the lofty door;

Seek her on the marble floor:

In vain ye fearch, fhe is not there;

}

}

There

There is a remarkable fprightlinefs in the movement of the metre through most parts of this poem; and, to read it with juftness and propriety, we cannot fufficiently recommend to the fcholar a fmart neatness of expreffion, at the fame time taking efpecial care to difcriminate as he goes on, with the utmost nicety andrafte.

We are now come to that part of our Mifcellany to which we particularly recommend the attention of the fcholar. The reading of Milton with propriety requires a method, we may fay, peculiar to itself. In his style of writing there is a pomp of found and energy of expreffion which, if done juftice to, demands, from the perfon who attempts to read it, a full, deep, level tone of voice, mingled with a kind of grandeur of utterance, look, and manner. An attention to these is abfolutely neceffary, in order to keep up the proper effect of that elevation and fublimity of diction, which is here carried to a greater height than in any. other English poem. This is one of the chief characteristics of Paradife Loft, although in many places where the fentiment requires it, Milton foftens into tenderness, and melts into the moft heart-rending pathetic.

With respect to thofe who have excelled in reading him, we know of no one that has in the least approximated either to Mr. Sheridan or Mr. Henderfon.The first afforded more fatisfaction to the critic, the latter to the majority of an auditory.—It is faid, that Lord Thurlow has retained great parts of this fublime poet by heart, and that he repeats them. with astonishing dignity of tone and folemnity of manner, that give confiderable pleasure to those who are fo fortunate as to hear him. From the knowledge we have of this Nobleman's delivery, we do not in the least doubt his powers as a reader, nor the fact we have just related. The methods we shall occasionally advise the adoption of, in reading the extracts we shall give of the poem before us, will, many of them, be those we saw put in practice by the two first gentlemen we mentioned. In those places which we never heard read by them, our reader muft be fatisfied with our own opinion of the way they would have probably made use of. Our first extract shall be that defcriptive of

THE ARRIVAL OF SATAN AT HELL.

BE full, deep, and, as it were, dignified in your tone, with no fudden jerks and snaps in your voice, but let moft of your words be founded in a uniform and regular

manner.

SATAN,

SATAN, with thoughts inflam'd of high'ft defign,
Puts on fwift wings, and towards the gates of hell
Explores his folitary flight;

Mark the word "folitary" expreffive of gloom and drearines the fyllables in a long, dragging tone.

Sometimes

He fcours the right-hand coaft, fometimes the left;
Now fhaves with level wing the deep, then foars
Up to the fiery concave tow'ring high.

As when far off at fea a fleet defcried

Paufe after "As."

Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds
Clofe failing from Bengala, or the Isles

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring
Their fpicy drugs; they on the trading flood
Thro' the wide Ethiopian to the Cape

Ply, ftemming nightly toward the pole: fo feem'd Paufe after "

Far off the flying fiend: at last appear

Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof,

And thrice three-fold the gates; three folds were brafs,

In all the following defcription be particularly impreffive, and mark those words that keep up the horror of the characters defcribed.

Three

Three iron, three of adamantine rock;
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire,
Yet unconfum'd. Before the gates there fat
On either fide a formidable fhape;

The one feem'd woman to the waist, and fair,

The laft line in a tender manner, which finely introduces the remaining part of the horrid picture, which must be fpoken with fuitable alteration of voice and look.

But ended foul in many a fcaly fold,
Voluminous and vaft, a serpent arm'd
With mortal fting: about her middle round
A cry of hell-hounds never ceafing bark'd
With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung
A hideous peal; yet, when they lift, would creep,
If aught difturb'd their noife, into her womb,

And kennel there; yet there still bark'd and howl'd,
Within unseen.

The words to be marked here, in order to keep up the hideousness of the figure, are "Scaly fold," a "ferpent arm'd," "mortal fting," "hell-hounds," "hideous peal," "into her womb," "kennel there," and "bark'd," and "howl'd."

Far lefs abhorr'd than these
Vex'd Scylla bathing in the fea that parts
Calabria from the hoarfe Trinacrian fhore:
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when call'd