Addison, with a genius of his own helped to free movement by the sympathies of Steele, did break through the cobwebs of the critics; but he carried off a little of their web upon his wings. We see it when in the
Spectator
he meets the prejudices of an 'understanding age,' and partly satisfies his own, by finding reason for his admiration of
Chevy Chase
and the
Babes in the Wood
, in their great similarity to works of Virgil. We see it also in some of the criticisms which accompany his admirable working out of the resolve to justify his true natural admiration of the poetry of Milton, by showing that
Paradise Lost
was planned after the manner of the ancients, and supreme even in its obedience to the laws of Aristotle. In his
Spectator