Virgil
in this particular, but for the more just and regular Disposition of this great Work.
Those who have read
Bossu
, and many of the Criticks who have written since his Time, will not pardon me if I do not find out the particular Moral which is inculcated in
Paradise Lost
. Though I can by no means think, with the last mentioned French Author, that an Epick Writer first of all pitches upon a certain Moral, as the Ground-Work and Foundation of his Poem, and afterwards finds out a Story to it: I am, however, of opinion, that no just Heroick Poem ever was or can be made, from whence one great Moral may not be deduced. That which reigns in
Milton
, is the most universal and most useful that can be imagined; it is in short this, That Obedience to the Will of God makes Men happy, and that Disobedience makes them miserable. This is visibly the Moral of the principal Fable, which turns upon
Adam