The Vastness of His Invention: John Milton’s Paradise Lost

I cannot but observe to you, that the Author of Paradise Lost is perhaps the greatest Poet of this age; and if we compare him with the Ancients, we shall find him equal in the noblest parts of their design. His subject is not that of an Heroick Poem properly so call’d; but it is in it self more great and more sublime than any which the Ancients have chosen. He has not only excell’d them in the vastness of his invention, but in the conduct of his fable; in the dignity of his sentiments; and in the majesty of his style. If the Ancients have given us the rules of this art, it is he who has best observ’d them; and though he may seem sometimes to have neglected them, it is because he knew them so well that he could venture to depart from them.

There are indeed some things in him which are liable to exception: but they are such as no man can reasonably object against him; for he has chosen a subject where the characters are above human nature; and therefore the faults of his Angels and of his Devils are not to be measured by the standard of morality which is applicable to men. If he has sometimes descended to little things, it is because he was not content to be always upon the wing; and if he has sometimes soar’d too high, it is because he had a mind to show that he could do it.

In short, I must confess that I admire him above all the Poets of this age; and I think it no disparagement to the Ancients themselves to say, that he has equall’d them in their own way, and in some things exceeded them.

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From “The Author’s Apology for Heroique Poetry,” Preface to The Conquest of Granada, London, 1672.