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Wisdom to folly', as nourishment to wind.

Know then, that after Lucifer from Heaven
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
Of Angels, than that star the stars among)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son return'd
Victorious with his Saints, th' omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld

Their multitude, and to his Son thus fpake.

130

135

At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought

All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

This inacceffible high ftrength, the feat
Of deity fupreme, us difpoffefs'd,

He trufted to have feis'd, and into fraud

been employ'd here, when he is fpeaking of things not reveal'd, fupprefs'd in night, to none communicable in Earth or Heaven, neither to Men nor Angels, as it is faid of the day of judgment, Mat. XXIV. 36. Of that day and bour knoweth no Man, no not the Angels of Heaven, but my Father only.

135. Into his place,] As the traitor Judas is faid likewife to go to his own place, Acts I. 25.

139. At leaft] I don't like taking liberties with the original text, or elfe I fhould choose to read At laft. - Thyer.

VOL. II.

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140

Drew

143. Drew many,] Fraud in common acceptation means no more than deceit, but often fignifies misfortune. Milton, who fo conftantly makes Latin or Greek of English, does it here, and extends the idea to the mifery, the punishment confequent upon the deceit, as well as the deceit itself. So that Satan is faid here, not only to have drawn many into fraud, not only that he

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Within the vifible diurnal fphere;

Standing on earth, not rapt above the pole,
More fafe I fing with mortal voice, unchang'd
To hoarfe or mute, though fall'n on evil days,
On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compafs'd round,
And folitude; yet not alone, while thou
Vifit'ft my flumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the east: ftill govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find, though few.

25

30

But

and there will be no need to read with the Doctor, To hoarfe or low.

bound. Bound here feems to be a fuppofes; and then all is good fenfe, participle as well as unfung. Half yet remains unfung; but this other half is not rapt fo much into the invifible world as the former, it is confin'd in narrower compafs, and bound within the vifible fphere of day.

24. More fafe I fing with mortal

voice, unchang'd

To hoarfe or mute,] Dr. Bentley reads with lofty voice. Why mortal voice? fays the Doctor. I anfwer, because Milton had faid in ver. 2. that he had follow'd Urania's voice divine. Again (fays the Doctor) if his voice had grown hoarfe, would it not have been ftill mortal? and what is a voice changed to mute? Both these questions are fatisfy'd by putting only a comma, as in the first editions, (not a colon, as the Doftor has done) after mute. The words unchang'd to boarfe or mute refer to I, and not to voice, as he

Pearce. 25.though fall'n on evil days,] The repetition and turn of the words very beautiful,

is

though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues; &c.

A lively picture this in a few lines of the poet's wretched condition. In darkness, though is still understood; he was not become hoarse or mute though in darkness, though he was blind, and with dangers compass'd round, and folitude, obnoxious to the government, and having a world of enemies among the royal party, and therefore oblig'd to live very much in privacy and alone. And what ftrength of mind was it, that could not only fupport him under the weight of thefe misfortunes, but ena

ble

But drive far off the barbarous diffonance
Of Bacchus and his revelers, the race,

Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard

In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the favage clamor drown'd
Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend
Her fon. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art heav'nly, the an empty dream.
Say Goddess, what enfued when Raphaël,
The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarn'd

ble him to foar to fuch highths, as no human genius ever reached before? 31.- and fit audience find, though few. He had Horace in

mind, Sat. I. X. 73.

-neque te ut miretur turba, labores, Contentus paucis lectoribus.

33. Of Bacchus and his revelers,] It is not improbable that the poet intended this as an oblique fatir upon the diffoluteness of Charles the fecond and his court; from whom he feems to apprehend the fate of Orpheus, a famous poet of Thrace, who tho' he is faid to have charm'd woods and rocks with his divine fongs, yet was torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women on Rhodope a mountain of Thrace, nor could the Mufe Calliope his mother defend him. So fail not thou, who thee im plores; nor was his wifh ineffectual, for the government fuffer'd him to live and die unmolested.

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35

40

Adam

40.what enfued when Raphaël,

&c.] Longinus has obferved, that there may be a loftinefs in fentiments, where there is no paffion, and brings inftances out of ancient The pathetic, as that great critic authors to fupport this his opinion.

obferves, may animate and inflame the fublime, but is not effential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that those who excel moft in ftirring up the paffions, very often want the talent of writing in the great and fublime manner, and fo on the contrary. Milton has shown himself a master in both these ways of writing. The feventh book, which we are now entring upon, is an instance of that fublime, which is not mixed and worked up with paffion. The author appears in a kind of compofed and fedate majefty; and tho' the fentiments do not give fo great an emotion, as those in the former book, they abound

Adam by dire example to beware

Apoftafy, by what befel in Heaven

To those apoftates, left the like befall
In Paradife to Adam or his race,

Charg'd not to touch the interdicted tree,

If they transgress, and flight that fole command,
So eafily obey'd amid the choice

Of all taftes elfe to please their appetite,

45

Though wand'ring. He with his conforted Eve 50
The story heard attentive, and was fill'd
With admiration and deep mufe, to hear

Of things fo high and ftrange, things to their thought
So unimaginable as hate in Heaven,

with as magnificent ideas. The fixth book, like a troubled ocean, reprefents greatness in confufion; the feventh affects the imagination like the ocean in a calm, and fills the mind of the reader, without producing in it any thing like tumult or agitation. The critic above mention'd, among the rules which he lays down for fucceeding in the fublime way of writing, propofes to his reader, that he fhould imitate the moft celebrated authors who have gone before him, and been engaged in works of the fame nature; as in particular, that if he writes on a poetical fubject, he fhould confider how Homer would have spoken on fuch an occafion. By this means one great genius often catches the

And

flame from another, and writes in his fpirit, without copying fervily after him. There are a thoufand thining paffages in Virgil, which have been lighted up by Homer. Milton, tho' his own natural strength of genius was capable of furnishing out a perfect work, has doubtless very much raised and ennobled his conceptions, by fuch an imitation as that which Longinus has recommended. In this book, which gives us an account of the fix days works, the poet received very few affistances from Heathen writers, who were strangers to the wonders of creation. But as there are many glorious ftrokes of poetry upon this fubject in holy Writ, the author has numberlefs allufions to them through the

whole

And war fo near the peace of God in blifs
With fuch confufion: but the evil foon
Driv'n back redounded as a flood on thofe
From whom it sprung, impoffible to mix
With blessedness. Whence Adam foon repeal'd
The doubts that in his heart arofe: and now
Led on, yet finless, with defire to know
What nearer might concern him, how this world
Of Heav'n and Earth confpicuous first began,
When, and whereof created, for what cause,
What within Eden or without was done

Before his memory, as one whose drouth
Yet scarce allay'd ftill eyes the current ftream,

whole courfe of this book. The
great critic I have before mention'd,
though an Heathen, has taken no-
tice of the fublime manner in which
the Lawgiver of the Jews has de-
scribed the creation in the firft chap-
ter of Genesis; and there are many
other paffages in Scripture which
rife up to the fame majefty, where
this fubject is touched upon. Milton
has fhown his judgment very re-
markably, in making ufe of fuch of
these as were proper for his poem,
and in duly qualifying thofe high
frains of eastern poetry, which were
fuited to readers, whofe imagina-
tions were fet to a higher pitch than
those of colder climates. Addifon.

47. If they tranfgrefs, &c.] We fhould obferve the connexion; Left

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60

65

Whose

the like befall to Adam or his race, if they tranfgrefs, &c.

50.- He with his conforted Eve] Conforted from Confort, Cum conforte tori, as Ovid says, Met. I. 319.

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59.- Whence Adam foon repeal'd The doubts that in his heart arofe:] Dr. Bentley would read difpell'd: but if an alteration were neceffary, I should rather read repell'd, as in ver. 610. we have their counfels vain Thou haft repell d. But in the fame fenfe as a law is faid to be repeal'd, when an end is put to all the force and effect of it; fo, when doubts are at an end, they may be faid to be repeal'd. Pearce. 69. Pro

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