As foft as now fevere, our temper chang'd 280 Of what we are and where, difmiffing quite 285 The 285.- as when hollow ricks re tain &c] Virgil compares the affent given by the affembly of the Gods to Juno's fpeech, En. X. 96. to the rifing wind, which our author affimilates to its decreafing murmurs, -cunétique fremebant Calicolæ affenfu vario: ceu fla mina prima, Cum deprenfa fremunt fylvis, et cæca volutant Murmura, venturos nautis prodentia ventos. Hume. The conduct of both poets is equally juft and proper. The intent of Juno's fpeech was to roufe and inflame the affembly of the Gods, and the effect of it is therefore pro Q3 perly The found of bluft'ring winds, which all night long After the tempeft: Such applause was heard As Mammon ended, and his fentence pleas'd, 290 They dreaded worse than Hell: fo much the fear Of thunder and the fword of Michaël Wrought ftill within them; and no lefs defire To found this nether empire, which might rise 295 In Devils with an eye to Claudian's council of furies; and the reader may compare Alecto's speech with Moloch's, and Megara's with Belial's or rather with Beelzebub's. 294. the fword of Michaël The words Michael, Raphael, &c. are fometimes pronounced as of two fyllables, and fometimes they are made to confist of three. When they are to be pronounced as of three fyllables, we shall take care to diftinguish them in printing thus, Michaël, Raphaël. 302. A pillar of fate;] Pillar is of one fyllable, or two short ones to be pronounced contractedly as and again in Book XII. 202, 203. The metaphor is plain and eary enough to be understood; and thus James, In emulation oppofit to Heaven. Which when Beelzebub perceiv'd, than whom, A pillar of ftate; deep on his front ingraven And princely counsel in his face yet shone, With Atlantean fhoulders fit to bear The weight of mightiest monarchies; his look 300 305 Thrones The whole picture from ver. 299. to the end of the paragraph is admirable! Richardson. 309. Or fummer's noon-tide air,] when in hot countries there is hardNoon-tide is the fame as noon-time, ly a breath of wind ftirring, and men and beafts, by reafon of the intenfe heat, retire to fhade and reft. This is the custom of Italy particularly, where our author liv'd fome time. 309. while thus he fpake.] Beelzebub, who is reckon'd the fecond in dignity that fell, and is, in the firft book, the fecond that awakens out of the trance, and confers with Satan upon the fituation of their affairs, maintains his rank in the book now before us. Q4 There Thrones and Imperial Powirs, Ofspring of Heaven, Ethereal Virtues or thefe titles now.... Must we renounce, and changing ftile be call'd 311 A growing empire; doubtless; while we dream, 315 320 Under There is a wonderful majefty de it was not to omit in the first book fcribed in his rifing up to speak. the project upon which the whole He acts as a kind of moderator poem turns: as alfo that the prince between the two oppofit parties, of the fallen Angels, was the only and propofes a third undertaking, proper perfon to give it birth, and which the whole affembly gives in that the next to him in dignity was to. The motion he makes of de- the fitteft to fecond and fupport taching one of their body in fearch it. There is befides, I think, fomeof a new world is grounded upon thing wonderfully beautiful, and as project devised by Satan, and very apt to affect the reader's imacurforily propofed by him in the gination in this ancient prophecy following lines of the firft book, or report in Heaven, concerning Space may produce new worlds, &c. the creation of Man. Nothing ver: 650. could fhow more the dignity of It is on this project that Beelzebub the fpecies, than this tradition which grounds his proposal, What if we find Some easier enterprife? &c. The reader may c obferve how juft ran of them before their existence. They are reprefented to have been the talk of Heaven, before they were created. Virgil, in compliment to the Roman commonwealth, makes Under th' inevitable curb, referviduí ho, narend 'D In highth or depth, still first and laft will reign Us here, as with his golden thofe in Heaven. Vouchfaf'd or fought; for what peace will be given makes the heroes of it appear in their ftate of præexiftence; but Milton does a far greater honor to mankind in general, as he gives us a glimpse of them even before they are in being. Addifon." 327-and with iron feepter rule Us here, as with his golden thofe in Heaven.] The iron scepter is in allufion to Pfal. II. 9. as that of gold to Efther V. 2. Hume 329. What fit we then projecting peace and war?]_Dr. Bent ley reads peace or war: Dr. Pearce fays, perhaps better peace in war: But there feems to be no neceffity for an alteration. It was a debate of peace and war. Peace as well as war was the fubject of their debate. And what feems to be ufed And here like the Latin Quid, which fignifies both what and why. 332. Vouchfaf'd] Milton. conftantly writes this verb vaut fafer and this is rather of a fofter found, but the other feems more agreeable to the etymology of the word.. 332 for what peace will be given Tous inflav'd, but cuftody fevere ? and rehat peace can we return But to our pow'r boftility and hate?] In both thefe paffages there is an unufual conftruction of the particle but; it feems to put cuftody fevere &c in the one, and hoftility and hate &c in the other on the foot of peace. There are fome very few inftances where the Latins have ufed nifi (except, or but) in a like conftruction. One is in Plautus's Me |