Their rifing all at once was as the found

Of thunder heard remote. Tow'ards him they bend
With awful reverence prone; and as a God

Extol him equal to the Hig'heft in Heav'n :
Nor fail'd they to express how much they prais'd,
That for the general fafety he despis'd
His own for neither do the Spirits damn'd

483.-left bad men should boaft&c.] Here Dr. Bentley afks, whether

the Devils retain fome of their vir

tue, on purpose left bad men should boaft &c. This being an abfurdity, he reads leaft fhould bad men boast &c. But there is no occafion for the alteration. To take the force of the word left, we muft fuppofe the author to have left his reader to fupply fome fuch expreffion as this, This remark (of the Devils not lofing all their virtue) I make, left bad men fhould boat &c. Dr. Bentley knows that n in Greek, and ne in Latin are often thus ufed. Milton here seems to have had in view Eph. II. 8, 9. By grace ye are faved through faith-not of works, left any man should boast. Not, that they were faved not of works, on purpose left any man should boaft; but St. Paul puts them in mind of

481

Lofe

that, and made that remark to pre-
vent their boasting. Pearce.
As our author has drawn Satan
with fome remains of the beauty,
fo he reprefents him likewife with
fome of the other perfections of
an Arch-Angel; and herein he has
follow'd the rule of Ariftotle in his
Poetics, chap. 15. that the man-
ners fhould be as good as the na-
ture of the fubject would poffibly
admit. A Devil all made up of
wickednefs would be too fhocking
to any reader or writer.
489.

while the north-wind

fleeps,] So Homer expreffes. it, Iliad. V. 524.

αποφρ' ένδησε μενα. Βορέαο,

that wind generally clearing the fky, and difperfing the clouds. Every body must be wonderfully delighted with this fimilitude. The images are not more pleafing in nature, than they are refreshing to the reader after his attention to the foregoing debate. We have a fimile of the fame kind in Homer, but apply'd upon a very different occafion, Iliad. XVI. 297.

Ως

Lose all their virtue; left bad men should boast
Their fpecious deeds on earth, which glory' excites,
Or close ambition varnish'd o'er with zeal.
485
Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
Ended rejoicing in their matchlefs chief:
As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds
Afcending, while the north-wind fleeps, o'er-fpread
Heav'n's

Ds dir' ap' úfnans xopups of Homer fays only that he remov'd

πρωινές ακροι

the thick clouds from the mounthe note of Pope's Homer, which tain top, and fo it is explained in fhows that the translation and notes were not always made by the fame perfon. We have a fimile too,

Και ναπαι, ερανόθεν δ' αρ' ὑπερράγη much of the fame nature in a Son

ασπετα αιθηρ.

So when thick clouds inwrap the

mountain's head,
O'er Heav'n's expanse like one
black cieling spread;
Sudden, the Thund'rer with a
flashing ray,

Burfts through the darkness, and
lets down the day:
The hills fhine out, the rocks in
profpect rife,

And ftreams, and vales, and fo-
refts ftrike the eyes,
The smiling fcene wide opens to
the fight,

And all th' unmeafur'd æther

flames with light.

Mr. Pope tranflates it as if Jupiter lighten'd, which makes it a horrid rather than a pleafing fcene; but

net of Spencer, as Mr. Thyer hath obferv'd. Sonnet 40.

Mark when the fmiles with amiable chear,

And tell me whereto can you liken it:

When on each eye-lid sweetly do

490

Heav'n's chearful face, the louring element
Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip fnow, or shower;
If chance the radiant fun with farewel fweet
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Atteft their joy, that hill and valley rings.

495

O fhame to men! Devil with Devil damn'd

Firm concord holds, men only disagree

Of creatures rational, though under hope

Of heav'nly grace and God proclaming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife

Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy:
As if (which might induce us to accord)

Come forth afresh out of their late
difmay,
And to the light lift up their
drooping head.
my ftorm beaten heart likewife
is cheared

500

Man

494. bleating herds] Dr. Bentley reads flocks, and fays that herd is a word proper to cattel, that do not bleat. But herd is originally the common name for a number of any fort of cattle: Hence Shepherd, With that fun-fhine, when cloudy that is Sheepherdsman. See VII. 462.

So

looks are cleared.

See alfo a fimile of the fame kind in Boethius De Conf. L. 1. and in Dante's Inferno. C. 24.

489. -o'erfpread Heav'n's chearful face,] Spenfer, Faery Queen, B. 2. Cant. 12. St. 34. And Heaven's chearful face enveloped. Thyer.

Pearce.

-bleating herds is much fuch an expreffion as Spenfer's fleecy cattel in Colin Clout's come home again.

496. O fhame to men! &c.] This tinent and natural, when one conreflection will appear the more perfiders the contentious age, in which Milton liv'd and wrote. Thyer.

Man had not hellish foes ehow befides,

That day and night for his deftruction wait.
The Stygian council thus diffolv'd; and forth
In order came the grand infernal peers:
Midst came their mighty paramount, and seem'd
Alone th' antagonist of Heav'n, nor less

Than Hell's dread

505

emperor with pomp fupreme, 510

And God-like imitated ftate; him round
A globe of fiery Seraphim inclos'd
With bright imblazonry, and horrent arms.
Then of their feffion ended they bid cry

With trumpets regal found the great refult:
Tow'ards the four winds four speedy Cherubim
Put to their mouths the founding alchemy

512. A globe of fiery Seraphim] A globe fignifies here a battalion in circle furrounding him, as Virgil fays, Æn. X. 373

qua globus ille virûm denfiffimus urget.

513. -horrent arms.] Horrent includes the idea both of terrible and prickly, fet up like the briftles of a wild boar.

Horrentia Martis arma.

Virg. Æn. I. denfos acie atque horrentibus Ân. X. 178. 57. the founding alchemy]

haftis.

515

By

Dr. Bentley reads orichalc: but fince
he allows that gold and filver coin,
as well as brass and pewter, are al-
chemy, being mix'd metals, for that
reafon alchemy will do here; espe-
cially being join'd to the epithet
founding, which determines it to
mean a trumpet, made perhaps of
the mix'd metals of brass, filver,
&c.
Pearce.

Alchemy, the name of that art
which is the fublimer part of che-
mistry, the tranfmutation of me-
tals. Milton names no particular
metal, but leaves the imagination
at large, any metal pofible to be
produced by that myflerious art;

By heralds voice explain'd; the hollow' abyss
Heard far and wide, and all the host of Hell

With deafning fhout return'd them loud acclame. 520
Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat

rais'd

By false presumptuous hope, the ranged Powers
Disband, and wand'ring, each his several way
Purfues, as inclination or fad choice

Leads him perplex'd, where he may likelieft find 525
Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain

527-till his great chief return.] So it is in the first edition: but in the fecond and fome others it is, till this great chief return; which is manifeftly an error of the prefs.

528. Part on the plain, &c.] The diverfions of the fallen Angels, with the particular account of their place of habitation, are defcribed with great pregnancy of thought and copioufnefs of invention. The diverfions are every way fuitable to beings, who had nothing left them but ftrength and knowledge mifapplied. Such are their contentions at the race and in feats of

The

arms, with their entertainments in the following lines,

Others with vaft Typhoean rage more fell &c.

Their mufic is employ'd in celebrating their own criminal exploits, and their difcourfe in founding the unfathomable depths of fate, freewill, and fore-knowledge. Addison.

Part contend on the plain in running, or in the air in flying, as at the famous Olympian or Pythian games in Greece, while another part contend on horfeback or in chariot races, Part curb their fiery steeds, &c. These warlike diverfions of the fall'n Angels during the absence of Satan feem to be copied from the military exercifes of the Myrmidons during the abfence of their chief from the war, Homer's Iliad. II. 774. c. only

the