Heav'n's awful monarch? wherefore but in hope 960 But mark what I arreed thee now, Avant; 965 So threaten'd he; but Satan to no threats Gave heed, but waxing more in rage reply'd. Then when I am thy captive talk of chains, 970 Proud limitary Cherub, but ere then Far heavier load thyself expect to feel From my prevailing arm, though Heaven's king Ride on thy wings, and thou with thy compeers, Us'd to the yoke, draw'ft his triumphant wheels 975 In 971. Proud limitary Cherub,] Thou proud prescribing Angel that prefumeft to limit me, and appoint my prifon, according to Mr. Hume. Or rather limitary, fet to guard the bounds; a taunt infulting the good Angel as one employ'd on a little mean office, according to Mr. Richardfon. For limitary (as Dr. Heylin remarks) is from limitaneus. Milites limitanei are foldiers in garrifon upon the frontiers. So Dux limitaneus. Digeft. And as Mr. Thyer farther obferves, the word is intended as a fcornful fneer upon what Gabriel had juft faid, -if from this hour Within thefe hallow'd limits thou appear. 974 Ride on thy wings, &c.] This feems to allude to Ezekiel's vifion, where four Cherubims are appointed to the four wheels: Ana the In progress through the road of Heav'n star-pav'd. the Cherubims did lift up their wings, and the wheels befides them, and the glory of the God of Ifrael was over them above, See Chap. I. and X. and XI. 22. 977. While thus be Spake, &c.] The conference between Gabriel and Satan abounds with fentiments proper for the occafion, and fuitable to the perfons of the two fpeakers. Satan clothing himself with terror, when he prepares for the combat, is truly fublime, and at leaft equal to Homer's defcription of Difcord celebrated by Longinus, or to that of Fame in Virgil, who are both represented with their feet ftanding upon the earth, and their heads reaching above the clouds. Addifon. 980. With ported Spears,] With their spears born pointed towards him. A military term. Hume. 980.-as thick as when a field &c.] It is familiar with the poets to compare an army with their fpears and fwords to a field of ftanding corn. Homer has a fimile much of the fame nature, comparing the mo 980 Her tions of the army after Agamemnon's fpeech to the waving of the ears of corn. Iliad. II. 147. Ως δ' ότε κινησει Ζέφυρος βαθυ ληίον ελθών Λάβρος επαιγίζων, επι τ' ημύει απα χνεσσιν Ως των πασ' αγορη κιν.θη. And as on corn when western gufts defcend, Before the blaft the lofty harvests bend: Thus o'er the field the moving hoft appears, With nodding plumes and groves of waving fpears. Pope. 986. dilated food, &c.] Our author is indebted, I fancy, for this nervous expreflion to the following defcription of Taffo's Arwith Tancred, Gier. Lib. Cant. 19. gantes addreffing himself to fight St. 12. Ma diftefo e eretto il fero Argante. Diftefo in Italian is exactly the fame with dilated in English, and expreffes very strongly the attitude of an Her bearded grove of ears, which way the wind Sways them; the careful plowman doubting stands, Left on the threshing floor his hopeful fheaves Prove chaff. On t'other fide Satan alarm'd Collecting all his might dilated stood, 985 His Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, aut ipfe corufcis Cum fremit ilicibus quantus gaudetque nivali Vertice fe attollens pater Appenninus ad auras. Like Eryx, or like Athos great he fhows, Or father Appennine, when white with fnows, His head divine obfcure in clouds he hides And shakes the founding foreft on his fides. Dryden. Mr. Hume fays that the Peak of Teneriff is 15 miles high, and Mr. Richardfon afferts that it is 45 miles perpendicular, if that be not a falfe print 45 for 15; but the utmoft that we can fuppofe is that it is 15 miles from the very firft afcent of the hill till you come thro' the various turnings and windings to the top of all; for I have been affur'd by a gentleman who meafur'd it, that the perpendicular highth of it is no more than one mile and three quarters. 988. His His ftature reach'd the fky, and on his crest Şat horror plum'd; nor wanted in his grafp What feem'd both fpear and fhield: now dreadful deeds Might have enfu'd, nor only Paradife In this commotion, but the ftarry cope 990 Of 989. Sat horror plum'd;] Horror is perfonify'd, and is made the plume of his helmet; and how much nobler an idea is this than the horfes tails and fphinxes and dragons and other terrible animals on the helmets of the ancient heroes, or even than the Chimera vomiting flames on the creft of Turnus, En. VII. 785. Suftinet Ætnæos efflantem faucibus ignes. A triple pile of plumes his creft adorn'd, On which with belching flames Chimara burn'd! Dryden, 989.-nor wanted in his grafp &c. This is faid to fignify that he wanted not arms, tho' he was but just raifed out of the form of a toad. He was reprefented as in arms, II. 812, when he was upon the point of engaging with Death; and we must fuppofe that his power, as an Angel, was such, that he could affume them upon occafion whenever he pleased. 991. nor only Paradife &c.] This reprefentation of what mult have happen'd if Gabriel and Satan had encounter'd, is imagin'd in these few lines with a nobleness fuitable to the occafion, and is an improvement upon a thought in Homer, where he reprefents the terrors which must have attended the conflict of two fuch powers as Cai triplici crinita jubâ galea alta Jupiter and Neptune. Iliad XV. Chimaram 224. -Нада Of Heav'n perhaps, or all the elements At least had gone to wrack, disturb'd and torn With violence of this conflict, had not foon Th' Eternal to prevent such horrid fray Hung forth in Heav'n his golden scales, yet seen Betwixt Aftrea and the Scorpion fign, 995 Wherein μαλα γαρ με μαχης επύθοντο και άλλοι. Οιπερ νέρτεροι εισι θεοι, Κρονον αμΦις εαυτές. And all the Gods that round old Saturn dwell, Had heard the thunders to the deeps of Hell. Pope. 996. Th' Eternal to prevent fuch barrid fray] The breaking off the combat between Gabriel and Satan by the hanging out of the golden fcales in Heaven, is a refinement upon Homer's thought, who tells us that before the battel between Hector and Achilles, Jupiter weighed the event of it in a pair of fcales. The reader may fee the whole paffage in the 22d Iliad. Virgil before the laft decifive combat defcribes Jupiter in the fame manner, as weighing the fates of Turnus and Eneas. Milton, tho' he fetch'd this beautiful circumftance from the Iliad and Æneid, does not only infert it as a poetical embellishment, like the authors above mention'd; but makes an artful afe of it for the proper car rying on of his fable, and for the breaking off the combat between. the two warriors who were upon the point of engaging. To this we may further add, that Milton is the more juftify'd in this passage, as we find the fame noble allegory in holy Writ, where a wicked prince, fome few hours before he was affaulted and flain, is faid to have been weighed in the fcales, and to have been found wanting. 997. Addifon. Ta his golden fcales,] So they are in Homer xpusa Xala, both where he weighs the deftinies of the Greeks and Trojans in book the 8th, and the fates of Hector and Achilles in book the 2zd. And this figure of weighing the deftinies of men appear'd fo beautiful to fucceeding poets, that Æfchylus (as we are inform'd by Plutarch in his treatife of Hear ing the poets) writ a tragedy upon this foundation, which he entitled uxoria or the weighing of fouls. 998. Betwixt Aftrea and the Scor pien fign,] Libra or the scales Za |