For who can think fubmiffion War then, War
Open or understood must be resolv’d.

He fpake: and to confirm his words, out-flew Millions of flaming fwords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty Cherubim; the fudden blaze 665

Far round illumin'd Hell; highly they rag'd Against the High'est, and fierce with grafped arms Clash'd on their founding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance tow'ard the vault of Heav'n.

There stood a hill not far, whofe grisly top Belch'd fire and rolling fmoke; the reft entire Shone with a gloffy fcurf, undoubted fign That in his womb was hid metallic ore,

fpoils of many, and hence furpaffes any one. Letter to Mr. Weft on Spenfer's Faery Queen. p. 23.

669. Hurling defiance toward the

vault of Heav'n.] Dr. Bentley reads the walls of Heaven. Heaven the habitation of God and Angels being never defcribed as vaulted; and Dr. Pearce approves the emendation; and without doubt the wall or walls of Heaven is a common expreffion with our author. But may we not by the vault of Heaven understand cali convexa, our vifible Heaven, which is often defcribed as vaulted, the fphere of the fixed ftars above which God and Angels inhabit? Hurling defiance towards the visible Heaven is in effect hurl

670

The

ing defiance toward the invisible Heaven, the feat of God and Angels.

671. Pelch'd] So Virgil, Æn. III. 576 fays eructans of Etna, from which, or from mount Vefuvius, or the like, our poet took the idea of this mountain.

673. That in his womb] A very great man was obferving one day a little inaccuracy of expreffion in the poet's making this mountain a perfon and a male perfon, and at the fame time attributing a womb to it : And perhaps it would have been better if he had written its womb; but womb is used in as large a fenfe as the Latin uterus, which Virgil applies to a stag, Æn. VII. 490.

F 4

The work of fulphur. Thither wing'd with speed
A numerous brigad haften'd: as when bands 675
Of pioneers with fpade and pickax arm'd

Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
Or caft a rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the leaft erected Spi'rit that fell

From Heav'n, for e'en in Heav'n his looks and thoughts

Were always downward bent, admiring more 681 The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold, Than ought divine or holy elfe enjoy'd

In

Ille manum patiens, menfæque af- Sulphur. And fo Johnson in the

fuetus herili,

Alchemift, A&t. 2. Sc. 3.

It turns to fulphur, or to quickfilver,

Who are the parents of all other metals.

678. Mammon] This name is Syriac, and fignifies riches. Ye cannot ferve God and Mammon, fays our Saviour, Mat. VI. 24. and bids us make to ourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteoufnefs, Luke XVI. '9. and ver. 11. If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon, who will commit to your trust the true? Some look upon Mammon as the God of riches, and Mammon is accordingly made a perfon by our poet, and was fo by Spenfer before him, whofe defcription of Mammon and his cave our poet feems to have had his eye upon in several places.

682. The

In vifion beatific; by him first

685

Men alfo, and by his fuggeftion taught,

Ranfack'd the center, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth

For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Open'd into the hill a fpacious wound,

And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690
That riches grow in Hell;

Deserve the precious bane,

that foil may best

And here let thofe

Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,

682. The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold,] So Homer fpeaks of the pavement of Heaven, as if it was of gold, xevo daTOW, Iliad. IV. 2. And fo the heavenly Jerufalem is defcribed by St. John, Rev. XXI. 21. and the freet of the city is pure gold

-

684.
by him firft
Men alfo, and by his Suggestion

taught,] Dr. Bentley fays, the poet affigns as two cauíes him and bis fuggeftion, which are one and the fame thing. This obferyation has the appearance of accuracy. But Milton is exact, and alludes in a beautiful manner to a fuperftitious opinion, generally believed amongst the miners: That there are a fort of Devils which converfe much in minerals, where they are frequently feen to bufy and employ themfelves in all the opeFations of the workmen; they will

74

Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, 695
And strength and art are eafily out-done
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with inceffant toil
And hands innumerable fcarce perform.
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepar'd,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluc'd from the lake, a fecond multitude
With wond'rous art founded the maffy ore,
Severing each kind, and fcumm'd the bullion drofs:

700

A

allude particularly to the famous Pyramids of Egypt, which were near Memphis.

702.

-a fecond multitude With wondrous art founded the mally ore,] The first band dug the metal out of the mountain,

Barbara Pyramidum fileat mira- a fecond multitude on the plain hard

cula Memphis.

Mart.

by founded or melted it; for founded it thould be read as in the first edition, and not found out as it is in the fubfequent ones; founded from fundere, to melt, to cast metal.

704.

and feumm'd the bullion bullion drofs is a strange blunder to drofs:] Dr. Bentley fays that país thro' all editions: He fuppofes that the author gave it, and believe that the common reading Jcumm'd from bullion drofs. But I may be defended. The word bullion does not fignify purify'd ore, as the Doctor fays; but ore boiled or boiling; and when the drofs is taken off, then it is purify'd ore. Agreeably to this Milton in his tract called Of the Reformation of England, fay -to extract heaps

of

A third as foon had form'd within the ground 705
A various mould, and from the boiling cells
By ftrange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook,
As in an organ from one blast of wind

To many a row of pipes the found-board breathes.
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge

Rofe like an exhalation, with the found
Of dulcet fymphonies and voices fweet,
Built like a temple, where pilafters round
Were fet, and Doric pillars overlaid

of gold and filver out of the droff bullion of the people's fins. And Milton makes bullion an adjective here, tho' commonly it is a fubftantive; just as in V. 140. we have acean brim, and in III. 284. virgin feed. And fo bullion dros may fignify the drofs that came from the metal, as Spenfer expreffes it, or the drofs that swam on the furface of the boiling ore. The fenfe of the paffage is this; They founded or melted the ore that was in the mafs, by feparating or fevering each kind, that is, the fulphur, earth, &c. from the metal; and after that, they cumm'd the drofs that floted on the top of the boiling ore. Pearce. Bullion drofs, as one would fay golddrofs or filver-drofs, the drofs which arofe from the melted metal in refining it. Richardfon.

708. As in an organ &c.] This fimile is as exact, as it is new.

710

With

And we may obferve, that our au-
thor frequently fetches his images
from mufic more than any other
English poet, as he was very fond
of it, and was himself a performer
and other inftru-
upon the organ
ments.

711. Rofe like an exhalation,] The fudden rifing of Pandemonium is fuppofed, and with great probability, to be a hint taken from fome of the moving fcenes and machines invented for the ftage by the famous Inigo Jones.

712. Of dulcet fymphonies] This word is ufed likewife by Shakefpear, Midfummer Night's Dream, A& II.

Uttering fuch dulcet and harmo

nious breath.