scribes him clothed with majesty and terror, taking vengeance of his enemies. Before he represents him speaking, he makes divine compassion, love without end, and grace without measure, visibly to appear in his face:" ver. 140, and carrying on the same amiable picture, makes him end it with a countenance "breathing immortal love to mortal men. No art or words could lift the imagination to a more exalted idea of a good and benevolent being. 22. 287. As in him perish all men, &c.] As in 1 Cor. xv. 299. Giving to death, and dying to redeem,] The love of the Father in giving the Son to death, and the love of the Son in submitting to it and dying to redeem mankind. Mr. Warburton thus explains it. "Milton's system of divinity taught," says he, "not only that Man was redeemed, but likewise that a real price was paid for his redemption; dying to redeem therefore signifying only redemption in a vague un certain sense, but imperfectly represents his system; so imperfectly that it may as well be called the Socinian; the price paid (which implies a proper redemption) is wanting. But to pay a price implying a voluntary act, the poet therefore well expresses it by giving to death, that is giving himself to death; so that the sense of the line fully expresses Milton's notion, "Heavenly love gave a price for the redemption of mankind, and by virtue of that price really redeemed them." 306. Equal to God, and equally enjoying God-like fruition; } This deserves notice as an instance of Milton's orthodoxy with relation to the divinity of God the I give thee;] Mat. xxviii. 18. 321. &c.] See Philip. ii. 10. ill knees to thee shall bow, 334. The world shall burn, &c.] Borrowed from 2 Pet iii. 12, 13. 337. See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds,] Toto surget, gens aurea mundo. Virg. Ecl. iv. 9. 341. God shall be all in all.] According to 1 Cor. xv. 28. 341. Eut all ye Gods, Alore bim,] From Psal, xcvii. 7. "Worship him, all ye Gods," that is all ye Angels; and so it is translated by the Seventy, and so it is cited by St. Paul, Heb. i. 6. 343 Adore the Son, and honour him as me.] John v. 23. 344. No sooner had th' Almighty ceas'd, &c.] The close of this divine colloquy, with the hymn of Angels that fol. lows upon it, are so wonderfully beautiful and poetical, that I should not forbear inserting the whole, if the bounds of my paper would give me leave. Addison. If the reader pleases to compare this div.ne dialogue with the speeches of the Gods in Homer and Virgil, he will find the Christian poet to transcend the Heathen, as much as the religion of the one surpasses that of the others. Their deities talk and act like men, but Milton's divine persons are divine persons indeed, and talking the language of God, that is in the language of Scripture. He is so very scrupulous and exact in this particular, that perhaps there is not à single expression, which may not be justified by the authority of holy Writ. We have taken notice of several, where he seems to have copied the letter of Scripture, and the spirit of Scripture breathes in all the rest. 353. Immortal amarant,] Amarant, from the Greek for unfading, that decayeth not; a flower of purple velvet colour, which though gathered, keeps its beauty, and when all other flowers fade, recovers its lustre by being sprinkled with a little water, as Pliny affirms, lib. xxi. c. 11. Our author seems to have taken this hint from 1 Pet. i. 4. and 1 Pet. v. 4. both relating to the name of his everlasting amarant, which he has finely set near the tree of life. Amarantus fes, symbolum est immortalitatis. Clem Alexand. Hume. 357the fount of life, and river of bliss,] The abundant happiness and immortal joys of Heaven are in Scripture generally expressed by the fountain of life and rivers of pleasure." See Psal. xxxvi. 8, 9. Rev. vii. 17. and xxii. I. Hume. 359. Rulis &er Elysian flow'rs her amber stream;] And as there they are flowers worthy of Paradise, so here they are worthy of Elysium, the region of the Elessed: and he makes vse of the saine expression in his poem called L'Allegro, From a gelten slumber on a Led Of heap'd Elysian flow'rs. And, then as to his calling it amber stream, it is only on account of its clearness and transparency, and not at all on account of its colour, that he compares it to amber. The clearness of amber was proverbial among the Ancients. 363.like a sea of jasper shone,] Jasper is a precious stone of several colours, but the green is most esteemed, and bears some similitude and resemblance to the colour of the sea. 372. Thee, Father, first they sung, &c.] This hymn seems to be composed somewhat in the spirit and manner of the hymn to Hercules in the eighth book of the Æneid: but is as much superior as the subject of the one transcends that of the other. 377. Thron'd inaccessible, but when thou shad'st] The word but here is the same as except, unless; inaccessible except when thou shad'st. 382. Approach not,] So Ovid Met. ü. 22. Consistique procul, neque enim propiora ferebat Lumina. 383.------of all creation first,] So in Col. i. 15. and Rev. iii. 14. 387. Whom else no creature can behold;] No creature can otherwise behold the Father but in and through the Son. John i. 18; xiv. 9. 398. Thee only extoll'd.] We must not understand it thus, Thy Powers returning from pursuit extoll'd, &c. but thy powers extolled thee returning from pursuit, and thee only; for he was the sole victor, all the rest stood silent eye witne ses of bis almighty acts, vi. 880, &c. 408. Second to thee,] Several phrases in this description seem to intimate that Milton verged towards Arianism. 412. Hail Son of God,] So in the conclusion of the hymn to Hercules mentioned before, n. viii. 301. Salve vera Jovis proles, decus addite Divis. It is to be noted that the ending of this hymn resembles the hymns of Homer and Callimachus, who always promise to return in future hymns. 418. Meanwhile ut on the firm, &c] Satan's walk upon the outside of the universe, which at a distance appeared to him of a globular form, but upon his nearer approach looked like an unbounded plain, is natural and noble: as his! roaming upon the frontiers of the creation between that mass of matter, which was wrought into a world, and that shapeless unformed heap of materials, which still lay in Chaos and confusion, strikes the imagination with something astonishingly great. Addison. 431. As when a vulture, &c.] This simile is very apposite and lively, and corresponds exactly in all the particulars. Satan coming from Hell to Earth, in order to destroy mankind, but lighting first on the bare convex of this world's outermost orb, a sea of land as the poet calls it, is very fitly compared to a vulture flying in quest of his prey, tender lambs or kids new yean'd. Imaus is a celebrated mountain in Asia; its name signifies snowy in the language of the inhabitants, according to Pliny. It is the boundary to the east of the Western Tartars, who are called roving, as they live chiefly in tents, and remove from place to place for the convenience of pasturage, their herds of cattle and what they take in hunting being their principal subsistence. Ganges and Hydaspes are famous rivers in India; and Serica is a region betwixt China to the east and the mountain Imaus to the west and what our author here says of the Chinese, he seems to have taken from Meylin's Cosmographr. p. 867, where it is said, "Agreeable unto the observation of modern writers, the country is so plain and level, that they have carts and coaches driven with sails, as ordinarily as drawn with horses, in these parts." This was attempted with success some years ago on Marlborough Downs. Our author supposes these carriages to be made of cane, to render the thing somewhat more probable. 442.-in this place] I have before spoken of the Limbo of Vanity, which the poet places upon the outermost surface of the universe, and shall here explain myself more at large on that, and other parts of the poem, which are of the same shadowy nature. Aristotle observes, that the fable of an epic poem should abound in circumstances that are both credible and astonishing. This rule is as fine and just as any in Aristotle's whole art of poetry. If the fable is only probable, it differs nothing from true history; if it is only marvellous, it is no better than a romance. The great se cret therefore of her ic poetry is to relate such circumstances, as may produce in the reader at the same time both belief and astonishment. This is brought to pass in a well chosen fable, by the account of such things as have really happened, or at least of such things as have happened according to the received opinions of mankind. Milton's fable is a master-piece of this nature, as the war in Heaven, and the condition of the fallen Angels, the 's ate of innocence, the temptaion of the Serpent and the fall of Man, though they are very astonishing in themselves, are not only credible but actual points of faith. The next method of reconciling miracles with credibility, is by a happy invention of the poet; as in particular when he introduces agents of a superior nature, who are capable of effecting what is wonderful, and what is not to be met with in the ordinary course of things. If we look into the fiction of his fable, though we find it tulk of surprising incidents, they are generally suited to our notions of the things and persons described, and tempered with a due measure of probability. I must only make an exception to the Limbo of Vanity, with his episode of Sin and Death, and some of the imaginary persons in his Chaos. These passages are astonishing, but not credible; the reader cannot so far impose upon himself, as to see a poss.bility in them; they are the description of dreams and shadows, not of things or persons. I know that many critics look upon the stories of Circe, Polypheme, the Sirens, nay the whole Odyssey and Iliad, to be allegories; but allowing this to be true, they are fables, which, considering the opinions of mankind that prevailed in the age of the poet, might possibly have been according to the letter. The persons are such as might have acted what is ascribed to them, as the circumstances in which they are represented, might possibly have been truths and realities. This appearance of probability is so absolutely requisite in the greater kinds of poetry, that Aristotle observes the ancient tragic writers made use of the names of such great men as had actually lived in the world, though the tragedy proceeded upon adventures they were never engaged in, on purpose to make the subject more credible. In a word, besides the hidden meaning of an epic |