His red right hand to plague us? what if all 175 Of Hell fhould spout her cataracts of fire, prey Ages of hopeless end? this would be worfe. 174. His red right hand] So Horace fays of Jupiter rubente dextera. But being fpoken of Vengeance, it must be her right hand, as in the next line ber ftores. Bentley. There is fomething plaufible and ingenious in this obfervation: but by his feems to have been meant God's, who is mention'd fo often in the course of the debate, that he might very well be underflood without being nam'd; and by her ftores in the next line, I fuppofe, are meant Hell's, as mention is made afterwards of her cataracts f. fire. 180 185 My My voice diffuades; for what can force or guile 191 Than wife to fruftrate all our plots and wiles. Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, The victor's will. To fuffer, as to do, 185. Unrefpited, unpitied, unre priev'd] This way of introducing feveral adjectives beginning with the fame letter without any conjunction is very frequent with the Greek tragedians, whom our author I fancy imitated. What ftrength and beauty it adds needs not be mention'd. Thyer. 190.- be from Heav'n's highth All these our motions vain fees and derides;] Alluding to Pfal. II. 4. He that fitteth in the Heavens fball laugh, the Lord Jhall have them in derifion. Nor let it pass unob 200 If ferved that this is conftantly Milton's way, and the true way of fpelling highth, and not as commonly height, where what the e has to do or how it comes in it is not easy to apprehend. 199. To fuffer, as to do,] Et facere, et pati. So Scævola boasted that he was a Roman, and knew as well how to fuffer as to at. Et facere et pati fortia Romanum eft. Liv. II. rz. So in Horace, Od. III. XXIV. 43. Quidvis et facere et pati. 20. This If we were wife, against fo great a foe Contending, and fo doubtful what might fall. Not mind us not offending, fatisfy'd With what is punish'd; whence these raging fires Our purer effence then will overcome 210 215 Their noxious vapor, or inur'd not feel, Or chang'd at length, and to the place conform❜d 220. This horror will grow mild this darkness light.] "Tis quite too much as Dr. Bentley fays, that the darkness fhould turn into light: but light, I conceive, is an adjective here as well as mild; and the meaning is, This darkness will in time become ealy, as this horror will grow mild; or as Mr. Thyer thinks, it is an adjective used in the fame fenfe as when we fay It is a light night. It is not well exprefs'd, and the worse as it rimes with the following line. In 227. Counsel'd ignoble cafe,] Not otium cum dignitate as Cicero fpeaks, but as Virgil ignobile otium. Studiis ignobilis oti. Georg. IV. 764. 228. Mammon fpake.] Mammon's character is fo fully drawn in the first book, that the poet adds nothing to it in the fecond. We were before told, that he was the first who taught mankind to ranfack the earth for gold and filver, and that he was the architect of Pan demonium, In temper and in nature, will receive Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain; This horror will grow mild, this darkness light, 220 Befides what hope the never-ending flight Of future days may bring, what chance, what change For happy though but ill, for ill not worst, 225 Thus Belial with words cloth'd in reason's garb We war, if war be beft, or to regain demonium, or the infernal palace, 230 The pavement, than on the beatific vifion! I fhall alfo leave the reader to judge how agreeable the following fentiments are to the fame character, This deep world Of darkness do we dread? How oft amidst &c. Addifon. 233.-and Chaos judge the ftrife:] Between the king of Heaven and us, not between Fate and Chance, Pearce. as Dr. Bentley fuppofes. 234. The The former vain to hope argues as vain 235 240 The latter for what place can be for us Within Heav'n's bound, unlefs Heav'n's Lord fupreme We overpow'r? Suppofe he should relent, And publish grace to all, on promise made Of new fubjection; with what eyes could we Stand in his prefence humble, and receive Strict laws impos'd, to celebrate his throne With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead fing Forc'd Halleluiah's; while he lordly fits Our envied fovran, and his altar breathes Ambrofial odors and ambrofial flowers, Our fervile offerings? This muft be our task In Heav'n, this our delight; how wearifome Eternity fo spent in worship paid To whom we hate! Let us not then purfue 234. The former vain to hope] That is to unthrone the king of Heaven, argues as vain the latter, that is to regain our own loft right. 244. and his altar breathes Ambrofial odors and ambrofial flowers,] Dr. Bentley would 245 By flowers, especially when flowers are, as here, diftinguifh'd from odors? But when the altar is faid to breathe, the meaning is that it Smells of, it throws out the smell of, or (as Milton expreffes it IV. 265.) it breathes out the smell of &c. In this fenfe of the word breathe, an altar may be faid to breathe flowers, and odors too as a diftinct thing; for by odors here Milton means the and asks how an altar can breathe fmells of gums and fweet fpicy read from for and, fhrubs, |