His red right hand to plague us? what if all
Her ftores were open'd, and this firmament

175

Of Hell fhould spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrors, threatning hideous fall
One day upon our heads; while we perhaps
Defigning or exhorting glorious war,
Caught in a fiery tempeft fhall be hurl'd
Each on his rock transfix'd, the fport and
Of wracking whirlwinds, or for ever funk
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains;
There to converse with everlasting groans,
Unrespited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,

prey

Ages of hopeless end? this would be worfe.
War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike

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
With him, or who deceive his mind, whofe eye
Views all things at one view? he from Heav'n's highth
All these our motions vain fees and derides;
Not more almighty to refift our might

191

Than wife to fruftrate all our plots and wiles.
Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven
195
Thus trampled, thus expell'd to fuffer here
Chains and these torments? better thefe than worfe
By my advice; fince fate inevitable

Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,

The victor's will. To fuffer, as to do,
Our ftrength is equal, nor the law unjust
That fo ordains: this was at firft refolv'd,

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.
I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold
And ventrous, if that fail them, shrink and fear 205
What yet they know muft follow, to indure
Exile, or ignominy', or bonds, or pain,
The sentence of their conqu'ror: this is now
Our doom; which if we can fuftain and bear,
Our fupreme foe in time may much remit
His anger, and perhaps thus far remov'd

Not mind us not offending, fatisfy'd

With what is punish'd; whence these raging fires
Will flacken, if his breath ftir not their flames.

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
Worth waiting, fince our prefent lot appears

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst,
If we procure not to ourselves more woe.

225

Thus Belial with words cloth'd in reason's garb
Counsel'd ignoble eafe, and peaceful sloth,
Not peace: and after him thus Mammon fpake.
Either to difinthrone the king of Heaven

We war, if war be beft, or to regain
Our own right loft: him to unthrone we then
May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife:

demonium, or the infernal palace,
where the evil Spirits were to meet
in council. His fpeech in this book
is every way fuitable to fo depraved
a character. How proper is that
reflection, of their being unable to
taste the happiness of Heaven were
they actually there, in the mouth of
one, who while he was in Heaven,
is faid to have had his mind dazled
with the outward pomps and glo-
ries of the place, and to have been
more intent on the riches of the
V. L. I.

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,
Ambrofial odors from ambrofial
flowers,

fhrubs,