Thrones and Imperial Pow'rs, Ofspring of Heaven, Ethereal Virtues or thefe titles now

Must we renounce, and changing ftile be call'd
Princes of Hell? for fo the popular vote
Inclines, here to continue', and build up here

311

A growing empire; doubtlefs; while we dream, 315
And know not that the king of Heav'n hath doom'd
This place our dungeon, not our fafe retreat
Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt
From Heav'n's high jurifdiction, in new league
Banded against his throne, but to remain
In ftrictest bondage, though thus far remov'd,

There is a wonderful majesty defcribed in his rifing up to speak. He acts as a kind of moderator between the two oppofit parties, and propofes a third undertaking, which the whole affembly gives into. The motion he makes of detaching one of their body in fearch of a new world is grounded upon a project devised by Satan, and curforily propofed by him in the following lines of the first book, Space may produce new worlds, &c. ver. 650. It is on this project that Beelzebub grounds his propofal,

What if we find
Some eafier enterprise? &c.
The reader may obferve how juft

320

Under

it was not to omit in the first book the project upon which the whole poem turns: as alfo that the prince of the fallen Angels was the only proper perfon to give it birth, and that the next to him in dignity was the fitteft to fecond and fupport it. There is befides, I think, fomething wonderfully beautiful, and very apt to affect the reader's imagination in this ancient prophecy or report in Heaven, concerning the creation of Man. Nothing could fhow more the dignity of the fpecies, than this tradition which ran of them before their existence. They are reprefented to have been the talk of Heaven, before they were created. Virgil, in compliment to the Roman commonwealth,

makes

Under th' inevitable curb, referv'd

His captive multitude: for he, be fure,

In highth or depth, ftill first and last will reign
Sole king, and of his kingdom lofe no part

By our revolt, but over Hell extend

His empire, and with iron fcepter rule
Us here, as with his golden those in Heaven.
What fit we then projecting peace and war?

325

War hath determin'd us, and foil'd with loss

330

Irreparable; terms of peace yet none

Vouchfaf'd or fought; for what peace will be given To us inflav'd, but cuftody fevere,

makes the heroes of it appear in their state of præexiftence; but Milton does a far greater honor to mankind in general, as he gives us a glimpse of them even before they are in being. Addifon.

327-and with iron fcepter rule Us here, as with his golden thofe in

Heaven.] The iron scepter is in allufion to Pfal. II. 9. as that of gold to Efther V. 2. Hume. 329. What fit we then projecting

peace and war?] Dr. Bentley reads peace or war: Dr. Pearce fays, perhaps better peace in war: But there feems to be no neceffity for an alteration. It was a debate of peace and war. Peace as well as war was the fubject of their debate. And what feems to be ufed

And stripes, and arbitrary punishment
Inflicted? and what peace can we return,

But to our pow'r hoftility and hate,

Untam❜d reluctance, and revenge though flow,
Yet ever plotting how the conqu'ror least

May reap
In doing what we most in suffering feel?

his conqueft, and may leaft rejoice

335

340

Nor will occafion want, nor fhall we need

With dang'rous expedition to invade

Heav'n, whofe high walls fear'no affault or fiege,
Or ambush from the deep. What if we find
Some easier enterprife? There is a place,
(If ancient and prophetic fame in Heaven

Menæchmi Prol. 59. Ei liberorum,
nifi divitiæ, nihil erat. Lambinus
fays this expreflion feems too unu-
fual, for the particle nifi can except
none but things like, or of a like
kind. Richardfon.

352.
and by an oath,
That book Heav'n's whole circum-

ference, confirm'd.] He confirm'd it by an oath are the very words of St. Paul, Heb. VI. 17. and this oath is faid to bake Heav'n's whole circumference in allufion to Jupiter's oath in Virgil, Æn. IX. 104. Dixerat: idque ratum Stygii per flumina fratris,

345

Err

Per pice torrentes atraque vora.
gine ripas

Annuit, et totum nutu tremefecit
Olympum.

To feal his facred vow, by Styx he swore,

The lake with liquid pitch, the dreary fhore,

And Phlegethon's innavigable flood,

And the black regions of his brother God:

He faid; and fhook the fkies with his imperial nod.

Dryden.

As

Err not) another world, the happy feat

Of fome new race call'd Man, about this time
To be created like to us, though lefs

In pow'r and excellence, but favor'd more

350

Of him who rules above; fo was his will
Pronounc'd among the Gods, and by an oath,
That shook Heav'n's whole circumference, confirm'd.
Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn
What creatures there inhabit, of what mold
Or fubftance, how indued, and what their power,
And where their weakness, how attempted beft,
By force or fubtlety. Though Heav'n be fhut,
And Heav'n's high arbitrator fit fecure

355

In his own strength, this place may lie expos'd, 360
The utmost border of his kingdom, left

To their defense who hold it: here perhaps
Some advantageous act may be achiev'd
By fudden onset, either with Hell fire

To waste his whole creation, or poffefs

365

All as our own, and drive, as we were driven,

The puny habitants, or if not drive,

Seduce them to our party, that their God
May prove
their foe, and with repenting hand
Abolish his own works. This would furpass

Common revenge, and interrupt his joy
In our confufion, and our joy upraise
In his disturbance; when his darling fons,

370

Hurl'd

Of Angels watching round?

How can this earth be faid to lie expos'd &c, and yet to be ftrictly guarded by station'd Angels? The objection is very ingenious: but it is not faid, that the earth doth lie expos'd, but only that it may lie expos'd: and it may be confider'd, that the defign of Beelzebub is different in thefe different fpeeches ; in the former, where he is encouraging the affembly to undertake an expedition against this world, he fays things to leffen the difficulty and danger; but in the lat

ter,