Me from attempting. Wherefore do I affume 450
These royalties, and not refufe to reign,
Refufing to accept as great a fhare

Of hazard as of honor, due alike

To him who reigns, and fo much to him due
Of hazard more, as he above the rest

455

High honor'd fits? Go therefore mighty Powers,
Terror of Heav'n, though fall'n; intend at home,
While here shall be our home, what best may ease
The prefent mifery, and render Hell

More tolerable; if there be cure or charm
To refpit, or deceive, or flack the pain
Of this ill manfion: intermit no watch

450.-Wherefore do I affume &c.] Our author has here caught the fpirit of Homer in that divine fpeech of Sarpedon to Glaucus, Iliad. XII. 310.

Γλαύκο, τι δη νωι τετιμημεπα

μαλικά

Έδρη τε, κρέασιν τε, ίδε πλείοις
Sewaṛos14,

Εν Λυκίη; παιζες δε, θεὸς ὡς,

εισορόωσι;

Και τεμεν θ νεμόμεθα μεγά

Ξάνθοιο παρ' όχθας,

Κάλον, φυταλιής και αργής του ep00103

460

Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad

Through all the coafts of dark destruction feek
Deliverance for us all: this enterprife

None shall partake with me. Thus faying rofe
The Monarch, and prevented all reply,
Prudent, left from his refolution rais'd

Others among
the chief might offer now
(Certain to be refus'd) what erft they fear'd;
And fo refus❜d might in opinion stand

His rivals, winning cheap the high repute

465

470

Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they Dreaded not more th' adventure than his voice Forbidding; and at once with him they rofe; 475

Why on those fhores are we with
joy furvey'd,
Admir'd as heroes, and as Gods
obey'd?

Unless great acts fuperior merit
prove,

And vindicate the bounteous
pow'rs above.

"Tis our's, the dignity they give,
to grace;
The first in valor, as the firft in
place. &c. Pope.

This is one of the nobleft and beft-
fpirited fpeeches in the whole Iliad:
but (as Mr. Hume fays) is as much
exalted in the imitation, as a Sera-

Their rifing all at once was as the found

Of thunder heard remote. Tow'ards him they bend With awful reverence prone; and as a God

را

Extol him equal to the Hig'heft in Heaven:
Nor fail'd they to express how much they prais'd,

J

That for the general safety he despis'd 1099481 His own for neither do the Spirits damn'd

R

Lofe

that, and made that remark to prevent their boasting. *** Pearce. As our author has drawn Satan with fome remains of the beauty, fo he reprefents him likewife with fome of the other perfections of an Arch-Angel; and herein he has follow'd the rule of Ariftotle in his Poetics, chap. 15. that the manners fhould be as good as the nature of the fubject will poffibly admit. A Devil all made up of wickedness would be too fhocking to any reader or writer.

489.-while the north-wind fleeps,] So Homer expreffes it, Iliad. V. 524.

483.-left bad men should boaft &c.] Here Dr. Bentley afks, whether the Devils retain fome of their virtue, on purpose left bad men should boaft &c. This being an absurdity, he reads lefs fhould bad men boaft &c. But there is no occafion for the alteration. To take the force of the word left, we muft fuppofe the author to have left his reader to fupply fome fuch expreffion as this, This remark (of the Devils not lofing op udnos μ& Bopsomme all their virtue) I make, left bad men fhould boaft &c. Dr. Bentley knows that in Greek, and ne in Latin are often thus ufed. Milton here feems to have had in view Eph. II. 8, 9. By grace ye are faved through faith not of works, left any man should boaft. Not, that they were faved not of works, on purpose left any man should boaft; but St. Paul puts them in mind of

that wind generally clearing the fky, and difperfing the clouds. Every body must be wonderfully delighted with this fimilitude. The images are not more pleafing in nature, than they are refreshing to the reader after his attention to the foregoing debate. We have a fimile of the fame kind in Homer, but apply'd upon a very different occafion, Iliad. XVI. 297.

Ως

Lofe all their virtue; left bad men should boast
Their fpecious deeds on earth, which glory' excites,
Or close ambition varnifh'd o'er with zeal. 485
Thus they their doubtful confultations dark
Ended rejoicing in their matchless chief;
As when from mountain tops the dusky clouds,
Afcending, while the north-wind fleeps, o'er-spread
Heav'n's

·Ds d'ór' aç' úfnans xopuens - Homer fays only that he remov'd

ρει μεγάλοιο Κινήσεις συκινώ νεφελίω ςεροπη

γερετα Ζευς,

Εκ τ' εφανον πασαι σκοπίαι, και

πρωινές ακροι, Και ναπαι, κρανόθεν δ' αρ' ὑπερ

egyn aшETC alone.

So when thick clouds inwrap the

mountain's head,

O'er Heav'n's expanse like one
black cieling spread;
Sudden, the Thund'rer with a
flashing ray,

Burfts through the darkness, and
lets down the day:
The hills thine out, the rocks in
profpect rife,

And ftreams, and vales, and fo-
rests strike the eyes,
The fmiling scene wide opens to
the fight,

And all th' unmeafur'd æther

flames with light,

Mr. Pope tranflates it as if Jupiter lighten'd, which makes it a horrid rather than a pleafing scene; but

the thick clouds from the mountain top, and fo it is explained in the note of Pope's Homer, which fhows that the tranflation and notes were not always made by the fame perfon. We have a fimile too, much of the fame nature in a Sonnet of Spenfer, as Mr. Thyer hath obferved. Sonnet 40.

Mark when she smiles with amiable chear,

And tell me whereto can you liken it:

When on each eye-lid fweetly do appear

An hundred Graces as in fhade

to fit. Likeft it seemeth, in my fimple wit, Unto the fair fun-fhine in fummer's day; That when a dreadful storm away is flit,

Through the broad world doth fpread his goodly ray: At fight whereof each bird that fits on spray,

And every beaft that to his den was fled,

R 3

Come

490

Heav'n's chearful face, the louring element
Scowls o'er the darken'd landskip fnow, or fhower;
If chance the radiant fun with farewel fweet
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Atteft their joy, that hill and valley rings.

495

O fhame to men! Devil with Devil damn'd

Firm concord holds, men only disagree

Of creatures rational, though under hope
Of heav'nly grace: and God proclaming peace,
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and ftrife
Among themselves, and levy cruel wars,
Wafting the earth, each other to destroy:
As if (which might induce us to accord)

500

Man

494.bleating herds] Dr. Bentley reads flocks, and fays that herd is a word proper to cattel, that do not bleat. But herd is originally the common name for a number of any fort of cattel: Hence Shepherd, that is Sheepherdsman, see VII. 462. Pearce.

-Bleating herds is much fuch an expreffion as Spenser's fleecy cattel in Colin Clout's come home again.

496. O fhame to men! &c.] This reflection will appear the more pertinent and natural, when one confiders the contentious age, in which Milton liv'd and wrote. Thyer.