Immoveable, infix'd, and frozen round, Periods of time, thence hurried back to fire. . They ferry over this Lethean found Both to and fro, their forrow to augment, 609 And wish and struggle; as they pafs, to reach All in one moment, and fo near the brink; they were fo near the brink, fo near the brim and furface of the water, yet they could not tafte one drop of it. But the reafons follow, fate withstands, fata obftant as it is in Virgil, Æn. IV. 440. and Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards the ford. Medufa was one of the Gorgon monfters, whofe locks were ferpents fo terrible that they turned the beholders into ffone. Ulyffes in Homer was defirous of feeing more of the departed heroes, but I was afraid, fays he, Odyfl. XI. 633. Μη μοι Γοργειν κεφαλήν δεινοια πέλωρι Medufa with Gorgonian terror guards T In cónfus'd march forlorn, th' adventrous bands 615 O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs,dens, and fhades of death, Where all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, Than fables yet have feign'd, or fear conceiv'd, Mean while the Adverfary' of God and Man, Satan with thoughts inflam'd of hig❜heft defign, 639 Puts on fwift wings, and towards the gates of Hell Explores his folitary flight; fometimes He fcours the right hand coaft, fometimes the left, There were Celano's foul and loathfome rout, There Sphinges, Centaurs, there were Gorgons fell, There howling Scylla's, yawling round about, There ferpents hifs, there fev'n mouth'd Hydra's yell, Chimæra there fpues fire and brimftone out. Fairfax. But how much better has Milton comprehended them in one line? 634. Now shaves with level wing the deep,] Virg. Æn. V. 217. Radit iter liquidum, celeres neque commovet alas. 635 Hangs 636. As when far off at sea &c.] Satan touring high is here compar'd to a fleet of Indiamen difcover'd at a distance, as it were, hanging in the clouds, as a fleet at a difiance feems to do. This is the whole of the comparifon; bur 25 Dr. Pearce obferves) Milton in mis fimilitudes (as is the practice of Homer and Virgil too) after he has how'd the common refemblance, often takes the liberty of wand'ring into fome urrefembling circumftances, which have no other relation to the coinparifon, than that it gave him the hint, and as it were fet fire to the train of his imagination. Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds imagination. But Dr. Bentley afks, why a fleet when a firft rate man of war would do? And Dr. Pearce anfwers, Because a fleet gives a nóbler image than a fingle fhip. And it is a fleet of Indiamen, becaufe coming from fo long a voyage it is the fitter to be compar'd to Satan in this expedition; and thefe exotic names (as Dr. Bentley calls them) give a lefs vulgar caft to the fimilitude than places in our own channel and in our own feas would have done. This fleet is defcrib'd, by equinoctial winds, the trade-winds blowing about the equinoctial, clofe failing, and therefore more proper to be compar'd to a fingle perfon, from Bengala, a kingdom and city in the Eaft Indies fubject to the great Mogul, or the iles of Ternate and Tidore, two of the Molucca ilands in the Eaft Indian fea, whence merchants bring their spicy drugs, the most famous fpices are brought from thence by the Dutch into Europe: they on the trading flood, as the winds are call'd trade-winds, fo he calls the flood trading, through the wide Ethiopian fea to the Cape of Good Hope, ply femming nightly toward the pole, Far that is by night they fail northward, and yet (as Dr. Pearce fays) by day their fleet may be deferyd hanging in the clouds. So feem'd far off the fiying Fiend: Dr. Bentley afks, whom Satan appear'd to far of, in this his folitary fight? But what a cold phlegmatic piece of criticifm is this? It may be anfwer'd, that he was feen by the Mufe, and would have feem'd fo to any one who had feen him. Poets often speak in this manner, and make themselves and their readers prefent to the moft retir'd fcenes of action. 645. And thrice threefold the gates;] The gates had nine folds, nine plates, nine linings; as Homer and the other poets make their heroes fhields, to have several coverings of various materials for the greater ftrength: Ovid. Met. XIII. 2. clypei dominus feptemplicis Ajax. Bentley. 647.-impaled with circling fire,] Inclofed, paled in as it were. So the word is used in Spenfer's Maiopormos, And Far off the flying Fiend: at laft appear Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid roof, And thrice threefold the gates; three folds were brafs, Three iron, three of adamantin rock, Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire, Yet unconfum'd. Before the gates there fat And round about, her work fhe did impale With a fair border wrought of fundry flowers. It is commonly applied to that kind of execution, when a pale or stake is drove through a malefactor's body. And perhaps Milton (as Mr. Thyer adds) might take the hint of this circumstance from his favorite romances, where one frequently meets with the gates of inchanted caftles thus impal'd with circling fire. Spenfer alfo in his defcription of the house of Bufyrane. Fairy Queen, B. 3. Cant. 11. St. 21. 646 The flight of Satan to the gates of Hell is finely imaged. I have already declared my opinion of the allegory concerning Sin and Death, which is however a very finish'd piece in its kind, when it is not confidered as a part of an epic poem. The genealogy of the feveral perfons is contrived with great delicacy; Sin is the daughter of Satan, and Death the ofspring of Sin. The incestuous mixture between Sin and Death produces thofe monfters and Hell-hounds, which from time to time enter into their mother, and tear the bowels of her who gave them birth. Thefe are the terrors of an evil confcience, and the proper fruits of Sin, which naturally rife from the apprehenfions of Death. This laft beautiful moral is, I think, clearly intimated in the fpeech of Sin, where complaining of this her dreadful iffue, the adds, |