་ By force, who reason for their law refuse, Right reason for their law, and for their king And thou in military prowess next Gabriel, lead forth to battel these my fons Invincible, lead forth my armed Saints By thousands and by millions rang'd for fight, Rebellious; them with fire and hostile arms 41. reafon for their law] Alluding to the word Aoy. 44. Go Michael of celestial armies prince,] As this battel of the Angels is founded principally on Rev. XII. 7, 8. There was war in Heaven; Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon, and the Dragon fought and his Angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven; Michael is rightly made by Milton the leader of the heavenly armies, and the name in Hebrew fignifies the power of God. But it may be cenfur'd perhaps as a piece of wrong con 45 50 His duct in the poem, that the commiffion here given is not executed; they are order'd to drive the rebel Angels out from God and bliss, but this is effected at last by the Meffiah alone. Some reasons for it are asfign'd in the fpeech of God, ver. 680. and in that of the Meffiah, ver. 801. in this book. 55. His fiery Chaos] Chaos may mean any place of confufion; but if we take it ftrictly, Tartarus or Hell was built in Chaos (II. 1002.) and therefore that part of it, being ftor'd with fire, may not improperly be call'd a fiery Chaos. Dr. His fiery Chaos to receive their fall. 55 So fpake the fovran voice, and clouds began To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll In dusky wreaths, reluctant flames, the fign Of wrath awak'd; nor with lefs dread the loud At which command the Powers militant, That stood for Heav'n, in mighty quadrate join'd In filence their bright legions, to the found Under their God-like leaders, in the cause Dr. Bentley's change of his into its, because which (not who) went before, proceeds upon a fuppofition that which is not to be referred to a perfon; though it is well known that formerly which was as often apply'd to a perfon as who: as Dr. Pearce obferves. 56. and clouds began To darken all the hill, and smoke to roll &c.] In this defcription the author manifeftly alludes to that of God defcending upon mount Sinai, Exod. XIX. 16, &c. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thun 60 65 In and mount ders, and lightnings, and a thick - 58. reluctant flames,] As flow and unwilling to break forth, Stupa vomens tardum fumum. Virg. Æn. V.682. 64. In filence] So Homer obferves, Iliad. III. 8. to the honor of his countrymen the Grecians, that they march'd on in filence, while the Trojans advanc'd with noife and clamor. 71.-for Indiffolubly firm; nor obvious hill, Nor ftrait'ning vale, nor wood, nor ftream divides Their nimble tread; as when the total kind Their names of thee; fo over many a tract 69 75 Of Heav'n they march'd, and many a province wide Tenfold the length of this terrene: at last Far in th' horizon to the north appear'd 71. for high above the ground &c.] Our author attributes the fame kind of motion to the Angels, as the Ancients did to their Gods; which was gliding thro' the air without ever touching the ground with their feet, or as Milton elfewhere elegantly expreffes it (B.VIII. 302.) Smooth-fliding without flep. And Homer, Iliad. V. 778. compares the motion of two Goddeffes to the flight of doves, as Milton here compares the march of the Angels to the birds coming on the wing to Adam to receive their names, From 73.-as when the total kind &c.] Homer has ufed the fimile of a flight of fowls twice in his Iliad, to exprefs the number and the motions, the order and the clamors of an army. See Iliad II. 459 III. 2. As Virgil has done the fame number of times in his neid, VII. 699. X. 264. But this fimile exceeds any of those; First, as it rifes fo naturally out of the fubject, and was a comparison fo familiar to Adam. Secondly, the Angels were marching thro' the air, and not on the ground, which gives it another propriety; and here I believe the poet intended the chief Αν δε βάτην τρήρωσι πελεασιν likenefs. Thirdly, The total kind αθμαθ' ομοιαι of birds much more properly expreffes a prodigious number than Smooth as the failing doves they any particular species, or a collec tion in any particular place. Thus From skirt to skirt a fiery region, ftretch'd The banded Pow'rs of Satan hafting on 80 85 90 In 84. Various, with loafful argu ment portray'd,] Shields various are varied with diverse sculptures and paintings; an elegant Latinifm. And the thought of attributing fields various, with boastful argument portray'd, to the evil Angels feems to be taken from the Phoeniffe of Euripides, where the heroes who befiege Thebes are defcrib'd with the like boastful shields, only the prophet Amphiaraus hath no fuch boastful argument on his fhield, but a fhield without argument as became a modeft man, ver. 1117. Ο μαλις Αμφιαρας, ο σημεί οπλά 93. And In the mid way: though ftrange to us it feem'd Unanimous, as fons of one great fire 95 Hymning th' eternal Father: but the shout With flaming Cherubim and golden fhields; 93. And in fierce hofting meet, ] This word hofting feems to have been firft coin'd by our author. It is a very expreffive word, and plainly form'd from the fubftantive hoft: And if ever it is right to make new words, it is when the occafion is fo new and extraordinary. 101. Idol of majesty divine,] This is the very fame with what Abdiel afterwards at ver. 114. calls refemblance of the Higheft, but how judicioufly has Milton cull'd out the word idol, which though it be in its original fignífication the fame as refemblance, yet by its common application always in a bad fenfe 100 Then |