O Friends, why come not on these victors proud? Ere while they fierce were coming; and when we, To entertain them fair with open front 61 İ And breaft (what could we more?) propounded terms Of compofition, ftrait they chang'd their minds, As they would dance; yet for a dance they seem'd For joy of offer'd peace: but I fuppofe, 616 To whom thus Belial in like gamefome mood. 620 Leader, the terms we fent were terms of weight, Of hard contents, and full of force urg'd home, Such as we might perceive amus'd them all, And ftumbled many; who receives them right, Had need from head to foot well underftand; 625 Not understood, this gift they have befides, 620. To whom thus Belial] Whoever remembers the character of Belial in the first and fecond books, and Mr. Addison's remarks upon it, will eafily fee the pro They priety of making Belial reply to Satan upon this occafion and in this fportive manner, rather than Beelzebub, or Moloch, or any of the evil Angels. 635. Rage They show us when our foes walk not upright. 630 To match with their inventions they prefum'd arms Against fuch hellish mischief fit to' oppose. Of pleasure fituate in hill and dale) 635 Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew; 640 Rocks, There is nothing in the firft and laft day's engagement which does not appear natural, and agreeable enough to the ideas moft readers. would conceive of a fight between two Rocks, waters, woods, and by the fhaggy tops 645 two armies of Angels. The fecond day's engagement is apt to ftartle an imagination which has not been raised and qualify'd for fuch a defcription, by the reading of the ancient poets, and of Homer in particular. It was certainly a very bold thought in our author, to afcribe the firft ufe of artillery to the rebel Angels. But as fuch a pernicious invention may be well fuppos'd to have proceeded from fuch authors, fo it enter'd very properly into the thoughts of that being, who is all along defcribed as afpiring to the majesty of his Maker. Such engins were the only inftruments he could have made ufe of to imitate thofe thunders, that in all poetry, both facred and profane, are reprefented as the arms of the Almighty. The tearing up the hills was not altogether fo daring a thought as the former. We are in fome measure prepared for fuch an incident by the defcription of the giants war, which we meet with among the ancient poets. What ftill made this circumftance the more proper for the poet's ufe is the opinion of many learned men, that the fable of the giants war, which makes fo great a noife in antiquity, and gave birth to the fub When limeft description in Hefiod's works was an allegory founded upon this very tradition of a fight between the good and the bad Angels. It may perhaps be worth while to confider with what judgment Milton in this narration has avoided every thing that is mean and trivial in the descriptions of the Latin and Greek poets; and at the fame time improved every great hint which he met with in their works upon this fubject. Homer in that paffage, which Longinus has celebrated for its fublimencfs, and which Virgil and Ovid have copy'd after him, tells us that the giants threw Offa upon Olympus, and Pelion upon Offa. He adds an epithet to Pelion (origuador) which very much fwells the idea, by bringing up to the reader's imagination all the woods that grew upon it. There is further a great beauty in fingling out by name thefe three remarkable mountains, fo well known to the Greeks. This laft is fuch a beauty, as the fcene of Milton's war could not poffibly furnish him with. Claudian, in his fragment upon the giants war, has given full fcope to that wildnefs of imagination which was natural to him. He tells us that the giants tore up whole ilands by the roots, and threw When coming towards them fo dread they faw threw them at the Gods. He From their foundations loofning We have the full majefty of Ho- 650 They dian, without its puerilities. I need not point out the defcription of the fallen Angels feeing the promontories hanging over their heads in fuch a dreadful manner, with the other numberlefs beauties in this book, which are fo confpicuous, that they cannot efcape the notice of the most ordinary reader. There are indeed fo many wonderful ftrokes of poetry in this book, and fuch a variety of fublime ideas, that it would have been impoffible to have given them a place within the bounds of this paper. Befides that I find it in a great measure done to my hand at the end of my Lord Rofcommon's Effay on translated poetry. I fhall refer my reader thither for fome of the mafterftrokes in the fixth book of Paradife Loft, tho' at the fame time there are many others, which that noble author has not taken notice of. Addifox. 648. When coming towards them fo dread they faw] Does not this verfe exprefs the very motion of the mountains, and is not there the fame kind of beauty in the numbers, that the poet recommends in his excellent Effay on Criticifm? When They faw them whelm'd, and all their confidence bruis'd 654 Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain |