If counfels different, or danger skunn'd

I ?! T! By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns :) Monarch in Heav'ng till then as onc secure , » Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, Consent or custom, and his regal state...12: 640 Put forth at full, but still his strength conceald, op.*} Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. a Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, So as not either to provoke, or dread. New wár, provok’d; 'our better part remains To work in close design, by fraud or guile, What force effected not: that he no less At length from us may find, who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe. Space may produce new worlds; whereof fo rife. 650? 'T

There

645

ibe third part of the fars of Hea- ly thought an elegance by Milton, ven, and call them to the earth; and and many instances of it may be this opinion Milton hath express’d Mown not only in his works, buc in several places, IF. 692. V. 710. I believe in all the best poets both VI. 156 but Satan here talks big ancient and modern, tho' the latter and magnifies their number, as if I am afraid have been fometimes .. their exile bad emptied Heaven. too liberal of them.

642. Which tempted our attempt,] 647. that he no lefs &c.] Sao', Words tho' well chosen and fignif- tan had own'd just before, ver. : cative enough, yet of jingling and 642. that they had been deceiv'd unpleasant found, and like mar- by God's concealing his strength; riages between persons too near He now says, He also shall find of kin, to be avoided. Hume. himself iniftaken in his turn; He This kind of jingle was undoubted- hall find our cunning fuch as that

tho

There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant 1!

.
A generation, whom his choice regardin
Should favor equal to the fons of Heaven 10i !!!
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps fluisbes
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere!
For this infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial Spi'rits in bondage, nor th' abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full counsel must mature : Peace is despair'd," 660
For who can think fubmiffion? War then, War
Open or understood must be resolvid.

He tho' we have been overpower'd, diers, when they applauded a speech we are not more than half lubdued. of their general, was to finite their

Richardson. fhields with their fwords. Bentley. 662. understood] Not express'd, And the epithet grasped,"join'd to not openly declar'd, and yet im- arms, determins the expresion to ply'd: as when we say that a sub- mean swords only, which were fpoitantive of verb is understood in a

ken of a little before, ver. 664. fentence. Pearce.

Pearce.

669. Hurling defiance Foward the 664. - drawn from the thighs] It "vault of Heaven.] Dr. Benitmay be observed here that Milton, ley reads the walls of Heaven, Heato keep up the dignity of language, ven the habitation of God and has purposely avoided the trite Angels being never defcribed as phrase drawn from the fides, and vaulted; and Dr. Pearce approves adopted the Greek way of expres- the emendation; and without doubt fing it. Thus Homer, Iliad. I. 190. the wall or weills of Heaven is a Høye peoyaven ofu epuase pit common expresfion with our rau

thor. But may we hot by the vault sape jumpe. Thyer.

of Heaven understand cali conarta, 667.

with grasped arms] The our visible Heaven, whieh is often known custom of the Roman fol. defcribed is vaulted, the fphere of

the

He spake:: and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of Aaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim; the sudden blaze

: 665
Far round illumin'd Hell: highly they rag'd
Against the High’est, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash'd on their sounding Thields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven.

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top . -670
Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire
Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign
That in his womb was hid metallic ore,
The work of sulphur. Thither wing’d with speed

A
the fixed stars above which God Virgil applies to a ftag Æn. VII.
and Angels inhabit? Hurling de- 490.
fiance toward the visible Heaven is ille manum patiens, mensæque al-
in effect hurling defiance toward

fuetus herili,
the invifible Heaven, the seat of
God and Angels.

but afterwards Afcanius wounds
671. Belcb'd] So Virgil, Æn. III. him, ver. 499.
-576. fays eruētans of Ætna, from Perque uterum fonitu, perque ilia
which, or from mount Vesuvius, or

venit arundo.
the like, our poet took the idea of
this mountain.

Virgil makes use of the same word
673. That in his womb] A very again in speaking of a wolf, Æn,
great man was observing one day XI. 809.
a little inaccuracy of expression in

Ac velur ille the poet's making this mountain a

Occiso paftore lupus person and a male person, and at the same time attributing a womb to Subjecit pavitantem utero, fylvaf

caudamque femulcens it: And perhaps it would have

que petivit. been better if he had written its womb; but womb is used in as large 674. The work of fulphur.] For 2 fenfe as the Latin uterus, which metals are supposed to consist of

two

!

675

A numerous brigad haften'd: as when bands
Of pioneers with spade and pickax arm’d
Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field,
Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on,
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell
From Heav'n,for e'en in Heav'n his looks and thoughts
Were always downward bent, admiring more 681
The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold,
Than ought divine or holy else enjoy'd
In vision beatific: by him first
Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 685

Ransack'd

two essential parts or principles ; true? Some look upon Mammon mercury, as the basis or metallic as the God of riches, and Mammon matter; and fulphur as the binder is accordingly made a person by or cement, which fixes the fluid our poet, and was fo by Spenser mercury into a coherent malleable before him, whose description of mafs. See Chambers's Dic. of Mammon and his cave our poet Sulphur. And so Johnson in the seems to have had his eye upon in Alchemist, A& 2. Sc.

3.

several places. It turns to fulphur, or to quick 682. The riches of Heav'n's parvesilver,

ment, trodden gold,] So HoWho are the parents of all other mer speaks of the pavement of metals.

Heaven, as if it was of gold, xpua 678. Mammon] This name is Sy to the heavenly Jerusalem is de

ow ev dened w, Iliad. IV. 2. And riac, and fignifies riches. Ye cannot scribed by St. John, Rev. XXI. 21. serve God and Mammon, says our Sa- and the pireet of the city is pure gold. viour, Mat. VI. 24. and bids us make to ourselves friends of the Mam

684.

by him firft mon of unrighteousness, Luke XVI.9. Men also, and by his fuggeftion and ver. 11. If je kave not been taught,] Dr. Bentley lays, faithful in the unrighteous Mammon, the poet-aligns as two causes bin 'who will commit to your trust the and his fuggeftion, which are one

and

Ranfack:d the center, and with impious hands in
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth 23, .
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound, :,:
And digg’d out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690
That riches grow in Hell; that foil may best.
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,

695 And strength and art are easily out-done

w

By.

and the same thing. This obfer. Itum eft in viscera terræ, vation has the appearance of ac. Quasque recondiderat, Stygiisque coracy. But Milton is exact, and admoverat umbris,

alludes in a beautiful manner to a Effodiuntur opes. - fuperftitiaus opinion, generally be

:** Ov. Met. I. 138, &t. lieved among the miners : That

Hume, there are a fort of Devils which converse much in minerals, where Hor. Od. IH. IÚ. 49.

688. For treasures better bid.) they are frequently seen to busy and employ themselves in all the Aurum irrepertum, et fic meliùs operations of the workmen ; they

situm. will dig, cleanse, melt, and sepa. 694. —'and the works of. Mema rate the metals. See G. Agricola phian kings,] He seems to de Animantibus subterraneis. So allude particularly to the famous that Milton poetically supposes Pyramids of Egypt, which were Mammon and his clan to have taught near Memphis. the fons of earth by example and

Barbara Pyramidum fileat miracu. practical inftruction, as well as pre

la Memphis, Mart. cept and mental fuggeftion.

Warburton. 695. Learn how their greatest mo687. Rifled the bowels of their mo numents of fame, ther earth)

And strength and art &c.) This VOL. I.

passage