'Twixt day and night, and now from end to end
Night's hemisphere had veil'd th' horizon round:
When Satan who late fled before the threats
Of Gabriel out of Eden, now improv'd

the poet did very well in taking notice of it. The hiftorian above mention'd acquaints us, a prophetefs had foretold Æneas, that he fhould take his voyage weftward, till his companions fhould cat their tables; and that accordingly, upon his landing in Italy, as they were eating their flesh upon cakes of bread, for want of other conveniencies, they afterwards fed on the cakes themfelves; upon which one of the company faid merrily, We are eating our tables. They immediately took the hint, says the hiftorian, and concluded the prophecy to be fulfill'd. As Virgil did not think it proper to omit fo material a particular in the hiftory of Æneas, it may be worth while to confider with how much judgment he has qualified it, and takes off every thing that might have appeared improper for a paffage in an heroic poem. The prophetess who foretells it is an hungry Harpy, as the person who discovers it is young Afcanius:

Heus etiam menfas confumimus, in

quit Iülus.

Such an obfervation, which is beautiful in the mouth of a boy, would have been ridiculous from any other of the company. I am apt to think that the changing of the Trojan fleet into water-nymphs, which is the most violent machine in the

In

whole Æneid, and has given offense to several critics, may be accounted for the fame way. Virgil himself, before he begins that relation, premifes, that what he was going to tell appeared incredible, but that it was juftified by tradition. What farther confirms me that this change of the fleet was a celebrated circumftance in the hiftory of Eneas is, that Ovid has given a place to the fame metamorphofis in his account of the Heathen mythology. None of the critics I have met with having confidered the fable of the Eneid in this light, and taken notice how the tradition, on which it was founded, authorizes those parts in it which appear most exceptionable; I hope the length of this reflection will not make it unacceptable to the curious part of my readers. The hiftory, which was the bafis of Milton's poem, is ftill fhorter than either that of the Iliad or Æneid. The poet has likewife taken care to infert every circumftance of it in the body of his fable. The ninth book, which we are here to confider, is raised upon that brief account in Scripture, wherein we are told that the Serpent was more fubtle than any beaft of the field, that he tempted the woman to eat of the forbidden fruit, that she was overcome by this temptation, and that Adam followed her example. From these few par

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ticulars,

In meditated fraud and malice, bent

On Man's deftruction, maugre what might hap
Of heavier on himself, fearless return'd.
By night he fled, and at midnight return'd
From compaffing the earth, cautious of day,
Since Uriel regent of the fun defcry'd

His entrance, and forewarn'd the Cherubim
That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven,
The space of fev'n continued nights he rode
With darkness, thrice the equinoctial line

He circled, four times crofs'd the car of night
From pole to pole, travérfing each colúre;
On th' eighth return'd, and on the coast averse
From entrance or Cherubic watch, by stealth
Found unfufpected way. There was a place,

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Now not, though fin, not time, first wrought the

With darkness, &c.] It was about each other at right angles in the noon that Satan came to the earth, poles of the world, and incompafand having been discover'd by Uriel, fing the earth from north to fouth, he was driven out of Paradife the and from fouth to north again: and fame night, as we read in book the therefore as Satan was moving from fourth. From that time he was a pole to pole, at the fame time the whole week in continual darkness car of night was moving from eaft for fear of another discovery. Thrice to weft, if he would keep ftill in the equino&ial line he circled; he tra- the shade of night as he defir'd, he vel'd on with the night three times could not move in a ftrait line, but round the equator; he was three must move obliquely, and thereby days moving round from east to west cross the two colures. We have exas the fun does, but always on the prefs'd ourselves as plainly as we oppofit fide of the globe in dark- can for the fake of thofe readers, nefs. Four times cross'd the car of who are not acquainted with these night from pole to pole; did not move aftronomical terms; and the fact in directly on with the night as before, fhort is that Satan was three days but croffed over from the northern to compaffing the earth from east to the fouthern, and from the fouthern weft, and four days from north to to the northern pole. Traverfing each fouth, but ftill kept always in the colure. As the equinoctial line or fhade of night, and after a whole equator is a great circle incompaffing week's peregrination in this manner the earth from east to weft and from on the eighth night return'd by weft to east again; fo the colures ftealth into Paradife.

are two great circles, interfecting

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75.-iz

In with the river funk, and with it rofe

Satan involv'd in rifing mist, then fought

Where to lie hid; fea he had fearch'd and land
From Eden over Pontus, and the pool

Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob;
Downward as far antarctic; and in length
Weft from Orontes to the ocean barr'd
At Darien, thence to the land where flows

Ganges and Indus: thus the orb he roam'd
With narrow fearch, and with inspection deep
Confider'd every creature, which of all

75

80

Moft opportune might serve his wiles, and found 85 The ferpent fubtleft beast of all the field.

Him

75. Hom. Iliad. I. 359. avedu worins ár☺, nü'on 77. From Eden over Pontus, &c.] As we had before an aftronomical, fo here we have a geographical, account of Satan's peregrinations. He fearch'd both fea and land, northward from Eden over Pontus, Pontus Euxinus, the Euxine Sea, now the Black Sea, above Conftantinople, and the pool Maotis, Palus Mæotis above the Black Sea, up beyond the river Ob, Ob or Oby a great river of Muscovy near the northern pole. Downward as far antarctic, as far fouthward; the northern hemifphere being elevated on our globes, the

involv'd in rifing mift,] north is called up and the fouth downward; antarctic fouth the conthe bear, the most confpicuous contrary to artic north from ap x 7 ftellation near the north pole; but no particular place is mention'd near the fouth pole, there being all fea or land unknown. And in length, as north is up and fouth is down, fo in length is eat or weft; weft from Orontes, a river of Syria, westward of Eden, running into the Mediterranean, to the ocean barr'd at Darien, the ifthmus of Darien in the Weft Indies, a neck of land that joins North and South America together, and hinders the ocean as it were with a bar from flowing between them; and the metaphor of

the

Him after long debate, irrefolute

Of thoughts revolv'd, his final fentence chofe
Fit veffel, fitteft imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark fuggeftions hide
From sharpeft fight: for in the wily fnake,
Whatever fleights none would fufpicious mark,
As from his wit and native subtlety
Proceeding, which in other beafts observ'd
Doubt might beget of diabolic power
Active within beyond the sense of brute.
Thus he refolv'd, but firft from inward grief
His bursting paffion into plaints thus pour'd.
O Earth, how like to Heav'n, if not preferr'd

the ocean barr'd is in allufion to Job XXXVIII. 10. and set bars to the fea. Thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus, thence to the Eaft Indies: thus the orb he roam'd. 86. The ferpent fubtleft beast of all the field.] So Mofes fays Gen. III. 1. Now the ferpent was more fubtle than any beaft of the field; The fubtlety of the ferpent is commended likewife by Ariftotle and other Naturalists: And therefore he was the fitter inftrument for Satan, because (as Milton fays agreeably with the doctrin of the best Divines) any fleights in him might be thought to proceed from his native wit and fubtlety, but obferv'd in other creatures might the easier beget a fuf

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