The fixth, and of creation laft arofe 455 Limb'd and full grown out of the ground up rose Among the trees in pairs they rofe, they walk'd: 460 Thofe 456.. out of the ground up rofe In foreft wild,] Lair, or layer, an 50 Those rare and folitary, thefe in flocks Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upfprung. 464 His hinder parts, then fprings as broke from bonds, And rampant shakes his brinded mane; the ounce, The libbard, and the tiger, as the mole Rifing, the crumbled earth above them threw 461. Thofe rare and folitary, thefe in flocks] Thofe, that is the wild beafts mention'd in ver. 457. thefe the tame, the cattel; and it is a very fignal act of Providence that there are fo few of the former fort, and fo many of the latter, for the use and service of man. 462. broad herds] This will found a little strange to the ear of an English reader, who must there fore be told that he follows Homer litterally. Iliad. XI. 678. 469 Behemoth and does not relate to cows only; for hinds are faid to calve in Job XXXIX. 1. and Pfalm XXIX. 9. Mr. Addison particularly commends this metaphor: and the whole defcription of the beafts rifing out of the earth, tho' Dr. Bentley condemns it as an infertion of the edi-' tor's, is certainly not only worthy of the genius of Milton, but may be efteen'd a fhining part of the poem. He fuppofes the beafts to rife out of the earth, in perfect forms, limb'd and full grown, as Raphael had painted this fubject before in the Vatican; and he defcribes their manner of rifing in figures and attitudes, and in numbers too, fuited to their various natures. 467. The libbard,] The fame as the leopard; a word ufed by Spenfer and the old poets, Fairy Queen, B. F. Cant. 6. St. 25. 470. Scarce from his mold Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd His vastness: fleec'd the flocks and bleating rofe, The river horse and scaly crocodile. At once came forth whatever creeps the ground, 475 In all the liveries deck'd of summer's pride His vaftnefs:] The numbers are excellent, and admirably exprefs the heaviness and unwieldinefs of the elephant, for it is plainly the elephant that Milton means. Behemoth and leviathan are two creatures, described in the book of Job, and formerly the generality of interpreters underftood by them the elephant and the whale: but the learned Bochart and other later critics have endevor'd to show that behemoth is the river borfe and leviathan the crocodile. It feems as if Milton was of the former opinion by mentioning leviathan among the fishes, and the river borfe and fcaly crocodile, ver. 474. as diftinct from behemoth and leviathan; and there is furely authority fufficient to justify a poet in that opinion. Behemoth biggest born. The allitteration, as the critics call it, is very remarkable, all the words beginning with b. We had another inftance a little before in the production of the mountains, ver. 286. 480 Streaking Streaking the ground with finuous trace; not all Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd, not all 481. Their fnaky folds, and added wings.] These verses Dr. Bentley rejects: he thinks them fo plainly fpurious, that (as he fays) the editor is here caught in the forgery. Let us fee whether this be the cafe or not. Snaky, he fays, is mere tautology, i. e. Serpents involv'd serpentin folds. But is not Serpent a more general word than Snake? does it not include all the creeping kind, at least several animals that are not fnakes nor have fnaky folds? If fo, then the epithet Inaky is no tautology. But what is added wings, fays the Doctor? It means, had wings added to their long and corpulent bodies. Scarcely any thing is more common in poetry than to fpeak after this manner, which reprefents the creature as doing that which is done to it. So in IX. 515. a fhip is faid to fleer and fhift her fail. So in Virgil's Georg. II. 535. it is faid of the city of Rome, . 485 Septemque una fibi muro circum. It is there faid of the bee, and here dedit arces. applied to the ant. 487. Pat Pattern of juft equality perhaps Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes Of commonalty: swarming next appear❜d The female bee, that feeds her husband drone 490 Delicioufly, and builds her waxen cells With honey ftor'd: the reft are numberless, 487. Pattern of juft equality] We fee that our author upon occafion discovers his principles of government. He inlarges upon the fame thought in another part of his works. "Go to the ant, thou fluggard, faith "Solomon; confider her ways and be wife; which having no prince, "ruler, or lord, provides her meat "in the fummer, and gathers her food "in the harveft: which evidently "shows us, that they who think the "nation undone without a king, "tho' they look grave or haughty, "have not so much true spirit and "understanding in them as a pif"mire: neither are thefe diligent "creatures hence concluded to live "in lawless anarchy, or that com"mended, but are fet the examples "to imprudent and ungovern'd men, "of a frugal and felf-governing de"mocraty or commonwealth; fafer " and more thriving in the joint "providence and counfel of many "induftrious equals, than under the "fingle domination of one impe"rious lord." See his Ready and eafy way to establish a free commonwealth, p. 591. Edit. 1738. He adds perhaps bereafter, as he had no hopes of it at that time. He commends the ants or emmets for living in a |