Fear'd her ftern frown, and fhe was queen o'th' woods.

What was that fnaky-headed Gorgon fhield,
That wife Minerva wore, unconquer'd virgin,
Wherewith the freez'd her foes to congeal'd stone,

But rigid looks of chafte aufterity,

And noble grace that dafh'd brute violence
With fudden adoration, and blank awe?
So dear to Heav'n is faintly chastity,
That when a foul is found fincerely fo,
A thousand liveried Angels lacky her,

448. — unconquer'd virgin,] He wrote at firft eternal, then unvanquifb'd, at laft unconquer'd; and with great propriety, for in Greek authors Minerva is often called afaμας Θ θεα, and παρθενο αδ μης.

452. With fudden adoration, and blank awe?] It was at first,

With fudden adoration of her purenefs :

this he alter'd to of bright rays, and then to and blank awe.

453. So dear to Heav'n is faintly

450

455 Driving

the Manufcript,

That when it finds a soul fincerely fo.

chaflity, &c] So Spenfer, re- The alteration makes the fenfe ralating how Florimel, in danger of ther plainer.

being ravished, was deliver'd by

Driving far off each thing of fin and guilt,
And in clear dream, and folemn vision,
Tell her of things that no grofs ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants
Begin to caft a beam on th' outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,

And turns it by degrees to the foul's effence,
Till all be made immortal: but when luft,
By unchafte looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
But most by leud and lavish act of fin,

Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
The foul grows clotted by contagion,

460

465

Imbodies,

The fame notion of body's working up to Spirit Milton afterwards introduc'd into his Paradife Loft, V. 469. &c. which is there, I think, liable to fome objection, as he was entirely at liberty to have chofen a more rational system, and as it is alfo put into the mouth of an Arch-Angel. But in this place it fign, gives fuch force and strength falls in fo well with the poet's deto this encomium on chaftity, and carries in it fuch a dignity of fentiment, that however repugnant it may be to our philofophic ideas, it cannot mifs ftriking and delighting every virtuous and intelligent 'reader. Thyer.

465. But

Imbodies, and imbrutes, till fhe quite lofe
The divine property of her first being.

Such are thofe thick and gloomy fhadows damp 470
Oft seen in charnel vaults, and fepulchers,
Ling'ring, and fitting by a new made grave,
As loath to leave the body that it lov'd,
And link'd itself by carnal fenfuality
To a degenerate and degraded state.

2. BROTHER.

How charming is divine philofophy!
Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools fuppofe,
But mufical as is Apollo's lute,

465. But moft by leud and lavish act of fin,] In the Manufcript it is And moft &c and instead of leud and lavif he had written at first,

475

And

and 83. Edit. Henr. Steph. And when the other Brother replies How charming is divine philoJophy!

he means the philofophy of Plato,

And moft by the lafcivious act of who was diftinguifh'd among the

fin.

467. The foul grows clotted &c] Our author has here improved his poetry by philofophy. Thefe notions of the foul's growing corporeal by indulging corporeal pleafures, and of its being feen after death among tombs and fepulchers, as if it ftill longed after the body, are borrow'd from Plato's Phædo. See Plato's Works, Vol. I. p. 81.

Ancients by the name of the divine.

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd fweets,

Where no crude furfeit reigns.

ELDER BROTHER.

Lift, lift, I hear

Some far off hallow break the filent air.
2. BROTHER.

Methought fo too; what fhould it be?
ELDER BROTHER.

For certain

479

Either fome one like us night-founder'd here,
Or else some neighbour wood-man, or, at worst,
Some roving robber calling to his fellows.

2. BROTHER.

485

Heav'n keep my Sifter. Again, again, and near; Beft draw, and ftand upon our guard.

I'll hallow;

ELDER BROTHER.

If he be friendly, he comes well; if not,
Defense is a good caufe, and Heav'n be for us.

The attendent Spirit, habited like a shepherd.
That hallow I fhould know, what are you? fpeak;
Come not too near, you fall on iron stakes else.

SPIRIT.

491

What voice is that? my young Lord? fpeak again. 2. BROTHER.

Thyrfis? whofe artful strains have oft delay'd The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,

Court Gallants of that time: and what follows continues the allufion,

Had beft look to his forehead,

here be brambles.

But I fuppofe he thought it might give offenfe: and he was not yet come to an open defiance with the court. Warburton.

489. Defenfe is a good caufe, and Heav'n be for us. This verfe was well fubftituted in the room of that juft quoted,

495

And