Not half so far cafts his ufurped fway, And wroth to fee his kingdom fail, Swindges the scaly horror of his folded tail. The oracles are dumb, XIX. No voice or hideous hum 170 Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. Apollo from his shrine Can no more divine, 176 With hollow fhriek the steep of Delphos leaving. No nightly trance, or breathed fpell Infpires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic cell. XX. The lonely mountains o'er, 181 And the refounding fhore, A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; in his younger years, for he was ftill pleafed with it when he was older, and had his eye upon it feveral times in the Paradife Loft. 176. Apollo from his fhrine Can no more divine, &c] Our author builds here upon the common hypothefis of the oracles being ftruck dumb at the coming of Chrift, which is allowable enough in a young poet and in this paffage he alludes particularly to the famous ftory of Auguftus Cæfar's sonfulting the Pythia or priestess of From. Apollo who fhould reign after him, and her anfwering that an Hebrew boy had commanded her to leave that temple and return to Hell. Sce Suidas in Auguftus Cæfar. 183. A voice of weeping heard and loud lament; ] Alluding to the ftory of a voice proclaming that the great Pan was dead, and immediately was heard a great groaning and lamentation. See more to this purpose in Plutarch's treatise De oraculorum defectu. 191. Lars, T From haunted fpring, and dale Edg'd with poplar pale, The parting Genius is with fighing fent; With flowr-inwoven treffes torn The Nymphs in twilight fhade of tangled thickets mourn. XXI. In confecrated earth, And on the holy hearth, 190 The Lars, and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; In urns, and altars round, A drear and dying found Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint ; And the chill marble feems to fweat, 195 With that twice batter'd God of Palestine; And mooned Ashtaroth, Heav'n's queen and mother both, Now fits not girt with tapers holy shine; The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn, $200 In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thammuz mourn. XXIII. And fullen Moloch fled, Hath left in fhadows dread His burning idol all of blackest hue; In vain with cymbals ring They call the grifly king, In difmal dance about the furnace blue; The brutish Gods of Nile as fast, Ifis and Orus, and the dog Anubis haste. Nor is Ofiris feen In Memphian grove or green, there. Selden had a few years before publish'd his De Diis Syris Syntagmata duo, and therefore we may fuppofe Milton was fo well inftructed in this kind of learning. 205 210. Trampling the unfhowr'd grafs with lowings loud: Nor can he be at reft Within his facred cheft, 216 Nought but profoundest Hell can be his shroud; In vain with timbrel'd anthems dark The fable-ftoled forcerers bear his worshipt ark. 220 XXV. He feels from Juda's land The dreaded Infant's hand, The of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyn; rays Nor all the Gods befide, Longer dare abide, Not Typhon huge ending in fnaky twine: Our babe to show his Godhead true, 225 Can in his fwadling bands controll the damned crew. XXVI. So when the fun in bed, Curtain'd with cloudy red, Pillows his chin upon an orient wave, 215.-the unbowr'd grafs] There being no rain in Egypt, but the country made fruitful with the overflowings of the Nile. Richardfon. 227. Our babe to show &c] In the printed copies it is 230 The Our Babe to fhew his Godhead true: but this pitiful jingle could not be 244. Bright-barneft] Dreft, arm'd, accoutred. Arnefe in Ita The flocking fhadows pale Troop to th' infernal jail, Each fetter'd ghost flips to his feveral grave, 234 And the yellow-fkirted Fayes [maze. Fly after the night-fteeds, leaving their moon-lov'd XXVII. But fee the Virgin blest Hath laid her Babe to reft, Time is our tedious song should here have ending: Heav'n's youngest teemed star Hath fix'd her polish'd car, 240 Her fleeping Lord with handmaid lamp attending: And all about the courtly stable Bright-harnest Angels fit in order ferviceable. Ε IV. *The PASSION. I. Rewhile of mufic, and ethereal mirth, Ewhere with the ftage of air and earth did ring, Wherewith the of lian is a general name for all kinds of habits and ornaments. Richardfon. Harness is ufed for armour in our tranflation of the Bible. 1 Kings XX. 11. Let not him that girdeth on bis harness, boaft himself, as he that And putteth it off. Exod. XIII. 18. The children of Ifrael went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt. *It appears from the beginning of this poem, that it was compofed after, and probably foon after, the ode on the Nativity. 22. These |