100 105 More juftly, feat worthier of Gods, as built other worlds inhabited. See III. 566. The imagination that all the heavenly bodies were created for the fake of the Earth was natural to human ignorance, and human vanity might find its account in it: but neither of these could influence Satan. Heylin. As it is common with people to undervalue what they have forfeited and lon by their folly and wickednefs, and to overvalue any good that they hope to attain; fo Satan is here made to question whether Earth be not preferable to Heaven: but this is fpoken of Earth in its primitive and original beauty before the fall. As Mr. Thyer obferves, Spenter has the very fame thought upon a like occafion, for defcribing appears III Of Of creatures animate with gradual life Of growth, sense, reason, all fumm'd up in Man. With what delight could I have walk'd thee round, If I could joy in ought, fweet interchange Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods and plains, 115 Now land, now fea, and fhores with forest crown'd, Torment within me', as from the hateful fiege 120 Bane, and in Heav'n much worse would be my state. perfection in God, as if he had mended his hand by creation, and as if all the works of God were not perfect in their kinds, and in their degrees, and for the ends for which they were intended. 113. Of growth, fenfe, reason, all fumm'd up in Man.] The three kinds of life rifing as it were by steps, the vegetable, animal, and rational; of all which Man partakes, and he only; he grows as plants, minerals, and all things inanimate; he lives as all other animated crea tures, but is over and above indued with reason. Richardfon. 119. Find place or refuge;] Dr. Bentley believes that the author gave it Find place of refuge: Another learned gentleman propofes to read 1 But neither here feek I, no nor in Heaven To dwell, unless by maft'ring Heav'n's Supreme; 125 By what I feek, but others to make fuch To my relentless thoughts; and him deftroy'd, 130 Or won to what may work his utter loss, For whom all this was made, all this will foon Th' infernal Pow'rs, in one day to have marr'd 135 140 Of 139 Of his adorers: he to be aveng'd, And to repair his numbers thus impair'd, Whether fuch virtue spent of old now fail'd 145 More Angels to create, if they at least Are his created, or to fpite us more, Determin'd to advance into our room A creature form'd of earth, and him endow, 159 With heav'nly spoils, our fpoils: What he decreed He' effected; Man he made, and for him built 155 In every bush and brake, where hap may find 160 The ferpent fleeping, in whofe mazy ther the Angels were created by God; he had before afferted, that they were not, to the Angels themfelves, V. 859. We know no time when we were not as now; folds By our own quick'ning pow'r. To He maketh his Angels Spirits, and in whofe mazy folds] Know none before us, felf-begot, Dr. Bentley reads, in his mazy folds. felf-rais'd 164.— am To hide me, and the dark intent I bring. O foul defcent! that I who erst contended With Gods to fit the high'eft, am now constrain'd Into a beast, and mix'd with beftial flime, This effence to incarnate and imbrute, ; Let it; I reck not, so it light well aim'd, 164. am now constrain'd &c.] The construction is, am now forc'd into a beaft, and to incarnate &c. The verb conftrain'd governs both the members; and there are innumerable inftances (as Mr. Richardfon obferves) in Milton, Horace, and the best Latin and Greek poets, of the fame verb governing in one member of the period a noun &c and in the other a verb &c. 166. This effence to incarnate and imbrute,] So alfo in his Mask, The foul grows clotted by contagion, Imbodies and imbrutes. Thyer. 169. who afpires must down as low As high he foar d,] Rather muft Fink as low (fays Dr. Bentley because it is better to have fome verb in the 165 170 Since oppofition than the adverb down. But yet this way of speaking is agreeable to what Milton says in X. 503. But up, and enter now into full blifs. In both places the adverbs are used as verbs, or fome verb of motion is to be fupplied in the sense. Pearce. There is a most beautiful inftance of the use of fuch adverbs for verbs in Spakespear, 2 Henry IV. Act IV. For now a time is come to mock 173. Let it ;] Let revenge recoil on itself, I reck not, I value not, Lo it light well aim'd, fince higher I fall fhort, on him who next provokes my |