399 Back from pursuit thy Pow'rs with loud acclame Second to thee, offer'd himself to die 405 410 Hail 398. Thee only' extoll'd,] We muft not understand it thus, Thy Powers returning from purfuit extoll'd, &c. but Thy Powers extoll'd thee returning from purfuit, and thee only; for he was the fole victor, all the reft food filent eye-witnesses of his almighty acts, VI. 880. &c. So perfectly doth this hymn of the good Angels agree with the account given by Raphael in Book VI. and whenever mention is made of the good Angels joining in the purfuit, it is by the evil Angels, the reafon of which fee before in the note upon I. 169. 406. He to appease thy wrath,] As an ingenious perfon obferves, than or but must be understood before He to complete the fenfe. Such omiffions are frequent in poetry, and this may have a beauty here, as it exprefles the readiness of the Son to interpofe on Man's behalf immediately upon perceiving the Father's gracious purpose. 412. Heil Hail Son of God, Saviour of Men, thy name Thus they in Heav'n, above the ftarry sphere, Of this round world, whofe first convex divides 413.- the copious matter of my Jong] Dr. Bently reads here our fong; but why may not Milton take the liberty us'd in the ancient chorus, where fometimes the plural, and fometimes the fingular number is uf d? Or it may be faid that Milton speaks in his own perfon, or rather narrates than gives us the words as the words of the Angels. If we read it over, we fhall fee this plainly; Thee first they fung, ver. 372. and again Thee next they fang, ver. 383; and this accounts for what Dr. Bentley objects to ver. 381. that Seraphim are mention'd. Pearce. 415 420 Satan It is to be noted that the ending of this hymn is in imitation of the hymns of Homer and Callimachus, who always promife to return in Richardfon. future hymns. 418. Meanwhile upon the firm &c.] Satan's walk upon the outfide of the universe, which at a distance appeared to him of a globular form, but upon his nearer approach looked like an unbounded plain, is natural and noble; as his roaming upon the frontiers of the creation between that mass of matter, which was wrought into a world, and that fhapeless unformed heap of materials, which still lay in Chaos and confufion, ftrikes the imagination with fomething aftonifhingly great and wild. Addifon. 431. As when a vultur, &c.] This fimile is very appofite and lively, and correfponds exactly in all the particulars. Satan coming from Satan alighted walks: a globe far off It feem'd, now feems a boundless continent Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night Starless expos'd, and ever-threatning storms 425 Of Chaos bluft'ring round, inclement sky; Whose from Hell to Earth in order to destroy mankind, but lighting firft on the bare convex of this world's outermost orb, a fea of land as the poet calls it, is very fitly compared to a vultur flying, in queft of his prey, tender lambs or kids new-yean'd, from the barren rocks to the more fruitful hills and ftreams of India, but lighting in his way on the plains of Sericana, which were in a manner a fea of land too, the country being fo fmooth and open that carriages were driven (as travelers report) with fails and wind. Imaus is a celebrated mountain in Afia; its name fignifies nowy in the language of the inhabitants according to Pliny, Lib. 6. cap. 21. incolarum lingua nivofum fignificante; and therefore it is faid here whofe fnowy ridge. It is the boundary to the eat of the Western Tartars, Whofe fnowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, On hills where flocks are fed, flies tow'ard the fprings Of Ganges or Hydafpes, Indian ftreams ; 435 But as there was a man lately at Bath who attempted fomething of the fane nature, and could really drive his machine without horfes by the help of wind and fail upon Marlborough Downs, but it would not ferve upon the road; it did well enough upon the plain, but he could not make it go up hill. 442. in this place i have before ipoken of the Limbo of Vanity, which the poet places upon the outermoft furface of the univerfe, and fhall here explain myfelf more at large on that, and other parts of the poem, which are of the fame fhadowy nature. Ariftotle obferves, that the fable of an epic poem should abound in circumitances that are both credible and aftonishing; or as the French critics choofe to phrafe it, the fable fhould be filled with the probable and the marvelous. This rule is as fine and just as any in Ariftotle's whole art of poetry. If the fable is only probable, it differs nothing from a true hiftory; if it is only marvelous, it is no better than a romance. The great fecret therefore of heroic poetry is to relate fuch circumftances, as may produce in the reader at the fame time both belief and astonishment. This is brought to pafs in a well-chofen fable, by the account of fuch things as have really happen'd, or at least of fuch things as have happen'd according to the received opinions of mankind. Milton's fable is a mafter-piece of this nature; as the war in Heaven, the condition of the fallen, Angels, the ftate of innocence, the temptation of the Serpent and the fall of Man, though they are very aftonishing in themselves, are not only credible, but actual points of faith. The next method of reconciling miracles with credibility, is by a happy invention of the poet; as in particular, when he introduces agents of a fuperior nature, who are capable of effecting what is wonderful, and what is not to be met with in the ordinary courfe of things. Ulyffes's fhip being turned into a rock, and neas's feet into a fhoal of Water-nymphs, though they are very furrrifing accidents, are neverthelefs probable, when we are told that they were the Gods who thus transformed them. It is this kind of But in his way lights on the barren plains of machinery which fills the poems both of Homer and Virgil with fuch circumstances as are wonderful, but not impoffible, and fo frequently produce in the reader the moft pleafing paffion that can rife in the mind of man, which is admiration. If there be any inftance in the Eneid liable to exception upon this account, it is in the beginning of the third book, where Eneas is reprefented as tearing up the myrtle that dropped blood. To qualify this wonderful circumftance, Polydorus tells a story from the root of the myrtle, that the barbarous inhabitants of the country having pierced him with fpears and arrows, the wood which was left in his body took root in his wounds, and gave birth to that bleeding tree. This circumftance feems to have the marvelous without the probable, because it is reprefented as proceeding from natural caufes, without the interpofition of any God, or other fupernatural power capable of producing it. The fpears and arrows grow of themselves, without fo much as the modern help of an inchantment. If we look into the 440 Living fiction of Milton's fable, though we find it full of furprising incidents, they are generally fuited to our notions of the things and perfons defcribed, and tempered with a due measure of probability. I muft only make an exception to the Limbo of Vanity, with his epifode of Sin and Death, and fome of the imaginary perfons in his Chaos. Thefe paflages are aftonishing, but not credible; the reader cannot fo far impofe upon himfelf, as to fee a poflibility in them; they are the defcription of dreams and fhadows, not of things or perfons. I know that many critics look upon the ftories of Circe, Polypheme, the Sirens, nay the whole Odyffey and Iliad, to be allegories; but allowing this to be true, they are fables, which confidering the opinions of mankind that prevailed in the age of the poet, might poffibly have been according to the letter. The perfons are iuch as might have acted what is afcribed to them, as the circumftances in which they are reprefented, might poffibly have been truths and realities. This appearance of probability is fo abfolutely requifite |