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In billows, leave i'th' midt a horrid vale.

Then with expanded wings he fteers his flight 225
Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air

That felt unusual weight, till on dry land
He lights, if it were land that ever burn'd
With folid, as the lake with liquid fire;

And fuch appear'd in hue, as when the force 230
Of fubterranean wind transports a hill

Torn from Pelorus, or the shatter'd fide
Of thund'ring Ætna, whofe combustible
And fuel'd entrails thence conceiving fire,
Sublim'd with mineral fury, aid the winds,
And leave a finged bottom all involv'd

235

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229
VI. 33.
Et liquidi fimul ignis.

liquid fire;] Virg. Ed.

231. Of fubterranean wind]
Dr. Pearce conjectures that it should
be read fubterranean winds, because
it is faid aid the winds afterwards,
and the conjecture feems probable
and ingenious: the fuel'd entrails,
Jublim'd with mineral fury, aid and

increase the winds which first blew
up
the fire.

232. Pelorus] A promontory of Sicily, now Cape di Faro, about a

With stench and smoke: Such resting found the fole
Of unblest feet. Him follow'd his next mate,
Both glorying to have 'scap'd the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by their own recover'd ftrength, 240
Not by the sufferance of supernal Power.

Is this the region, this the foil, the clime,
Said then the loft Arch-Angel, this the feat
That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be' it fo, fince he 245
Who

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248. Whom reason hath equal'd,] Reason is to be pronounced here as one fyllable, or too fhort ones, as it is likewise in VIII. 591. and IX. 559. See the note on ver. 39.

250. Hail horrors, hail &c.] His fentiments are every way anfwerable to his character, and fuitable to a created being of the most exalted and moft depraved nature. Such is that in which he takes poffeffion of his place of torments,

Hail horrors, hail &c.
And afterwards,

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Who now is Sovran can difpofe and bid

What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
Whom reas'on hath equal'd, force hath made fupreme
Above his equals. Farewell happy fields,
Where joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail 250
Infernal world, and thou profoundeft Hell
Receive thy new poffeffor; one who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself

worth, not fubftance. He is likewife with great art defcribed as owning his adverfary to be almighty. Whatever perverfe interpretation he puts on the justice, mercy and other attributes of the Supreme Being, he frequently confeffes his omnipotence, that being the perfection he was forced to allow him, and the only confideration which could fupport his pride

under the fhame of his defcat. Nor muft I omit that beautiful circumftance of his bursting out into tears, upon his furvey of thofe innumerable Spirits whom he had involved in the fame guilt and ruin with himself. Addifon.

252. Receive thy new possessor; } This paffage feems to be an improvement upon Sophocles, Ajax 395. where Ajax, before he kills himself, cries out much in the fame

manner.

Ιω σκοτος, εμον φαος, εξεμένος
Ο φαινον ως εμος,

VOD. I.

Ελεσθ' ελεσθ' οικήτορα,
Έλεσθε με.

Can

is excellent in placing his words: 253.by place or time.] Milton invert them only, and fay by time or place, and if the reader has any ear, he will perceive how much the alteration is for the worfe. For

the paufe falling upon place in the firft line by time or place, and again upon place in the next line The mind is its own place, would offend the ear, and therefore is artfully varied.

A mind not to be chang'd by place or time.

The mind is its own place.

254. The mind is its own place,] Thefe are fome of the extravagances of the Stoics, and could not be better ridiculed than they are here by being put in the mouth of Satan in his prefent fituation. Thyer.

D

Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. 255 What matter where, if I be still the fame,

260

And what I fhould be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign fecure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th'affociates and copartners of our loss,
Lie thus aftonifh'd on th' oblivious pool,

257.all but] I have heard it propos'd to read albeit, that is although; but prefer the common reading.

259-th' Almighty hath not built Here for his envy,] This is not a place that God fhould envy us, or think it too good for us; and in this fenfe the word envy is used in feveral places of the poem, and particularly in IV. 517. VIII. 494. and IX. 770.

263. Better to reign in Hell, than

ferve in Heaven.] This is a wonderfully fine improvement upon Prometheus's anfwer to Mercury in Æfchylus. Prom. Vinct. 965.

Της σης λατρείας της εμην δυσπρα ξίαν,

265

And

Σαφως επισασ, ४४ αν αλλαξαιμ

εγω

Κρείσσον γαρ οίμαι τηδε λατρεύειν

Петра,

Η πατρι φύναι Ζηνι πιτον a778

λον.

lius Cæfar, that he had rather be It was a memorable faying of Juthe first man in a country-village reader will obferve how properly than the fecond at Rome. The the faying is here applied and acCommodated to the fpeaker. It is here made a fentiment worthy of Satan, and of him only;

nam te nec fperent Tartara regem,

Nec tibi regnandi veniat tam dira cupido. Virg. Georg. I. 36. 276.-02

And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy manfion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet.
Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more loft in Hell? 270
So Satan fpake, and him Beelzebub

Thus answer'd. Leader of those armies bright,
Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd,
If once they hear that voice, their livelieft pledge
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard fo oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battel when it rag'd, in all assaults
Their fureft fignal, they will foon resume

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275

New

As full of peril and adventrous fpirit,

As to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud,

On the unftedfaft footing of a fpear.

Hot. If he fall in, good night, or fink or fwim.

Or after all may not the edge of battel be exprefs'd from the Latin of a weapon, and alfo an army in acies, which fignifies both the edge battel array? The author himself would incline one to think fo by his ufe of this metaphor in another

and fomething like it in 1 Hen. IV. place, VI. 108.

A&. I.

I'll read you matter, deep and dangerous;

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