Built nobly; pure the air, and light the soil;" eye e Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, City or suburban, studious walks and shades. Plato's retirement, where the Attick bird 240 245 beautiful. Milton's Muse, as was before observed, is too much cramped down by the argumentative cast of his subject, but emerges upon every favourable occasion; and, like the sun from under a cloud, bursts into the same bright vein of poetry, which shines out more frequently, though not more strongly, in the Paradise Lost."-THYER. I cannot persuade myself, that our author, when he selected his subject and formed his plan, considered himself as any ways cramped down by it. I have no doubt that he looked forward with pleasure to the opportunities, which he foresaw it would afford him, of introducing this and other admirable descriptions; and that he was particularly aware of the great effect which the argumentative cast of part of his poem would give to that which is purely descriptive.-DUNSTER. I am sure that this critical opinion of Dunster is perfectly correct. It is the theory on which I have constantly proceeded in judging of Milton. a Built nobly. Homer, speaking of Athens, calls it "a well-built city," I. ii. 546.-NEWTON. b Pure the air, and light the soil. Attica being a mountainous country, the soil was light, and the air sharp and pure; and therefore said to be productive of sharp wits.-NEWTON. "Pure the air, and light the soil," Mr. Calton remarks, is from Dio Chrysostom, Orat. vii. A variety of passages which assert the clearness and pureness of the air of Athens, may be seen in Gronov. Thesaur. Gr. Antiq. "De Fortuna Atticarum,” vol. v. p. 1696, edit. fol. 1699.-TODD. c Athens, the eye of Greece. Demosthenes somewhere calls Athens "the eye of Greece," but I cannot at present recollect the place in Justin it is called one of the two eyes of Greece, Sparta being the other (1. v. c. 8); and Catullus (xxxii. 1) terms Sirmio the eye of islands: but the metaphor is more properly applied to Athens than any other place, as it was the great seat of learning.-NEWTON. And eloquence. & Mother of arts Justin (1. v. c. 9) terms Athens "patria communis eloquentiæ:" and, l. ii. c. 6, he says, "Literæ certe et facundia veluti templum Athenas habent." Cicero abounds in panegyrics upon this celebrated seat of learning and eloquence: he describes it, "illas omnium doctrinarum inventrices Athenas, in quibus summa dicendi vis et inventa est et perfecta," De Orator. 1. i. 13. ed. Proust. And in his "Brutus," sect. 39, he characterizes it, "ea urbs, in qua et nata et alta sit eloquentia."-DUNSTER. e Hospitable. Diodorus describes the Athenians as "hospitable to wits" of other countries, by admitting all persons whatever to benefit by the instruction of the learned teachers in their city, 1. xiii. c. 27. The Athenians were remarkable for their general hospitality towards strangers, to whom their city was always open; and for whose reception and accommodation they had particular officers, under the title of pógɛvot, i. e. "the receivers of strangers in the name of the whole city."-DUNSTER. The olive grove of Academe. This whole description of the Academe is infinitely charming. Dr. Newton has justly observed that "Plato's Academy was never more beautifully described.” DUNSTER. Diogenes Laertius relates, in his "Life of Plato," that Athens from his journey to Egypt, settled himself in the place of exercise in the suburbs of that city, beset with Academus, one of the heroes, as Eupolis, In sacred Academus' shady walks; Plato "being returned to Academy, a gymnasium or woods, taking name from Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;i His whispering stream: within the walls then view m Lyceum there, and painted Stoa" next: By voice or hand; and various-measured verse, And his who gave them breath, but higher sung, 250 255 and he was buried in the Academy, where he continued most of his time teaching philosophy: whence the sect which sprung up from him was called Academic."NEWTON. h Where the Attick bird, &c. Philomela, who according to the fables was changed into a nightingale, was the daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. Hence the nightingale is called "Atthis," in Latin, quasi Attica avis.-NEWTON. Gray has imitated this expression in his "Ode to Spring:" The Attic warbler pours her throat i Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long. Dr. Newton observes that perhaps there never was a verse more expressive of the harmony of the nightingale than this. Homer has a description of the song of that bird, which is not dissimilar, "Odyss." xix. 521.—Dunster. There flowery hill Hymettus, &c. Valerius Flaccus calls it "florea juga Hymetti," Argonaut. v. 344; and the honey was so much esteemed and celebrated by the ancients, that it was reckoned the best of the Attic honey, as the Attic honey was said to be the best in the world.-NEWTON. k There Ilissus rolls. Mr. Calton and Mr. Thyer have observed with me, that Plato hath laid the scene of his Phædrus on the banks, and at the spring, of this pleasant river.-NEWTON. 1 Who bred Great Alexander to subdue the world. We are told by Cicero, that Aristotle, having observed how Isocrates had risen to celebrity on the sole ground of florid declamation, was thereby induced to add to his own stock of solid knowledge the external grace of oratorical embellishments; which recommended him so much to Philip of Macedon, that he fixed upon him to be preceptor to his son Alexander, whom he wished to be taught at once conduct and eloquence."De Orator," iii. 41, ed. Proust.-DUNSTER. m Lyceum there.. The Lyceum was the school of Aristotle, who had been tutor to Alexander the Great, and was the founder of the sect of the Peripatetics; so called from his walking and teaching philosophy.-NEWton. n Painted Stoa. Stoa was the school of Zeno, whose disciples from the place had the name of Stoics: and this Ston, or portico, being adorned with variety of paintings, was called in Greek Toxían, or "various," and here by Milton the "painted Stoa."-NEWTON. o Eolian charms, &c. Eolia carmina; verses such as those of Alcæus and Sappho, who were both of Mitylene in Lesbos, an island belonging to the Eolians: "and Dorian lyrick odes;" such as those of Pindar.-NEWTON. P And his, &c. Our author agrees with those writers who speak of Homer as the father of all kinds of poetry.-NEWTON. Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer call'd, Whose poem Phoebus challenged for his own:" Of moral prudence, with delight received a Blind Melesigenes, thence Homer call'd. 260 265 270 Our author here follows Herodotus, in his life of Homer, where it is said that he was born near the river Meles, and that from thence his mother named him at first Melesigenes.-NEWTON. Whose poem Phœbus challenged for his own. Alluding to a Greek epigram, in the first book of the "Anthologia;”— Ἠείδον μὲν ἐγὼν, ἐχάρασσε δὲ θεῖος "Ομηρος.—NEWTON. The lofty grave tragedians. Eschylus is thus characterized by Quinctillian :-"Tragoedias primum in lucem Eschylus protulit, sublimis et gravis, et grandiloquus, &c., 1. x. c. 1, where also the same author, comparing Sophocles and Euripides, says, "gravitas, et cothurnus, et sonus Sophoclis videtur esse sublimior." Tragedy was termed "lofty" by the ancients from its style, but at the same time not without a reference to the elevated buskin which the actors wore.-DUNSTER. t Chorus or iambick. The two constituent parts of the ancient tragedy were the dialogue, written chiefly in the iambic measure; and the chorus, which consisted of various measures.-NEWTON. u With delight received In brief sententious precepts. This description particularly applies to Euripides, who, next to Homer, was Milton's favourite Greek author.-DUNSTER. Of fate, and chance, and change in human life. The arguments most frequently selected by the Greek tragic writers, and indeed by their epic poets also, were the accomplishment of some oracle, or some supposed decree of fate.-Dunster. High actions and high passions best describing. High actions" refer to fate and chance, the arguments and incidents of tragedy; "high passions" to the peripetia, or change of fortune, which included the rátos, or affecting part.-DUNSTER. Thence to the famous orators, &c. How happily does Milton's versification, in this and the following lines, concerning the Socratic philosophy, express what he is describing! In the first we feel, as it were, the nervous rapid eloquence of Demosthenes, and the latter have all the gentleness and softness of the humble moral character of Socrates.-THYER. y Those ancient. Milton was of the same opinion as Cicero, who preferred Pericles, Hyperides, schines, Demosthenes, and the orators of their times, to Demetrius Phalereus, and those of the subsequent ages.-NEWTON. z Whose resistless eloquence Wielded at will that fierce democratie, Shook the arsenal, and fulmined o'er Greece. Alluding, as Dr. Newton and Dr. Jortin have both observed, to what Aristophanes has said of Pericles in his "Acharnenses:" Ηστραπτεν, ἐβρόντα, ξυνεκύκα τὴν Ἑλλάδα.—DUNSTER. To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne: To sage Philosophy next lend thine ear, e These here revolve, or, as thou likest, at home, f a To Macedon and Artaxerxes' throne. 275 280 285 As Pericles and others "fulmined over Greece to Artaxerxes' throne" against the Persian king, so Demosthenes was the orator particularly, who "fulmined over Greece to Macedon" against king Philip, in his Orations, therefore denominated Philippics.NEWTON. b From Heaven descended to the low-roofed house Of Socrates. Mr. Calton thinks the author alludes to Juvenal, Sat. xi. 27:-"e cœlo descendit qvôli ocavrov," as this famous Delphic precept was the foundation of Socrates' philosophy; and so much used by him, that it hath passed with some for his own. Or, as Mr. Warburton and Mr. Thyer conceive, the author here probably alludes to what Cicero says of Socrates; "Socrates autem primus philosophiam devocavit e cœlo, et in urbibus collocavit, et in domos etiam introduxit."-Tusc. Disp. v. 4.-NEWTON. c From whose mouth issued forth Mellifluous streams, that water'd all the schools Of Academicks, &c. Thus Quintilian calls Socrates "fons philosophorum," 1. i. c. 10. As the ancients looked on Homer to be the father of poetry, so they esteemed Socrates the father of moral philosophy.-NEWTON. But our author, in speaking here of "the mellifluous streams of philosophy that issued from the mouth of Socrates, and watered all the various schools or sects of philosophers," had in his mind a passage of Elian (Var. Hist. 1. xiii. c. 22), where it is said that "Galaton the painter drew Homer as a fountain, and the other poets drawing water from his mouth."-DUNSTER. a Old and new. The Academic sect of philosophers, like the Greek comedy, had its three epochs, old, middle, and new. Plato was the head of the old Academy, Arcesilas of the middle, and Carneades of the new.-DUNSTER. • These rules. There is no mention before of rules; but of poets, orators, and philosophers. We should read therefore, "their rules," &c.-CALTON. See, however, v. 264. "In brief sententious precepts," &c. f To whom, &c. This answer of our Saviour is as much to be admired for solid reasoning, and the many sublime truths contained in it, as the preceding speech of Satan is for that fine vein of poetry which runs through it: and one may observe in general, that Milton has quite, throughout this work, thrown the ornaments of poetry on the side of error; whether it was that he thought great truths best expressed in a grave, unaffected style; or intended to suggest this fine moral to the reader: that simple naked truth will always be an over-match for falsehood, though recommended by the gayest rhetoric, and adorned with the most bewitching colours.-THYER. Of knowing what I ought: he who receives A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense.j But virtue join'd with riches and long life ;* He who receives Light from above, from the fountain of light, No other doctrine needs, though granted true. 290 295 800 Peck, from this passage, supposes Milton to have been a quaker. Milton was a sectarist on general principles, which cannot easily be reduced to any particular or separate system.-T. WARTON. h The first and wisest of them all profess'd To know this only, that he nothing knew. Socrates; of whom Cicero, "Hic in omnibus fere sermonibus, qui ab iis, qui illum audierunt, perscripti varie, copiose sunt, ita disputat, ut nihil adfirmet ipse, refellat alios: nihil se scire dicat, nisi id ipsum: eoque præstare ceteris; quod illi quæ nesciant scire se putent; ipse, se nihil scire, id unum sciat."—Academic. i. 4.-NEWTON. i The next to fabling fell, and smooth conceits. Milton, in his Latin poem "De Idea Platonica," terms Plato "fabulator maximus;" v. 38. This passage shows our poet inclined to censure the fictions of the philosopher; which are also noticed in early times.-Dunster. A third sort doubted all things, though plain sense. These were the sceptics or Pyrrhonians, the disciples of Pyrrho, who asserted nothing to be either honest or dishonest, just or unjust; that men do all things by law and custom; and that in everything this is not preferable to that. This was called the sceptic philosophy, from its continual inspection, and never finding; and Pyrrhonian from Pyrrho.-NEWTON. Others in virtue placed felicity, But virtue join'd with riches and long life. These were the old Academics, and the Peripatetics, the scholars of Aristotle. See Cicero, "Academic." ii. 42, and "De Fin." ii. 11.-NEWTON. 1 In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease. The "he" is here contemptuously emphatical.-Dunster. m The Stoick last, &c. The reason why Milton represents our Saviour taking such particular notice of the Stoics above the rest, was probably because they made pretensions to a more refined and exalted virtue than any of the other sects, and were at that time the most prevailing party among the philosophers, and the most revered and esteemed for the strictness of their morals, and the austerity of their lives. The picture of their virtuous man is perfectly just, as might easily be shown from many passages in Seneca and Antoninus; and the defects and insufficiency of their scheme could not possibly be set in a stronger light than they are by our author in the lines following.-THYER. n Equal to God. Dr. Newton here reads, "equals to God," &c., and conceives the sense to be so much improved, that the omission of the letters must have been an error of the press.. I |