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Then when the Dragon, put to fecond rout,
Came furious down to be reveng'd on men,
Woe to th' inhabitants on earth! that now,

While time was, our first parents had been warn'd
The coming of their fecret foe, and fcap'd,
Haply so scap'd his mortal snare: for now
Satan, now first inflam'd with rage, came down,
The tempter ere th'accufer of man-kind,
To wreck on innocent frail man his lofs
Of that first battel, and his flight to Hell:
Yet not rejoicing in his speed, though bold
Far off and fearless, nor with cause to boast,
Begins his dire attempt, which nigh the birth
Now rolling boils in his tumultuous breast,

tention of his reader, introduces his relation of Satan's adventures upon earth by wifhing that the fame warning voice had been utter'd now at Satan's firft coming, that St. John, who in a vifion faw the Apocalyps or Revelation of the moft remarkable events which were to befall the Chriftian Church to the end of the world, heard when the Dragon (that old Serpent, called the Devil and Satan) was put to fecond rout. Rev. XII. 12. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the fea, for the Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath.

10. — th' accufer of man-kind,]

And

As he is reprefented in that fame chapter of the Revelation, which the poet is ftill alluding to. For the accufer of our brethren is caft down, which accused them before our Gid day and night, ver. 10.

Does not this confirm what I have 13. Yet not rejoicing in his speed obferved of ver. 741. of the preceding book, and that Mil prove ton did not intend by it to attri bute any sportive motion to Satan for joy that he was fo near his journey's end?

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No more than II. 1011. But glad that now his fea should find a fert, and III. 740. Sped with hop'd juices,

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And like a devilish engin back recoils

Upon himself; horror and doubt diftract
His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom ftir
The Hell within him; for within him Hell
He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell
One step no more than from himself can fly
By change of place: now confcience wakes despair
That flumber'd, wakes the bitter memory

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Of what he was, what is, and what must be Worfe; of worse deeds worse sufferings muft enfue. Sometimes tow'ards Eden, which now in his view Lay pleasant, his griev'd look he fixes fad; Sometimes towards Heav'n and the full-blazing fun, Which now fat high in his meridian tower:

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Then much revolving, thus in fighs began.

O thou that with surpaffing glory crown'd, Look'ft from thy fole dominion like the God Of this new world; at whofe fight all the stars Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call, But with no friendly voice, and add thy name O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams, That bring to my remembrance from what state I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere; Till pride and worse ambition threw me down Warring in Heav'n against Heav'n's matchless king:

tower. The metaphor is used by Virgil in his Culex, ver. 41. Igneus æthereas jam fol penetrâ

rat in arces.

Spenfer in his admirable tranflation of that poem has follow'd him punctually.

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Ah

from whence he fell, and breaks forth into a speech that is foften'd with feveral tranfient touches of

remorfe and felf-accufation: but at length he confirms himself in impenitence, and in his defign of drawing Man into his own ftate of guilt and mifery. This conflict of paffions is raised with a great deal

The fiery fun was mounted now of art, as the opening of his speech

on hight Up to the heav'nly tow'rs. Richardfon.

32. O thou &c.] Satan being now within prospect of Eden, and looking round upon the glories of the creation, is filled with fentiments different from those which he discover'd while he was in Hell. The place infpires him with thoughts more adapted to it: He reflects upon the happy condition

to the fun is very bold and noble. This fpeech is, I think, the finest that is afcribed to Satan in the whole poem. Addifon.

When Milton defign'd to have made only a tragedy of the Paradise Loft, it was his intention to have begun it with the first ten lines of the following speech, which he fhow'd to his nephew Edward Philips and others, as Philips informs us in his account of

the

Ah wherefore! he deferv'd no fuch return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence, and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his fervice hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The eafieft recompenfe, and pay him thanks,
How due! yet all his good prov'd ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up fo high

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I sdeind subjection, and thought one step higher 50
Would fet me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immenfe of endless gratitude,

So

into the most execrable acts to accomplish their haughty defigns; which makes our author ftigmatize ambition as a worse fin than pride.

Hume.

the life of his uncle. And what a inordinate defires that break forth noble opening of a play would this have been! The lines were certainly too good to be loft, and the author has done well to employ them here, they could not have been better employ'd any where. Satan is made to addrefs the fun, as it was the moft confpicuous part of the creation; and the thought is very natural of addreffing it like the God of this world, when so many of the Heathen nations have worshipped and adored it as fuch.

40. Till pride and worfe ambition] Pride is a kind of exceffive and vicious felf-esteem, that raifes men in their own opinions above what is juft and right: but ambition is that which adds fuel to this flame, and claps fpurs to these furious and

Dr. Bentley reads and curs'd ambition, because he thinks it hard to fay whether pride or ambition is worfe: but Milton feems to mean by pride the vice confider'd in itself, and only as it is the temper of the proud man; and by ambition the vice that carry'd him to aim at being equal with God: and was not this vice the worst of the two? I obferve that Satan always lays the blame on his ambition, as in ver. 61 and 92. Pearce.

50. I fdeind] For difdain'd; an imitation of the Italian fdegnare.

Hume.

The

So burdensome still paying, ftill to owe,
Forgetful what from him I still receiv'd,
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing owes not, but ftill pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd; what burden then?
O had his pow'rful deftiny ordain'd

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Me fome inferior Angel, I had ftood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had rais'd
Ambition. Yet why not? fome other Power
As great might have afpir'd, and me though mean
Drawn to his part; but other Pow'rs as great
Fell not, but ftand unshaken, from within
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.
Hadft thou the fame free will and pow'r to stand?
Thou hadft: whom haft thou then or what to' accufe,
But Heav'n's free love dealt equally to all?
Be then his love accurs'd, fince love or hate,

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