O fpake the Son of God, and Satan stood So the fount of fou, and what to day, A while as mute confounded what to say, To thy large heart give utterance due, thy heart 10 Contains word species with as little fuccefs in my opinion as Milton has done here by his English shape. Thyer. Of good, wife, juft, the perfect shape. I fhould rather think it exprefs'd from the perfecta forma honeftatis, and the forma ipfa honefti of Cicero. De Fin. II. 15. Habes undique expletam et perfectam, Torquate, formam honeftatis, &c. De Óff. I. 5. Formam quidem ipfam, Marce fili, et tanquam faciem honefti vides; quæ, fi oculis cerneretur &c. And the more, because Contains of good, wife, juft, the perfect shape. Should kings and nations from thy mouth confult, Urim and Thummim, thofe oraculous gems 15 In he renders forma by shape in the given to the breaft-plate in its conParadife Loft. IV. 848. Virtue in her shape how lovely. 13. -as the oracle lous gems On Aaron's breaft; &c] Aaron's breaft-plate was a piece of cloth doubled, of a fpan fquare, in which were set in fockets of gold twelve precious ftones bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Ifrael ingraven on them, which being fixed to the ephod, or upper veftment of the high-prieft's robes, was worn by him on his breast on all folemn occafions. In this breaftplate the Urim and Thummim, fay the Scriptures, were put. And the learned Prideaux, after giving fome account of the various opinions concerning Urim and Thummim, fays it will be fafeft to hold, that the words Urim and Thummim meant only the divine virtue and power, fecration, of obtaining an oraculous anfwer from God, whenever counsel was asked of him by the high-prieft with it on, in fuch manner as his word did direct; and that the names of Urim and Thummim were given hereto only to denote the clearnefs and perfection, which these oracular anfwers always carried with them. For Urim fignifieth light, and Thummim perfection. But Milton by adding thofe oraculous gems On Aaron's breastfeems to have been of the common received opinion among the Jews, that the answer was given by the precious ftones, that it was by the fhining and protuberating of the letters in the names of the twelve tribes graven on the twelve ftones in the breaft-plate of the high-prieft, and that in them he did read the answer. But as Dr. In battel, though against thy few in arms. In favage wilderness? wherefore deprive 20 25 which would be an alteration for the worse, the commendation in this place not being of his skill in general, but of his skill of conduct in particular. 25.- glory the reward] Our Saviour having withflood the allurement of riches, Satan attacks him in the next place with the charms of glory. I have fometimes thought, that Milton might poffibly take the hint of thus connecting these two temptations from Spenfer, who in his fecond book of the Faery Queen reprefenting the virtue of temperance under the character of Guyon, and leading him through various trials of his conftancy, brings him to the house of riches or Mammon's delve as he terms it, and immediately after it to the palace of glory, which he defcribes in his allegorical manner under the figure of a beautiful woman call'd Philotimè. Thyer. 27. Of moft erected fpirits,] The H 4 author All treasures and all gain esteem as dross, And dignities and pow'rs all but the highest ? 3° Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe; the fon Of Macedonian Philip had ere these Won Afia, and the throne of Cyrus held At his difpofe; young Scipio had brought down 31. Thy years are ripe, and overripe;] Our Saviour's temptation was foon after his baptifm, and he was baptized when he was about thirty years of age. Luke III. Yet author here remember'd Cicero. Spain, and was only between 28 Pro Archia. Trahimur omnes and 29, when he was chofen conlaudis ftudio, et optimus quifque ful before the ufual time, and maxime gloria ducitur. De Off. transferr'd the war into Africa. I. 8. In maximis animis fplendi- Young Pompey quell'd the Pontic king, diffimifque ingeniis plerumque ex- and in triumph had rode. In this infiftunt honoris, imperii, potentiæ, ftance our author is not fo exact as gloriæ cupiditates. in the reft, for when Pompey was fent to command the war in Afia against Mithridates king of Pontus, he was above 40, but had fignalized himself by many extraordinary actions in his younger years, and had obtained the honor of two triumphs before that time. Pompey and Cicero were born in the fame year; and the Manilian law, which gave the command in Afia to Pompey, was propofed when Cicero was in the 41ft year of his age. But no wonder that Milton was miftaken in point of time, when feveral of the Ancients were, and Plutarch himself, who speaking of Pompey's three memorable triumphs over the three parts of the world, his firft over Africa, his 23. And the fon of Macedonian Philip, Alexander the great, had ere thefe, before thefe years, won Afia, and the throne of Cyrus, the Perfian empire founded by Cyrus, held at his difpofe; for Alexander was but zo when he began to reign, and in a few years overturn'd the Perfian empire, and died in the 33d year of his age. Young Scipio had brought down the Carthaginian pride; for Scipio Africanus was no more than 24 years old, when he was fent proconful into fecond 1 Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature, To whom our Saviour calmly thus reply'd. fecond over Europe, and this laft over Afia, fays that as for his age, those who affect to make the parallel exact in all things betwixt him and Alexander the great, would not allow him to be quite 34, whereas in truth at this time he was near 40. Iniḍ de TOTE αν ὡς μεν οἱ κατα παντα τῳ Αλεξανδρῳ παραβαλλοντες αυτον και προσβιβάζοντες αξιεσι) νεωτερα των τριακοντα και τετζαρων, αληθεια δε τοις τετταράκοντα προnyer. Plut. Vit. Pompeii. 41.-wept that he had liv'd fo long Inglorious:] Alluding to a story related of Julius Cæfar, that one day reading the history of Alexander, he fat a great while very thoughtful, and at last burst into tears, and his friends wondring at the reason of it, Do you not think, faid he, I have just cause to weep, when I confider that Alexander at my age had conquer'd fo many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable? For See Plutarch's Life of Cæfar. Others fay, it was at the fight of an image of Alexander the greatanimadverfa apud Herculis templum magni Alexandri imagine ingemuit; et quafi pertæfus ignaviam fuam, quod nihil dum à fe memorabile actum effet in ætate qua jam Alexander orbem terrarum fubegiffet, &c. Suetonii Jul. Caf. cap. 7. 44. Thou neither doft perfuade me &c] How admirably does Milton in this fpeech expofe the emptiness and uncertainty of a popular character, and found true glory upon its only fure bafis, the approbation of the God of truth? There is a remarkable dignity of fentiment runs quite through it, and I think it will be no extravagance at all to affert, that he has compris'd in this fhort compass the substance and quinteffence of a fubject which has exercised the pens of the greatest moralifts in all ages. Thyer. The juftness of this remark will appear |