Built nobly, pure the air, and light the foil, City' or fuburban, ftudious walks and shades; 239. pure the air, and light the foil,] This is from Dio Chryfoftom. See Spanheim on Callimachus. p. 444. De Attica cœtoroquin dicit Dio Chryfoft. Orat. 7. p. 87. Grai τω Jap χώραν α ρειας, και τον αέρα κεφον, efTe enim regionem tenui folo, ac levem aerem, prout una voce eyes eadem Attica, poft Thucydidem nempe pag. 2., 2 Galeno dicitur, ΠροTET. cap. 7. Aeris autem xeno-. Ta eidem tribuit Ariftides, Serm. Sacr. 6. p. 642. Athens was built between two fmall rivers Cephifus and Iliffus; and hence it is callid, in the Medea of Euripides, ἱερων ποταμων πολις. See the chorus at the end of the 3d Act. The effect of thefe waters upon the air is very poetically reprefented in the fame beautiful chorus. Καλλίναν τ' ἐπι Κήφισε βοαις Pulchrifluique ad Cephifi fluenta Venerem ferunt [ex Cephifo] exhauri entem, regionem perflaffe, Mediocres ventorum Dulce fpirantes auras. 240 See Calton, 244. See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, &c.] Ewaveλθων δε εις Αθήνας, διέτριβεν εν Axadnuid. To s'est quuvasion, easelov aλowdes, ato TIV ρωΘ ονόμασεν Ακαδημε, καθε και Ευπολις ἐν Aκρατάτοις φησιν, Εν ευσκιοις δρομοισιν Ακαδημε ૭૪. — NO ETAQU EV Ty Anafnung, ένθα τον πλάτον χρόνον διετέλεσε φιλοσόφων. όθεν και Ακαδημαϊκη προσηγορεύθη ή απ' αυτό αίρεσις. Being return'd to Athens from his journey to Egypt, he fettled himfelf in the Academy, a gymnafium or place of exercise in the fuburbs of that city, befet with woods, taking name from Academus, one of the heroes, as Eupolis, In facred Academus fhady walks, and he was buried in the Academy, where he continued most of his time teaching philofophy, whence the feet which fprung from him was called Academic. See Diogenes Laertius, and Stanley in the See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird 245 To Improba Cecropias offendit pica querelas. Ludovicus de la Cerda in his notes upon Virgil obferves, how often the ancient poets have made use of the comparison of the nightingale; Sophocles has it no lefs than feven times, Homer twice, and Euripides and feveral others and we ob ferved upon the Paradife Loft, how much Milton was delighted with the nightingale; no poet has introduc'd it fo often, or spoken of it with fuch rapture as he; and per haps there never was a verfe more expreffive of the harmony of this fweet bird than the following, Trills her thick-warbled notes the fummer long. So that upon the whole I believe it may be afferted, that Plato's Aca demy was never more beautifully defcribed than here in a few lines by Milton. Cicero, who has laid the fcene of one of his dialogues there, De Fin. Lib. V. and had been himself upon the spot, has not painted it in more lively colors. 247. There flow'ry bill Hymettus Sic, ubi multifona fervet facer &c] And fo Valerius Flaccus calls it Florea juga Hymetti, Argonaut. Atthide lucus, To ftudious mufing; there Iliffus rolls His whifp'ring ftream: within the walls then view The schools of ancient fages; his who bred Great Alexander to fubdue the world, 251 Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next: V. 344. and the honey was fo much efteem'd and celebrated by the Ancients, that it was reckon'd the beft of the Attic honey, as the Attic honey was faid to be the beft in the world. The poets often Speak of the murmur of the bees as inviting to fleep, Virg. Ecl. I. 56. Sæpi levi fomnum fuadebit inire fufurro: but Milton gives a more elegant turn to it, and fays that it invites to ftudious mufing, which was more proper indeed for his purpofe, as he is here defcribing the Attic learning. 249. there Iliffus rolls His whifpring fream:] Mr. Calton and Mr. Thyer have obferved with me, that Plato hath laid the fcene of his Phædrus on the banks and at the fpring of this pleasant river.-xela you nai nabang και διάφανη τα ύδατια φαίνεται, Nonne hinc aquulæ puræ ac pellucidæ jucundo murmure confluunt? Ed. Serr. Vol. 3. p. 229. The philofophical retreat at the fpring. head is beautifully defcrib'd by Plato in the next page, where Socrates and Phædrus are reprefented There fitting on a green bank fhaded with a fpreading plantan, of which Cicero hath faid very prettily, that it feemeth to have grown not fo much by the water which is defcribed, as by Plato's eloquence; quæ mihi videtur non tam ipfa aquula, quæ defcribitur, quam Platonis oratione creviffe. De Orat. I. 7. 253. Lyceum there, and painted Stoa next:] Lyceum was another gymnafium of the Athenians, and was the fchool of Ariftotle, who had been tutor to Alexander the great, and was the founder of the fect of the Peripatetics, fo call'd απο το περιπολείν from his walking and teaching philofophy. Stoa was the fchool of Zeno, whose difciples from the place had the name of Stoics; and this Stoa or portico, being adorn'd with variety of paintings, was called in Greek Пoan or various, and here by Milton very properly the painted Stoa. See Diogenes Laertius in the lives of Aristotle and Zeno. But there is fome reason to question, whether the Lyceum was within the walls, as Milton afferts. For Suidas fays exprefsly, that it was a place in the fuburbs, built by Pe [here thou shalt hear and learn the fecret power Of harmony in tones and numbers hit 255 By voice or hand, and various-measur'd verse, ricles for the exercifing of foldiers: and I find the fcholiaft upon Ariftophanes in the Irene fpeaks of going into the Lyceum, and going out of it again, and returning back into the city: HIS TO AUXELOV ELΤσιούλες - και πάλιν εξιόντες εκ Fit Auxer, nai atriales ess the πολιν. 257. Æolian charms and Dorian lyric odes,] Eolian charms, Eolia carmina, verfes fuch as thofe of Alcæus and Sappho, who were both of Mitylene in Lesbos, an iland belonging to the Eolians. Hor. Od. III. XXX. 13. Blind of poetry. Such wife men as Dio nyfius the Halicarnaffean, and Plutarch, have attempted to fhow, that poetry in all its forms, trage dy, comedy, ode, and epitaph, are included in his works. See the ingenious author of the Inquiry into the life and writings of Homer inlarging upon this fubject. Sect. 12. Blind Melefigenes thence Homer call'd; our author here follows Herodotus in his account of the life of Ho mer, that he was born near the river Meles from whence he had the name of Melefigenes, TIETOL ονομα τῳ παιδι Μελεσιγυεα, απο το ποταμό των επωνυμίαν λαβ Princeps Æolium carmen ad Italos σa, and because he was blind, thence Deduxiffe modos. Od. IV. III. 12. he was called Homer o un opwv, ενλάθεν δε και τένομα Όμηρ επεκράτησε τῷ Μελησιγει από της συμφορης" οἱ γὰρ Κυμαίοι της TUOλ8s oμnegus λEY BOW. Whofe alluding to a Greek epigram in the poem Phabus challeng'd for his own, first book of the Anthologia, Ηεδον μεν έγων, εχαρισε δε which Mr. Fenton has inlarged and applied to Mr. Pope's English Iliad. " 262. In Blind Melefigenes thence Homer call'd, Whofe poem Phoebus challeng'd for his own. Of moral prudence, with delight receiv'd 260 In brief fententious precepts, while they treat 264 Of fate, and chance, and change in human life; High actions, and high paffions best describing: 262. In Chorus or Iambic,] These may be faid to be the two conftituent parts of the ancient tragedy, which was written either in Iambic verfe, or in verfes of various measures, whereof the Chorus ufually confifted. And the character here given of the ancient Greek tragedy is very juft and noble; and the English reader cannot form a better idea of it in its highest beauty and perfection than by reading our author's Samfon Agonistes. 267. Thence to the famous orators repair, &c.] How happily does Milton's verfification in this and the following lines concerning the Socratic philofophy exprefs what he is defcribing! In the firft we feel as it were the nervous rapid eloquence of Demofthenes, and the latter have all the gentlenefs and foftness of the humble modeft character of Socrates. Thence who preferred Pericles, Hyperides, fchines, Demofthenes, and the orators of their times to Demetrius Phalereus and those of the subsequent ages. See Cicero de claris Oratoribus. And in the judgment of Quintilian Demetrius Phalereus was the first who weaken'd eloquence, and the last almost of the Athenians who can be called an orator: is primus inclinaffe exeloquentiam dicitur-ultimus eft fere ex Atticis qui dici poffit orator. De Inftit. Orat. X. 1. 270.-and fulmin'd over Greece,] Alluding (as Mr. Jortin has likewife. obferved) to what Ariftophanes has faid of Pericles in his Acharnenfes. A&t 2. Scene 5. Hsegalev, Georla, {uenuna των Ἑλλάδα. Since I have mention'd this paffage, I will add that Cicero has alluded to it in his Orator 9, fpeaking of Pericles. Qui fi tenui ge nere |