From Heav'n descended to the low-rooft house Of Socrates; fee there his tenement,

Whom well infpir'd the oracle pronounc'd

Wifeft of men; from whose mouth issued forth
Mellifluous ftreams that water'd all the schools
Of Academics old and new, with thase
Sirnam'd Peripatetics, and the sect

Epicurean, and the Stoic fevere;

These here revolve, or, as thou lik'ft, at home,
Till time mature thee to a kingdom's weight;
These rules will render thee a king complete
Within thyself, much more with empire join'd.

vit, et in domus etiam introduxit. Tufc. Difp. V. 4. But he has given -a very different fenfe to the words. either by defign or mistake, as Mr. Warburton obferves. It is properly called the low-rooft boufe; for I believe, faid Socrates, that if I could meet with a good purchafer, I might eafily get for my goods and houfe and all five pounds. - Έγω μεν οιμαι (εφη ὁ Σωκρατης) ο αγαθό ωνητες επιτυχοιμι, εύρειν αν μας σως τη οικία και τα όπλα απαλλα πανυ ραδίως πεντε μνας. Xenophon Oeconomic. five mina's or Attic pounds were better than fixteen pounds of our money, a mina according to Barnard being three pounds eight fhillings and

275

-280

276. from whofe mouth iffued

forth &c] Thus Quintilian cal's Socrates fons philofophorum, I. 10. and as the Ancients looked upon Homer as the father of poetry, fo they esteemed Socrates the father of moral philofophy. The different fects of philofophers were but so many different families, which all acknowledged him for their common parent. See Cicero Aca

285

To whom our Saviour fagely thus reply'd.
Think not but that I know these things, or think
I know them not; not therefore am I short
Of knowing what I ought: he who receives
Light from above, from the fountain of light,
No other doctrin needs, though granted true;
But these are false, or little else but dreams,
Conjectures, fancies, built on nothing firm.
The firft and wifeft of them all profefs'd
To know this only, that he nothing knew

demic. I. 4. Tufc. Difp. V. 4. and particularly De Orat. III, '16, 17. The quotation would be too long to be inferted. See likewife Mr. Warburton's account of the Socratic school. B. 3. Sect. 3. of the Divine Legation.

283. Thefe rules will render thee &c] Ask what rules, and no anfwer can be regularly given: ask hofe, and the anfwer is eafy. There is no mention before of rules; but of poets, orators, philofophers there is. We fhould read therefore,

Their rules will render thee a king complete. Calton. 285. To whom our Saviour fagely thus reply'd.] This anfwer of our Saviour is as much to be admired for folid reasoning, and the many fublime truths contain'd in

299

The

it, as the preceding fpeech of Satan is for that fine vein of poetry which runs through it: and one may obferve in general, that Milton has quite throughout this work thrown the ornaments of poetry on the fide of error, whether it was that he thought great truths best exprefs'd in a grave unaffected ftile, or intended to fuggeft this fine. moral to the reader, that fimple naked truth will always be an overmatch for falfhood tho' recommended by the gayeft rhetoric, and adorned with the most bewitching colors. Thyer.

293. The firft and wifeft of them

all] Socrates profess'd to know this only, that he nothing knew. Hic in omnibus fere fermonibus, qui ab iis, qui illum audierunt, perfcripti varie, copiofe funt, ita difputat, ut nihil adfirmet ipfe, refel

lat

C.

The next to fabling fell and smooth conceits;

; 295

A third fort doubted all things, though plain sense; Others in virtue plac'd felicity,

But virtue join'd with riches and long life;

In corporal pleasure he, and careless ease;
The Stoic last in philofophic pride,
By him call'd virtue; and his virtuous man,

lat alios: nihil fe feire dicat, nifi id ipfum: eoque præftare ceteris, quod illi qua nefciant fcire fe putent; ipfe, fe nihil fcire, id unum fciat. Cicero Academic. I. 4.

66

300

Wife,

"nature, in which the fancy can"not find or make a variety of « fuch fymbolizing refemblances; "fo that emblems, fables, fym"bols, allegories, tho' they are "pretty poetic fancies, are infi"nitely unfit to express philofo"phical notions and discoveries of "the natures of things.

295. The next to fabling fell, and Smooth conceits:] See Parker's Free and Impartial Cenfure of the Platonic philofophy. Oxford 1667. The P. 71. Plato and his followers" end of philofophy is to fearch have communicated their notions" into, and difcover the nature of "by emblems, fables, fymbols, "things; but I believe you under"parables, heaps of metaphors, allegories, and all forts of my"ftical representations, (as is vulgarly known.) All which, upon "the account of their obfcurity "and ambiguity, are apparently "the unfitteft figns in the world,

to exprefs the train of any man's "thoughts to another: For befides "that they carry in them no in"telligible affinity to the notices, which they were defign'd to in"timate, the powers of imagina "tion are fo great, and the in"ftances in which one thing may "refemble another are fo many, " that there is scarce any thing in

"ftand not how the nature of any "thing is at all difcovered by "making it the theme of allego "rical and dark difcourfes.".

Calton 296. A third fort doubted all things, though plain fenfe;] These were the Sceptics or Pyrrhonians the difciples of Pyrrho, who afferted nothing, neither honeft nor difhoneft, juft nor unjust, and fo of every thing; that there is nothing indeed fuch, but that men do all things by law and custom; that in every thing this is not rather than that. This was called the Sceptic philofophy from its continual in

spection,

Wife, perfect in himfelf, and all poffeffing,
Equals to God, oft fhames not to prefer,
As fearing God nor man, contemning all

Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life,
Which when he lifts, he leaves, or boafts he can,
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,
Or fubtle fhifts conviction to evade.