In troop or caravan? for fingle none

Durst ever, who return'd, and dropt not here

His carcass, pin'd with hunger and with drouth. 325
I ask the rather, and the more admire,

For that to me thou seem'ft the man, whom late
Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford

Of Jordan honor'd fo, and call'd thee Son

Of God; I faw and heard, for we fometimes 330
Who dwell this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth
To town or village nigh (nighest is far)

Where ought we hear, and curious are to hear,
What happens new; fame alfo finds us out.

To whom the Son of God. Who brought me hither, Will bring me hence; no other guide I seek.

323. In troop or caravan ?] A caravan, as Tavernier fays, is a great convoy of merchants, which meet at certain times and places, to put themselves into a condition of defenfe from thieves, who ride in troops in several defert places upon the road. A caravan is like an army, confifting ordinarily of five or fix hundred camels, and near as many horses, and fometimes more. This makes it the safest way of traveling in Turky and Perfia with the caravan, though it goes indeed flower, than in lefs company, or with a guide alone, as fome will do. See Travels into

336 By Perfia in Harris Vol II. B. 2. ch. 2.

339.-tough roots and stubs] This muft certainly be a mistake of the printer, and instead of stubs it ought to be read shrubs. It is no uncommon thing to read of hermits and afcetics living in deferts upon roots and shrubs, but I never heard of ftubs being used for food, nor indeed is it reconcileable to common sense. Some have thought that the axelJes, which the Scripture fays were the meat of the Baptift, were the tops of plants or fhrubs. Thyer. I find the word tubs used in Spenfer. Faery Queen B. 1. Cant. 9. St. 34% í

And

By miracle he may, reply'd the fwain, What other way I fee not, for we here

Live on tough roots and ftubs, to thirst inur'd

go far,

340

More than the camel, and to drink
Men to much mifery and hardship born;

But if thou be the Son of God, command

That out of these hard stones be made thee bread, So fhalt thou fave thyself and us relieve

With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste. 345
He ended, and the Son of God reply'd.

Think'ft thou fuch force in bread? is it not written
(For I difcern thee other than thou seem'st)
Man lives not by bread only, but each word
Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed

And all about old stocks and stubs

of trees:

but this only proves the ufe of the word, and not of the thing as food, which feems impoffible, and therefore I embrace the former ingenious conjecture.

340. More than the camel,] It is commonly said that camels will go without water three or four days. Sitim & quatriduo tolerant. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 8. Sect. 26. But Tavernier fays, that they will ordinarily live without drink eight or nine days. See Harris ibid. And therefore, as Dr. Shaw juftly obVOL. I.

350

Our

ferves in his phyfical observations on Arabia Petræa p. 389. we cannot fufficiently admire the great care the camel for the traffic and comand wisdom of God in providing late countries. For if this servicemerce of these and fuch like defo

able creature was not able to fub-
fift several days without water, or
if it required a quantity of nou-
rifhment in proportion to its bulk,
the traveling in thefe parts would
be either cumbersome and expen-
five, or altogether impracticable.

350. Proceeding from the mouth of
God, who fed
Our fathers here with Manna? ]

D

The

Our fathers here with Manna? in the mount

Mofes was forty days, nor eat nor drank;
And forty days Elijah without food
Wander'd this barren wafte; the fame I now:
Why doft thou then fuggeft to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?
Whom thus answer'd th' Arch-Fiénd now undif-

'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,

355

[guis'd.

Who leagu'd with millions more in rash revolt
Kept not my happy ftation, but was driven

360 With

when he found himself discover'd, is remarkable. Hitherto he has

been called an aged man, and the fwain; and we have no intimation from the poet, that Satan was concealed under this appearance, which adds to our pleasure by an agreeable furprise upon the difcovery. In the firft book of the Æneid, Æneas being driven by a storm upon an unknown coaft, and going in company with Achates, to take a furvey of the country, is met in a thick wood by a lady, in the habit of a huntress. She inquires of them, if they had feen two fifters of hers in a like dress, employed

in the chace. Æneas addreffes her

as Diana, or one of her nymphs, and begs fhe would tell him the name and state of the country the tempeft had thrown him upon. She declines his compliment, informs him she was no Goddess but only a

With them from blifs to the bottomlefs deep,
Yet to that hideous place not fo confin'd
By rigor unconniving, but that oft
Leaving my dolorous prifon I enjoy

Large liberty to round this globe of earth,

1

365

Or range in th'air, nor from the Heav'n of Heav'ns
Hath he excluded my refort fometimes.

I came among the fons of God, when he
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job

To prove him, and illuftrate his high worth;

Tyrian maid, gives an account of the place, and a full relation of Dido's hiftory and fettlement there. In return, Æneas acquaints her with his ftory, and particularly the lofs of great part of his fleet in the late ftorm. Upon which the affures him, from an omen which appear ed to them, that his fhips were fafe, bids him expect a kind reception from the queen; and then turning to go away, Æneas discovers her to be his mother, the Goddefs of love. If Virgil had not informed us of her being Venus, till this time, and in this manner, it would have had an agreeable effect in furprifing the reader, as much as fhe did Æneas: but his conduct has been quite the reverfe, for in the beginning of the ftory, he lets the reader into the fecret, and takes care every now and then to remind kim.

376 And

Cui mater media fefe tulit obvia fylva, &c.

See An Effay upon Milton's imitations of the Ancients, p. 60.

A manner of speaking borrowed 360. Kept not my happy station, from the Scripture. Jude 6. And the Angels which kept not their first eftate.

365-to round this globe of earth, Milton ufes the fame phrafe in his, Paradife Loft X. 684. fpeaking of the fun:

Had rounded till th' horizon