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main'd

1. Mean while the new-baptiz'd &c.] The greatest and indeed jufteft objection to this poem is the narrownefs of its plan, which being confin'd to that fingle fcene of our Saviour's life on earth, his temptation in the defert, has too much fameness in it, too much of the reasoning and too little of the defcriptive part, a defect moft certainly in an epic poem, which ought to confift of a proper and happy mixture of the inftructive and the delightful. Milton was himself, no doubt, fenfible of this imperfection, and has therefore very judiciously contriv'd and introduc'd all the little digreffions that could with any fort of propriety connect with his fubject, in order to relieve and refresh the reader's attention. The following conversation betwixt Andrew and Simon upon the missing our Saviour fo long, with the Virgin's reflections on the fame occafion, and the

And

council of the Devils how best to attack their enemy, are inftances of this fort, and both very happily executed in their refpective ways. The language of the former is not glaring and impaffion'd, but cool and unaffected, correfponding moft exactly to the humble pious character of the fpeakers. That of the latter is full of energy and majefty, and not a whit inferior to their moft fpirited speeches in the Paradife Loft. This may be given as one proof out of many others, that, if the Paradife Regain'd is inferior, as indeed I think it must be allow'd to be, to the Paradife Loft, it cannot juftly be imputed, as fome would have it, to any decay of Milton's genius, but to his being cramp'd down by a more barren and contracted subject.

in

Thyer.

4. Jefus Meffiab Son of God declar'd,] This is a great mistake the poet. All that the people E 2 could

of Thisbe or Tifhbe, a city of the country of Gilead, beyond Jor= dan. Yet once again to come. For

it hath been the opinion of the church, that there would be an Elias before Chrift's fecond coming as well as before his firft: and this opinion the learned Mr. Mede fupports from the prophecy of Malachi IV. 5. Behold I will fend you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord &c: and from what our Saviour fays Mat. XVII. 11. Elias truly fhall first come, and refore all things. These words our Saviour fpake when John Baptist was beheaded, and yet speaks as of a thing future, amonata noe ala, and shall reftore all things. But as it was not Elias in person, but only in fpirit, who appeared before our Saviour's firft coming, fo will it also be before his fecond. The reader may fee the arguments at large in Mr. Mede's Difcourse XXV. which no doubt Milton had read, not only on account of the fame and excellence of the

15

Sought

writer, but as he was alfo his fellow-collegian.

18. Therefore as thofe young pro phets then with care

Sought loft Elijah, &c] 2 Kings II. 17. They fent fifty men, and they fought three days, but found him not. So in each place thefe nigh to Bethabara: fuch elleipfes, as Mr. Symp fon obferves, are frequent, and especially in our author. In Jericho the city of palms, fo it is called Deut. XXXIV. 3 and Jofephus, Strabo, Pliny, and all writers defcribe it as abounding with those trees. non, mention'd John III. 23. as is likewife Salim or Salem. And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salim. But there appears to be no particular reason for our author's calling it Salem old, unless he takes it to be the fame with the Shalem mention'd Gen. XXXIII. 18. or confounds it with the Salem where Melchizedek was king. Macherus, a castle in the mountainous part of Perea or the country beyond Jordan, which river is well known to run thro' the lake of