Let us be glad of this, and all our fears Lay on his providence; he will not fail, Nor will withdraw him now, nor will recall, 55 Mock us with his bleft fight, then snatch him hence; Soon we shall see our hope, our joy return. Thus they out of their plaints new hope resume To find whom at the firft they found unfought : But to his mother Mary, when the faw 60 Others return'd from baptism, not her son, Some troubled thoughts, which she in fighs thus clad. 56. Mock us with his bleft fight, then fnatch him bence; ] Virgil Æn. I. 407. falfis Ludis imaginibus. Æn. VI. 870. But [to come] to his mother Mary to [come next to speak of] his mother. Sanctius obferves, that all languages delight in brevity. Milton certainly is fond of it in ours. His ftile is exceedingly elleiptical, and fometimes crampt Oftendent terris hunc tantùm fa- by an unnatural conciseness. This ta, neque ultra Effe finent. Fortin. might be the cafe here; but I would rather believe, that the poet dictated But O! his mother Mary, 60. But to his mother Mary,] The meaning of the common reading (if it have any, and be not a blun- See the happy effect of a very fmall der of the prefs) must be ad alteration! The tranfition to the matrem quod attinet as for or great mother is freed from an aukas to his mother Mary for her ward elleipfis; and the poet brings part. Or the meaning might be her upon the scene, with a com paffiona:c O what avails me now that honor high 66 70 In fuch a feafon born when scarce a fhed Could be obtain'd to shelter him or me From the bleak air; a ftable was our warmth, 75 Thence into Egypt, till the murd❜rous king From paffionate feeling of her grief. If A fentiment much of the fame kind this reading was but poffeffed of the editions, nothing could be objected to it. Calton. I am no friend to alterations of the text, unless they are abfolutely neceffary. The construction is But to his mother within her breaft motherly cares and fears got head, and rais'd fome troubled thoughts: and if the words were brought thus near together, there would not perhaps be thought that difficulty and perplexity in the fyntax. 63. Within her breaft though calm, her breaft though pure, with that in the Paradife Loft, where upon the fall of our first parents it is faid X. 23. dim fadness did not spare That time celeftial visages, yet mix'd With pity, violated not their blifs: and may also serve to confirm what has been obferv'd in the note upon that place. How much more dignity and amiablenefs in this character than in that of a Stoical indifference and freedom from all perturbation as they term it? Thyer. From Egypt home return'd, in Nazareth 86 Hath been our dwelling many years; his life That to the fall and rifing he should be Spoken against, that through my very foul A fword fhall pierce; this is my favor'd lot, Afflicted I may be, it seems, and blest; 99 I I will not argue that, nor will repine. But where delays he now? fome great intent 95 Conceals him: when twelve years he fcarce had feen, I loft him, but fo found, as well I faw He could not lofe himself; but went about His Father's business; what he meant I mus'd, 105 The while her fon tracing the defert wild, All his great work to come before him fet; Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone Where all his potentates in council fat; 122. 110 115 Solicitous · from th' element Each of his reign allotted, rightlier call'd Pow'rs of fire, air, water, and · earth beneath,] It was a notion among the Ancients, especially among the Platonifts, that there were Demons in each element, fome vifible, others invifible, in the æther, and fire, and air, and water, fo that no part of the world was devoid of foul: εισι δε και άλλοι δαίμονες, ες και καλοίη αν τις γεννητες θεός, καθ' έκαςον των τοιχείων, οι μεν όρατοι, οἱ δε αρεστοί, εν τε αιθέρια και συρ αερι τε, και ύδατι, ὡς μηδεν κοστ με μερα ψυχής αμοιρον είναι, Alcinous in his fummary of the Platonic doctrins fays cap. 5. Michael Pfellus, in his dialogue concerning the operation of Demons, from |