Though of this age the wonder and the fame,
On whom his leifure will vouchfafe an eye
Of fond defire? or fhould the confident,
As fitting queen ador'd on beauty's throne,
:: Defcend with all her winning charms begirt
T'enamour, as the zone of Venus once
Wrought that effect on Jove, so fables tell;
How would one look from his majestic brow

Η, και από σήθεσφιν ελύσατο
κεσον ἱμαλα,
Ποικιλον ενθα δε οἱ θελκτηρια
πανία τετυκλο

Ενθ' ένι μεν φιλότης, εν δ' ἱμε-
PO, Ev ♪odels us,
Παρφασις, ἡ τ' εκλεψε νουν συ
και περιφρονείν]ων.

She faid. With awe divine the
queen of love
Obey'd the fifter and the wife of
Jove :

And from her fragrant breaft the
zone unbrac'd,
With various skill and high em-
broid'ry grac'd.

In this was every art, and every
charm,

To win the wifeft, and the coldeft

warm:

Fond love, the gentle vow, the
gay defire,
The kind deceit, the ftill-reviv.
ing fire,

210

215

Seated

Perfuafive fpeech, and more perfuafive fighs,

Silence that fpoke, and eloquence of eyes. Pope. But the words fo fables tell look as if the poet had forgot himself, and spoke in his own person rather than in the character of Satan.

216. from his majestic brow Seated as on the top of virtue's hill,] Here is the conftruction that we often meet with in Milton: from his majestic brow, that is from the majestic brow of him feated as on the top of virtue's hill: and the expreffion of virtue's bill was probably in allufion to the rocky eminence on which the virtues are plac'd in the table of Cebes, or the arduous afcent up the hill to which virtue is reprefented pointing in the best defigns of the judg ment of Hercules, particularly that by Annibal Caracci in the palace Farnefe at Rome, as well as that

Seated as on the top of virtue's hill,
Discount'nance her defpis'd, and put to rout
All her array; her female pride deject,

Or turn to reverent awe? for beauty ftands
In th' admiration only of weak minds

229

Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and fhrink into a trivial toy,

225

At every fudden flighting quite abash'd:
Therefore with manlier objects we must try
His conftancy, with such as have more show
Of worth, of honor, glory', and popular praise;
Rocks whereon greatest men have ofteft wreck'd;
Or that which only feems to fatisfy

Lawful defires of nature, not beyond;

And now I know he hungers where no food

Is to be found, in the wide wilderness;
The rest commit to me, I fhall let pass

by Paolo Matthæi, painted by the direction of Lord Shaftsbury; but the first thought of feating virtue on a hill was borrow'd from old Hefiod, Oper. & Dier. I. 288.

230

No'

Και τρηχυς το πρώτον επί
δ' εις άκρον ικησι,
Ρηϊδίη δηπειτα πέλα, χαλεπη
περ εισα.

228. bave ofteft wreck'd; ] We read according to Milton's own

-μaupC de nou op edition ofteft, which is better than

επ' αυτών,

often in the others.

No' advantage, and his ftrength as oft affay.

234

He ceas'd, and heard their grant in loud acclame;

1

Then forthwith to him takes a chofen band

Of Spirits likeft to himself in guile

To be at hand, and at his beck

appear,

If caufe were to unfold fome active scene
Of various perfons, each to know his part;
Then to the desert takes with these his flight;
Where still from shade to fhade the Son of God.
After forty days fafting had remain'd,

240

Now hungring first, and to himself thus faid. 244
Where will this end? four times ten days I've pafs'd
Wand'ring this woody maze, and human food
Nor tafted, nor had appetite; that fast

To virtue I impute not, or count part
Of what I fuffer here; if nature need not,
Or God fupport nature without repast

250 Though

tempted him by propofing to him his making ftones into bread, and Milton's own account in the first book is confiftent with this: is there not therefore a feeming impropriety in faying that he now first hungred, efpecially confidering the time that must have neceffarily elaps'd during Satan's convening

and

Though needing, what praise is it to indure?
But now I feel I hunger, which declares
Nature hath need of what she asks; yet God
Can fatisfy that need fome other way,
Though hunger ftill remain: fo it remain
Without this body's wafting, I content me,
And from the fting of famin fear no harm,
Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts that feed
Me hungring more to do my Father's will.

It was the hour of night, when thus the Son
Commun'd in filent walk, then laid him down
Under the hofpitable covert nigh

255

260

Of

Adfidet, et totum prope faucibus
Occupat amnem.

266. Him thought, &c.] We fay now, and more juftly, he thought; but him thought is of the fame conftruction as me thought, and is used by our old writers, as by Fairfax Cant. 13. St. 40.

Him thought he heard the foftly whistling wind.

He by the brook of Cherith flood &c. Alluding to the account of Elijah. 1 Kings XVII. 5, 6. He went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan: And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. As what follows, He faw

the

264

Of trees thick interwoven; there he flept,
And dream'd, as appetite is wont to dream,
Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment fweet;
Him thought, he by the brook of Cherith stood,
And faw the ravens with their horny beaks
Food to Elijah bringing ev'n and morn, [brought:
Though ravenous, taught t'abstain from what they
He faw the prophet alfo how he fled
Into the defert, and how there he slept
Under a juniper; then how awak'd,
He found his supper on the coals prepar'd,
And by the Angel was bid rise and eat,

270

And

Daniel's living upon pulse and wa ter rather than the portion of the king's meat and drink is celebrated Dan. I. So that, as our dreams are often compofed of the matter of our waking thoughts, our Saviour is with great propriety fuppofed to dream of facred perfons and fubjects. Lucretius IV. 959.

the prophet alfo &c, is in allufion to 1 Kings XIX. 4. &c. But he himJelf went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and fat down under a juniper-tree And as he lay and flept under a juniper-tree, behold then, an Angel touched him, and faid unto him, Arife and eat. And he looked, and behold there was a cake baken on the coals, and a crufe of water at his head; and he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the Angel of the Lord came again the fecond time, and touched him, and faid, Arife and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arofe, and did eat and drink, and went in the ftrength of that meat forty days and forty nights, His very dreams are rightly made unto Horeb the mount of God. And to fhow our Saviour to have me

Et quoi quifque ferè ftudio devinctus adhæret,

Aut quibus in rebus multum fu

mus antè morati,

Atque in qua ratione fuit conten

ta magis mens,

In fomnis eadem plerumque videmur obire.

ditated