Though of this age the wonder and the fame, Η, και από σήθεσφιν ελύσατο Ενθ' ένι μεν φιλότης, εν δ' ἱμε- She faid. With awe divine the And from her fragrant breaft the In this was every art, and every To win the wifeft, and the coldeft warm: Fond love, the gentle vow, the 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, Or turn to reverent awe? for beauty ftands 229 Led captive; cease to admire, and all her plumes 225 At every fudden flighting quite abash'd: Lawful defires of nature, not beyond; And now I know he hungers where no food Is to be found, in the wide wilderness; 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 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 240 Now hungring first, and to himself thus faid. 244 To virtue I impute not, or count part 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? It was the hour of night, when thus the Son 255 260 Of Adfidet, et totum prope faucibus 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, 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 |