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PARADISE REGAIN'D.

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Erplex'd and troubled at his bad success The Tempter food, nor had what to reply, Discover'd in his fraud, thrown from his hope

So oft, and the perfuafive rhetoric

That fleek'd his tongue, and won fo much on Eve, 5
So little here, nay loft; but Eve was Eve,
This far his over-match, who felf-deceiv'd
And rash, before-hand had no better weigh'd
The strength he was to cope with, or his own:
But as a man who had been matchlefs held

7. This far his over-match, who felf-deceiv'd &c.] An ufual conftruction in Milton, This far an over-match for him, who felf-deceiv'd and rafh, before band had no better weigh'd &c. Neither is this inconfiftent, as Mr. Thyer conceives it to be, with what Satan had declared in book II. 131.

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He had made fome trials of his ftrength, but had not fufficiently confider'd it before-hand; he had weigh'd it, but thould have weigh'd it better; if he had been fully appris'd whom he was contending with, he would have ceased from the contention.

10. But as a man &c] It is the method of Homer to illuftrate and

Have found him, view'd him, adorn the fame fubject with feve

tafted him, but find

Far other labor to be undergone
Sc,

ral fimilitudes, as the reader may fee particularly in the fecond book of the Iliad before the catalogue of

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In cunning over-reach'd where least he thought,
To falve his credit, and for very spite,

- Still will be tempting him who foils him ftill,
And never cease, though to his shame the more;
Or as a fwarm of flies in vintage time,

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About the wine-prefs where sweet muft is pour'd,
Beat off, returns as oft with humming found;
Or furging waves against a folid rock,

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fhips and warriors: and our author here follows his example, and prefents us, as I may fay, with a firing of fimilitudes together. This fecundity and variety of the two poets can never be fufficiently admired but Milton, I think, has the advantage in this refpect, that in Homer the loweft comparison is fometimes the laft, whereas here in Milton they rife in my opinion, and improve one upon another. The firit has too much fameness with the fubject it would illuftrate, and gives us no new ideas. The fecond is low, but it is the lowness of Homer, and at the fame time is very natural. The third is free from the defects of the other two, and rifes up to Milton's ufual dignity and majetty. Mr. Thyer, who has partly made the fame obfervations with me, fays that Milton, as if conscious of the defects of the two foregoing comparifons, rifes up here to his ufual fublimity, and presents to the reader's mind an

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Though all to fhivers dafh'd, th' affault renew,
Vain batt'ry, and in froth or bubbles end;
So Satan, whom repulse upon repulse

Met ever, and to shameful filence brought,
Yet gives not o'er though defp'rate of success,
And his vain importunity pursues.

He brought our Saviour to the western fide
Of that high mountain, whence he might behold.

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Ήτε και εργομενη μαλα περ χρόσ of the fixth book of his Paradife

ανδρομέδιο, Ισχαναα δακεειν.

Et ei mufcæ audaciam pectori

bus immifit, Quæ licet abacta crebro à corpore humano, Appetit mordere.

Fortin.

This fimile is very much in the fame tafte with one in the fecond Iliad of Homer, where he compares the Greek army to warms of flies buzzing about the shepherds milk pail in the Spring, and feems liable to the fame objection which is made to that, of being too low for the grandeur of the fubject. It must however be allow'd, that nothing could better exprefs the teazing ceafelefs importunity of the Tempter than this does. Mr. Pope in his note on this paffage of Homer obferves that Milton, who was a clofe imitator of him, has often copied him in thefe humble comparisons, and inftances thofe lines in the end

Loft, where the rebel Angels thunder-ftruck by the Meffiah are comflock together throngd. The obferpared to a herd of goats or timorous vation is juft, but very far in my opinion from being verified by the paffage produc'd. No image of terror or confternation could be too low for that exhaufted fpiritlefs condition, in which thofe vanquish'd Angels muit at that inftant be fuppofed to be, and that abject timoroufnefs imputed to them, inftead of leffening the dignity of the defcription rather adds to it, by exciting in the reader's mind a greater idea of the tremendous majefty of the Son of God. This comparifon of the flies now before us would have anfwer'd his purpofe much better. Thyer.

I cannot entirely agree with my ingenious friend; for Mr. Pope is difcourfing there of low images, which are preceded by others of a lofty ftrain, and on that account

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this

Another plain, long but in breadth not wide,
Wash'd by the fouthern fea, and on the north.
To equal length back'd with a ridge of hills,

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That screen'd the fruits of th' earth and feats of men From cold Septentrion blasts, thence in the midst Divided by a river, of whofe banks

On each fide an imperial city ftood,

With tow'rs and temples proudly elevate
On fev'n small hills, with palaces adorn'd,
Porches and theatres, baths, aqueducts,
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
Gardens and groves prefented to his eyes,
Above the highth of mountains interpos'd:
By what strange parallax or optic skill
Of vifion multiply'd through air, or glass

this comparison, however fuitable in other refpects, would not have been so proper for his purpose.

27. Another plain, &c] The learned reader need not be inform'd, that the country here meant, is Italy, which indeed is long but not broad, and is wash'd by the Mediterranean on the south, and fcreen'd by the Alps on the north, and divided in the midft by the river Tiber.

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35. On fev'n fmall hills,] Virgil Georg. II. 535.

Septemque una fibi muro circumdedit. arces.

40. By what ftrange parallax or

optic Skill &c] The learned have been very idly busy in contriving the manner in which Satan. showed to our Saviour all the kingdoms of the world. Some fuppofe it was done by vifion; others

by

Of telescope, were curious to inquire:
And now the Tempter thus his filence broke.
The city which thou feeft no other deem
Than great and glorious Rome, queen of the earth
So far renown'd, and with the fpoils enrich'd

Of nations; there the capitol thou feeft
Above the rest lifting his ftately head
On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel
Impregnable, and there mount Palatine,
Th' imperial palace, compafs huge, and high
The structure, skill of nobleft architects,
With gilded battlements, confpicuous far,
Turrets and terrafes, and glitt'ring fpires.
Many a fair edifice befides, more like
Houses of God (fo well I have difpos'd

by Satan's creating phantafms or fpecies of different kingdoms, and prefenting them to our Saviour's fight, &c. &c. But what Milton here alludes to is a fanciful notion which I find imputed to our famous countryman Hugh Broughton. Cornelius a Lapide in fumming up the various opinions upon this fubject gives it in these words: Alii fubtiliter imaginantur, quod Dæmon per multa fpecula fibi invicem

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objecta fpecies regnorum ex uno
fpeculo in aliud et aliud continuò
reflexerit, idque fecerit ufque ad
oculos Chrifti. In locum Matthæi.
For want of a proper index I could
not find the place in Broughton's
works. But Wolfius in his Cura
philologica in SS. Evangelia fa-
thers this whim upon him: Alii
cum Hugone Broughtono ad in-
ftrumenta artis opticæ fe recipiunt.
Vid. Wolf. in Matt. IV, 8. Thyer.
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57. My

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