Be sure, and terrour, seized the rebel host,
When coming towards them so dread they saw
The bottom of the mountains upward turn'd ;
Till on those cursed engines' triple row
They saw them whelm'd, and all their confidence
Under the weight of mountains buried deep;
Themselves invaded next, and on their heads
Main promontories flung, which in the air

Came shadowing and oppressed whole legions arm'd.
Their armour help'd their harm, crush'd in and bruised
Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain
Implacable and many a dolorous groan;
Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind
Out of such prison, though spirits of purest light,
Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown m.
The rest, in imitation, to like arms

Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore:
So hills amid the air encounter'd hills,
Hurl'd to and fro with jaculation dire,

That under ground they fought in dismal shade;
Infernal noise! war seem'd a civil game
To this uproar; horrid confusion heap'd
Upon confusion rose and now all heaven
Had gone to wrack" with ruin overspread,
Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits
Shrined in his sanctuary of heaven secure,
Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen
This tumult, and permitted all, advised:
That his great purpose he might so fulfil,
To honour his anointed Son avenged
Upon his enemies; and to declare

m Now gross by sinning grown.

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What a fine moral does Milton here inculcate, and indeed quite through this book, by showing that all the weakness and pain of the rebel angels was the natural consequence of their sinning! And, I believe, one may observe in general of our author, that he is scarcely ever so far hurried on by the fire of his Muse, as to forget the main end of all good writing the recommendation of virtue and religion.—THYER.

n And now all heaven

Had gone to wrack.

It is remarked by the critics, in praise of Homer's battles, that they rise in horror one above another to the end of the Iliad. The same may be said of Milton's battles. In the first day's engagement, when they fought under a cope of fire with burning arrows, it was said,

All heaven

Resounded; and, had earth been then, all earth
Had to her centre shook :

but now, when they fought with mountains and promontories, it is said, "all heaven had gone to wrack," had not the Almighty Father interposed, and sent forth his Son, in the fulness of his divine glory and majesty, to expel the rebel angels out of heaven. Compare Homer's Iliad, viii. 130.

Ἔνθα κε λοιγὸς ἔην, καὶ ἀμήχανα ἔργα γένοντο·

Εἰ μὴ ἄρ ̓ ὀξὺ νόησε πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε.—NEWTON.

All power on him transferr'd: whence to his Son,
The Assessour of his throne, he thus began:
Effulgence of my glory, Son beloved;

Son, in whose face invisible is beheld
Visibly, what by Deity I am ;

And in whose hand what by decree I do,
Second Omnipotence; two days are pass'd,
Two days, as we compute the days of heaven,
Since Michael and his powers went forth to tame
These disobedient: sore hath been their fight,
As likeliest was, when two such foes met arm'd:
For to themselves I left them; and thou know'st
Equal in their creation they were form'd,

Save what sin hath impair'd; which yet hath wrought
Insensibly, for I suspend their doom:

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Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last

Endless, and no solution will be found.

War wearied hath perform'd what war can do,

And to disorder'd rage let loose the reins,

With mountains, as with weapons, arm'd; which makes

Wild work in heaven, and dangerous to the main.

Two days are therefore pass'd, the third is thine:
For thee I have ordain'd it, and thus far
Have suffer'd, that the glory may be thine
Of ending this great war, since none but thou
Can end it. Into thee such virtue and grace
Immense I have transfused that all may know
In heaven and hell thy power above compare;
And, this perverse commotion govern'd thus,
To manifest thee worthiest to be heir,
Of all things to be heir; and to be King

By sacred unction P, thy deserved right.

Go then, thou mightiest in thy Father's might

Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels

That shake heaven's basis, bring forth all my war,

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• War wearied hath perform'd.

And indeed within the compass of this one book we have all the variety of battles that can well be conceived. We have a single combat and a general engagement. The first day's fight is with darts and swords, in imitation of the ancients; the second day's fight is with artillery, in imitation of the moderns; but the images in both are raised proportionably to the superior nature of the beings here described: and, when the poet has briefly comprised all that has any foundation in fact and reality, he has recourse to the fiction of the poets in their description of the giants' war with the gods. And, when war hath thus performed what war can do, he rises still higher, and the Son of God is sent forth in the majesty of the Almighty Father, agreeably to Scripture; so much doth the sublimity of Holy Writ transcend all that is true, and all that is feigned, in description.-NEWTON.

P By sacred unction.

Psalm xlv. 7:-"God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” -GILLIES.

My bow and thunder; my almighty arms
Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh;
Pursue these sons of darkness; drive them out
From all heaven's bounds into the utter deep:
There let them learn, as likes them, to despise
God, and Messiah his anointed King.

He said; and on his Son with rays direct
Shone full he all his Father full express'd
Ineffably into his face received;

:

And thus the Filial Godhead answering spake :
O Father, O Supreme of heavenly thrones,
First, Highest, Holiest, Best; thou always seek'st
To glorify thy Son, I always thee,

As is most just: this I my glory account,
My exaltation, and my whole delight,

That thou, in me well pleased, declarest thy will
Fulfill'd, which to fulfil is all my bliss.
Sceptre and power, thy giving, I assume;
And gladlier shall resign, when in the end

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Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee

For ever; and in me all whom thou lovest:

But whom thou hatest, I hate; and can put on
Thy terrours, as I put thy mildness on,
Image of thee in all things; and shall soon,
Arm'd with thy might, rid heaven of these rebell'd,
To their prepar'd ill mansion driven down,

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To chains of darkness t, and the undying worm ";

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That from thy just obedience could revolt,
Whom to obey is happiness entire.

Then shall thy saints unmix'd, and from the impure
Far separate, circling thy holy mount,

My almighty arms.

Ps. xlv. 3, 4:-"Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty and in thy majesty ride prosperously."-NEWTON.

To glorify thy Son.

In reference to St. John xvii. 4, 5.-TODD.

Thou shalt be all in all.

We may still observe, that Milton generally makes the divine persons talk in the style and language of Scripture. This passage is manifestly taken from 1 Cor. xv. 24 and 28. Immediately afterwards when it is said,

I in thee

For ever; and in me all whom thou lovest;

this is an allusion to John xvii. 21 and 23. And when it is added,

But whom thou hatest, I hate,

the allusion is to Psalm cxxxix. 21.-NEWTON.

To chains of darkness.

2 Pet. ii. 4- -"God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness."-TODD.

Unfeigned halleluiahs to thee sing,

Hymns of high praise, and I among them chief.
So said, he, o'er his sceptre bowing, rose
From the right hand of Glory where he sat ;
And the third sacred morn▾ began to shine,

Dawning through heaven: forth rush'd with whirlwind sound w
The chariot of paternal Deity,

Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn *,
Itself instinct with spirit, but convoy'd

By four cherubic shapes; four faces each y

Had wondrous; as with stars, their bodies all

And wings were set with eyes; with eyes the wheels
Of beryl, and careering fires between 2;

▾ And the third sacred morn.

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Milton, by continuing the war for three days, and reserving the victory upon the third for the Messiah alone, plainly alludes to the circumstances of his death and resurrection. Our Saviour's extreme sufferings on the one hand, and his heroic behaviour on the other, made the contest seem to be more equal and doubtful upon the first day; and on the second, Satan triumphed in the advantages he thought he had gained, when Christ lay buried in the earth, and was to outward appearance in an irrecoverable state of corruption. But as the poet represents the Almighty Father speaking to his Son, v. 699:

Two days are therefore past, the third is thine;
For thee I have ordain'd it; and thus far
Have suffer'd, that the glory may be thine
Of ending this great war, since none but thou
Can end it:

--

which he most gloriously did, when "the third sacred morn began to shine," by vanquishing with his own Almighty arm the powers of hell, and rising again from the grave: and thus, as St. Paul says, Rom. i. 4:-"He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead."-GREENWOOD.

"Forth rush'd with whirlwind sound.

Ezek. i. 4:"And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire enfolding itself." Or perhaps Milton here drew Isaiah likewise to his assistance, lxvi. 15:-"For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind."-NEWTON.

Wheel within wheel undrawn.

As in Ezek. i. 5, 16, 19, 20:-"Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures, and their appearance was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel: and when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels."-NEWTON.

y Four faces each.

As in Ezek. i. 6:-" And every one had four faces:" again, ch. x. 12 :-" And their whole body, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes round about."-NEWTON.

The wheels

Of beryl, and careering fires between.

The beryl is a precious stone of a sea-green colour, and careering fires are lightnings "darting out by fits," a metaphor taken from the running in tilts. See Ezek. i. 16, and 13:"The appearance of wheels and their work was like a beryl: and the fire was bright; and out of the fire went forth lightning."-NEWTON.

Milton has again described this part of the prophetic vision, and with additional sublimity, v. 848:

One spirit in them ruled, and every eye

Glared lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire
Among the accursed.

This is like the bold and tremendous painting of Eschylus, Prom. Vinct. v. 356, ed. Shütz. Ἐξ ὀμμάτων δ ̓ ἤστραπτε γοργωπὸν σέλας.—TopD.

M

Over their heads a crystal firmament a,
Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure
Amber, and colours of the showery arch.
He, in celestial panoply ball arm'd
Of radiant Urim, work divinely wrought,
Ascended; at his right hand Victory

Sat eagle-wing'd; beside him hung his bow
And quiver with three-bolted thunder stored;
And from about him fierce effusion roll'd

e

Of smoke, and bickering flame, and sparkles dire.
Attended with ten thousand thousand saints,
He onward came; far off his coming shone:
And twenty thousand (I their number heard)
Chariots of God, half on each hand were seen,
He on the wings of cherub rode sublime
On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned,
Illustrious far and wide; but by his own
First seen; them unexpected joy surprised,
When the great ensign of Messiah blazed
Aloft by angels borne, his sign f in heaven;
Under whose conduct Michael soon reduced
His army, circumfused on either wing,
Under their Head & imbodied all in one.
Before him Power Divine his way prepared:
At his command the uprooted hills retired,

a A crystal firmament.

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See Ezek. i. 22, 26, 27, 28:-" And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures, was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above: and above the firmament, that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone and I saw as the colour of amber as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain."-NEWTON. b He, in celestial panoply.

An allusion to Ephes. vi. 11:- "Put on the whole armour (mavoπλlav) of God;" and to the contexture of gems in Aaron's breast-plate, Exod. xxviii.—TODD.

Of smoke.

Fierce effusion roll'd

See Psalm xviii. 8:-"There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured." And see Psalm 1. 3.-HUME.

d Ten thousand thousand saints.

See St. Jude 14::-"Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints." Psalm lxviii. 17:- "The chariots of God are twenty thousand." Rev. vii. 4:—"I heard the number of them." Let it be remarked, how much of his sublimity, even in the sublimest parts of his works, Milton owes to Scripture.-NEWTON.

•Wings of cherub rode.

See Psalm xviii. 10:"He rode upon a cherub."-GREENWOOD.

f His sign.

See Matth. xxiv. 50:-"There shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven." --GILLIES.

8 Under their Head.

See Rom. xii. 5:-"We, being many, are one body in Christ." And Col. i. 18:"He is the head of the body."-GREENWOOD.