Of angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans receiv'd him soft
From his uneasy station, and upbore

As on a floating couch through the blithe air,
Then in a flow'ry valley set him down
On a green bank, and set before him spread
A table of celestial food, divine,
Ambrosial fruits, fetch'd from the tree of life,
And from the fount of life ambrosial drink,

That soon refresh'd him wearied, and repair'd
What hunger, if ought hunger had impair'd,
Or thirst; and as he fed, angelic quires
Sung heav'nly anthems of his victory
Over temptation, and the Tempter proud.
True Image of the Father, whether thron'd

All the poems that ever were written, must yield, even Paradise Lost must yield to Regained in the grandeur of its close. Christ stands triumphant on the pointed eminence. The Demon falls with amazement and terror, on this full proof of his being that very Son of God, whose thunder forced him out of heaven. The blessed angels receive new knowledge. They behold a sublime truth established, which was a secret to them at the beginning of the temptation; and the great discovery gives a proper opening to their hymn on the victory of Christ, and the defeat of the Tempter, Calton.

595

596. True image of the Father is from Heb. i. 8. Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, &c. Thus also, Par. Lost, iii. 884.

Begotten Son! Divine similitude.

throned in the bosom of bliss, is an expression often found in the Par. Lost, see iii. 238, 305. x. 225. —light of light conceiving, is from the Nicene creed. -inshrined in fleshly tabernacle and human form, so St. John, i. 14. Και ὁ Λόγος σαρξ εγένετο, και εσκήνωσεν

v, literally, the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us. St. Paul terms the body, our earthly house of this tabernacle, (2 Cor. v. 1.) Indeed ovos, tabernacle, is frequently used by profane writers also, to signify the mortal body. So Longinus, sect. xxxii. has avbewπivov oxnvous. And Plato, yo vos: and again, as cited by Æschines the Socratic, το δε σκηνος τούτο προς κακα περιηςἡ Φυσις. μοσεν Lexicon in voc. σuvos, onnow, See Parkhurst's σκηνωμα. Thus also Milton in the Passion,

He sovran Priest

Poor fleshly tabernacle entered. of Felton Bp. of Ely, he speaks of And in the poem, On the death

Animasque mole carnea reconditas. Seneca has the expression, Deum in humano corpore hospitantem, epist. xxxi. But it is only a

In the bosom of bliss, and light of light
Conceiving, or remote from heav'n, inshrin'd
In fleshly tabernacle, and human form,
Wand'ring the wilderness, whatever place,
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
The Son of God, with God-like force indued
Against th' attempter of thy Father's throne,
And thief of Paradise; him long of old

Thou didst debel, and down from heaven cast
With all his army, now thou hast aveng'd
Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regain'd lost Paradise;
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent :
He never more henceforth will dare set foot
In Paradise to tempt; his snares are broke:
For though that seat of earthly bliss be fail'd,
A fairer Paradise is founded now

For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou

A Saviour art come down to re-install

Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be,

strong way of expressing the sentiment in ep. lxxiii. and in other parts of his writings, Nulla sine Deo mens bona. Dunster.

The expression is much the same, but far less dignified, in Il Penseroso, 91.

Th'immortal mind, that hath forsook Her mansion in this fleshly nook. Spenser calls the body the soul's "fleshly form." F. Q. iii. v. 23. T. Warton.

600. whatever place, Habit, or state, or motion,] Probably not without allusion to Horace, ep. i. xvii. 23.

600

605

610

615

Of Tempter and temptation without fear,
But thou, infernal Serpent, shall not long
Rule in the clouds; like an autumnal star

Or lightning thou shalt fall from heav'n, trod down 620
Under his feet: for proof, ere this thou feel'st
Thy wound, yet not thy last and deadliest wound,
By this repulse receiv'd, and hold'st in hell
No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues
Thy bold attempt; hereafter learn with awe
To dread the Son of God: he all unarm'd
Shall chace thee with the terror of his voice
From thy demoniac holds, possession foul,
Thee and thy legions; yelling they shall fly,

619. like an autumnal star Or lightning]

The poet does here, as in other places, imitate profane authors and Scripture both together. Like an autumnal star, Aσrg og Evaλynov. Iliad. v. 5. Or like lightning fall from heaven, Luke x. 18. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

619. Par. Lost, iv. 556.

-swift as a shooting star In Autumn thwarts the nighttrod down under his feet; so Romans xvi. 20. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet. The marginal reading for bruise is tread. In all her gates- Matt. xvi. 18. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Dunster.

624. Abaddon] The name of the angel of the bottomless pit. Rev. ix. 11. Here applied to the bottomless pit itself.

626. —all unarm'd.] So in Vida's Christiad, i. 192. Satan says of our Saviour,

625

-semper me reppulit ipse, Non armis ullis fretus, non viribus

usus.

But all unarmed seems here to
be an intended contrast to the
fine description of the Messiah
driving the rebel angels out of
heaven, Par. Lost, vi. 76.

He in celestial panoply all arm'd
Of radiant Urim, &c.

Dunster.

628. From thy demoniac holds, possession foul,] The dapovoEvo, or demoniacs of the Gospel, are constantly rendered in our version possessed with a devil. And Rev. xviii. 2. Babylon is called, the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit. —yelling they shall fly, and beg to hide them in a herd of swine, &c. from Matt. viii. 28-32. and Rev. xx. 1-3. -our Saviour meek, Matt. xi. 29. Learn of me, for I am meek, and lowly of heart. Dunster.

And beg to hide them in a herd of swine,
Lest he command them down into the deep
Bound, and to torment sent before their time.
Hail Son of the Most High, heir of both worlds,
Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work
Now enter, and begin to save mankind.

Thus they the Son of God our Saviour meek
Sung victor, and from heav'nly feast refresh'd
Brought on his way with joy; he unobserv'd
Home to his mother's house private return'd.

638. -he unobserv'd
Home to his mother's house pri-

vate return'd.]

A striking contrast in the deli-
neation of circumstances in a
certain degree similar by great
poets, strongly points out to us
their recollection of the prior
description, for the purpose of
adopting a manner totally differ-
ent, but calculated to produce
no less effect sui generis. See the
note on v. 626. Another instance
is the brief relation of the refresh-
ment ministered to our Lord by
angels, v. 587. compared with the
copious and embellished descrip-
tion of the banquet in b. ii. And
this very unadorned account of
our Lord's return from his pre-
sent victory recals, in this re-
spect, to our minds the sublime
in the Paradise Lost,
passage
where
Sole victor from the expulsion of his
foes

Messiah his triumphant

chariot

turn'd, &c. See Par. Lost, vi. 880-892. Dunster.

639. In the concluding hymn of the angels, the poet has taken VOL. III.

630

635

some pains, to shew the fitness and propriety of giving the name of Paradise Regained to so confined a subject, as our Saviour's temptation. Confined as the subject was, I make no question that he thought the Paradise Regained an epic poem as well as the Paradise Lost. For in his invocation he undertakes

-to tell of deeds Above heroic:

and he had no notion that an epic poem must of necessity be formed after the example of Homer, and according to the precepts of Aristotle. In the introduction to the second book of his Reason of Church- Government he thus delivers his sentiments. "Time serves not now, and per

haps I might seem too profuse "to give any certain account of "what the mind at home, in "the spacious circuits of her "musing, hath liberty to pro"pose to herself, though of high"est hope, and hardest attempt"ing; whether that epic form "whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other two

66

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