455

That when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lacky her
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in clear dream, and solemn vision,
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on th’ outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,

460

a

case:

being ravished, was delivered by mon apprehension, and the comProteus, breaks out into a reflec- mon appearances of things; the tion of the same kind. Faery elder from a profounder knowQueen, b. iii. cant. 8. st. 29. ledge, and abstracted principles.

Here the difference of their ages See how the heav'ns of voluntary is properly made subservient to

grace, And sovereign favour towards chase a contrast of character. But this tity,

slight variety must have been inDo succour send to her distressed

sufficient to keep so prolix and

learned a disputation, however So much high God doth innocence

adorned with the fairest flowers embrace.

Thyer.

of eloquence, alive upon the

stage. The whole dialogue much 454. That when a soul is found resembles the manner of our ausincerely so,] It was at first in thor's Latin Prolusions at Camthe Manuscript,

bridge, where philosophy is inThat when it finds a soul sincerely so.

forced by pagan fable and po

etical allusion. T. Warton. The alteration makes the sense

461. The unpolluted temple of rather plainer.

the mind,] For this beautiful me455. A thousand liveried angels taphor he was probably indebted lacky her.] The idea, without the lowness of allusion and expres- spake of the temple of his body.

to Scripture. John ii. 21. He sion, is repeated in Par. L. viii. And Shakespeare has the same. 359.

Tempest, act i. s. 6. About her, as a guard angelic plac'd.

T. Warton.

There's nothing ill can dwell in such

a temple. 458. Tell her of things that no

If the ill spirit haye so fair an house,

Good things will strive to dwell with't. gross ear can hear,] See note on Arcades, 72.

462. And turns it by degrees to This dialogue between the two the soul's essence,] This is agreebrothers is an amicable contest able to the system of the matebetween fact and philosophy. rialists, of which Milton was one. The younger argues from com- Warburton.

And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal: but when lust,
By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,
Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
The soul grows clotted by contagion,

465

The same notion of body's work

-Spirits of purest light, ing up to spirit Milton afterwards Purest at first, now gross by sinning introduced into his Paradise Lost,

grown.

T. Warlon. v. 469, &c. which is there, I think, liable to some objection, 467. The soul grows clotted &c.) as he was entirely at liberty to Our author has here improved have chosen a

more rational

his poetry by philosophy. These system, and as it is also put into notions are borrowed from Plathe mouth of an archangel. to's Phædon. See Plato's Works, But in this place it falls in so vol. i. p. 81. and 83. edit. Henr. well with the poet's design, gives Steph. And when the other brosuch force and strength to this ther replies encomium on chastity, and car

How charming is divine philosophy! ries in it such a dignity of sentiment, that however repugnant he means the philosophy of Plato, it may be to our philosophic who was distinguished among ideas, it cannot miss striking and the ancients by the name of the delighting every virtuous and divine. intelligent reader. Thyer. 467. I cannot resist the plea464. By unchaste looks,] “He sure of translating a passage

“ [Christ) censures an unchaste in Plato's Phædon, which Mil“ look to be an adultery already ton here evidently copies. “A " committed." Divorce, b. ii. c.

“ soul with such affections, does 1. Pr. W. i. 184. Milton there. “ it not fly away to something fore in this expression alludes to

“ divine and resembling itself? S. Matt. v. 28. moes • Bastwy yur.

“ To something divine, immorαικα προς το επιθυμησαι αυτης, κ.τ.λ.

“ tal, and wise? Whither when T. Warton.

“ it arrives, it becomes happy; 465. But most by lewd and lavish being freed from error, ignoact of sin,j In the Manuscript it rance, fear, love, and other is And most &c. and instead of

« human evils. But if it delewd and lavish he had written at parts from the body polluted first,

“ and impure, with which it has

“ been long linked in a state of And most by the lascivious act of sin.

“ familiarity and friendship, and 465. It is the same idea, yet “ from whose pleasures and apwhere it is very commodiously “ petites it has been bewitched, applied, in Par. L. vi. 660.

so as to think nothing else true,

Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose
The divine property of her first being.

a

" but what is corporeal, and " the sensualities of corporeal or which may be touched, seen, “ nature, they are again clothed “ drank, and used for the grati- ! with a body, &c." Phæd. Opp. « fications of lust: at the same Platon. p. 386. b.1. edit. Lugdun. 66 time, if it has been accustomed 1590. fol. An' admirable writer, “ to hate, fear, or shun, whatever the present Bishop of Worcester, rs is dark and invisible to the has justly remarked, that “ this “ human eye, yet discerned and “poetical philosophy nourished “ approved by philosophy: I “ the fine spirits of Milton's time, “ ask, if a soul so disposed, will “though it corrupted some." It

go sincere and disincumbered is highly probable, that Henry s from the body? By no means. More, the great Platonist, who « And will it not be, as I have was Milton's contemporary at

supposed, infected and in- Christ's college, might have given “ volved with corporeal con- his mind an early bias to the “ tagion, which an acquaintance study of Plato. But although “ and converse with the body, Milton was confessedly a great “ from a perpetual association, reader of Plato, yet all this whole “ has made congenial? So I system had been lately brought « think. But, my friend, we forward by May, in his continu“ must pronounce that substance ation of Lucan's Historicall Poem, “ to be ponderous, depressive, Lond. 1630. 12mo. See b. iv. “ and earthy, which such a soul signat. T. 4. where there are o draws with it: and therefore many lines bearing a strong re• it is burthened by such a clog, semblance to some of Milton's. “ and again is dragged off to But in this book May has trans" some visible place, for fear of lated almost the whole of Plato's 66 that which is hidden and un- Phædon, which he puts into the

seen; and, as they report, mouth of Cato. T. Warton. « retires to tombs and sepul- 468. Imbodies, and imbrutes,] “ chres, among which the sha. Thus also Satan speaks of the

dowy phantasms of these brutal debasement and corruption of

souls, being loaded with some- his original divine essence, Par. « what visible, have often actually L. ix. 165. appeared. Probably, O Socra

-Mix'd with bestial slime, “tes. And it is equally probable,

This essence to incarnate and imbrute, “ O Cebes, that these are the

That to the height of deity aspir'd. “ souls of wicked not virtuous Our author, with these Platonic

men, which are forced to refinements in his head, supposes “ wander amidst burial-places, that the human soul was for a “suffering the punishment of an long time embodied and imbruted

impious life. And they so long with the carnal ceremonies of

are seen hovering about the popery, just as she is sensualised “ monuments of the dead, till and degraded by a participation “ from the accompaniinent of of the vicious habits of the body.

470

475

Such are those thick and gloomy shadows damp
Oft seen in charnel vaults, and sepulchres,
Ling’ring, and sitting by a new made grave,
As loath to leave the body that it lov'd,
And link'd itself by carnal sensuality
To a degenerate and degraded state.

2. BROTHER.
How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo's lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns.

ELDER BROTHER.

List, list, I hear Some far off halloo break the silent air.

2. BROTHER. Methought so too; what should it be?

480

Of Reformation, &c. Prose W. lute,] Milton probably took this vol. i. 1. Imbrute, or embrute, comparison from Shakespeare's occurs in G. Fletcher, p. 38. Love's Labour's Lost, act iv. s. 4. T. Warton.

though there it is applied upon 472. Ling'ring and sitting by a another occasion. new made grave,] In the Manu

-as sweet and musical script, and in the edition of 1637, As bright Apollo's lute, strung with it is

his hair. Hovering, and sitting, &c.

He has something of the same 476. How charming is divine thought again in Paraqise Rephilosophy!] This is an im.

gained, i. 479. mediate reference to the fore- Smooth on the tongue discours'd, going speech, in which the divine pleasing to th' ear,

And tuneable as sylvan pipe or song. philosophy of Plato, concerning the nature and condition of the 480. — List, list, I hear &c.] human soul after death, is so He had written at first, largely and so nobly displayed. See Note on Par. Reg. i. 478.

-List, list, methought I heard &c. T. Warton.

and in the Manuscript is a mar478. But musical as is Apollo's ginal direction, halloo far off.

485

ELDER BROTHER,

For certain
Either some one like us night-founder'd here,
Or else some neighbour woodman, or, at worst,
Some roving robber calling to his fellows.

2. BROTHER.
Heav'n keep my Sister. Again, again, and near;
Best draw, and stand upon our guard.
ELDER BROTHER.

I'll halloo;
If he be friendly, he comes well; if not,
Defence is a good cause, and heav'n be for us.

The attendant Spirit, habited like a shepherd.
That halloo I should know, what are you? speak; 490
Come not too near, you fall on iron stakes else.

,

SPIRIT. What voice is that? my young Lord ? speak again.

2. BROTHER. O brother, 'tis my father's shepherd, sure,

485. Some roving robber calling the court. Warburton. to his fellows.] The Trinity Ma- 489. Defence is a good cause, nuscript had at first,

and heav'n be for us.] This verse

was well substituted in the room Some curld man of the sword calling &c.

of that just quoted, which alluded to the fashion of Had best look to his forehcud, here be the Court Gallants of that time :

brambles. and what follows continues the And then follows in the Manuallusion,

script, He halloos, the guardian Had best look to his forehead, here be Dæmon halloos again, and enters, brambles.

in the habit of a shepherd. But I suppose he thought it might 491. -iron stakes] It was at v give offence: and he was not yet first in the Manuscript, pointed come to an open defiance with stakes.