280 As foft as now fevere, our temper chang'd War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike My voice diffuades; for what can force or guile &c. Mammon carries on the fame atguments, and is for difmiffing quite all thoughts of war. So that the queftion is changed in the courfe of the debate, whether thro' the inattention or intention of the author it is not eafy to fay, 281.with regard Of what we are and where,] It is thus in the first edition: in the fecond edition it is, with regard of what we are and were: and it is varied sometimes the one and fometimes the other in the fubfequent editions. If we read with regard of what we are and were, the fenfe is, with regard to our prefent and our paft condition; If we read with regard of what we are and 285 The where, the fenfe is, with regard to our prefent condition and the place where we are; which latter seems much better. 285.—as when hollow rocks rctain &c.] Virgil compares the affent given by the affembly of the Gods to Juno's fpeech, n. X. 96. to the rifing wind, which our author affimilates to its decreafing murmurs, --cun&tique fremebant Calicolæ affenfu vario: ceu flamina prima, Cum deprenfa fremunt fylvis, et The found of bluft'ring winds, which all night long Had rous'd the fea, now with hoarse cadence lull Sea-fearing men o'er-watch'd, whofe bark by chance Or pinnace anchors in a craggy bay After the tempeft: Such applause was heard As Mammon ended, and his fentence pleas'd, 290 They dreaded worse than Hell: fo much the fear Wrought still within them; and no lefs defire 295 perly compared by Virgil to the rifing wind: but the defign of Mammon's fpeech is to quiet and compofe the infernal affembly, and the effect of this therefore is as properly compared by Milton to the wind falling after a tempeft. ClauIdian has a fimile of the fame kind in his description of the infernal council. In Rufinum, I. 70. ceu murmurat alti Impacata quies pelagi, cum fla- venti. And in other particulars our author feems to have drawn his council of In Devils with an eye to Claudian's council of furies; and the reader may compare Alecto's speech with Moloch's, and Megara's with Belial's or rather with Beelzebub's. 294. the word of Michaël ] The words Michael, Raphael, &c. are fometimes pronounced as of two fyllables, and fometimes they are made to confift of three. When they are to be pronounced as of three fyllables, we shall take care to diftinguish them in printing thus, Michaël, Raphaël. 302. A pillar of fate ;] Pillar is to be pronounced contractedly as of one fyllable, or two fhort ones; and again in Book XII. 202, 203. The metaphor is plain and ealy enough to be understood; and thus James, In emulation oppofite to Heaven. Which when Beelzebub perceiv'd, than whom, A pillar of ftate; deep on his front ingraven And princely counsel in his face yet fhone, With Atlantean fhoulders fit to bear 300 305 The weight of mightieft monarchies; his look James, and Peter, and John are called pillars in Gal. II. 9. And we have the fame expreffion in Shakefpear, 2 Hen. VI. A& I. The whole picture from ver. 299. to the end of the paragraph is admirable! Richardjon. 309. Or fummer's noon-tide air,] Noon-tide is the fame as noon-time, Brave Peers of England, pillars of when in hot countries there is hard the flate. 305. Majestic though in ruin :] It is amazing how even the greatest critics, fuch as Dr. Bentley, can fometimes mistake the most obvious paffages. Thefe words are to be join'd in conftruction with his face, and not with princely counfel, as the Doctor imagin'd. 306. With Atlantean fhoulders] A metaphor to exprefs his vaft capacity. Atlas was to great an aftronomer, that he is faid to have borne Heaven on his fhoulders. ly a breath of wind ftirring, and men and beafts by reafon of the intenfe heat retire to fhade and reft. This is the cuftom of Italy particularly, where our author liv'd fome time. 309. while thus he spake.] Beelzebub, who is reckon'd the fecond in dignity that fell, and is, in the first book, the fecond that awakens out of the trance, and confers with Satan upon the fituation of their affairs, maintains his rank in the book now before us. There Thrones and Imperial Pow'rs, Ofspring of Heaven, Ethereal Virtues; or these titles now Muft we renounce, and changing ftile be call'd 311 A growing empire; doubtless; while we dream, 315 There is a wonderful majefty defcribed in his rifing up to fpeak. He acts as a kind of moderator between the two oppofit parties, and proposes a third undertaking, which the whole affembly gives into. The motion he makes of detaching one of their body in search of a new world is grounded upon a project devised by Satan, and curforily propofed by him in the following lines of the first book, Space may produce new worlds, &c. ver. 650. It is on this project that Beelzebub grounds his proposal, What if we find 320 Under it was not to omit in the first book the project upon which the whole poem turns: as also that the prince of the fallen Angels was the only proper perfon to give it birth, and that the next to him in dignity was the fittest to fecond and fupport it. There is befides, I think, fomething wonderfully beautiful, and very apt to affect the reader's ima gination in this ancient prophecy or report in Heaven, concerning the creation of man. Nothing could show more the dignity of the fpecies than this tradition which ran of them before their existence. They are reprefented to have been the talk of Heaven, before they were created. Virgil, in compliment to the Roman commonwealth, makes Under th' inevitable curb, referv'd His captive multitude: for he, be fure, In highth or depth, still first and last will reign 325 His empire, and with iron fcepter rule makes the heroes of it appear in their ftate of præexistence; but Milton does a far greater honor to mankind in general, as he gives us a glimpse of them even before they are in being. Addijon. 327-and with iron Scepter rule Us here, as with his golden thofe in Heaven,] The iron scepter is an allufion to Pfal. II. 9. as that of gold to Efther. V. 2. Hume. 329. What fit we then projecting peace and war?] Dr. Bentley reads peace or war: Dr. Pearce fays, perhaps better peace in war: But there feems to be no neceffity for an alteration. It was a debate of peace and war. Peace as well as war was the fubject of their debate. And what feems to be ufed VOL. I. 330 And here like the Latin Quid, which fignifies both what and why. 332. Vouchsaf'd] Milton conftantly writes this verb voutfafe, and this is rather of a fofter found, but the other feems more agreeable to the etymology of the word. 332.-for what peace will be given To us inflav'd, but cuftody fevere? and what peace can we return But to our poru'r hoftility and hate?} In both thefe paffages there is an unufual conftruction of the particle but; it feems to put cuftody fevere &c in the one, and hoftility and hate &c in the other on the foot of peace. There are fome very few inftances where the Latins have ufed nifi (except, or but) in a like conftruction. One is in Plautus's I Me |