For grant they be fo, while they rest unknown,
What need a man foreftall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would moft avoid?
Or if they be but falfe alarms of fear,
How bitter is fuch felf-delufion?

I do not think my Sifter so to seek,

Or fo unprincipled in virtue's book,

And the sweet peace that goodness bofoms ever,
As that the fingle want of light and noise

(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not)

365

370

Could ftir the conftant mood of her calm thoughts, them into misbecoming plight.

And put

369. As that the fingle want of light and noife

(Not being in danger, as I truft fhe is not)

Could ftir the conftant mood of her calm thoughts, &c.] A profound critic cites the intire context, as containing a beautiful example of Milton's use of the parenthesis, a figure which he has frequently ufed with great effect. "The whole paffage is exceed

ingly beautiful; but what I praise in the parenthefis is, the pa"thos and concern for his fifter that it expreffes. For every parenthefis fhould contain matter of weight; and, if it throws in fome paffion or feeling into the difcourfe, it is fo much the better, be"cause it furnishes the fpeaker with a proper occafion to vary the "tone of his voice, which ought always to be done in speaking a "parenthesis, but is never more properly done than when some paf"fion is to be expreffed. And we may obferve here, that there ought to be two variations of the voice in fpeaking this parenthefis. The first is that tone which we use, when we mean to qualify or reftrict any thing that we have faid before. With this tone "fhould be pronounced, not being in danger; and the fecond mem"ber, as I truft fhe is not, fhould be pronounced with that pathetic "tone in which we earnestly hope or pray for any thing." OR I GIN AND PROGR. OF LANGUAGE. B. iv. P. ii. vol. iii. p. 76 Edingb. 1776. This is very fpecious and ingenious reafoning. Bu fome perhaps may think this beauty quite accidental and unde. figned. A parenthefis is often thrown in, for the fake of explana tion, after a paffage is written.

370. So" My CONSTANT thoughts." PARAD. L. B. v. 552

Virtue could fee to do what virtue would

By her own radiant light, though fun and moon, Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 375. Oft feeks to fweet retired folitude,

Where with her best nurse Contemplation

She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,

373. Virtue could fee, &c.] So in Shakespeare, as Mr. Stee vens observes to me, Roм. JUL.

Lovers can fee to do their amorous rites

By their own beauties.

375. Were in the flat fea funk.] Perhaps he wrote, " Were " in the sea flat funk." Compare PARAD, REG. B. iv. 363. "Lays cities FLAT." Again, B. ii. 222. Of beauty. All her plumes

Fall FLAT, and shrink into a trivial toy.

And PARAD. L. B. i. 401. "On the groundfill-edge, where "he fell FLAT." But we have "level brine," in LYCID. V. 98,

376. Oft feeks to fweet retired folitude.] For the fame uncommon ufe of SEEK, Mr. Bowle cites Bale's EXAMYNACYION of A. Afkew, p. 24. "Hath not he moche nede of helpe who So alfo in ISAIAH, ii. 10. "SEKETH TO foche a furgeon? ” "To it fhall the Gentiles SEEK."

277. She plumes her feathers.] I believe the true reading to be prunes, which Lawes ignorantly altered to plumes, afterwards imperceptibly continued in the poet's own edition. To prune wings, is to fmooth, or fet them in order, when ruffled. For this is the leading idea. Spenfer, F. Q. ii. iii. 36.

She gins her feathers foule disfigured

Proudly to PRUNE.

And hence Spenfer is to be interpreted in the M. M. OF THES TYLIS. It is where Cupid fits bathing his wings under the eyes of a lady weeping, and afterwards,

-At their brightest beams

Him PROYND in lovley wife.

That is, he "PRUNED his wetted and disordered wings." Waterfowl, at this day, are faid to preene, when they fleek or replace their wet feathers in the fun. See commentators on Shakespeare, P. i. HENR. iv. A. i. S. i.

Which makes him prune himself, &c.

Where

380

That in the various buftle of refort
Were all to ruffled, and fometimes impair'd.
He that has light within his own clear breast,
May fit i' th' centre, and enjoy bright day:
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day fun;
Himself is his own dungeon.

Sec. Br. 'Tis most true,

Where doctor Warburton and Hanmer substituted plume. Upton derives the word from the French brunir, to polish. NOTES On Spenfer, p. 446. col. 2. Prune her tender wing is in Pope. Prune, amputo, is fometimes written proine, as in Drayton, POLYOL B. vol. ii. S. iii. p. 714. [But fee fol. edit. 1613.]" Here PROINE, "and there plant." And in other places.

A critic of the most confummate abilities has confirmed Bishop Warburton's opinion, that Pope plainly copied this sublime and elegant imagery, and that he has hewn his dexterity in contending with fo great an original. Pope fays,

Bear me fome god, oh! quickly bear me hence,

To wholesome SOLITUDE, the nurse of sense;

Where CONTEMPLATION prunes her RUFFLED wings.

See ON THE MARKS OF POETICAL IMITATION, 12m0, 1757p. 43. I find, however, in Hughes's THOUGHT in a GARDEN, written 1704, POEMS, edit. 1735. vol. i. 12mo. p. 171.

Here Contemplation prunes her wings.

380. Were all to ruffled.] So read as in editions 1637, 1645, and 1673. Not Too, nimis. ALL-TO, or AL-TO, is, Intirely. See Tyrwhitt's GL. Chaucer. V. Too. Various inftances occur in Chaucer and Spenfer, and in later writers. "O how "the coate of Chrift that was without feam is all to rent and "torn." HOMILIES, B. i. i. See Hearne's GL. Langtoft p. 663. OBSERVAT. on Spenfer's F. Q. ii. 225. and Upton's Spenfer, NOTES, p. 391. 594. 625. And the fifteenth GENERAL RULE for understanding G. Douglass's Virgil, prefixed to Ruddiman's Gloffary in the capital edition of that tranflation. And Upton's GLoss. V. ALL. The corruption, fuppofed to be an emendation, "all TOO ruffled " began with Tickell, who had no knowledge of our old language, and has been continued by Fenton, and doctor Newton. Tonfon has the true reading, in 1695, and 1705.

The

That mufing meditation most affects

The penfive fecrecy of defert cell,

Far from the chearful haunt of men and herds,
And fits as fafe as in a fenate house;

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,

His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his gray hairs any violence?

But beauty, like the fair Hefperian tree
Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
Of dragon-watch with uninchanted eye,
To fave her bloffoms, and defend her fruit
From the rash hand of bold incontinence.
You may as well spread out the unfunn'd heaps
Of mifer's treasure by an outlaw's den,
And tell me it is fafe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on opportunity,
And let a single helpless maiden pass

390

395

400

389. And fits as fafe as in a fenate houfe.] Not many years after this was written, Milton's friends fhewed that the safety of a senate-house was not inviolable. But, when the people turn legislators, what place is fafe from the tumults of innovation, and the infults of difobedience ?

391. His few books, or his beads, or maple difh.] So in Shakefpeare's RICHARD THE SECOND, the king wishes to change his figured goblets for a hermit's DISH of WOOD. A. iii. S. vi. 293. But beauty, &c.] These sentiments are heightened from the FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS, A. i. S. i. vol. iii. p. 123. Can fuch beauty be

Safe in its own guard, and not drawe the eye
Of him that paffeth on, to greedy gaze, &c.

395. Of dragon-watch with uninchanted eye.] That is, which cannot be inchanted. Here is more flattery; but certainly fuch as was juftly due, and which no poet in fimilar circumstances could refift the opportunity or rather the temptation of paying. 402. And let a fingle helpless maiden pass, &c.] Rofalind argues in the fame manner, in As You LIKE IT, A. i. S. iii.

Alas! what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth fo far!
Beauty provoketh thieves fooner than gold.

Uninjur'd

Uninjur'd in this wild furrounding wafte."
Of night, or loneliness, it recks me not;
I fear the dread events that dog them both,
Left fome ill-greeting touch attempt the perfon
Of our unowned Sifter.

El. Br. I do not, Brother,

Infer, as if I thought my Sister's state
Secure without all doubt, or controverfy;
Yet where an equal poife of hope and fear
Does arbitrate th' event, my nature is
That I incline to hope, rather than fear,
And gladly banish fquint fufpicion.
My Sifter is not fo defenfeless left,

As you imagine; the has a hidden strength
Which you remember not.

Sec. Br. What hidden strength,

Unless the strength of Heav'n, if you mean that? El. Br. I mean that too, but yet a hidden strength, Which, if heav'n gave it, may be term'd her own: 'Tis chastity, my Brother, chastity:

She that has that, is clad in complete fteel,

''

420

404. It recks.- -] I care not for, &c. So what recks it them?" LYCID. v. 122. and PARAD. L. ix. 173. "Let it, I RECK not.' "And ii. 50. Of god, or hell, or worse, he RECKED not." See NOTE on v. 836. infr. From RECK Comes retchleffness, or RECKLESSNESS, in the THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES, where the common reading is, " into wretchlesnes of most "unclean living." Artic. xvii. As if, yet with a manifeft perverfion of terms, a wretched profligacy was intended. The precife meaning is, a careleffness, a confident negligence, confifting " of "the most abandoned courfe of life." RECK, with its derivatives, is the language of Chaucer and Spenfer.

420. 'Tis chastity, my brother, chastity;

She that has that, is clad in complete fteel,

And like a quiver'd Nymph with arrows keen, &c.] Perhaps Milton remembered a stanza in Fletcher's PURPLE ISLAND, publifhed but the preceding year, B. x. ft. 27. It is in a perfonification of Virgin-chaftitie.