To testify the arms of chastity?

440

445

Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,
Fair filver-fhafted queen, for ever chaste,
Wherewith fhe tam'd the brinded lioness
And spotted mountain pard, but fet at nought
The frivolous bolt of Cupid; Gods and men.
Fear'd her ftern frown, and fhe was queen o' th' woods.
What was the fnaky-headed Gorgon fhield,
That wife Minerva wore, unconquer'd virgin,
Wherewith the freez'd her foes to congeal'd ftone,
But rigid looks of chafte aufterity,

And noble grace that dafh'd brute violence
With fudden adoration, and blank awe?
So dear to heav'n is faintly chastity,
That when a foul is found fincerely fo,
A thousand liveried angels lacky her,

450

455

with the fame humourous application to theological controvertists. And in the quarto edition of Hales's GOLDEN REMAINS, published by bishop Pearson, there is a frontispiece in three divifions in the lowest, a reprefentation of Agricola's mine, with a reference to the citation, and this explanation, Controverfers of the times, like Spirits in the mineralls, with all their labor, nothing is

done.

441. Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,

Fair filver-fhafted queen, for ever chafte.] So Jonfon to Diana. CYNTH. REV. A. v. S. vi.

Queene, and Huntreffe, chafte and faire.

445. The frivolous bolt of Cupid.-] This reminds one of the dribbling dart of Love," in M. FOR MEASURE. BOLT, I believe, is properly the arrow of a crofs-bow. Fletcher, FAITHF. SHEPH. A. ii. S. i. P. 134.

With Bow and Bolt,

To fhoot at nimble fquirrels in the holt.

450. 451. Rigid looks refer to the fnaky locks, and noble grace to the beautiful face, as gorgon is reprefented on ancient gems. W. 455. A thoufand liveried angels lacky her.] The idea, without the lowness of allufion and expreffion, is repeated in PARAD. L. B. viii. 359.

About her, as a guard angelic plac'd.

And

Driving far off each thing of fin and guilt;
And in clear dream, and folemn vision,
Tell her of things that no grofs ear can hear,
Till oft converfe with heav'nly habitants
Begins to cast a beam on th' outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,

460

And turns it by degrees to the foul's effence,
Till all be made immortal: but when luft,
By unchafte looks, loofe geftures, and foul talk,
But most by leud and lavish act of fin,

Lets in defilement to the inward parts,

465

458. Tell her of things which no grofs ear can hear.] See Note on ARCADES, V. 72.

This dialogue between the two brothers, is an amicable contest between fact and philofophy. The younger draws his arguments from common apprehenfion, and the obvious appearance of things: the elder proceeds on a profounder knowledge, and argues from abstracted principles. Here the difference of their ages is properly made fubfervient to a contrast of character. But this flight variety must have been infufficient to keep fo prolix and learned a difputation, alive upon the ftage. It must have languished, however adorned with the fairest flowers of eloquence. The whole dialogue, which indeed is little more than a folitary declamation in blank verfe, much resembles the manner of our author's Latin Prolufions at Cambridge, where philosophy is inforced by pagan fable and poetical allufion,

464. By unchafte looks, &c.]" He [Chrift] cenfures an UNCHASTE LOOK to be an adultery already committed: ano"ther time he paffes over actual adultery with lefs reproof than " for an UNCHASTE LOOK." DIVORCE, B, ii. c. 1. PR. w, i. 184. See alfo, p. 304. Milton therefore in the expreffion here noted, alludes to our Saviour, “ πᾶς ὁ ΒΛΕΠΩΝ ΓΥΝΑΙΚΑ πρὸς “ENIOYMEAI quτns, &c." S. Matth. EVANG. V. 28.

465. But moft by leud and lavish act of fin, &c.] It is the fame idea, yet where it is very commodiously applied, in PARAD. L. B. vi. 660.

Spirits of pureft light,

Pureft at firft, now GROSS by SINNING grown.

The

The foul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies, and imbrutes, till fhe quite lofe

467. The foul grows clotted by contagion, &c.] I cannot refift the pleasure of tranflating a paffage in Plato's PHAEDON, which Milton here evidently copies. "A foul with fuch affections, does "it not fly away to fomething divine and resembling itself? To "fomething divine, immortal, and wife? Whither when it ar"rives, it becomes happy; being freed from error, ignorance, "fear, love, and other human evils. But if it departs from "the body polluted and impure, with which it has been long « linked in a state of familiarity and friendship, and from whofe pleasures and appetites it has been bewitched, fo as to think nothing else true, but what is corporeal, and which may be "touched, feen, drank, and used for the gratifications of luft: at "the fame time, if it has been accustomed to hate, fear, or fhun, "whatever is dark and invifible to the human eye, yet difcerned " and approved by philofophy: I ask, if a foul fo disposed, will go fincere and difincumbered from the body? By no means. "And will it not be, as I have fuppofed, infected and involved "with corporeal contagion, which an acquaintance and converfe "with the body, from a perpetual affociation, has made conge"nial? So I think. But, my friend, we must pronounce that "fubftance to be ponderous, depreffive, and earthy, which fuch a "foul draws with it: and therefore it is burthened by fuch a "clog, and again is dragged off to fome vifible place, for fear "of that which is hidden and unfeen; and, as they report, retires "to tombs and fepulchres, among which the fhadowy phantafms "of these brutal fouls, being loaded with somewhat visible, have "often actually appeared. Probably, O Socrates. And it is "equally probable, O Cebes, that thefe are the fouls of wicked "not virtuous men, which are forced to wander amidst burialplaces, fuffering the punishment of an impious life. And they "fo long are feen hovering about the monuments of the dead, "till from the accompaniment of the fenfualities of corporeal nature, they are again cloathed with a body, &c." PHED. OPP. Platon. p. 386. B. 1. edit. Lugdun. 1590. fol. An admirable writer, the prefent Bishop of Worcefter, has juftly remarked, that "this poetical philofophy nourished the fine fpirits "of Milton's time, though it corrupted fome." It is highly probable, that Henry More, the great Platonist, who was Milton's contemporary at Chrift's college, might have given his mind an early bias to the study of Plato. See Note on PAR. REG. iv. 598.

468. Imbodies, aud imbrues.

] Thus alfo Satan speaks of

The divine property of her first being.
Such are those thick and gloomy fhadows damp
Oft feen in charnel vaults, and fepulchres,
Ling'ring and fitting by a new made grave,
As loath to leave the body that it lov'd,
And link'd itself by carnal fenfuality
To a degenerate and degraded state.

471

475

Sec. Br. How charming is divine philosophy!

Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools fuppofe,
But mufical as is Apollo's lute,

And a perpetual feaft of nectar'd fweets,

479

of the debasement and corruption of his original divine effence, PARD. L. B. ix. 165.

Mix'd with beftial flime,

This effence to INCARNATE and IMBRUTE,
That to the heighth of deity afpir'd.

Our author, with these Platonic refinements in his head, fuppofes that the human foul was for a long time EMBODIED and IMBRUTED with the carnal ceremonies of popery, just as fhe is fenfualifed and degraded by a participation of the vicious habits of the body. OF REFORMATION, &C. PROSE-WORKS, vol. i. I. IMBRUTE OF EMBRUTE, Occurs in G. Fletcher, p. 38. I believed it to be Milton's coinage. So was the cognate compound IMPARADISED fuppofed to be, till Bently brought an instance from Sydney's ARCADIA. PARAD. L. B, iv. 506. It is also in Daniel's DELIA, edit. 1591. SON N. xii.

For fhe that can my heart IMPARADIZE.

It occurs alfo in Drayton, Phineas Fletcher, and Donne. It is however, from the Italian imparadifato, which I think is in Taffo.

476. How charming is divine philofophy!] This is an immediate reference to the foregoing speech, in which the DIVINE philofophy of Plato concerning the nature and condition of the human foul after death, is fo largely and fo nobly displayed. See Note on PAR. REG. i. 478.

478. But mufical as is Apollo's lute.] Perhaps from Love's LABOUR LOST, as Mr. Bowle fuggefts, A. iv. S. ii.

As fweet and MUSICAL

As bright APOLLO'S LUTE ftrung with his hair.

But

Where no crude furfeit reigns.

El. B. Lift, lift, I hear

Some far off hallow break the filent air.

Sec. B. Methought fo too; what should it be?
El. B. For certain

Either fome one like us night-founder'd here,
Or else fome neighbour wood-man, or, at worst,
Some roving robber calling to his fellows.

485 Sec. B. Heav'n keep my Sifter. Again, again, and near! Beft draw, and ftand upon our guard.

El. B. I'll hallow;

If he be friendly, he comes well; if not,

Defense is a good caufe, and Heav'n be for us.

[Enter the Attendent Spirit, habited like a fhepherd.] That hallow I fhould know, what are you? fpeak; Come not too near, you fall on iron stakes else. 491 Spir. What voice is that? my young Lord? fpeak

again.

Sec. B. O brother, 'tis my father's fhepherd, fure. · El. B. Thyrfis? Whose artful strains have oft delay'd The huddling brook to hear his madrigal,

479. And a perpetual feaft of nectar'd_fweets,

495

Where no crude furfeit reigns.-] As in PARAD. LOST, B. v. 638.

Quaff immortality and joy, SECURE

Of SURFEIT.-

484. -Night-founder'd.-] So in PARAD. LOST, B. i. 204. "NIGHT-FOUNDER'D fkiff." Where Bentley, who perhaps had fcarcely feen our Mask, would read NIGH-FOUNDER'D.

494. Thyrfis, whose artful strains, &c.] A compliment to Lawes, who perfonated the Spirit. We have juft fuch another, above, v. 85. But this, being spoken by another, comes with better grace and propriety; or, to ufe doctor Newton's pertinent expreffion, is more GENTEEL. The Spirit appears habited like a

fhepherd