859 "Among them he arriv'd, in his right hand 66 Grasping ten thousand thunders, which he sent 'Before him, such as in their souls inflx'd 66 66 Plagues they, astonish'd, all resistance lost- 'Glar'd lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire 'Among the accurs'd, that wither'd all their strength, 'And of their wonted vigour left them drain'd— "Exhausted—spiritless—afflicted—fall'n!' 'Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd Ποσσι ο υπ' αθανατοισι μέγας πελεμιζετ' Ολυμπος, ■ An allusion to Homer, II. xv. 322: - τοιτι δε θυμού Εν στήθεσσιν εθελξει λαθοντο δε θούριδος αλκής. (Stil.) « So Rev. vi. 16. This is Ihe bold painling of Eschylus, Prom. Vinci. 356: Εξ ομμάτων δ' ήστραπτε γοργωπον σελας. - (Τ.) > This is superior to Hesiod, who makes Jupiter, on a like occasion, exert all bis strength. Theog. 687.-(N.) It may seem strange thai, after so man) sublime images, our author should introduce so low a comparison as this. But it is the practice of Homer. In the second book of the Iliad, after a splendid description of the Grecians going forth to battle, and amidst the glare of several noble similes, they are compared, for their number, to "flies about a shepherd's cottage when the milk wets the pails." So, after comparing Agamemnon to Jove, to Mars, and to Neptune, he compares him again to a bull. (So he compares Ajax to an ass.) But we may observe, to the advantage of Milton, that this low simile is not applied, as Homer's are, to those whom he meant to honour, but to the contrary party; and the lower the comparison, the more it expresses their defeat and disgrace. Above all this, there is the greater propriety in the similitude of "goats" particularly, as our Saviour represents Ihe wicked under the same image, just as the good are called sheep. Hal. xxv. 33: "And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left." (N.) There are several conjectures as to the application of "timorous flock" here. I think Ihe most natural way is to consider that Milton, by putting the words generally, meant to leave Ihe comparison to the reader's judgment. • The furies of mythology were avenging tormentors. Perhaps Milton had in mind the Orestes of Euripides tormented and pursued by Furies.--(D.) "And crystal wall of heaven; which op'ning wide, 66 Urg'd them behind: headlong themselves they threw "Hell heard the unsuiTerable noise: hell saw 66 "Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. 66 66 66 66 Through his wild anarchy; so huge a rout Encumber'd him with ruin hell at last Yawning receiv'd them whole, and on them clos'd— Unquenchable, the house of woe and pain: "With jubilee advanc'd; and, as they went, Triumphant through mid heaven, into the courts "And temple of his mighty Father thron'd "On high! who into glory him receiv'd, "Where now he sits at the right hand of bliss. "Thus, measuring things in heaven by things on earth," "At thy request, and that thou may'st beware « Tumbling down with precipitation and ruin. See Gier. Liber, ix. 39.—(Th.) So ruit alher, l Georg. 324. Senec. Hippo!. 674. 3 See Hesiod, Theog. 681, 722, etc.—(T.) * So Isaiah V. 14.-—(N.) » So Rev. xii. 10.—(SI.) e So Rev. iv. 11.—(N.) 7 He repeats the same apology for these bold fictions as he made in the beginning, (see v. S7S;) and concludes the book with a solemn dignity, befitting the close of such a scene.-(N., T.) "What might have else to human race been hid; "Which would be all his solace and revenge, 66 Thy weaker let it profit thee to have heard, "Of disobedience: firm they might have stood, i Observe the remarkable construction: "he," the nominative case, is put in apposition to "Satan," the ablative. BOOK VII.' Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was first created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his angels out of heaven, declared his pleasure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein; sends hfe Son with glory, and attendance of angels, to perform the work of creation in six days; the angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his re-ascension into heaven. Descend from heaven, Urania! (by that name The meaning, not the name, I call for thou, T Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, heavenly-born, 7 1 Longinus has observed that there may be a loftiness in sentiments, when there is no passion; and has brought instances out of ancient authors to support his opinion. The pathetic, he says, may animate and inflame the sublime, but it is not essential to it. Milton has shown himself a master in both these ways of writing. The terenth book is an instance of thai sublime which is not mixed and worked with passion. The author appears in a kind of composed and sedate majesty; and though the sentiments do not give so great an emotion as those in the former book, they abound with as magnificent ideas, the sixth book, like a troubled ocean, represents greatness in confusion; the terenth affects the imagination like the ocean in a calm, and fills the mind of the reader without producing in it any thing like tumult or agitation. Among the rules which Longinus lays down for succeeding in the sublime, he proposes an imitation of the most celebrated authors who have been engaged in similar works; and particularly in poetry, one should consider how Homer would have spoken on such an occasion. Thus one great genius often catches the flame from another, without copying servilely after him. Hilton, though his own natural strength of genius was capable of furnishing out a most perfect work, has raised and ennobled his conceptions by such an imitation as that recommended by Longinus. In this book, the poet received but very few assistances from heathen writers, who were strangers to the wonders of creation. But as there are many glorious strokes of poetry upon this subject in Holy Writ, he has numberless allusions to them through the whole course of this book. The great critic Longinus, though an heathen, has noticed the sublime manner in which the lawgiver of the Jews has described the creation in the first chapter of Genesis; and there are many other passages in Scripture which rise up to the same majesty where this subject is touched upon. Milton has shown his judgment very remarkably in making use of such of these as were proper for his poem, and in duly qualifying those high strains of Eastern poetry, which were suited to readers whose imaginations were set to an higher pilch than those of colder climates. The beauties of description in this book lie so thick, that it is impossible to enumerate them in these remarks. The poet has employed on them the whole energy of our tongue. The several great scenes of the creation rise up lo view one after another in such a manner, that the reader seems present at this amazing work, and lo assist in the choirs of angels who are the spectators of it.—{Ad.) ! So, Hor. iii. Od. iv. 1:— "Doscende cœlo......Calliope." Bui here the invocation is better applied, as now his subject leads him from heaven to Before the hills appear'd,1 or fountain flow'd, Lest, from this flying steed unrein'd, (as once 10 Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.* earth; and "Urania" (ovpxvtx i. e. heavenly,) was the muse whose province embraced celestial subjects. Here he invokes the heavenly mute, as he did in the beginning of the first book; and as he said there that he "intended to soar above the Aonian Mount," so here he says that he effected what he intended, and soars "above the Olympian hill, above the flight of Pegasean wing," or higher than Bellerophon mounted, or Pegasus soared; t. c. that his subject was more sublime than the loftiest flight of any heathen poet.—(N.) I Tasso, in his invocation, has a similar sentiment, Gicr. Liber, i. 2.—{Th.) The muses are called by Homer, (II. ii. 49i,) Oluμnıxdes. Olympus is called old, as the Euphrates is, (i. 420,) and Mount Casius, (ii. 593,) i.e. famed of old.—(N.) Benlley substitutes Parnassus for "Olympus;" but Olympus is right, for the meaning is—I call thee, Urania, not from the oupavos (or heaven) of the Greeks, which was Olympus, for thou wast heavenly born even before Olympus appeared.—(P.) * See Prov. viii. 24, etc. where the same is said of Wisdom.—(N.) 3 This is said, Newton thinks, in reference to the difficulty of breathing on the top of very high mountains, in consequence of the rarefaction of the air there. Urania gently tempered or mollified the air, that be could breathe it in the empyreum, or highest heaven. Dunster explains the passage as expressive of his confidence of success. Under the guidance of Urania he ascended the empyreum safely, and there breathed the pure air which she had so highly tempered; and now he requests of her to convey him to his native element with equal safety, that he may with equal success describe the creation of this world and of man. The story of Bellerophon is told in the Iliad, vi. 190. Being a man of extraordinary bravery and beauty, he excited the love of Antea the wife of Prætus, king of the Argives, at whose court he was a guest. Like Joseph in holy writ, he rejected her corrupt sollicitations. She, through revenge, then falsely accused him of an attempt on her honour to her husband; who, restrained by the laws of hospitality from putting him to death, sent him on a feigned embassy to his father-in-law Jobates, king of Lycia, with a letter detailing his supposed offence, and requesting of him to contrive his death. Hence the phrase, "carrying Bellerophon's letters," i. e. a message fatal to oneself. Jobates, having hospitably entertained him nine days as the ambassador of a friendly sovereign before he opened the letter, on seeing its contents, felt also restrained from putting him to death, but sent him on a number of most perilous enterprises. Bellerophon was victorious in all these; which so pleased the king that be gave him his daughter in marriage, and named him his successor. In his old age, however, he became melancholy mad, and "wandered the Aleian field alone, wasting away his spirit, avoiding the path of men:" Αλλ' ότε δη κακεινος απήχθετο πασι θεοισιν Ήται ο καππεδίον τ' Αληϊον οιος αλατο It is added by others, that endeavouring to mount up to heaven on the winged horse Pegasus (the steed of the Muses), he fell on the Aleian plain, where he wandered till he died. Newton remarks, "The plain truth of this story seems to be, that in his old age he grew mad with bis poetry, which Milton begs may never be bis own case." I rather think |