Since through experience of this great event To wage by force or guile eternal war, Who now triumphs, and in th' excess of joy So spake th' apostate Angel, though in pain, And him thus answer'd soon his bold compeer.com paren O Prince, O Chief of many throned powers! 120 125 130 Fearless, endanger'd heav'n's perpetual King, Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate; That with sad overthrow and foul defeat 135 Hath lost us heav'n, and all this mighty host In horrible destruction laid thus low, As far as Gods and heav'nly essences Can perish; for the mind and spirit remains 140 Though all our glory extinct, and happy state But what if he our conqu'ror (whom I now Of force believe almighty, since no less Than such could have overpower'd such force as ours) Have left us this our spirit and strength entire 146 Strongly to suffer and support our pains, 150 129. Seraphim. Compare with Isaiah vi. 2-6. An order of angels near he throne of God. Strength undiminish'd, or eternal being To undergo eternal punishment? 155 Whereto with speedy words th' Arch-Fiend replied: Fall'n Cherub, to be weak is miserable Doing or suffering: but of this be sure, 16) And out of good still to find means of evil; 165 His inmost counsels from their destined aim. His ministers of vengeance and pursuit Back to the gates of Heav'n; the sulph'rous hail 170 175 157. Cherub. One of an order of angels next in rank to a seraph. Compare with Gen. iii. 24. Ezek. ch. x. 169. The account here given by Satan differs materially from that which Raphael gives, book vi. 880, but this is satisfactorily explained by referring to the circumstances of the two relators. Raphael's account may be consilered as the true one; but, as Newton remarks, in the other passages Sa tan himself is the speaker, or some of his angels; and they were too proua and obstinate to acknowledge the Messiah for their conqueror; as their rebellion was raised on his account, they would never own his superiority; they would rather ascribe their defeat to the whole host of heaven than to him alone. In book vi. 830 the noise of his chariot is compared to the sound of a numerous host; and perhaps their fears led them to think that they were really pursued by a numerous army. And what a sublime idea does it give us of the terrors of the Messiah, that he alone should be as formida ble as if the whole host of Heaven were in pursuit of them. Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend 180 135 Consult how we may henceforth most offend What reinforcement we may gain from hope, 190 Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate 195 192. The incidents, in the passage that follows, to which Addison calls attention, are, Satan's being the first that wakens out of the general trance, his posture on the burning lake, his rising from it, and the description of his shield and spear; also his call to the fallen angels that lay plunged and stupi. fied in the sea of fire. (314—5.) 193. Prone on the flood, somewhat like those two monstrous serperts described by Virgil ii. 206: Pectora quorum inter fluctus arrecta, jubæque Sanguineæ exsuperant undas; pars cætera pontum 196. Rood, &c.: a rood is the fourth part of an acre, so that the bulk of Satan is expressed by the same sort of measure, as that of one of the giants in Virgil, Æn. vi. 596: Per tota novem cui jugera corpus And a.so that of the old dragon in Spenser's Fairy Queen, book i 'That with his largeness measured much land." N. 198. Titanian, or Earth-born: Genus antiquum ter æ, Titania pubes Æn. vi. 580 Briareos, or Typhon, whom the den 200 205 Here Milton commences that train of learned allusions which was among his peculiarities, and which he always makes poetical by some picturesque epithet, or simile.-E. B. 199. Briareos, a fabled giant (one of the Titans) possessed of a hundred hands. "Et centumgeminus Briareus." Virg. Æn. vi. 287. 46 201. Leviathan, a marine animal finely described in the book of Job, ch. xli. It is supposed by some to be the whale; by others, the crocodile, with less probability. See Brande's Cyc. 202. Swim the ocean-stream: What a force of imagination is there in this last expression! What an idea it conveys of the size of that largest of created beings, as if it shrunk up the ocean to a stream, and took up the sea in its nostrils as a very little thing! Force of style is one of Milton's great excellencies. Hence, perhaps, he stimulates us more in the reading, and less afterwards. The way to defend Milton against all impugners is to take down the book and read it.-HAZLITT. This line is by some found fault with as inharmonious; but good taste approves its structure, as being on this account better suited to convey a just idea of the size of this monster. 204. Night-foundered: overtaken by the night, and thus arrested in its The metaphor, as Hume observes, is taken from a foundered horse that can go no further. course. 207. Under the lee: in a place defended from the wind. 208. Invests the sea: an allusion to the figurative description of Nigh give by Spenser: "By this the drooping daylight 'gan to fade, And yield his room to sad succeeding night, Milton also, in the same taste, speaking of the moon, IV. 609: N. So stretch'd out huge in length the Arch-Fiend lay Driv'n backward slope their pointing spires, and roll'd Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air, 210 215 220 225 209. There are many examples in Milton of musical expression, or of an daptation of the sound and movement of the verse to the meaning of the passage. This line is an instance. By its great length, and peculiar structure, being composed of monosyllables, it is admirably adapted to convey the idea of immense size. 210. Chained on the burning lake: There seems to be an allusion here to the legend of Prometheus, one of the Titans, who was exposed to the wrath of Jupiter on account of his having taught mortals the arts, and especially the use of fire, which he was said to have stolen from heaven, concealed in a reed. According to another story he was actually the creator of men, or at least inspired them with thought and sense. His punishment was to be chained to a rock on Caucasus, where a vulture perpetually gnawed his liver; from which he was finally rescued by Hercules. This legend has formed the subject of the grandest of all the poetical illustrations of Greek supernatural belief, the Prometheus Bound of Æschylus. Many have recognized in the indomitable resolution of this suffering Titan, and his stern endurance of the evils inflicted on him by a power with which he had vainly warred for supremacy, the prototype of the arch-fiend of Milton.-BRANDE. 226-7. That felt unusual weight: This conceit (as Thyer remarks) is borrowed from Spenser, who thus describes the old dragon, book i. "Then with his waving wings displayed wide Himself up high he lifted from the ground, |