Before all temples the upright heart and

pure, Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, 20 Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark, Illumine; what is low, raise and support; That to the highth of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

Say first, for heaven hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of hell; say first, what cause Moved our grand parents, in that happy state, Favour'd of Heaven so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the world besides ?

19. Theocr. Id. xxii. 116. Eimè, leà, où yàp vìola.' N.

25

25

30

21. Alluding to Gen. i. 2. The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters:' for the word that we translate moved signifies properly brooded, as a bird doth upon her eggs; and he says like a dove rather than any other bird, because the descent of the Holy Ghost is compared to a dove in Scripture, Luke iii. 22.' N. Thus in P. L. vii. 235. 'On the watery calm

His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass.'

25. justify: vindicate: the Scriptural word: Rom. iii. 4. That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings.' N. Justify them by evincing, that when man by transgression incurred the forfeiture of his blessings, and the displeasure of God, himself only was to blame. There is a solemnity of sentiment, as well as majesty of numbers, in the exordium of this noble Poem, which in the works of the ancients has no example.' CowPER.

27. Hom. Il. B. 485. Ὑμεῖς γὰρ θεαὶ ἐστὲ, πάρεστέ τε, ἴστε TE Távτα. Virg. Æn. vii. 645. Et meministis enim, Divæ, et memorare potestis.'' N.

29. grand: 'principal, chief. Hence in composition, grand-juror, grand-master, grand-signior, and the like.' TODD's Johnson.

Wm is tucet tien a hat fui Ͼvola !
The nderna. Sement; le I was, whose puile,
cd up with envy and evenge, deceived
The nacier of naucnt, vrat zme his pride
Huf cast um out fun heaven, with all his host
Of rebel mgeis; by use at piring
T: set himself in gory adove his peers.
He trusted a have equal i de Mist Higi,
If he opposed: and, win undicous an
Agtast de trine and monarchy er God,
Rased ampicus wir in heaven, and bazie proud,
Wii vin attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hari'd headlong faming from the ethereal sky,
With decus ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdaica; there to dweil
In adamantine chains and penal fre,
Who durst defy the Onnipotent to arms.

35

40

45

Nine times the space that measures day and night 59

33. A manifest incacion of Homer, IL A. S. This + àp coME demy Equiì fivete mazeria: Arnis en Aus murs." MILTON. 36. grit tone, i. e. at the time when: è si, Hom. II. A. 5. 19. Bentley acfects to this verse, because Sacan's crime was to he above the Mexia, no acre his peers, over whom God had placed aim, as Andel says, T. 812. Fingrace, in place thyself so magn above thy peers. But as Dr. Pearce onserves, the force of the words is, that Satan aspired to set himself in glory abore his peers, i, e. in divine gry, in such giery as God and his Son were See r. 725. i 188 m 140.

45. Hom. IL L. 591. Pobe, muius verajúø, drò Byplaû Berreriowo.” X.

46. Rain is derived from rus, and includes the idea of falling with violence and precipitation. N.

48.Asch. Prom. 6. 'Adamatius derpáv &v höbhjerous medaus.”

nine times, &c. 'Probably in allusion to Hesiod's description

To mortal men, he with his horrid crew

Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulf,

Confounded, though immortal: but his doom
Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

55

Torments him round he throws his baleful eyes,
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay,
Mix'd with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once, as far as angels ken, he views
The dismal situation waste and wild;

A dungeon horrible on all sides round

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames
No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all: but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

peace

60

65

of the fall of the giants: Theog. 722. évvéa yàp vúktas te kal HμATA, K. T. λ.' N.-See P. L. vi. 871.

56. baleful: full of misery, sorrowful, woful: bale is an obsolete word of Saxon origin for mischief, sorrow.

63. darkness visible: compare verse 180. 'Seneca has a like expression, speaking of the grotto of Pausilypo, Epist. 57. Nihil illo carcere longius, nihil illis faucibus obscurius, quæ nobis præstant, non ut per tenebras videamus, sed ut ipsas.'' N. Eur. Bacch. 510. καθείρξατ ̓ αὐτὸν ἱππικαῖς πέλας Φάτναισιν, ὡς ἂν σκότιον εἰσορα Kvépas. Phon. 388. in allusion to the blind Edipus, tí yάp ñaτńp μοι πρέσβυς ἐν δόμοισι δρᾷ, Σκότον δεδορκώς: Soph. (Ed. Τ. 419. βλέποντα νῦν μὲν ὄρθ ̓, ἔπειτα δὲ σκότον: 1273. ἀλλ ̓ ἐν σκύτῳ τὸ λοιπὸν οὓς μὲν οὐκ ἔδει Οψοίαθ'. The author of the Wisdom of Solomon c. xvii. describes the darkness that overspread the land of Egypt in terms somewhat similar: No power of the fire might give them light; neither could the bright flames of the stars endure to lighten that horrible night.' ne put for another," dar log bar

With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed;

Such place eternal justice had prepared

For those rebellious; here their prison ordain'd
In utter darkness, and their portion set
As far removed from God and light of heaven,
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.
O how unlike the place from whence they fell!
There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He soon discerns; and weltering by his side
One next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and named
Beelzebub. To whom the arch-enemy,

70

75

80

72. utter for outer, as in Scripture, τò σKóтos Tò ¿§άTEPOV: 'extreme, excessive, utmost.' TODD's Johnson. P. L. iii. 16. Through utter and through middle darkness borne.'

74. Thrice as far as it is from the centre of the earth (which is the centre of the world according to Milton's system, ix. 103. x. 671.) to the pole of the world; for it is the pole of the universe, far beyond the pole of the earth, which is here called the utmost pole. It is observable that Homer makes the seat of Hell as far beneath the deepest pit of earth, as the heaven is above the earth : ΙΙ. Θ. 16. Τόσσον ἔνερθ ̓ ̓Αΐδεω, ὅσον οὐρανός ἐστ ̓ ἀπὸ γαίης. Virgil makes it twice as far: Æn. vi. 577. ' tum Tartarus ipse Bis patet in præceps tantum tenditque sub umbras, Quantus ad æthereum cæli suspectus Olympum." N.

78. weltering: wallowing, rolling: fr. Lat. volutare.

81. Beelzebub, or Baalzebub: this name signifies the god of flies. Ekron, a city of the Philistines, where this idol was worshipped, (2 Kings i. 2.) being situated in a moist and hot soil, near the Mediterranean Sea, was liable to be much infested with flies; and from these visitations this idol was probably supposed to deliver them. Some authors suppose that he was so called, because the inhabitants of Ekron worshipped the beetle; which worship perhaps they borrowed from their superstitious neighbours, the Egyptians; for Pliny says, N. H. xxx. 1. Ægypti magna pars scarabæos inter numina colit.' It is probable also that the prophet Isaiah alluded to this superstitious worship of the Egyptians, ch. vii. 18.

·

And thence in heaven called Satan, with bold words Breaking the horrid silence, thus began :

25

If thou beest he; but O how fall'n! how changed From him, who, in the happy realms of light, Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine Myriads though bright! If he, whom mutual league, United thoughts and counsels, equal hope

And hazard in the glorious enterprise,

Join'd with me once, now misery hath join'd
In equal ruin: into what pit thou seest

90

From what highth fall'n, so much the stronger proved
He with his thunder: and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms? Yet not for those,

The Lord shall hiss for (or at) the Fly, that is in the uttermost parts of the River of Egypt.' And Jerome, in his comment upon this passage, says, ' Muscas autem Ægyptios vocat, propter sordes idololatriæ." MASSEY. The Philistines were descended from Mizraim, the second son of Ham. Gen. x. 6. 14. The name of their country, Palestina, occurs in Exod. xv. 14.

82.The word Satan in Hebrew signifies an enemy: he is the enemy by way of eminence, the chief enemy of God and man.' N.

84. He imitates Isaiah xiv. 12. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!' and Virg. Æn. ii. 274. • Hei mihi! qualis erat! quantum mutatus ab illo Hectore!'' N. 86. Imitated from Homer, Od. vi. 110. where Diana excels all her nymphs in beauty, though all of them be beautiful: peîa d' ἀριγνώτη πέλεται, καλαὶ δέ τε πᾶσαι. Β.

90. ruin one syllable: so' reason' 248. ' riot' 499.

91. Bentley suggests and equal ruin, answering to equal hope: and compares Ovid Met. i. 351. O soror, o conjux, o femina sola superstes, Quem commune mihi genus, et patruelis origo, Deinde torus junxit, nunc ipsa pericula jungunt.'

94. Thus Prometheus speaking of Jupiter, Æsch. Prom. vs. 1028.

πρὸς ταῦτα, ῥιπτέσθω μὲν αἰθαλοῦσσα φλόξ,
λευκοπτέρῳ δὲ νιφάδι καὶ βροντήμασι
χθονίοις κυκάτω πάντα, καὶ ταρασσέτω

γνάμψει γὰρ οὐδὲν τῶνδέ μ'. Ν.