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866. Conspicuous with three listed colours gay,] He afterwarde calls it the triple-colour'd bow, ver. 897, and he means probably the three principal colours, red, yellow, and blue, of which the others are compounded.

884. To whom the Arch-Angel. &c.] The reader will easily observe how much of this speech is built upon Scripture. Though late repenting him of man deprav'd,

Griev'd at his heart,

"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart:" Gen. vi. 6.

when looking down he saw

The whole earth fill'd with violence, and all flesh
Corrupting each their way ;-

"The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth:" ver. 11, 12.

Such grace shall one just man find in his sight,

"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," ver, 8. And makes a covenant never to destroy

The earth again by flood,

"And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall there be any more a flood to destroy the earth:" Gen. ix. 11.

but when he brings

Over the earth a cloud will therein set

His triple-colour'd bow, whereon to look,
And call to mind his covenant:

:

"And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant be tween God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth" ver. 14. 16.

-day and night

Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost

Shall hold their course,

"While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter andday and night shall not cease:" Gen. viii. 22.

-till fire purge all things new,

Both Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell. "The Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the ele ments shall melt with fervent heat: nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new Heaven and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2. Pet. iii. 12, 13.

BOOK XII.

r. As one &c.] IN the first edition, before the last book was divided into two, the narration went on without any interruption; but upon that division in the second edition, these first five lines were inserted.'

11. Henceforth, what is to come I will relate,] Milton, after having represented in vision the history of mankind to the Erst great period of nature, dispatches the remaining part of it in narration. He has devised a very handsome reason for the Angel's proceeding with Adam after this manner; though doubtless the true reason was the difficulty which the poet would have found to have shadowed out so mixed and complicated a story in visible objects. I could wish, however, that the author had done it, whatever pains it might have cost him. To give my opinion freely, I think that the exhibiting part of the history of mankind in vision, and part in narrative, is as if an history-painter should put in colours one half of his subject, and write down the remaining part of it. If Milton's poem flags any where, it is in this narration, where in some places the author has been so attentive to his divinity, that he has neglected his poetry. The narration, however, rises very happily on several occasions, where the subject is capable of poetical ornaments, as particularly in the confusion which he describes among the builders of Babel, and in his short sketch of the plagues of Egypt. Addison.

Mr. Addison observes, that if Milton's poem flags any where, it is in this narration; and to be sure, if we have an eye only to poetic decoration, his remark is just; but if we view it in another light, and consider in how short a compass he has comprised, and with what strength and clearness he has expressed the various actings of God towards mankind, and the most sublime and deep truths both of the Jewish and Christian

VOL. III.

theology, it must excite no less admiration in the mind of an attentive reader, than the more sprightly scenes of love and innocence in Eden, or the more turbulent ones of angelic war in Heaven. This contrivance of Milton's to introduce into his poem so many things posterior to the time of action fixed in his first plan, by a visionary prophetic relation of them, is, it must be allowed, common with our author, to Virgil and most epic poets since his time; but there is one thing to be observed singular in our English poet, which is, that whereas they have all done it principally, if not wholly, to have an opportunity of complimenting their own country and friends, he has not the least mention of, or friendly allusion to his. The Refor mation of our church from the errors and tyranny of popery, which corruptions he so well describes and pathetically laments, afforded him occasion fair enough, and no doubt his not doing it must be imputed to his mind's being so unhappily imbittered, at the time of his writing, against our gove ment both in church and state; so that to the other mischiefs flowing from the grand rebellion we may add this of its depriving Britain of the best panegyric it is ever likely to have. Thyer.

16. With some regard to what is just and right] This answers to the silver age of the poets, the Paradisiacal state is the golden one. That of iron begins soon, ver. 24. Richardson.

24. -till one shall rise &c.] It is generally agreed that the first governments in the world were patriarchal, by families and tribes, and that Nimrod was the first who laid the foundations of kingly government among mankind. Our author therefore (who was no friend to kingly government at the best) represents him in a very bad light, as a most wicked and insolent tyrant, but he has great authorities, both Jewish and Christian, to justify him for so doing. The Scripture says of Nimrod, Gen. x. 9, " that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord:" And this our author understands in the worst sense, of hunting men and not beasts" and men, not beasts, shall be his game." But several commentators understand it in the same manner, and the Scripture applies the word to hunting of men by persecution, oppression, and tyranny. Jer. xvi. 16. Lam. iv. 18; Ezek. xiii. 18, 20. And so the Jerusalem Targum here expounds it of a " sinful hunting of the sons of men." 36. And from rebellion shall derive his name,] The name of

Nimród, though more favourable etymologies are given, yet commonly is derived from the Hebrew word marad, which signifies to rebel; and this probably was the principal occasion of those injurious reports which have prevailed in the world concerning him.

Though of rebellion others be accuse

This was addded by our author, probably not without a view to his own time, when himself and those of his own party were stigmatized as the worst of rebels.

40. Marching from Eden towards the west, &c.] Gen. xi. 2, &c. "And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of ShinarAnd they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto Heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." The Hebrew chemar, which we translate slime, is what the Greeks call aspbaltus and the Latins bitumen, a kind of pitch; and that it abounded very much in the plain near Babylon, that it swam upon the waters, that there was a cave and fountain continually emitting it, and that this famous tower at this time, and the no less famous walls of Babylon afterwards were built with this kind of cement, is confirmed by the testimony of several prophane authors. This black bituminous gurge, this pitchy pool the poet calls the mouth of Hell, not strictly speaking, but by the same sort of figure by which the ancient poets call Tæna rus or Avernus the jaws and gate of Hell.

Tænarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis. Virg. Georg, iv. 467.

53-a various spirit] 2 Chron. xviii. 22. It is said the Lord had put a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets; here he puts a various spirit in the mouth of these builders, a spirit varying the sounds by which they would express their thoughts one to another, and bringing consequently confusion, whence the work is so called. Richardson.

62 -and the work Confusion nam'd.] For Babel in Hebrew signifies Confusion. "Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the Earth." Gen. xi. 9.

71. buman left from human free.] Every reader must be

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