851 And of their wonted vigor left them drain'd, Exhausted, spiritlefs, afflicted, fall'n. Yet half his ftrength he put not forth, but check'd 853. Yet half his frength be put not forth, &c.] There is no queftion but Milton had heated his imagination with the fight of the Gods in Homer, before he enter'd upon this engagement of the Angels. Homer there gives us a fcene of men, heroes, and Gods, mix'd together in battel. Mars animates the contending armies, and lifts up his voice in fuch a manner, that it is heard diftinctly amidst all the fhouts and confufion of the fight. Jupiter at the fame time thunders over their heads; while Neptune raises fuch a tempeft, that the whole field of battel, and all the tops of the mountains shake about them. The poet tells us, that Pluto himself, whofe habitation was in the very center of the earth, was fo affrighted at the fhock, that he leap'd from his throne. Homer afterwards describes Vulcan as pouring down a form of fire upon the river Xanthus, and Minerva as throwing a rock at Mars; who, he tells us, cover'd feven acres in his fall. As Homer has introduced into his battel of the Gods every thing that is great and terrible in nature, Milton has filled his fight of good and bad Angels with all the like circumftances of horror. The fhouts of armies, the rattling His of brazen chariots, the hurling of rocks and mountains, the earthquake, the fire, the thunder, are all of them employ'd to lift up the reader's imagination, and give him a fuitable idea of fo great an action. With what art has the poet reprefented the whole body of the earth trembling, even before it was created! All Heav'n refounded, and had All Earth had to her center shook. In how fublime and juft a manner does he afterwards defcribe the whole Heaven, fhaking under the wheels of the Meffiah's chariot, with that exception to the throne of God! -Under his burning wheels The ftedfaft empyréan fhook throughout, All but the throne itself of God. Notwithstanding the Meffiah appears clothed with fo much terror and majefly, the poet has still found means to make his readers conceive an idea of him, beyond what he himself was able to de-. fcribe. Yet His thunder in mid voly; for he meant 855 Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven: In a word, Milton's genius, which was fo great in itself, and fo ftrengthen'd by all the helps of learning, appears in this book every way equal to his fubject, which was the moft fublime that could enter into the thoughts of a poet. As he knew all the arts of affecting the mind, he knew it was neceflary to give it certain refting places, and opportunities of recovering itself from time to time he has therefore with great addrefs interfperfed feveral fpeeches, reflections, fimilitudes, and the like reliefs to diverfify his narration, and ease the attention of the reader, that he might come fresh to his great action, and by such a contraft of ideas have a more lively taste of the nobler parts of his defcription. Addifon. Yet half his frength he put not forth, &c. This fine thought is fomewhat like that of the Pfalmift, LXXVIII. 38. But he being full of compaffion, forgave their iniquity, and deftroyed them not; yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not fir up Of all his wrath. And it greatly exceeds Hefiod, who makes Jupiter upon a like occafion exert all his ftrength. Hef. Theog. 687. Ουδ' αρ' ετι Ζευς ισχεν εον μενΘ. 856. and as a herd Of goats &c.] It may feem ftrange that our author amidst so many: fublime images fhould intermix fo low a comparison as this. But it is the practice of Homer; and we have fome remarkable inftances in the fecond book of the Iliad, where in a pompous defcription of the Grecians going forth to battel, and amidst the glare of several noble fimilitudes, they are compar'd for their number to fiies about a fhepherd's cottage, when the milk moiftens the pails; and after he has compar'd Agamemnon to Jove, and Mars, and Neptune, he compares him again to a bull. But we may obferve to the advantage of our author, that this low fimile is not apply'd, as Homer's are, to the perfons he meant to honor, but to the contrary party; and the lower the comparifon, the more it expreffes their defeat. And there is the Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd And crystal wall of Heav'n, which opening wide, Into the wafteful deep; the monstrous fight 861 Struck them with horror backward, but far worse Urg'd them behind; headlong themselves they threw Down the greater propriety in the fimilitude of goats particularly, because our Saviour reprefents the wicked under the fame image, as the good are called the sheep. Mat. XXV. 33. And he fhall fet the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. For which reafon Dr. Pearce is of opinion that by a timorous flock are not meant fheep but deer, that epithet being as it were appropriated by the poets to that animal. Virgil has timidi dama twice at leaft. Or the author (as Dr. Bentley and Dr. Heylin imagin) might have faid not or but a timorous flock; and as a herd of goats a timorous flock. But he would hardly have call'd the fame a herd of goats, and then a flock immediately afterwards, and neither would he have ufed the expreffion of timorous flock for a herd of deer in contradiftinction to a herd of goats, tho' it is a proper phrase for sheep, which feem plainly to be meant by it. And it is probable that in the highth and fury of his defcription he did not eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.] The uncommon meafure of this verfe, with only one Iambic foot in it, and that the laft, is admirably contriv'd to express the Down from the verge of Heav'n; eternal wrath 865 Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. Hell heard th' unsufferable noise, Hell faw Heav'n ruining from Heav'n, and would have fled 870 Through in the dictionary Della Crufca is explain'd by falling headlong and violently from a higher to a lower place, Pearce. The word ruining in this place is the Italian word ruinando Anglicis'd, which expreffes in the ftrongest manner the idea which the author wants to convey, as it denotes any thing falling down with ruin and precipitation. To give one inftance out of a thoufand. Taffo Gier. Liberata. Cant. 9. St. 39. Come ne l'Apennin robusta pianta, Che fprezzò d'Euro, e d'Aquilon la guerra Se turbo inufitato al fin la fchianta, Gli alberi intorno ruinando atterra. The following inftance may be added too from Marino. Adon. Cant. 1. St. 36. E ruinando dal' etherea mole. Thyer. 871. Nine days they fell;] And fo in Book I. 50. Sf Nine Through his wild anarchy, fo huge a rout 876 Incumber'd him with ruin: Hell at laft Meffiah his triumphal chariot turn'd: To meet him all his Saints, who filent ftood Nine times the space that measures day and night &c. Thus in the firft Iliad the plague continues nine days, and upon all occafions the poets are fond of the numbers nine and three. They have three Graces and nine Mufes. What might at firft occafion this way of thinking it is not eafy to fay; but it is certainly very ancient, and we are now fo accuftom'd to it, that if here, instead of nine, Milton had faid ten days, I am perfuaded it would not have had fo good an effect. The fame fpace of time is aflign'd for the fall of Angels, as Mr. Lauder remarks, in one of the Eclogues of Baptifta Mantuanus Nay rather 'twas the cruel'ft imp 880 With Of those with Lucifer that from The fkies to dungeon fell; That nine days Space were tumbling down. And poffibly it might be faid at firft in allufion to Hefiod's defcription of the fall of the Titans. Theog. 722. Εννεα γαρ νυκ]αστε και ηματα. 2. T.λ. 874. Incumber'd him with ruin: ] This too, like the word ruining in ver. 868. must be taken in its Italian fignification. Ingombrate is very poetical, and expreffes the utmoft embarafment and confufion; but incumber'd, tho' plainly the fame word, yet in its common acceptalow for the author's purpose in this tion has a meaning too weak and Thyer. verfe. 876. Hell their fit habitation the house of woe and pain.] Very |