A carpenter thy father known, thyself Which way or from what hope doft thou aspire 415 420 Longer than thou canft feed them on thy coft? Money brings honor, friends, conqueft, and realms: What rais'd Antipater the Edomite, And his fon Herod plac'd on Juda's throne, 424 (Thy throne) but gold that got him puiffant friends? Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand; They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, 430 To whom thus Jefus patiently reply'd. Yet wealth without these three is impotent 423. What rais'd Antipater the Edomite, &c] This appears to be the fact from hiftory. When Jofephus introduces Antipater upon the ftage, he speaks of him as abounding with great riches. os δε τις Υρκανό ΙδεμαίΘ, ΑντιπαTP negouw, woλv ev euTopay youμatav, H. T. λ. Antiq. Lib. XIV. Cap. 1. And his fon Herod was declar'd king of Judea by the favor of Mark Antony, partly for the fake of the Money which he promised to give him δε και ύπο χρημάτων ὧν αυτώ Το 427. Get riches firft,] Quærenda pecunia primùm. Hor. Ep. I. I. 53. 429. Riches are mine, &c.] This temptation we also owe to our author's invention, and 'tis very happily contriv'd, not only as it leads the reader gradually on to those ftronger ones in the following book, but as it is fo juftly fitted to the character of the Tempter, the prince of Hell, who was fuppofed by all antiquity to be the king and difpofer of riches. Hence was he ftil'd Pluto from a divitiæ. Spenfer much in the fame tafe places the delve of Mammon clofe by the entrance into Hell. Faery Queen B. 2. Cant. 7. St. 24. Betwixt them both was but a little ftride, Ηρώδης υπέχετο δωσεν εν γένοιτο That did the houfe of riches from Barinds. Ibid. Cap. 14. Hell-mouth divide. To gain dominion, or to keep it gain'd. In highth of all their flowing wealth diffolv'd: That feat, and reign in. Ifrael without end. 435 440 Worthy' fuppofes him not to be unacquaint- Worthy' of memorial) canft thou not remember Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus? 445 For I efteem thofe names of men so poor the 446. Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus? Quintius (not Quintus, as it is in most of the editions befides the firft) Cincinnatus was twice invited from following the plough to be conful and dictator of Rome; and after he had fubdued when the fenate would enemy, have enriched him with public lands and private contributions, he rejected all these offers, and retired again to his cottage and old courfe of life. Fabricius could not be bribed by all the large offers of king Pyrrhus to aid him in negotiating a peace with the Romans and yet he lived and died fo poor, that he was buried at the public expenfe, and his daughters fortunes were paid out of the treafury. Curius Dentatus would not accept of the lands, which the fenate had affign'd him for the reward of his victories: and when the embaffadors of the Samnites offer'd him a large fum of money as he was fitting at the fire and roafting turnips with his own hands, he nobly refused to take it, saying that it was his ambition not 450 Accomplish to be rich, but to command those who were fo. And Regulus, after performing many great exploits, was taken prifoner by the Carthaginians, and fent with the embaffadors to Rome to treat of peace, upon oath to return to Carthage, if no peace or exchange of prisoners fhould be agreed upon: but Regulus was himself the first to diffuade a peace, and chofe to leave his country, family, friends, every thing, and return a glorious captive to certain tortures and death, rather than fuffer the fenate to conclude a difhonourable treaty. Our Saviour cites thefe inftances of noble Romans in order of time, as he did thofe of his own nation : And as Mr. Calton obferves, the Romans in the most degenerate times were fond of thefe (and fome other like) examples of ancient virtue; and their writers of all forts delight to introduce them : but the greateft honor that poetry ever did them, is here, by the praife of the Son of God. 447. For I eftecm &c] The au thor Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more? 1 455 The wife man's cumbrance if not snare, more apt Riches and realms; yet not for that a crown, Golden could contemn Riches though offer'd from the hand of kings, if that story be true of his having been offer'd to be Latin fecretary to Charles the zd., and of his refufing it. 453. Extol not riches then, &c. ] Milton concludes this book and our Saviour's reply to Satan with a series of thoughts as noble and juft, or, to fay all in one word, as worthy of the speaker as can poffibly be imagin'd: and I think one may venture to affirm, that as the Paradife Regain'd is a poem entirely moral and religious, the excellency of which does not confift fo much in bold figures and strong images as in deep and virtuous fentiments exprefs'd with a becoming gravity, and a certain decent majefty, this is as true an instance of the fublime as the battles of the Angels in the Paradise Lost. Thyer. 458. -yet not for that a crown,] I reject them, yet not for that reafon because a crown &c: and in setting 1 |