PARADISE REGAIN'D. воок III. So fpake the Son of God, and Satan food 5 A while as mute confounded what to say, What to reply, confuted and convinc'd Of his weak arguing, and fallacious drift At length collecting all his ferpent wiles, With foothing words renew'd, him thus accofts. I fee thou know'ft what is of ufe to know, What best to say canft fay, to do canft do; Thy actions to thy words accord, thy words To thy large heart give utterance due, thy heart 10 Contains 10. thy heart Contains of good, wife, juft, the perfect fhape.] Milton, no doubt, by the word shape intended to exprefs the meaning of the Greek term da, but in my opinion it does not at all come up to it, and seems rather harsh and inelegant. There are words in all languages, which cannot well be tranflated without lofing much of their beauty, and even fome of their meaning; of this fort I take the word idea to be. Tully renders it by the word fpecies with as little fuccefs in my opinion as Milton has done here by his Englfh fhape. Thyer. of good, wife, juft, the perfect shape. I fhould rather think it expreffed. from the perfecta forma honeftatis, and the forma ipfa honefti of Cicero. De Fin. II. 15. Habes undique expletam et perfectam, Torquate, formam honeftatis, &c. De Off. I. 5. Formam quidem ipfam, Marce fili, et tanquam faciem bonefti vides; quæ, fi oculis cerneretur &c. And the more, because gems Contains of good, wife, juft, the perfect shape. 15 In he renders forma by shape in the given to the breaft-plate in its conParadife Loft. IV. 848. Virtue in her shape how lovely. 13. lous gems On Aaron's breast; &c.] Aaron's breaft-plate was a piece of cloth doubled, of a span square, in which were fet in fockets of gold twelve precious ftones bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Ifrael ingraven on them, which being fixed to the ephod, or upper vestment of the high priest's robes, was worn by him on his breast on all folemn occafions. In this breaft-plate the Urim and Thummim, fay the Scriptures, were put. And the learned Prideaux, after giving fome account of the various opinions concerning Urim and Thummim, fays it will be safeft to hold, that the words Urim and Thummim meant only the divine virtue and power, fecration, of obtaining an oraculous answer from God, whenever counsel was asked of him by the high-prieft with it on, in fuch manner as his words did direct; and that the names of Urim and Thummim were given hereto only to denote the clearness and perfection, which these oracular anfwers always carried with them. For Urim fignifieth light, and Thummim perfection. But Milton by adding thofe oraculous gems On Aaron's breastfeems to have been of the common received opinion among the Jews, that the answer was given by the precious ftones, that it was by the fhining and protuberating of the letters in the names of the twelve tribes graven on the twelve ftones in the breaft-plate of the high-priest, and that in them he did read the answer. But as Dr. Prideaux In battel, though against thy few in arms. In favage wilderness? wherefore deprive That fole excites to high attempts, the flame Prideaux fays, it appears plain from Scripture, that when the high-prieft appeared before the veil to afk counfel of God, the answer was given him by an audible voice from the mercy feat, which was within behind the veil. or tongue of feers old Infallible: The poet by mentioning this after Urim and Thummim seems to allude to another opinion of the Jews, that the Holy Spirit fpake to the children of Ifrael during the tabernacle by Urim and Thummim, and under the firft temple by the prophets. See Prideaux Connect. Part I. Book III. 20 25 All which would be an alteration for the worfe, the commendation in this place not being of his skill in general, but of his skill of conduct in particular. 25. glory the reward,]. Our Saviour having withfood the allurement of riches, Satan attacks him in the next place with the charms of glory. I have sometimes thought, that Milton might poffibly take the hint of thus connecting these two temptations from Spenfer, who in his fecond book of the Faery Queen reprefenting the virtue of temperance under the character of Guyon, and leading him through various trials of his conftancy, brings him to the house of riches or Mammon's delve as he terms it, and immediately after it to the palace of glory, which he defcribes in his allegorical manner under the figure of a beautiful woman call'd Philotimè. Thyer. 27. Of moft ercated spirits,] The author H 4 All treasures and all gain efteem as drofs, Won Afia, and the throne of Cyrus held 30 At his dispose; young Scipio had brought down The Carthaginian pride; young Pompey quell'd 35 The Pontic king, and in triumph had rode. author here remembered Cicero. Pro Archia. Trahimur omnes laudis ftudio, et optimus quifque maxime gloria ducitur. De Off. I. 8. In maximis animis fplendidiffimifque ingeniis plurumque exfiftunt honoris, imperii, potentiæ, gloriæ cupiditates. 31. Thy years are ripe, and overripe;] Our Saviour's temptation was foon after his baptifm, and he was baptized when he was about thirty years of age. Luke III. 23. And the fan of Macedonian Philip, Alexander the great, had ere thefe, before thefe years, won Afia, and the throne of Cyrus, the Perfian empire founded by Cyrus, held at his difpofe; for Alexander was but 20 when he began to reign, and in a few years overturned the Perfian empire, and died in the 33d year of his age. Young Scipio had brought down the Carthaginian pride; for Scipio Africanus was no more than 24 years old, when he was fent proconful into Yet Spain, and was only between 28 and 29, when he was chosen conful before the ufual time, and transferred the war into Africa. Young Pompey quell'd the Pontic king, and in triumph had rode. In this inftance our author is not fo exact as in the reft, for when Pompey was fent to command the war in Afia against Mithridates king of Pon. tus, he was above 40, but had fignalized himself by many extraordinary actions in his younger years, and had obtained the honor of two triumphs before that time. Pompey and Cicero were born in the fame year; and the Manilian law, which gave the command in Afia to Pompey, was propofed when Cicero was in the 41ft year of his age. But no wonder that Milton was mistaken in point of time, when feveral of the Ancients were, and Plutarch himself, who fpeaking of Pompey's three memorable triumphs over the three parts of the world, his firft over Africa, his fecond Yet years, and to ripe years judgment mature, To whom our Saviour calmly thus reply'd. 40 For See Plutarch's Life of Cæfar. Others fay, it was at the fight of an image of Alexander the greatanimadverfa apud Herculis templum magni Alexandri imagine ingemuit; et quafi pertæfus ignaviam fuam, quod nihil dum à fe memorabile actum effet in ætate qua jam Alexander orbem terrarum fubegiffet, &c. Suetonii Jul. Cæf. cap. 7. 44. Thou neither doft perfuade me &c] How admirably does Milton in this fpeech expofe the emptiness and uncertainty of a popular character, and found true glory upon its only fure bafis, the approbation of the God of truth? There is a remarkable dignity of fentiment runs quite through it, and I think it will be no extravagance at all to affert, that he has comprised in this fhort compafs the fubftance and quinteffence of a subject which has exercifed the pens of the greatest moralifts in all ages. Thyer. The |