ア Into the world to teach his final will, And fends his Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell To all truth requifite for men to know. So fpake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend, 465 And urg'd me hard with doings, which not will And not enforc'd oft-times to part from truth; If it may stand him more in ftead to lie, Say and unfay, feign, flatter, or abjure? 470 But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord; 475 From thee I can and must fubmifs indure Check or reproof, and glad to 'fcape fo quit, Smooth have here corrected an error, which 474. Say and unfay, feign, flatter, or abjure?] Might not Milton poffibly intend here, and particularly by the word abjure, to lafh fome of his complying friends, who renounced their republican Smooth on the tongue difcours'd, pleafing to th' ear, And tuneable as fylvan pipe or fong; What wonder then if I delight to hear Her dictates from thy mouth? moft men admire 480 To hear thee when I come (fince no man comes) And talk at least, though I despair to' attain. 485 Thy father, who is holy, wife and pure, Suffers the hypocrite or atheous priest To tread his facred courts, and minister To Balaam reprobate, a prophet yet Infpir'd; difdain not such access to me. To whom our Saviour with unalter'd brow, Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope, I bid not or forbid; do as thou find'ft Permiffion from above; thou canst not more. 490 495 He publican principles at the Refto- faying of Medea. Ov. Met. VII. ration? 482. Thyer. moft men admire Virtue, who follow not her lore:] Imitated from the well known He added not; and Satan bowing low His gray diffimulation, disappear'd Into thin air diffus'd: for now began Night with her fullen wings to double-shade 500 The defert; fowls in their clay nefts were couch'd; And now wild beafts came forth the woods to roam. 497. -and Satan bowing low His gray diffimulation,] An expreffion this, which your little word-catching critics will very probably cenfure, but readers of true tafte admire. It is a true inftance of the feliciter audet. There is another of the fame kind in this book, where the poet fays, fpeaking of the angelic quire, ver. 170. and in celestial measures mov'd, Circling the throne and finging, while the hand Sung with the voice. disappear'd Thyer. 498. Into thin air diffus'd:] So Virgil of Mercury. Æn. IV. 278. Et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram. 500. to double-fbade The defert;] He has expreffed the fame thought elsewhere, In double night of darkness, and of fhades. And the reader will naturally observe, how properly the images are taken from the place, where the fcene is laid. It is not a defcription of night at large, but of a night in the defert: and as Mr. Thyer fays, is very short, tho' poetical. The reafon no doubt was, because the poet had before labor'd this fcene to the utmost perfection in his Paradise Loft. The end of the Firft Book. |