A third part of the Gods, in fynod met

Their deities to affert, who while they feel
Vigor divine within them, can allow
Omnipotence to none. But well thou com'ft
Before thy fellows, ambitious to win

160

165

From me fome plume, that thy fuccefs may show
Destruction to the rest: this pause between
(Unanswer'd left thou boast) to let thee know;
At first I thought that Liberty and Heaven
To heav'nly fouls had been all one; but now
I see that most through floth had rather serve,
Miniftring Spirits, train'd up in feast and song;
Such haft thou arm'd, the minstrelfy of Heaven,
Servility

that the Sectaries, tho' fewer in
number, yet were more in the right
than their opposers.

161.-that thy fuccefs may show
Thy fuccefs, thy ill fuccefs; the

word fuccefs is ufed in the fame
fenfe, II. 9.
Richardfon.

161.-that thy fuccefs may show
Deftruction to the reft:] Bentley
fays, a deteftable fault: it fhould
be inftruction. Mr. Pope fays, fuc-
cefs ironicé. I don't know what this
means. The text is right, and the
meaning is, that thy fuccefs may
fhow thy fellows the road to de-
ftruction, or the way to destroy
their enemies. Warburton,

167. Miniftring Spirits,] So they are called Heb. I. 14. Are they not all miniftring Spirits? and Satan mentions it in derifion. Compare this with that of Virgil, Æn. IX. 614.

Vobis picta croco et fulgenti mu

rice veftis: Defidiæ cordi: juvat indulgere choreis:

Et tunicæ manicas et habent re-
dimicula mitræ.

O vere Phrygiæ, neque enim
Phryges! ite per alta
Dindyma, ubi affuetis biforem dat
tibia cantum.

Tymr

Servility with freedom to contend,

175

As both their deeds compar'd this day fhall prove. 170
To whom in brief thus Abdiel ftern reply'd.
Apoftate, ftill thou err'ft, nor end wilt find
Of erring, from the path of truth remote :
Unjustly thou deprav'ft it with the name
Of fervitude to ferve whom God ordains,
Or Nature: God and Nature bid the fame,
When he who rules is worthiest, and excels
Them whom he governs. This is fervitude,
To ferve th' unwife, or him who hath rebell'd
Againft his worthier, as thine now ferve thee,
Thyfelf not free, but to thyfelf inthrall'd;
Yet lewdly darft our miniftring upbraid.

180

Reign

Tu mihi qui imperitas, aliis fervis mifer

Quifnam igitur liber? fapiens, fibi qui imperiofus.

And as to what is here faid of fervitude, fee Aristotle's Politics, B. 1. C. 3 & 4.

183.in Hell thy kingdom;] Not that it was fo at prefent. This is faid by way of anticipation. God had order'd him to be caft out, ver. 52. and what the Almighty had pronounc'd, the good Angel looks upon as done. And this fentiment

Reign thou in Hell thy kingdom; let me ferve
In Heav'n God ever bleft, and his divine
Behefts obey, worthiest to be obey'd;

185

Yet chains in Hell, not realms expect: mean while From me return'd, as erft thou faidft, from flight, This greeting on thy impious creft receive.

So fay'ing, a noble ftroke he lifted high,
Which hung not, but fo fwift with tempeft fell 190
On the proud crest of Satan, that no fight,
Nor motion of swift thought, less could his shield
Such ruin intercept: ten paces huge

He back recoil'd; the tenth on bended knee
His maffy fpear upftay'd; as if on earth
Winds under ground, or waters forcing way

Reign thou in Hell thy kingdom; let me ferve

In Heav'n God ever bleft,

is defign'd as a contraft to Satan's vaunt in I. 263.

Better to reign in Hell, than ferve in Heaven.

187. From me return'd, as erft thou faidf, from flight, This greeting &c.] So Afcanius in Virgil retorts his adverfary's term of reproach, Æn. IX. 635.

195

Sidelong

189. So fay'ing, &c.] Saying is here contracted into one fyllable, or is to be pronounc'd as two short ones, which very well expreffes the eagerness of the Ange!. He ftruck

at his foe before he had finish'd his fpeech, while he was fpeaking, which is much better than Dr. Bentley's reading So faid, as if he had not aim'd his blow, till after he had spoken.

195.

-as if on earth Winds under ground, &c.] Hefind

Bis capti Phryges hæc Rutulis re- compares the fall of Cygnus to an

fponfa remittunt,

alluding to ver. 599.

oak or a rock falling, Scut. Herc.

421.

Ήριπε

Sidelong had push'd a mountain from his feat

Half funk with all his pines.

The rebel Thrones, but greater rage to fee

Thus foil'd their mightieft; ours joy fill'd, and fhout, Prefage of victory, and fierce defire

Of battel: whereat Michäel bid found
Th'Arch-Angel.trumpet; through the vast of Heaven
It founded, and the faithful armies rung

Hofanna to the High'eft: nor ftood at gaze
The adverse legions, nor lefs hideous join'd;
The horrid fhock: now ftorming fury rose,
And clamor fuch as heard in Heav'n till now
Was never; arms on armour clashing bray'd
Horrible difcord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots rag'd; dire was the noise
Of conflict; over head the dismal hifs

and fometimes it is used as a verb active, as here in Milton; Faery Queen, B. 5. Cant. 11. St. 20.. Even blafphemous words, which The doth bray:

and in Shakespear's Hamlet, A&t I. The kettle drum and trumpet thus bray out

The triumph of his pledge.

212.-over head the difmal bifs Of fiery darts] Now the author is come to that part of his poem, where he is moft to exert what faculty he has of, magnilo quence of ftile, and fublimity of thought,

Nunc, veneranda Pales, magno nunc ore fonandum.

Virg. Georg. III. 294.

He has executed it to admiration: but the danger is, of being hurried away by his unbridled fteed; and of deferting propriety, while he's hunting after found and tumor.

205

219

Of

And 'tis hard to guefs, what fault to charge on the printer, fince poetic fury is commonly both thought and allow'd to be regardlefs of fyntax. But here in this fentence, which is certainly vicious, the hifs flew in volies, and the bifs vaulted the hofts with fire: the author may be fairly thought to have given it

-over head with dismal hifs The fiery darts in flaming volies flew. Bentley.

But if there be any place in this
poem, where the fublimity of the
thought will allow the accuracy of
expreffion to give way to the ftrength
of it, it is here. There is a pecu-
liar force fometimes in afcribing
that to a circumftance of the thing,
which more properly belongs to
the thing itself; to the bifs, which
belongs to the darts. See my note
on II. 654.
Pearce.

As the learned Mr. Upton remarks
in his Critical Obfervations on
Shakespear,