From Aroar to Nebo, and the wild
Of southmost Abarim; in Hesebon
And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond

The flow'ry dale of Sibma clad with vines,
And Eleälé to the Asphaltic pool.

Peor his other name, when he entic'd

Israel in Sittim on their march from Nile

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe.
Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarg'd

Ev'n to that hill of scandal, by the grove
Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate;

Till good Josiah drove them thence to hell.
With these came they, who from the bord'ring flood
Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts

Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names
Of Baälim and Ashtaroth, those male,

These feminine. For spirits when they please
Can either sex assume, or both; so soft
And uncompounded is their essence pure,

Not tied or manacled with joint or limb,

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones,

425

Like cumbrous flesh; but in what shape they choose Dilated or condens'd, bright or obscure,

Can execute their aery purposes,

430

And works of love or enmity fulfil.

For those the race of Israel oft forsook

Their living strength, and unfrequented left
His righteous altar, bowing lowly down

To bestial Gods; for which their heads as low
Bow'd down in battle, sunk before the spear

These are properly named toge-
ther, as they frequently are in
Scripture; and there were many
Baälim and many Ashtaroth;
they were the general names of
the gods and goddesses of Syria,
Palestine, and the neighbouring
countries. It is supposed that
by them is meant the Sun and
the host of heaven.

423. For spirits when they please &c.] These notions about spirits seem to have been borrowed from Michael Psellus's dialogue about the operation of demons, where a story is related of a demon's appearing in the shape of a woman; and upon this a doubt is raised whether some demons are males, and others females; and it is asserted that they can assume either sex, and take what shape and colour they please, and contract or dilate themselves at pleasure, as they are of an airy nature. dio

435

και έκαστος γε αυτων, τότε σωμα προς ὁ αν αίροιτο σχήμα μετατύπωσας, και χρωματος τινος είδος προς το του σου ματος εξανίσχων πέρας, ποτε μεν ὡς ανης ευφανίζεται, ποτε δε προς γυναίου μerabaλλ μogony &c. See Mixaπλου του Τέλλου περι ενεργειας δαιμοwww diaλoyos, p. 70-77. edit. Lutet. Paris. 1615. Such an extraordinary scholar was Milton, and such use he made of all sorts of authors.

426. —-manacled-] In Shakespeare's time, manacle, properly a hand-cuff, was not out of familiar use. Cymbeline, act v. sc. 4. "Knock off his manacles ;" and in other places. The verb is also in Shakespeare, and in Beaumont and Fletcher. See also our author's Free Commonwealth, Pr. W. vol. i. 595. "new injunctions to manacle the native liberty of mankind." Milton has immanacle, in Comus, 665. T. Warton.

Of despicable foes. With these in troop
Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians call'd
Astarte, queen of heav'n, with crescent horns;
To whose bright image nightly by the moon
Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs,
In Sion also not unsung, where stood
Her temple on th' offensive mountain, built

By that uxorious king, whose heart though large,
Beguil❜d by fair idolatresses, fell

To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind,

437. With these in troop &c.] Astoreth or Astarte was the goddess of the Phoenicians, and the moon was adored under this name. She is rightly said to come in troop with Ashtaroth, as she was one of them, the moon with the stars. Sometimes she is called queen of heaven, Jer. vii. 18. and xliv. 17, 18. She is likewise called the goddess of the Zidonians, 1 Kings xi. 5. and the abomination of the Zidonians, 2 Kings xxiii. 13. as she was worshipped very much in Zidon or Sidon, a famous city of the Phoenicians, situated upon the Mediterranean. Solomon, who had many wives that were foreigners, was prevailed upon by them to introduce the worship of this goddess into Israel, 1 Kings xi. 5. and built her temple on the mount of Olives, which on account of this and other idols is called the mountain of corruption, 2 Kings xxiii. 13. as here by the poet th' offensive mountain, and before that opprobrious hill, and that hill of scan

dal.

446. Thammuz came next &c.]

440

445

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd
The Syrian damsels to lament his fate
In amorous ditties all a summer's day,
While smooth Adonis from his native rock
Ran purple to the sea, suppos'd with blood
Of Thammuz yearly wounded: the love-tale
Infected Sion's daughters with like heat,
Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch
Ezekiel saw, when by the vision led
His eye survey'd the dark idolatries
Of alienated Judah. Next came one

Thammuz was the God of the Syrians, the same with Adonis, who according to the traditions died every year and revived again. He was slain by a wild boar in mount Lebanon, from whence the river Adonis descends: and when this river began to be of a reddish hue, as it did at a certain season of the year, this was their signal for celebrating their Adonia or feasts of Adonis, and the women made loud lamentations for him, supposing the river was discoloured with his blood. The like idolatrous rites were transferred to Jerusalem, where Ezekiel saw the women lamenting Tammuz,

450

455

Ezek. viii. 13, 14. He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do. Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which was towards the north, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Dr. Pemberton in his Observations upon poetry quotes some of these verses upon Thammuz as distinguishably melodious; and they are observed to be not unlike those beautiful lines in Shakespeare, 1 Hen. IV. act iii. and particularly in the sweetness of the numbers;

As sweet as ditties highly penn'd, Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,

With ravishing division to her lute. 457. Next came one

Who mourn'd in earnest, &c.] The lamentations for Adonis were without reason, but there was real occasion for Dagon's mourning, when the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, and being placed in the temple of Dagon, the next morning behold

Who mourn'd in earnest, when the captive ark
Maim'd his brute image, head and hands lopt off
In his own temple, on the grunsel edge,
Where he fell flat, and sham'd his worshippers:
Dagon his name, sea monster, upward man
And downward fish: yet had his temple high
Rear'd in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,
And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.
Him follow'd Rimmon, whose delightful seat

Dagon was fallen upon his face
to the ground before the ark
of the Lord; and the head of
Dagon and both the palms of his
hands were cut off upon the thresh-
old, (upon the grunsel or groundsil
edge, as Milton expresses it, on
the edge of the foot post of his
temple gate,) only the stump of
Dagon was left to him, as we read
1 Sam. v. 4. Learned men are
by no means agreed in their ac-
counts of this idol. Some derive
the name from Dagan, which
signifies corn, as if he was the
inventor of it; others from Dag,
which signifies a fish, and re-
present him accordingly with
the upper part of a man, and the
lower part of a fish. Our author
follows the latter opinion, which
is that commonly received, and
has besides the authority of the
learned Selden. This Dagon is
called in Scripture the God of
the Philistines, and was wor-
shipped in the five principal
cities of the Philistines, men-
tioned 1 Sam. vi. 17. Azotus or
Ashdod, where he had a temple,
as we read in 1 Sam. v. Gath,
and Ascalon, and Accuron, or

460

465

Ekron, and Gaza, where they had sacrifices and feastings in honour of him, Judg. xvi. Gaza's frontier bounds, says the poet, as it was the southern extremity of the promised land toward Egypt. It is mentioned by Moses as the southern point of the land of Canaan. Gen. x. 19.

467. Him follow'd Rimmon, &c.] Rimmon was a God of the Syrians, but it is not certain what he was, or why so called. We only know that he had a temple at Damascus, 2 Kings v. 18. the most celebrated city of Syria, on the banks of Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, as they are called 2 Kings v. 12. A leper once he lost, Naaman the Syrian, who was cured of his leprosy by Elisha, and who for that reason resolved thenceforth to offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice to any other god, but unto the Lord, 2 Kings v. 17. And gained a king, Ahaz his sottish conqueror, who with the assistance of the king of Assyria having taken Damascus, saw there an altar, and sent a pattern of it to Jerusalem to have an