Might in that noise refide, of whom to ask Wide on the wafteful deep; with him enthron'd 960 Of Of Demogorgon; Rumor next and Chance, My tongue (if ftill your stubborn hearts refufe) That fo much dreaded name can well repeat, Which heard great Dis cannot himfelf excufe, But hither run from his eternal feat. Fairfax. The name of this deity is Demogorgon, which fome think a corruption of Demiurgus; others imagin him to be fo call'd, as being able to look upon the Gorgon, that turned all other fpectators to ftone, and to this Lucan feems to allude, when he says -qui Gorgona cernit apertam. Spenfer too mentions this infernal deity, Fairy Queen, B. 1. Cant. 5. St. 22. Far from the view of Gods and 965 T'whom and takes notice alfo of the dread- A bold bad man, that dar'd to call At which Cocytus quakes, and Styx Well therefore might Milton diftinguish him by the dreaded name of Demogorgon: and the name of Demogorgon is as much as to say Demogorgon himself, as in Virgil Æn. VI. 763. Albanum nomen is a man of Alba, Æn. XII. 515. Nomen Echionium, id eft Thebanum, is a Theban; and we have a me morable inftance of this way of speaking in Rev. XI. 13. And in the earthquake were flain ονόματα av@pawv names of men feven thoufand, that is feven thousand men. And befides these authorities to justify our author, let me farther hath fuggefted, that this name "is add what the learned Mr. Jortin "to be found in Lactantius, the "Scholiaft of Statius on Thebaid. " IV. 516. Dicit Deum Demo 66 gorgona fummum. It is also "to be found in Hyginus, pag. 11. "Edit. Hamburg. Oct. 1674. Ex " Demogorgone et Terra Python, "draco divinus, if the place be The hideous Chaos keeps, their "not corrupted. See Muncker dreadful dwelling is: "there." And Mr. Thyer jufti T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye Powers And Spirits of this nethermost abyss, Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy, fies the ufe of the word against Dr. Bentley by another paffage in our author's Latin works, p. 340. Apud vetuftiffimos itaque mythologiæ fcriptores memoriæ datum reperio Demogorgonem Deorum omnium atavum (quem eundem et Chaos ab antiquis nuncupatum hariolo inter alios liberos, quos fuftulerat plurimos, Terram genuiffe. 965. — Rumor next and Chance,] In Satan's voyage through the Chaos there are feveral imaginary perfons defcribed, as refiding in that immenfe wafte of matter. This may perhaps be conformable to the taste of thofe critics who are pleased with nothing in a poet which has not life and manners afcribed to it; but for my own part, I am pleafed most with those paffages in this description which carry in them a greater measure of probability, and are fuch as might poffibly have happen'd. Of this kind is his firft mounting in the fmoke that rifes from the infernal pit, his falling into a cloud of nitre and the like combuftible materials, that by their explofion ftill hurried him forward in his voyage; his fpringing upward like a pyramid of fire, with his laborious paffage through that confufion of clcments which the poet calls The womb of nature, and perhaps 970 With Mr. Addifon feems to disapprove of these fictitious beings, thinking them I fuppofe (like Sin and Death improper for an epic poem: but I fee no reafon why Milton may not be allow'd to place fuch imaginary beings in the regions of Chaos, as well as Virgil defcribe the like beings, Grief, and Fear, and Want, and Sleep, and Death, and Dif cord likewife within the confines of Hell; and why what is accounted a beauty in one should be deemed a fault in the other. See En. VI. 273. &c. Veftibulum ante ipfum, primifque in faucibus Orci, Luctus, et ultrices posuere cubilia Curæ : Pallentesque habitant Morbi, triftifque Senectus, Et Metus, et malesuada Fames, et turpis Egeftas, Terribiles vifu forma: Letumque, Laborque : Tum confanguineus Leti Sopor, et mala mentis Gaudia, mortiferumque adverfo in limine Bellum, Ferreique Eumenidum thalami, et Difcordia demens Vipereum crinem vittis innexa With purpose to explore or to disturb I travel this profound; direct my course; 975 980 To your behoof, if I that region loft, 985 All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce His inmoft counfels from their deftin'd aim; and the word explore will be very proper, as in VII. 95. What we, not to explore the fe crets afk Of his eternal empire. 981. Directed no mean recompense it brings &c.] My courfe directed may bring no little recompenfe and advantage to you, if I reduce that loft region, all ufurpation being thence expell'd, to her original darknefs and your fway (which is the purport of my prefent journey) and erect the ftandard there of ancient Night. 999.-if once more |