O what avails me now that honor high
To have conceiv'd of God, or that falute
Hail highly favor'd, among women bleft!
While I to forrows am no lefs advanc'd,
And fears as eminent, above the lot
Of other women, by the birth I bore,

66

70

In fuch a feafon born when scarce a shed

Could be obtain'd to fhelter him or me

From the bleak air; a ftable was our warmth,
A manger his; yet soon enforc'd to fly

75

Thence into Egypt, till the murd❜rous king
Were dead, who fought his life, and miffing fill'd
With infant blood the ftreets of Bethlehem ;

paffionate feeling of her grief. If this reading was but poffeffed of the editions, nothing could be objected to it. Calton.

I am no friend to alterations of the text, unless they are abfolutely neceffary. The conftruction is

But to his mother within her
breaft-motherly cares and fears
got head, and rais'd fome troubled
thoughts: and if the words were
brought thus near together, there
would not perhaps be thought that
difficulty and perplexity in the
fyntax.

63. Within her breaft though calm,
her breaft though pure,
Motherly cares and fears got head,]

From

A fentiment much of the fame kind with that in the Paradife Loft, where upon the fall of our firft parents it is faid X. 23.

--dim fadnefs did not fpare That time celestial visages, yet mix'd

With pity, violated not their
blifs:

and
may alfo ferve to confirm what
has been obferv'd in the note upon
that place. How much more dig-
nity and amiablenefs in this cha-
racter than in that of a Stoical in-
difference and freedom from all per-
turbations as they term it?

Thyer. 79. -in

From Egypt home return'd, in Nazareth

80

Hath been our dwelling many years; his life
Private, unactive, calm, contemplative,
Little fufpicious to any king; but now
Full grown to man, acknowledg'd, as I hear,
By John the Baptift, and in public shown,
Son own'd from Heav'n by his Father's voice; 85
I look'd for fome great change; to honor? no,
But trouble, as old Simeon plain foretold,

That to the fall and rifing he should be
Of many in Ifrael, and to a fign

Spoken against, that through my very foul
A fword fhall pierce; this is my favor'd lot,
My exaltation to afflictions high;
Afflicted I may be, it feems, and bleft;

99

intent

95

I will not argue that, nor will repine.
But where delays he now? fome great
Conceals him: when twelve years he scarce had feen,
I lost him, but fo found, as well I faw

He could not lofe himself; but went about
His Father's business; what he meant I mus'd,
Since understand; much more his abfence now 100
Thus long to fome great purpose he obfcures.
But I to wait with patience am inur'd;
My heart hath been a store-house long of things
And fay'ings laid up, portending strange events.
Thus Mary pond'ring oft, and oft to mind
Recalling what remarkably had pafs'd
Since firft her falutation heard, with thoughts
Meekly compos'd awaited the fulfilling:

the faint, and the tenderness of the
mother; and I think nothing can
be conceiv'd more beautiful and
moving than the fudden ftart of
fond impatience in the third line,
But where delays he now? breaking
in fo abruptly upon the compos'd
refignation exprefs'd in the two
preceding ones. The fame beauty
is continued in her fuddenly check-
ing herself, and refuming her calm
and refign'd character again in
thefe words- -Some great intent
Conceals him.
Thyer,

105

The

103. My heart hath been a flore-
houfe long of things
And Sayings laid up,

Thus Mary pond'ring oft,] Alluding to what is faid of her, Luke II. 19. But Mary kept all these things, and pondred them in her heart: and again, ver. 51. but his mother kept all thefe fayings in her heart: fo confiftent is the part that the acts here with her character in Scripture.

110. —with

The while her fon tracing the desert wild,
Sole but with holieft meditations fed
Into himself defcended, and at once
All his great work to come before him fet;
How to begin, how to accomplish best
His end of being on earth, and miffion high :
For Satan with fly preface to return

Had left him vacant, and with speed was gone
Up to the middle region of thick air,

Where all his potentates in council fat;
There without fign of boaft, or fign of joy,

Solicitous

from th' element Each of his reign allotted, rightlier call'd

Pow'rs of fire, air, water, and

earth beneath,] It was a notion among the Ancients, efpecially among the Platonifts, that there were Demons in each element, fome visible, others invifible, in the æther, and fire, and air, and water, fo that no part of the world was devoid of foul : εισι δε και άλλοι δαίμονες, ἑς και καλοίη αν τις γενιητες θεός, καθ' έκασον των τοιχείων,

οἱ

μεν ὁρατοι, οἱ δὲ αορατοί, εν τε αι θερι, και πυρί, αερί τε, και ύδατι, ὡς μηδεν κοσμα μερα ψυγης αμοιρον είναι, as Alcinous in his fummary of the Platonic doctrines fays cap. 5. Michael Pfellus, in his dialogue concerning the operation of Demons, from whence Milton borrowed

fome

Solicitous and blank he thus began.

120

Princes, Heav'n's ancient Sons, ethereal Thrones, Demonian Spirits now, from th' element

Each of his reign allotted, rightlier call'd

Pow'rs of fire, air, water, and earth beneath,

So may we hold our place and these mild feats 125 Without new trouble; fuch an enemy

Is risen to invade us, who no less

Threatens than our expulfion down to Hell;
I, as I undertook, and with the vote
Confenting in full frequence was impower'd,

fome of his notions of Spirits (as we obferved in a note upon the Paradife Loft I. 423.) speaks to the fame purpose, that there are many kinds of Demons, and of all forts of forms and bodies, fo that the air above us and around us is full, the earth and the fea are full, and the inmoft and deepeft receffes: πολλα δαιμοιων γενη, και παοδαπα τας ιδέας και τα σω ματα· ὡς είναι πλήρη μεν τον αέρα, τον τε ὑπερθεν ἡμων και τον περὶ ἡμας πλήρη δε γαιαν και θαλατίαν, και τις μυχαιτατες και βυδιες [βυθιας] του 8, p. 41. and he divides them into fix kinds, the fiery, the aery, the earthy, the watry, the fubterraneous, and the lucifugous: TO διάπυρον, το αερίου, το χθόνιον, το έδραιον τε και ενάλιον, το υποχθονίον,

130 Have