Have found him, view'd him, tasted him, but find 135 140 Of my success with Eve in Paradise Deceive at least. Tell Athens, in the frequence of clar'd from Heav'n, and knew him degree, to be the Son of God; and now From high to low throughout. after the trial that he had made of him, he questions whether he be 136. If he be man by mother's side man even by the mother's fide, at least,] The Tempter had no doubt of Christ's being a man If he be man by mother's fide by the mother's fide: but the want of a comma in its due place after And it is the purport of Satan in man, hath puzzled both the sense this speech not to say any thing and the construction. He is must to the evil Spirits that may leffen, be understood at the end of the but every thing that may raise their verse, to support the syntax. idea of his antagonist. If he be man, by mother's side 139. And amplitude of mind to at least (he is). Calton. greatest deeds.] There is a great deal of dignity as well as fignifiWe have still preserved the point- cancy in this expression, and none ing of Milton's own edition ; for certainly could have been better fome perhaps may choose to join selected to exprefs the idea which the whole together, and understand the poet intended to convey. He it thus. Satan had heard him de- borrowed it very probably from the Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure 145 Thought none my equal, now be over-match’d. So spake th' oid Serpent doubting, and from all With clamor was affur'd their utmost aid At his command; when from amidst them rose Belial, the diffolutest Spi'rit that fell, 150 The sensuallest, and after Asmodai The fleshlieft Incubus, and thus advis’d. Set the following passage in Tully's jected to as harsh and inharmoTusc. Disp. II. 25. Hoc igitur tibi nious, but in my opinion the very propone, amplitudinem et quasi quan- objection points out a remarkable dam exaggerationem quam altiffimam beauty in them. It is true, they animi, quæ maxime eminet con don't run very smoothly off the temnendis et despiciendis dolori tongue, but then they are with bus, unam esse omnium rem pul much better judgment fo contriv’d, cherrimam. Milton had a very that the reader is obliged to lay a happy talent in the choice of particular emphasis, and to dwell words, and indeed it is a very as it were for some time upon considerable part that word in each verse which Let the reader but try to substitute most strongly expresses the characany other word of the fame fignifi- ter describ'd, viz. dissolutefit, fenfucation in the place of amplitude alleft, feblieft. This has a very in this verse, and he will soon be good effect by impressing the idea convinc'd, that none can be found more strongly upon the mind, and to fill it up with equal beauty and contributes even in fome measure propriety. Tbyer. to increase our aversion to the 150. Belial, the disolutest &c.] I odious character of Belial, by givhave heard these three lines ob- ing an air of detestation to the very Set women in his eye, and in his walk, Among daughters of men the fairest found; Many are in each region passing fair 155 As the noon sky; more like to Goddesses Than mortal creatures, graceful and discreet, Expert in amorous arts, inchanting tongues Persuasive, virgin majesty with mild And sweet allay'd, yet terrible t' approach, 160 Skill'd very tone of voice with which these of Raguel, and destroyed her severses muít necessarily be read. ven husbands, as we read in the Thyer. book of Tobit. 153: Set women in his eye, &c.] 155. -paling fair] Our author As this temptation is not men had several times met with this tion'd, nor any hint given of it in phrase in his beloved Spenser and the Gospels, it could not so well Shakespeare; and particularly in have been propos’d to our Saviour, Romeo's commendations of his it is much more fitly made the sub- mistress. Ac 1. Scene 2. ject of debate among the wicked Spirits themselves. All that can Show me a mistress, that is pas be said in commendation of the sing fair; power of beauty, and all that can What doth her beauty serve, but be alledged to depreciate it, is as a note, here summ’d up with greater force Where I may read, who pass’d and elegance, than I ever remem that paling fair ? ber to have seen it in any other au 161. Skill'd to retire, and in rethor. And the character of Belial tiring draw in the Paradise Loft, and the part Hearts after them] In the fame that he sustains there, sufficiently manner Milton in his description show how properly he is intro- of Eve. Paradise Loft. VIII. 504. duced upon the present occasion. Not obvious, not obtrusive, but He is said to be the fleshließt Incubus retir'de after Ashmodai, or Ajmadai, as it is The more desirable. written Paradise Loit VI. 365. or Almodius IV. 168. the luftful An- Hearts after them tangled in amorous gel, who loved Sarah the daughter nets, Milton seems to use the word 2 amorous Skill'd to retire, and in retiring draw smooth the rugged'st brow, Women, 2. amorous rather in the sense of the mile in his Imagines Vol. II. p. Italian amoroso, which is applied Ed. Græv. Ει δε κακεινη προσ• to any thing relating to the. paffion Gλεψειε σε, τις εσαι μηχανη αποτηναι of love, than in its common Eng- αυτης και απαξει γαρ σε αναδησαμενή lith acceptation, in which it ge- kv@% av 50ean, ótep xas in 1100 n nerally exprefes formething of the ηρακλια δρα τον σιδηρον. But if the passion itself. Thyer. fair one once look upon you, 166. Draw out with credulous what is it that can get you from defire,] This beautiful expres- her? She will draw you after her fion was form'd partly upon the at pleasure, bound hand and foot, Spes animi credula mutui of Horace. just as the loadstone draws iron. Od. IV. I. 30. We may observe that Milton, by --fond hope of mutual fire, reftraining the comparison to the The still-believing, fill-renew'd power of beauty over the wiseft men and the most stoical tempers, desire, hath given it a propriety, which as Mr. Pope paraphrases it. And is loft in a more general applicaas Mr. Thyer thinks, it is partly tion. See a little poem of Clauan allusion to Terence. Andria. dian's on the Magnet. It is the 5th of his Eidyllia. Calton. Non tibi fatis efle hoe vifum As the magnetic, It should be the folidum eft gaudium. magnet, or the magnetic stone : but Nisi me lactasses amantem, et Milton often converts the adjec tive, and uses it as the substantive. falfa Spes produceres. Mr. Thyer withes fome authority 168. As the magnetic hardest iron could be found to justify the omit draws] Lucian hath this fi- ting of this line, which in his Voi, I. F opinion IV. I. 23. Women, when nothing else, beguild the heart To whom quick answer Satan thus return’d. False opinion is very low and mean ; the Angels having commerce with and appears too the more fo, as women, founded upon that mifta. it immediately follows some of the ken text of Scripture, Gen. VI. 2. finest and most masterly verses in The fons of God saw the daughters of the whole poem. The simile is in men, that they were fair; and they itself trite and common, and the took them wives of all which they conceit implied in the word hardest chose. See Paradise Loft III. 463. boyith to the last degree. This and V.447. But tho” he seems to shows that all Milton's learning favour that opinion, as we may and genius could not entirely pre- suppose, to embellish his poetry, serve him from being infected with yet he shows elsewhere that he that fanciful sort of wit, which understood the text rightly, of too much prevailed in the age, in the sons of Seth, who were the which he first form'd his taste. worshippers of the true God, in. 177. None are, thou think'), but termarrying with the daughters of wicked Cain. Paradise Loft taken with such toys.] The line XI. 621. would be clearer, if it run thus, To these that fober race of men, None are, thou think'st, taken whose lives but with such toys. Sympson. Religious titled them the fons of 178. Before the flood, &c.] It is to God, be lamented that our author has so Shall yield up all their virtue, often adopted the vulgar notion of all their fame Ignoblya |