Falfe titled fons of God, roaming the earth 180 185 Ignobly, to the trains and to the fmiles Of these fair atheists. 180. Caft wanton eyes on the daugh 182. Too or by relation beard,] Here Milton forgot himself. It is a Devil who speaks; yet the words can only fuit the poet. Warburton. many more 188. Too long,] A concife way of fpeaking for many more too long to mention. The author had used it before. ters of men,] In Pfellus's Dialogue de Oper. Dæm. thefe fenfualities feem to be confin'd to the three loweft orders of evil Dæmons: [p. 39. Ed. Gaulm. Lut. Par. 1615.] and Afmodai in the Greek of Tobit is called only a Demon, or an evil Demon; tho' the Talmudifts, Grotius fays, [not. ad Tobiam] fet him at the head of all the Demons. In our poet's time it was seriously believed by very learned men of our own, addicted to the Platonic philofophy, that the Devil had carnal commerce with witches. See More's Antidotes againft atheifm. B. 3. painting any more than in poetry, tho' wrought by the hand of a Ti chap. 12. Calton, Paradife Loft III. 473. And indeed more would have been too long, and it would have been better if he had not enumerated fo many of the loves of the Gods. Califto, Semele, Antiopa were miftreffes to Jupiter; Clymene, and Daphne to Apollo; Amymone to Neptune, and Syrinx to Pan. Thefe things are known to every schoolboy, but add no dignity to a divine poem and in my opinion are not the most pleafing fubjects in F 2 tian, Too long, then lay'ft thy fcapes on names ador'd, Satir, or Faun, or Sylvan? But these haunts tian, or a Julio Romano. But our author makes ample amends in what follows. 190. Apollo, Neptune, &c.] Both here and elsewhere Milton confiders the Gods of the heathens as Demons, or Devils. Пales of Deo Two Day daimovia. Pfal. XCV. 5. And the notion of the Demons having commerce with women in the fhape of the heathen Gods is very ancient, and is exprefly afferted by Justin Martyr, from whom probably our author borrow'd it. ειρήσεται γαρ τ' αληθες" επει το παλαιον δαίμονες φαυλοι επιφάνειας ποιησα μενον, και γυναικας εμοιχευσαν, κ. τ. λ. For verily I must tell you, that heretofore thefe impure Spirits under various apparitions went into the daughters of men, and defiled boys, and drefs'd up fuch fcenes of horror, that fuch as 'enter'd not into the reason of things, but judg'd by appearance only, ftood aghaft at the spectres, and being fhrunk up with fear and amazement, and never imagining 'em to be Devils, call'd em Gods, and invok'd 'em by fuch titles, as every Devil was 190 All pleas'd to nick-name himself by. And again, but far be it from men of fenfe to harbour fuch opi. nions of the Gods, namely, that their Jove the fupreme, and Father of all the Gods, should be a parricide, and the fon of a parricide, and be captivated by the vileft luft, and defcend upon Ganimede, and a crew of notorious adultereffes, and beget children after his own likeness. But as I have faid, these were the actions of wicked Spirits. αλλ', ώς προεφημεν, οἱ δαίμονες ταυτα επραξαν. Apol. I. p. 10 & 33. Edit. Thirlbii. 196. Remember that Pellean con queror, &c.] Alexander the Great, who was born at Pella in Macedonia: and his continence and clemency to Darius's queen, and daughters, and the other Perfian ladies whom he took captive after the battle of Iffus, are commended by the hiftorians. Tum quidem ita fe geffit, ut omnes ante eum reges et continentia et clementia vincerentur. Virgines enim regias excellentis formæ tam fancte habuit, quam fi eodem quo ipfe parente genite forent: conjugem ejufdem, All her affaults, on worthier things intent? A youth, how all the beauties of the eaft ejufdem, quam nulla ætatis fuæ pulchritudine corporis vicit, adeo ipfe non violavit, ut fummam adhibuerit curam, ne quis captivo corpori illuderet &c. Quint. Curt. Lib. 3. cap. 9. And this is the more extraordinary, as he was then a young conqueror of about 23 years of age, a youth, as Milton expreffes it. It would have been happy, if he had behaved with the fame moderation in other inftances afterwards. 199. How he firnam'd of Africa &c.] The continence of Scipio Africanus at the age of 24, and his generofity in restoring a handfome Spanish lady to her husband and friends, are celebrated by Polybius Lib. 10. and after him by Livy Lib. 26. cap. 50. and Valerius Maximus Lib. 4. cap. 3. and various other authors. And yet, notwithstanding thefe teftimonies, a noble author hath lately called in queftion the truth of the fact, and the character of Scipio. "Now "the reputation of the firft Scipio was not fo clear and uncontro"verted in private as in public "life; nor was he allowed by all 195 200 For to be a man of fuch fevere virtue as he affected, and as that age required. Nævius was thought to mean him in fome "verfes Gellius has preferved. "And Valerius Antias made no "fcruple to affert, that far from reftoring the fair Spaniard to "her family, he debauched and "kept her," See the Idea of a patriot king, p. 204. We hope this is faid only for the fake of a particular application to a particular character, and fhould be forry to have the world deprived of fo fhining an example of virtue, upon no better authority. For, as an excellent writer has obferved upon the occafion, "the words of "Nævius are these, Etiam qui res magnas manu pallio uno ab amica abduxit. "Thefe obfcure verfes were, in "Gellius's opinion, the fole foun. "dation of Antias's calumny a For Solomon, he liv'd at ease, and full Of honor, wealth, high fare, aim'd not beyond Thence to the bait of women lay expos'd: But he whom we attempt is wifer far you find, 205 Though "one occafion, will diminish on "another; for it is the fame in"temperate paffion that carries "him indifferently to either." See a Letter to the Editor of the Idea of a patriot king &c. p. 25, 26. 210. On whom his leifure will vouchfafe an eye Offond defire?] This eye of fond defire is very beautifully expreffed by Æfchylus, whom our author perhaps had in view. Suppl. ver 1011. Και παρθένων χλιδαίσιν ευμορφοις επι Πας τις παρελθων ομματος θελκτης Τοξευμ' επεμψεν, ἱμερα νικωμένο Thyer. 214. as the zone of Venus once Wrought that effect on Jove, fo fables tell;] Alluding to the famous ftory in Homer, of Juno's borrowing the girdle of Venus, and thereby deceiving Jupiter, Iliad. XIV. 214. H, Though of this age the wonder and the fame, 210 215 Seated Perfuafive fpeech, and more perfuafive fighs, Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes. Pope. But the words fo fables tell look as if the poet had forgot himself, and fpoke in his own perfon rather than in the character of Satan. 216.-from his majestic brow Seated as on the top of virtue's bill,] Here is the conftruction that we often meet with in Milton: from his majestic brow, that is, from the majestic brow of him feated as on the top of virtue's hill: and the expreffion of virtue's bill was probably in allufion to the rocky eminence on which the virtues are placed in the table of Cebes, or the arduous afcent up the hill to which virtue is reprefented pointing in the beft defigns of the judgment of Hercules, particularly that by Annibal Caracci in the palace Farnefe at Rome, as well as that |