What rais'd Antipater the Edomite, And his fon Herod plac'd on Judah's throne, 424 (Thy throne) but gold that got him puiffant friends? Riches are mine, fortune is in my hand; They whom I favor thrive in wealth amain, 430 To whom thus Jefus patiently reply'd. Yet wealth without thefe three is impotent To 427. Get riches firft,] Quærenda pecunia primùm. Hor. Ep. I. I. 53. 429. Riches are mine, &c.] This temptation we also owe to our author's invention, and 'tis very happily contrived, not only as it leads the reader gradually on to thofe ftronger ones in the following book, but as it is fo juftly fitted to the character of the Tempter, the prince of Hell, who was fuppofed by all antiquity to be the king and difpofer of riches. Hence was he ftil'd Pluto from where divitiæ. Spenfer much in the fame tafte places the delve of Mammon close by the entrance into Hell. Faery Queen B. 2. Cant. 7. St. 24. Betwixt them both was but a That did the houfe of riches from 432. Ta To gain dominion, or to keep it gain'd. That feat, and reign in Ifrael without end. 432. To whom thus Jefus &c.] When our Saviour, a little before, refused to partake of the banquet, to which Satan had invited him, the line run thus, ver. 378, To whom thus Jefus temp'rately reply'd. But now when Satan has reproached him with his poverty and low circumftances, the word is fitly altered, and the verse runs thus, To whom thus Jefus patiently reply'd. 439. Gideon, and Jephtha, and the fhepherd lad,] Our Saviour is rightly made to cite his firft inftances from Scripture, and of his own nation, which was certainly the best known to him; but it is with great art that the poet alfo 435 440 Worthy fuppofes him not to be unacquaint- Worthy' of memorial) canft thou not remember 445 Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus? For I efteem those names of men fo poor Who could do mighty things, and could contemn 446. Quintius, Fabricius, Curius, Regulus?] Quintius (not Quintus, as it is in most of the editions befides the firft) Cincinnatus was twice invited from following the plough to be conful and dictator of Rome; and after he had fubdued the enemy, when the fenate would have enriched him with public lands and private contributions, he rejected all these offers, and retired again to his cottage and old courfe of life. Fabricius could not be bribed by all the large offers of king Pyrrhus to aid him in negotiating a peace with the Romans and yet he lived and died fo poor, that he was buried at the public expenfe, and his daughters fortunes were paid out of the treafury. Curius Dentatus would not accept of the lands, which the fenate had affigned him for the reward of his victories: and when the embaffadors of the Samnites offered him a large fum of money as he was fitting at the fire and roafting turnips with his own hands, he nobly refused to take it, faying that it was his ambition not 450 Accomplish to be rich, but to command thofe who were fo. And Regulus, after performing many great exploits, was taken prifoner by the Carthaginians, and fent with the embaffadors to Rome to treat of peace, upon oath to return to Carthage, if no peace or exchange of prifoners fhould be agreed upon but Regulus was himself the first to diffuade a peace, and chofe to leave his country, family, friends, every thing, and return a glorious captive to certain tortures and death, rather than fuffer the fenate to conclude a dishonourable treaty. Our Saviour cites thefe inftances of noble Romans in order of time, as he did thofe of his own nation : And as Mr. Calton obferves, the Romans in the most degenerate times were fond of thefe (and fome other like) examples of ancient virtue; and their writers of all forts delight to introduce them: but the greatest honor that poetry ever did them, is here, by the praife of the Son of God. Accomplish what they did, perhaps and more? The wife man's cumbrance if not fnare, more apt Than prompt her to do ought may merit praife. Riches and realms; yet not for that a crown, 455 Golden could contemn Riches though offer'd from the hand of kings, if that flory be true of his having been offer'd to be Latin fecretary to Charles the 2d., and of his refufing it. Milton concludes this book and 453. Extol not riches then, &c.] our Saviour's reply to Satan with a feries of thoughts as noble and worthy of the fpeaker as can pofjuft, or, to fay all in one word, as fibly be imagined: and I think one may venture to affirm, that as the Paradife Regain'd is a poem entirely moral and religious, the exfo much in bold figures and ftrong cellency of which does not confift images, as in deep and virtuous fentiments expreffed with a becoming gravity, and a certain decent majefty, this is as true an inftance of the fublime as the battles of the Angels in the Paradife Lost. Thyer. 458. - yet not for that a crown,] I reject them, yet not for that reafon, because a crown &c: and in fetting Golden in fhow, is but a wreath of thorns, Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and fleepless nights When on his fhoulders each man's burden lies Cities of men, or headftrong multitudes, Or lawless paffions in him which he serves.. fetting forth the duty and office of a king, let the friends of the house of Stuart confider whether he intended any compliment to the king then reigning. 466. Yet he who reigns within himself, &c.] Such fentiments are inculcated not only by the philofophers, but alfo by the poets, as Hor. Od. II. II. 9. Latius regnes avidum domando and Sat. II. VII. 83. ; 461 465 470 |