A spirit and judgment equal or superior,

(And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains,

326

Deep vers'd in books and shallow in himself,
Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys,
And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge;
As children gathering pebbles on the shore.
Or if I would delight my private hours
With music or with poem, where so soon
As in our native language can I find

That solace? All our law and story strow'd
With hymns, our psalms with artful terms inscrib'd, 335
Our Hebrew songs and harps in Babylon,

That pleas'd so well our victor's ear, declare
That rather Greece from us these arts deriv'd;

325. And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere seek?] The poet makes the old sophister the Devil always busy in his trade. It is a pity he should make Jesus (as he does here) use the same arms. Warburton.

329. -worth a sponge ;] Not worth seeing the light, not worth preserving; alluding to the use of the sponge for blotting out any thing written. So Augustus said of his tragedy, which he had attempted, but had laid aside, Ajacem suum in spongiam incubuisse. Suetonius Vit. Aug. Dunster.

335. —our psalms with artful terms inscrib'd,] He means the inscriptions often prefixed to the beginning of several psalms, such as To the chief musician upon Nehiloth, To the chief musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith,

330

Shiggaion of David, Michtam of David, &c. to denote the various kinds of psalms or instruments. 336. Our Hebrew songs and harps in Babylon,

That pleas'd so well our victor's ear,]

This is said upon the authority of Psalm cxxxvii. 1, &c. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Sion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they that wasted us, required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Sian.

338. That rather Greece from us these arts deriv'd;] This was the system in vogue at that time. It was established and supported with vast erudition by Bochart, and carried to an extravagant

Ill imitated, while they loudest sing
The vices of their deities, and their own
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating
Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
Remove their swelling epithets thick laid
As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest,
Thin sown with ought of profit or delight,
Will far be found unworthy to compare

and even ridiculous length by Huetius and Gale. Warburton. Clemens Alexandrinus ascribes the invention of hymns and songs to the Jews; and says that the Greeks stole theirs from them. (Stromat. 1. i. p. 308. Ed. Colon. 1688.) He also charges the Grecian philosophers with stealing many of their doctrines from the Jewish prophets, (1. i. p. 812.) Dunster.

341. -personating,] This is in the Latin sense of persono, to celebrate loudly, to publish or proclaim. Dunster.

343. swelling epithets] Greek compounds. Warburton.

The hymns of the Greek poets to their deities consist of very little more than repeated invocations of them by different names and epithets. Our Saviour very probably alluded to these, where he cautions his disciples against vain repetitions and much speaking (Barroλoys) in their prayers, Matt. vi. 7. Thyer.

Swelling epithets thick laid is particularly applicable to the Orphic hymns. Indeed gods and heroes were scarcely ever mentioned by the Greek poets without some swelling or compound epithet. -thick laid as varnish on a harlot's cheek; these words pro

340

345

bably suggested the following lines in the Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Poetry,

Figures of speech, which poets think so fine,

(Art's needless varnish to make nature shine,)

Are all but paint upon a beauteous face,

And in descriptions only claim a place.

As Milton, perhaps, had Shakespeare in his mind:

The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it,

Than is my deed to my most painted word. Hamlet, a. iii. s. 1. Dunster. 345. Thin sown with ought of profit and delight,] In allusion to Horace, Art. Poet. 333.

Aut prodesse volunt, aut delectare poetæ.

Plato also (De Repub. x. p. 607, ed. Serran.) has said, that the only justification of poetry is when it unites the power of pleasing with civil and moral instruction; as a pervor du

With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling,
Where God is prais'd aright, and God-like men,

The Holiest of Holies, and his saints;

Such are from God inspir'd, not such from thee, 350
Unless where moral virtue is express'd

By light of nature not in all quite lost.
Their orators thou then extoll'st, as those
The top of eloquence, statists indeed,

He was of this opinion not only in the decline of life, but likewise in his earlier days, as appears from the preface to his second book of the Reason of Church-Government. "Or if "occasion shall lead to imitate "those magnific odes and hymns "wherein Pindarus and Calli"machus are in most things "worthy, some others in their "frame judicious, in their mat"ter most an end faulty. But "those frequent songs through"out the law and prophets be"yond all these, not in their di"vine argument alone, but in "the very critical art of compo"sition, may be easily made pear over all the kinds of lyric poetry, to be incomparable." 348. Where God is prais'd aright, and God-like men,] The only poetry which Plato recommends to be admitted into a state are hymns to the gods, and encomiums on virtuous actions. Ειδέναι δε ότι όσον μόνον ὕμνους θεοις και εγκωμία της αγαθής ποιησεως παgadunior Us Todi. De Repub. lib. x. p. 607. ed. Serran. Dunster. 350. Such are from God inspir'd, not such from thee,

ap

Unless where moral virtue is express'd &c.] The sense of these lines is ob

scure, and liable to mistake. The meaning of them is, poets from thee inspired are not such as these, unless where moral virtue is expressed &c. Meadowcourt.

The obscurity, if not caused, is increased by departing from the punctuation of the first edition, which had a semicolon after not such from thee. Unless certainly has no reference to the line immediately preceding, but to v. 346.

Will far be found unworthy to com-
pare
With Sion's songs, &c.

Unless where moral virtue is ex-
press'd

By light of nature, not in all quite lost.

I could wish however that the passage had been otherwise arranged, and these two lines, v. 351,352, inserted in a parenthesis, after v. 345. Dunster.

353. --as those] 1 should prefer as though. Calton.

354.statists] Or statesmen. A word in more frequent use formerly, as in Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act ii. sc. 5.

I do believe,

(Statist though I am none, nor like to be ;) and Hamlet, act v. sc. 3.

I once did hold it, as our statists do, &c.

And lovers of their country, as may seem;
But herein to our prophets far beneath,
As men divinely taught, and better teaching
The solid rules of civil government
In their majestic unaffected style
Than all th' oratory of Greece and Rome.
In them is plainest taught, and easiest learnt,
What makes a nation happy', and keeps it so,
What ruins kingdoms, and lays cities flat;
These only with our law best form a king.

So spake the Son of God; but Satan now
Quite at a loss, for all his darts were spent,
Thus to our Saviour with stern brow replied.

Since neither wealth, nor honour, arms nor arts,
Kingdom nor empire pleases thee, nor ought
By me propos'd in life contemplative,
Or active, tended on by glory', or fame,

354. Milton has statists for statesmen in his Areopagitica. Prose works, p. 424. ed. Amst. 1698. Dunster.

362.makes happy, and keeps so] Hor. Epist. i. vi. 2.

-facere et servare beatum.
Richardson.

362. Prov. xiv. 34. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Dunster.

365. So spake the Son of God;] From the beginning of the third book to this place practical Christianity, personified as it were in the character of Jesus, is contrasted with the boasted pretensions of the heathen world, in its zenith of power, splendour,

355

360

365

370

civilization, and knowledge; the several claims of which are fully stated, with much ornament of language, and poetic decoration. It is observed indeed by Mr. Hayley, that "as in the Paradise Lost the poet seems to emulate the sublimity of Moses and the Prophets, it appears to have been his wish in the Paradise Regained to copy the sweetness and simplicity of the Evangelists." Life of Milton, p. 125. And certainly the great object of this second poem seems to be the exemplification of true evangelical virtue, in the person and sentiments of our blessed Lord. Dunster.

What dost thou in this world? the wilderness
For thee is fittest place; I found thee there,
And thither will return thee; yet remember
What I foretel thee, soon thou shalt have cause
To wish thou never hadst rejected thus
Nicely or cautiously my offer'd aid,

Which would have set thee in short time with ease
On David's throne, or throne of all the world,
Now at full age, fulness of time, thy season,
When prophecies of thee are best fulfill'd.
Now contrary, if I read ought in heaven,
Or heav'n write ought of fate, by what the stars
Voluminous, or single characters,

In their conjunction met, give me to spell,

380. fulness of time,] Gal. iv. 4. When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son.

382.if I read ought in hea ven, &c.] A satire on Cardan, who with the boldness and impiety of an atheist and a madman, both of which he was, cast the nativity of Jesus Christ, and found by the great and illustrious concourse of stars at his birth, that he must needs have the fortune which befel him, and become the author of a religion, which should spread itself far and near for many ages. The great Milton, with a just indignation of this impiety, hath satirized it in a very beautiful manner, by putting these reveries into the mouth of the Devil: where it is to be observed, that the poet thought it not enough to discredit judicial astrology by making it patronised by the De

375

380

385

vil, without shewing at the same time the absurdity of it. He has therefore very judiciously made him blunder in the expression, of portending a kingdom which was without beginning. This destroys all he would insinuate. The poet's conduct is fine and ingenious. See Warburton's Shakespeare, vol. vi. Lear, act i. sc. 8.

382. The poet certainly never meant to make the Tempter a blunderer. The language is here intended to be highly sarcastic on the eternity of Christ's kingdom, which, the Tempter says, will have one of the properties of eternity, that of never beginning. This is that species of insulting wit which Mr. Thyer says, when he defends the introduction of it into the sixth book of Par. Lost, "is most peculiar to proud contemptuous spirits." Dunster.