Sublimed with min'ral fury, aid the winds,

235

And leave a singed bottom all involved

With stench and smoke; such resting found the sole

Of unblest fect. Him follow'd his next mate,
Both glorying to have 'scap'd the Stygian flood
As Gods, and by their own recover'd strength,
Not by the suff'rance of Supernal Power.

Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,

240

Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat

That we must change for heav'n, this mournful gloom

For that celestial light? Be it so, since he

245

Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid

What shall be right: farthest from him is best,

A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.

Interdum scopulos avulsaque viscera montis

Erigit eructans. liquefactaque saxa sub auras
Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exæstuat imo.

255

239. Stygian flood; an expression here of the same import with infernal flood, alluding to the fabulous river Styx of the lower world, which the poets represented as a broad, dull and sluggish stream.

246. Sovran: from the Italian word sovrano.

250. Dr. Channing, writing upon Satan's character as drawn by the poet observes: "Hell yields to the spirit which it imprisons. The intensity of its fires reveals the intense passion and more vehement will of Satan; and the ruined archangel gathers into himself the sublimity of the scene which surrounds him. This forms the tremendous interest of these wonderful books. We see mind triumphant over the most terrible powers of nature We see unutterable agony subdued by energy of soul."

Addison remarks that Milton has attributed to Satan those sentiments which are every way answerable to his character, and suited to a created being of the most exalted and most depraved nature; as in this passage. which describes him as taking possession of his place of torments, 250-263. 253-5. These are some of the extravagances of the Stoics, and could not

What matter where, if I be still the same,

And what I should be, all but less than he

Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built

260

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition, though in hell;
Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th' associates and copartners of our loss,
Lie thus astonish'd on th' oblivious pool,
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy mansion, or once more
With rallied arms to try what may be yet
Regain'd in Heav'n, or what more lost in Hell?
So Satan spake; and him Beelzebub
Thus answer'd: Leader of those armies bright,
Which but th' Omnipotent none could have foil'd,
If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge

Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft
In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge
Of battle when it raged, in all assaults
Their surest signal, they will soon resume

New courage and revive, though now they lie
Grov❜ling and prostrate on yon lake of fire,

265

270

275

280

be better ridiculed than they are here by being put into the mouth of Satan in his present situation.-THYER.

Shakspeare, in Hamlet, says:

There is nothing either good or bad, but
Thinking makes it so.

254. This sentiment is the great foundation on which the Stoics build, their whole system of ethics.-S.

263. This sentiment is an improvement of that which is put by Eschylus into the mouth of Prometheus, 965; and it was a memorable saying of Julius Cæsar that he would rather be the first man in a village, than the second in Rome. Compare Virg. Georg. i. 36.-N.

The lust of power and the hatred of moral excellence are Satan's prominent characteristics.

276. Edge of battle: from the Latin word acies, which signifies both the edge of a weapon and also an army in battle array. See book VI. 108.-V.

As we ere while, astounded and amazed,

No wonder, fall'n such a pernicious height.

He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend

Was moving tow'rd the shore; his pond'rous shield
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast; the broad circumference

285

Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening from the top of Fesolé,

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers, or mountains, on her spotty globe.
His spear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great ammiral, were but a wand,
He walk'd with to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marle; not like those steps
On Heaven's azure, and the torrid clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire:
Nathless he so endured, till on the beach
Of that inflamed sea he stood, and call'd
His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranced.

290

295

300

287. Homer and Ossian describe in a like splendid manner the shields of their heroes.

288. Galileo: He was the first who applied the telescope to celestial observations, and was the discoverer of the satellites of Jupiter in 1610, which, in honor of his patron, Cosmo Medici he called the Mediceun stars. Frem the tower of St. Mark he showed the Venetian senators not only the satellites of Jupiter but the crescent of Venus, the triple appearance of Saturn, and the inequalities on the Moon's surface. At this conference he also endeavored to convince them of the truth of the Copernican system.

289-90. Fesolé: a city of Tuscany. Valdarno, the valley of Arno, in the same district. The very sound of these names is charming.

294. Ammiral: the obsolete form of admiral, the principal ship in a fleet. The idea contained in this passage, may, as Dr. Johnson suggests, be drawn from the following lines of Cowley; but, who does not admire the vast improvements in form? He says of Goliath,

"His spear, the trunk was of a lofty tree,

Which nature meant some tall ship's mast should be."

Compare Hom. Odys. ix. 322.

299. Nathless: nevertheless.

Æn. iii. 659. Tasso, canto vi. 40.