All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Less than archangel ruin'd, and the excess

Of glory obscured; as when the sun, new risen,
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd so, yet shone
Above them all the Arch-angel: but his face
Deep scars of thunder had intrench'd, and care
Sat on his faded cheek; but under brows
Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride
Waiting revenge; cruel his eye, but cast
Signs of remorse and passion, to behold

The fellows of his crime, the followers rather

595

600

605

595-6. When Milton sought license to publish his poem, the licenser was strongly inclined to withhold it, on the ground that he discovered treason in this noble simile of the sun eclipsed! a striking example of the acute remark of Lord Lyttleton, that "the politics of Milton at that time brought his poetry into disgrace; for it is a rule with the English to see no good in a man whose politics they dislike."-T.

597. Eclipse: Derived from a Greek word which signifies to fail, to faint or swoon away; since the moon, at the period of her greatest brightness, falling into the shadow of the earth, was imagined by the ancients to sicken and swoon, as if she were going to die. By some very ancient nations she was supposed, at such times, to be in pain; and, in order to relieve her fancied distress, they lifted torches high in the atmosphere, blew horns and trumpets, beat upon brazen vessels, and even, after the eclipse was over, they offered sacrifices to the moon. The opinion also extensively prevailed, that it was in the power of witches, by their spells and charms, not only to darken the moon, but to bring her down from her orbit, and to compel her to shed her baleful influences upon the earth. In solar eclipses, also, especially when total, the sun was supposed to turn away his face in abhorrence of some atrocious crime, that had either been perpetrated, or was about to be perpetrated, and to threaten mankind with everlasting night, and the destruction of the world. To such superstitions Milton, in this passage, alludes.— OLMSTED'S LETTERS ON ASTron.

No where is the person of Satan described with more sublimity than in this part of the poem.

600. Intrenched: Cut into, made trenches there.-N.

606. Fellows. The nice moral discrimination displayed in this line, is worthy of notice.

(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned
For ever now to have their lot in pain:
Millions of Spirits for his fault amerced
Of heaven, and from eternal splendours flung
For his revolt, yet faithful how they stood,
Their glory wither'd: as when Heav'n's fire
Hath scath'd the forest oaks, or mountain pines,
With singed top their stately growth tho' bare
Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared
To speak; whereat their doubled ranks they bend
From wing to wing, and half inclose him round
With all his peers.
Attention held them mute.
Thrice he essay'd, and thrice, in spite of scorn,
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth. At last
Words interwove with sighs found out their way.
O myriads of immortal Spirits, O Powers
Matchless, but with th' Almighty, and that strife
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire,
As this place testifies, and this dire change,
Hateful to utter; but what power of mind,
Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth
Of knowledge past or present, could have fear'd
How such united force of Gods, how such

As stood like these, could ever know repulse;

For who can yet believe, though after loss,
That all these puissant legions, whose exile

609. Amerced: Judicially deprived. See Hom. Odys. viii. 64.

610

615

620

625

630

611. Yet faithful: We must refer to line 605, and thence supply here "to behold."

619. Allusion to Ovid.

Met. xi. 419:

Ter conata loqui, ter fletibus ora rigavit,

620. Tears, such as angels weep. Like Homer's ichor of the gods, which was different from the blood of mortals. This weeping of Satan on survey. ing his numerous host, and the thoughts of their wretched state, put one in mind of the story of Xerxes, weeping at the sight of his immense army, and reflecting that they were mortal, at the time that he was hastening them to their fate, and to the intended destruction of the most polished people in the world, to gratify his own vain glory.-N.

Hath emptied Heav'n, shall fail to re-ascend
Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?
For me, be witness all the host of Heav'n,

635

If counsels different, or danger shunn'd

By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns

Monarch in Heav'n, till then as one secure
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute,
Consent, or custom, and his regal state

Put forth at full, but still his strength conceal'd,
Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall.
Henceforth his might we know, and know our own,
So as not either to provoke or dread

New war, provoked; our better part remains
To work in close design, by fraud or guile,
What force effected not; that he no less

640

645

At length from us may find, who overcomes

By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife

650

There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long
Intended to create, and therein plant

A generation, whom his choice regard
Should favour equal to the sons of Heav'n:
Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps
Our first eruption, thither or elsewhere:
For this infernal pit shall never hold
Celestial Spirits in bondage, nor th' abyss
Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts
Full counsel must mature: Peace is despair'd,
For who can think submission? War then, War,
Open or understood, must be resolved.

He spake and, to confirm his words, out flew

633. Emptied: An instance of arrogant boasting and falsehood.

655

660

642. Tempted our attempt: Words which, though well-chosen and significant enough, yet of jingling and unpleasant sound, and, like marriages between persons too near of kin, to be avoided.

650. Rife: Prevalent. This fame, or report, serves to exalt the dignity and importance of our race.

662. Understood: Not declared.

Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty Cherubim: the sudden blaze
Far round illumined Hell. Highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clash'd on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance tow'rd the vault of Heaven.
There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top
Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire

665

670

Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign
That in his womb was hid metallic ore,

The work of sulphur. Thither wing'd with speed

675

A num'rous brigade hasten'd: as when bands
Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe arm'd,
Forerun the royal camp to trench a field,
Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on;
Mammon, the least erected Spirit that fell

From Heav'n for e'en in Heav'n his looks and thoughts 680
Were always downward bent, admiring more

The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold,

Than aught divine or holy else enjoy'd

In vision beatific. By him first

Men also, and by his suggestion taught,

685

664. Drawn from the thighs: A Homeric expression, Iliad, i. 190, more dignified than "drawn from the sides."

668. Clashed: Alluding to a custom among Roman soldiers of striking their shields with their swords, when they applauded the speeches of their commanders.

671. Belched: An idea borrowed, perhaps, from an expression of Virgil (Æn. iii. 576), eructans, in describing Ætna.

674. The work of sulphur: Metals were in the the time of Milton supposed to consist of two component parts, mercury, as the basis, or metallic matter; and sulphur as the binder or cement, which fixes the fluid mercury into a coherent, malleable mass. So Jonson in the Alchemist, Act 2, Scene 3:

"It turns to sulphur, or to quicksilver,

Who are the parents of all other metals."

678. Mammon: The god of riches; the same as the Pluto of the Greeks and Romans. The delineation of his character and agency by Milton, abounds in literary beauties.

685. Suggestion: Milton here alludes to a superstitious opinion formerly

Ransack'd the centre, and with impious hands
Rifled the bowels of their mother earth
For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew
Open'd into the hill a spacious wound,

And digg'd out ribs of gold. Let none admire
That riches grow in Hell; that soil may best
Deserve the precious bane. And here let those
Who boast in mortal things, and wond'ring tell
Of Babel, and the works of Memphian kings,
Learn how their greatest monuments of fame,
And strength, and art, are easily outdone
By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour
What in an age they with incessant toil
And hands innumerable scarce perform.
Nigh on the plain in many cells prepared,
That underneath had veins of liquid fire
Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude
With wond'rous art founded the massy ore,
Severing each kind, and scumm'd the bullion dross;

A third as soon had form'd within the ground

A various mould, and from the boiling cells

690

695

700

705

current with the miners, that there is a sort of demons who have much to do with minerals, being frequently seen occupying themselves with the various processes of the workmen. So that Milton (as Warburton remarks) poetically supposes Mammon and his clan to have taught the sons of earth by example and practical instruction, as well as precept and mental suggestion. 687. Compare Ovid Met. i. 138, &c.-HUME.

688. Better hid. Compare Hor. Od. III. iii. 49:

"Aurum irrepertum, et sic melius situm."

694. Works: The pyramids.

696. Strength and art: These words are in the nominative case, connected with monuments.

699. Diodorus Siculus says, that 360,000 men were employed about twenty years on one of the pyramids.

703-4. The sense of the passage is this: They founded, or melted, the ore that was in the mass, by separating, or severing, each kind, that is, the sulphur, earth, &c., from the metal; and, after that, they scummed the dross that floated on the top of the boiling ore, or bullion. The word bullion does not here signify purified ore, but ore boiling.-PEARCE.