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ARGUMENT.

The consultation begun, Satan debates whether another battle be to be hazarded for the recovery of Heaven; Some advise it, others dissuade. A third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth of that prophecy or tradition in Heaven concerning another world, and another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about this time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult search. Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage; is honoured and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several ways, and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to Hell gates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between Hell and Heaven: with what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, the power of that place, to the sight of this new world which he sought.

SECOND BOOK.

HIGH on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
To that bad eminence; and, from despair

1. Throne is a Greek word signifying "a chair raised above the level of the floor whereon it stands, usually richly ornamented and covered with a canopy."-BRANDE.

2. The wealth of Ormus and of Ind.] Ormus, or Hormus, is an island at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. It is a mere barren rock, but important as having been formerly one of the richest commercial emporiums of the East. The whole gulf used to be celebrated for its pearl fishery, and there is still a very extensive one about the Barein islands. Ind, poetically put for India, the riches of which have been celebrated in all ages. They consisted of pearls, diamonds, and gold.

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3. Or where, &c.] Lines 3. and 4. are probably a splendid periphrasis for Persia. The adjective barbaric might apply either to the word going before or that coming after it; but several reasons lead us to say that it is meant to qualify pearl and gold." In the first place, "barbaric gold" is a classical phrase; secondly, we know, from independent sources, that it was an eastern ceremony, at the coronation of kings, to powder them with gold-dust and seed-pearl; and last of all, if my ear does not deceive me, the cæsura, or metrical break in the verse, falls more naturally after 'kings" than after "barbaric." "Showers on her kings-barbaric pearl and gold,"

seems to me better music, so to speak,

than

"Showers on her kings barbaric - pearl and gold."

5

The word "gorgeous" is worth notice. It is probably from "gorge," to feed gluttonously, and transferred from the palate to the eye; hence luxuriously adorned, splendid, or magnificent.

5. Satan exalted sat.] The natural
order would be, "Satan sat exalted high
on a throne," &c. Compare the follow-
ing stanza from the Faërie Queene:-
"High above all, a cloth of state was spred,
And a rich throne, as bright as sunny day,
On which there sate, most brave embellished
With royall robes and gorgeous array,
A mayden Queene that shone, as Titans say,
In glistening gold and pereless pretious
stone;

Yet her bright blazing beauty did assay
To dim the brightness of her glorious throne,
As envying herself, that too exceeding,
shone."

5. By merit raised, &c.] As being the worst of the bad.

6-10. And, from despair.] When first thrust down to hell, he and his horrid crew were in utter despair, and they never hoped to be so free from pain as they now were. But to have escaped despair does not content Satan. In his reckless desire to pursue war with God, he determines to attempt something more. The clause "and by success untaught" is of rather difficult interpretation. Mr. Todd, after telling us what Johnson says, "that success without any epithet is commonly taken for good success," maintains that the word here means the very reverse. But this is not complimentary to Milton. He does not use 66 success " when he means "disaster," but he is very fond of using words in their Latin sense and one of the meanings of the word

Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires

Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue

Vain war with Heaven; and, by success untaught,
His proud imaginations thus displayed.

"Powers and dominions, Deities of Heaven!

For, since no deep within her gulf can hold
Immortal vigour, though oppressed and fallen,
I give not Heaven for lost. From this descent
Celestial virtues, rising, will appear

More glorious and more dread than from no fall,
And trust themselves to fear no second fate.

Me, though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven
Did first create your leader; next free choice,
With what besides, in council or in fight,
Hath been achieved of merit, yet this loss,
Thus far at least recovered, hath much more
Established in a safe, unenvied throne,
Yielded with full consent.

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9. From this descent.] Satan uses the word "descent" as if they had come down of their own accord. It suits his present purpose to gloss over the fact that they had no choice in the matter.

13. Though oppressed and fallen.] These participles will apply equally well, either to "immortal vigour" or to the "I" in the 14th line. The want of inflection in our adjectives and participles is felt in cases of this kind, and there is no use in denying it.

17. Fate is here used in the sense of "misfortune," "mishap," or "calamity."

18. Me, though just right, &c.] The natural order is, "Though just right and the fixed laws of heaven did first create me your leader, next [your] free choice, with what of merit hath been besides achieved [by me] in

The happier state

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Putting

council or in fight," &c.
me" the first word of the sentence
is highly characteristic of the Devil's
egotism. "Nothing," as the acute
Author of the Philosophy of Rhetoric
remarks; "Nothing could better suit,
or more vividly express, the pride and
arrogance of the Arch-apostate, than
the manner here used of introducing
himself to their notice." The reason-
ing attempts a reconciliation between
the doctrines of free will and necessity,
which is far from complete or satis-
factory. The whole structure of the
lines is classical, and yet neither unin-
telligible nor harsh. "If we call
diction the garb of thought, Milton in
his style, may be said to wear the
costume of sovereignty. The idioms
even of foreign languages contributed
to adorn it. He was the most learned
of poets; yet his learning interferes
not with his substantial English purity.
His simplicity is unimpaired by glow-
ing ornament, like the bush in the
sacred flame which burnt but 'was
not consumed.""-CAMPBELL'S Essay
on English Poetry.

24. The happier state, &c.] The
higher in dignity any one
was in
heaven, the higher he was in happiness.

Book II.

PARADISE LOST.

In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw
Envy from each inferior; but who here
Will envy whom the highest place exposes
Foremost to stand against the Thund'rer's aim,
Your bulwark, and condemns to greater share
Of endless pain? Where there is then no good
For which to strive, no strife can grow up there
From faction; for none sure will claim in Hell
Precedence; none, whose portion is so small
Of present pain, that, with ambitious mind
Will covet more. With this advantage then
To union, and firm faith, and firm accord,
More than can be in Heaven, we now return
To claim our just inheritance of old,
Surer to prosper than prosperity

Could have assured us; and by what best way,
Whether of open war or covert guile,

We now debate; who can advise may speak."

He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptered king,
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest Spirit
That fought in Heaven, now fiercer by despair:
His trust was with th' Eternal to be deemed
Equal in strength, and rather than be less,
Cared not to be at all; with that care lost,
Went all his fear of God, or Hell, or worse,

The one thing followed out of the other. Each inferior therefore might envy his superior; but to be the highest in hell was to be the highest in misery. The reasoning is quite sophistical, but all the better suited to the case for that.

31-32. No strife can grow up there from faction.] "The term faction is applied to any party in a state which attempts without adequate motives to disturb the public repose, or to assail the measures of government with uncompromising opposition."-BRANDE.

39. Surer to prosper than prosperity could have assured us.] Observe the ease with which the poet wields the English language. It is quite plastic in his hands. The moral is much the same as we have in the "saw," "Sweet are the uses of adversity," and if the reader is happily so young as not to

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understand the subject, let him "learn to labour and to wait."

41. Whether of open war or covert guile.] Compare FAIRFAX's Tasso, book iv. stanza xvi.:

"Use open force or secret guile unspied, For craft is virtue 'gainst a foe defied."

48. Cared not to be at all.] There is something faulty in the syntax here. "Cared" is without a nominative. "With that care lost " is a Latinism, of which we have already had numerous instances.

49-50. Of God, &c., he recked not.] i. e. he cared not for God or hell, &c.; and thereafter, in the sense of therefore, spoke in the following style, that may be truly said to be reckless. The word is used in the same sense in the poem, On the Burial of Sir John Moore :

But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.

He recked not, and these words thereafter spake.

"My sentence is for open war of wiles,
More unexpert, I boast not; them let those
Contrive who need, or when they need, not now:
For, while they sit contriving, shall the rest,
Millions that stand in arms, and, longing, wait
The signal to ascend, sit ling'ring here
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place
Accept this dark opprobrious den of shame,
The prison of his tyranny who reigns
By our delay? No, let us rather choose,
Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once
O'er Heaven's high towers to force resistless way,
Turning our tortures into horrid arms
Against the torturer; when to meet the noise
Of his almighty engine he shall hear
Infernal thunder, and for lightning see
Black fire and horror shot with equal rage
Among his angels, and his throne itself
Mixed with Tartarean sulphur, and strange fire,
His own invented torments. But perhaps
The way seems difficult and steep to scale
With upright wing against a higher foe.
Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench

51. My sentence is for open war.
r.]
Sentence" is here used in the sense
which the corresponding Latin word
sententia often bears-an official de-
claration of one's sentiment or wish; a
vote." Sententiam dixit ut, he declared
it as his opinion that, &c.-LIVY.
Moloch gives himself out in much the
same style as the Roman Antony sub-
sequently assumed:-

"I am no orator as Brutus is:

But as you know me all, a plain, blunt man;
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action nor utterance, nor the power of speech
To stir men's blood: I only speak right out;
I tell you what you yourselves do know."

69. Tartarean sulphur.] Tartarus, according to the ancient mythology, was the place in which the spirits of wicked men were punished for their crimes. Tartarus is often used as synonymous with Hades, or the lower world in general. Sulphur is extensively used in the manufacture of gunpowder.

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70-81. In our proper motion we ascend.] "While motion downwards conveys the idea only of a passive obedience to the laws of nature, motion upwards always produces, more or less, a feeling of pleasing surprise, from the comparative rarity of the phenomenon. In the ascent of flame, of sparks of fire, of rockets, nay, even of a column of smoke, there is something amusing and fascinating to the eye,-trifling, however, in the effect produced on the imagination, when compared with the flight of an eagle soaring towards the

sun.

The fact is, that the ascent of an animated being into the upper regions, while it attracts the attention, in common with the ascent of smoke or of flame, exhibits active powers which are completely denied to ourselves, not only in degree, but in kind; and, accordingly, when we wish to convey the idea of a supernatural agent, the most obvious image which presents itself, is

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