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 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. 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 Yet her bright blazing beauty did assay 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, "Powers and dominions, Deities of Heaven! For, since no deep within her gulf can hold More glorious and more dread than from no fall, Me, though just right and the fixed laws of Heaven 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 66 Putting council or in fight," &c. 24. The happier state, &c.] The Book II. PARADISE LOST. In Heaven, which follows dignity, might draw Could have assured us; and by what best way, We now debate; who can advise may speak." He ceased; and next him Moloch, sceptered king, 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 D 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 He recked not, and these words thereafter spake. "My sentence is for open war of wiles, 51. My sentence is for open war. "I am no orator as Brutus is: But as you know me all, a plain, blunt man; 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. 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 |