To hide the fraud. At interview both stood
Awhile; but suddenly at head appear'd
Satan, and thus was heard commanding loud:
Vanguard, to right and left the front unfold;
That all may see, who hate us, how we seek
Peace and composure, and with open breast
Stand ready to receive them, if they like
Our overture, and turn not back perverse :
But that I doubt; however witness, heaven;
Heaven, witness thou anon, while we discharge
Freely our part: ye, who appointed stand,
Do as you have in charge; and briefly touch
What we propound, and loud that all may hear.
So scoffing in ambiguous words, he scarce
Had ended; when to right and left the front
Divided, and to either flank retired:
Which to our eyes discover'd, new and strange,
A triple mounted row of pillars laid

On wheels; (for like to pillars most they seem'd,
Or hollow'd bodies made of oak or fir

With branches lopp'd, in wood or mountain fell'd)
Brass, iron, stony mould, had not their mouths
With hideous orifice gaped on us wide,
Portending hollow truce: at each behind
A seraph stood, and in his hand a reed

Stood waving tipp'd with fire; while we, suspense,
Collected stood, within our thoughts amused:
Not long; for sudden all at once their reeds

Put forth, and to a narrow vent applied

With nicest touch. Immediate in a flame,

385

But soon obscured with smoke, all heaven appear'd,

From those deep-throated engines belch'd, whose roar
Embowel'd with outrageous noise the air,
And all her entrails tore, disgorging foul

Their devilish glut, chain'd thunderbolts and hail
Of iron globes; which, on the victor host
Level'd, with such impetuous fury smote,

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That, whom they hit, none on their feet might stand,
Though standing else as rocks; but down they fell
By thousands, angel on archangel roll'd;

The sooner for their arms: unarm'd, they might
Have easily, as spirits, evaded swift

By quick contraction or remove; but now

Foul dissipation follow'd, and forced rout;

Nor served it to relax their serried files.

What should they do? if on they rush'd, repulse

k Divided.

503

Nothing can be more distinct, picturesque, and grand, than this advance of Satan's army with his masked artillery.

Repeated, and indecent overthrow

Doubled, would render them yet more despised,
And to their foes a laughter; for in view
Stood rank'd of seraphim another row,
In posture to displode their second tire
Of thunder: back defeated to return

They worse abhorr'd. Satan beheld their plight,
And to his mates thus in derision call'd:

O friends, why come not on these victors proud?
Erewhile they fierce were coming; and when we,
To entertain them fair with open front

And breast, (what could we more?) propounded terms
Of composition, straight they changed their minds,
Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,

As they would dance; yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant, and wild, perhaps
For joy of offer'd peace: but I suppose,
If our proposals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick result.

To whom thus Belial, in like gamesome mood:
Leader, the terms we sent were terms of weight,
Of hard contents, and full of force urged home;
Such as we might perceive amused them all,
And stumbled many who receives them right,
Had need from head to foot well understand;
Not understood, this gift they had besides,
They show us when our foes walk not upright.
So they among themselves in pleasant vein
Stood scoffing, heighten'd in their thoughts beyond
All doubt of victory; Eternal Might

To match with their inventions they presumed

So easy, and of his thunder made a scorn,

And all his host derided while they stood

Awhile in trouble: but they stood not long;

Rage prompted them at length, and found them arms
Against such hellish mischief fit to oppose.
Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power,
Which God hath in his mighty angels placed !)

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610

615

620

625

630

635

Their arms away they threw, and to the hills,
(For earth hath this variety from heaven

640

Of pleasure situate in hill and dale)

Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew;
From their foundations loosening to and fro,

They pluck'd the seated hills with all their load,
Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops
Uplifting, bore them in their hands. Amaze,

1 Light as the lightning glimpse.

645

See Ezek. i. 14. "And the living creatures ran and returned, as the appearance of a flash of lightning."-Dunster.

Be sure, and terrour, seized the rebel host,
When coming towards them so dread they saw
The bottom of the mountains upward turn'd;
Till on those cursed engines' triple row

They saw them whelm'd, and all their confidence
Under the weight of mountains buried deep;
Themselves invaded next, and on their heads
Main promontories flung, which in the air

Came shadowing and oppressed whole legions arm'd.
Their armour help'd their harm, crush'd in and bruised
Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain
Implacable and many a dolorous groan;

Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind
Out of such prison, though spirits of purest light,
Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown".
The rest, in imitation, to like arms

Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore :
So hills amid the air encounter'd hills,
Hurl'd to and fro with jaculation dire,
That under ground they fought in dismal shade;
Infernal noise! war seem'd a civil game
To this uproar; horrid confusion heap'd
Upon confusion rose: and now all heaven
Had gone to wrack" with ruin overspread,
Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits
Shrined in his sanctuary of heaven secure,
Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen
This tumult, and permitted all, advised:
That his great purpose he might so fulfil,
To honour his anointed Son avenged
Upon his enemies; and to declare

m Now gross by sinning grown.

What a fine moral does Milton here inculcate, and indeed quite through this book, by showing that all the weakness and pain of the rebel angels was the natural consequence of their sinning! And, I believe, one may observe in general of our author, that he is scarcely ever so far hurried on by the fire of his Muse, as to forget the main end of all good writing the recommendation of virtue and religion.-THYER.

n And now all heaven

Had gone to wrack.

It is remarked by the critics, in praise of Homer's battles, that they rise in horror one above another to the end of the Iliad. The same may be said of Milton's battles. In the first day's engagement, when they fought under a cope of fire with burning arrows, it was said,

All heaven

Resounded; and, had earth been then, all earth

Had to her centre shook:

but now, when they fought with mountains and promontories, it is said "all heaven hal gone to wrack," had not the Almighty Father interposed, and sent forth his Son, in the fulness of his divine glory and majesty, to expel the rebel angels out of heaven. Compare Homer's Iliad, viii. 130.

Ενθα κε λοιγὸς ἔην, καὶ ἀμήχανα ἔργα γένοντα·

Εἰ μὴ ἄρ ̓ ὀξὺ νόησε πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε.—ΝΕΙΤΟΝ.

All power on him transferr'd: whence to his Son,
The Assessour of his throne, he thus began:
Effulgence of my glory, Son beloved;

Son, in whose face invisible is beheld
Visibly, what by Deity I am;

And in whose hand what by decree I do,
Second Omnipotence; two days are pass'd,
Two days, as we compute the days of heaven,

Since Michael and his powers went forth to tame
These disobedient: sore hath been their fight,
As likeliest was, when two such foes met arm'd:
For to themselves I left them; and thou know'st

Equal in their creation they were form'd,

Save what sin hath impair'd; which yet hath wrought
Insensibly, for I suspend their doom:

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685

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Whence in perpetual fight they needs must last

With mountains, as with weapons, arm'd; which makes

Wild work in heaven, and dangerous to the main.

Two days are therefore pass'd, the third is thine:

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For thee I have ordain'd it, and thus far
Have suffer'd, that the glory may be thine
Of ending this great war, since none but thou
Can end it. Into thee such virtue and grace
Immense I have transfused that all may know
In heaven and hell thy power above compare;
And, this perverse commotion govern'd thus,
To manifest thee worthiest to be heir,
Of all things to be heir; and to be King

By sacred unction P, thy deserved right.

Go then, thou mightiest in thy Father's might
Ascend my chariot, guide the rapid wheels

That shake heaven's basis, bring forth all my war,

o War wearied hath perform'd.

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And indeed within the compass of this one book we have all the variety of battles that can well be conceived. We have a single combat and a general engagement. The first day's fight is with darts and swords, in imitation of the ancients; the second day's fight is with artillery, in imitation of the moderns; but the images in both are raised proportionably to the superior nature of the beings here described: and, when the poet has briefly comprised all that has any foundation in fact and reality, he has recourse to the fiction of the poets in their description of the giants' war with the gods. And, when wai bath thus performed what war can do, he rises still higher, and the Son of God is sent forth in the majesty of the Almighty Father, agreeably to Scripture; so much doth the sublimity of Holy Writ transcend all that is true, and all that is feigned, in description.NEWTON.

By sacred unction.

Psalm. xlv. 7:-"God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." -GILLIES.

My bow and thunder; my almighty arms
Gird on, and sword upon thy puissant thigh;
Pursue these sons of darkness; drive them out
From all heaven's bounds into the utter deep:
There let them learn, as likes them, to despise
God, and Messiah his anointed King.

He said; and on his Son with rays direct
Shone full: he all his Father full express'd
Ineffably into his face received;

And thus the Filial Godhead answering spake :

O Father, O Supreme of heavenly thrones,
First, Highest, Holiest, Best; thou always seek'st
To glorify thy Son ', I always thee,

As is most just: this I.my glory account,
My exaltation, and my whole delight,

That thou, in me well pleased, declarest thy will
Fulfill'd, which to fulfil is all my bliss.
Sceptre and power, thy giving, I assume ;
And gladlier shall resign, when in the end

Thou shalt be all in all, and I in thee

For ever; and in me all whom thou lovest:
But whom thou hatest, I hate; and can put on
Thy terrours, as I put thy mildness on,
Image of thee in all things; and shall soon,
Arm'd with thy might, rid heaven of these rebell'd,
To their prepared ill mansion driven down,
To chains of darkness, and the undying worm";
That from thy just obedience could revolt,
Whom to obey is happiness entire.

Then shall thy saints unmix'd, and from the impure
Far separate, circling thy holy mount,

a My almighty arms.

Ps. xlv. 3, 4 :—“ Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty and in thy majesty ride prosperously."-NEWTON.

To glorify thy Son.

In reference to St. John xvii. 4, 5.-TODD.

s Thou shalt be all in all.

We may still observe, that Milton generally makes the divine persons talk in the style and language of Scripture. This passage is manifestly taken from 1 Cor. xv. 24. and 28. Immediately afterwards, when it is said,

I in thee

this is an allusion to John xvii. 21. and 23.

For ever; and in me all whom thou lovest:
And when it is added,
But whom thou hatest, I hate,

the allusion is to Psalm cxxxix. 21.-NEWTON.

To chains of darkness.

2 Pet. ii. 4 :—“ God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell,

and delivered them into chains of darkness."—TODD.