Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar

Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds',
And grisly spectres, which the fiend had raised
To tempt the Son of God" with terrours dire.
And now the sun' with more effectual beams
Had cheer'd the face of earth, and dried the wet
From drooping plant or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous,

up

Clear'd their choicest notes in bush and spray,
To gratulate the sweet return of morn.
Nor yet, amidst this joy and brightest morn,
Was absent, after all his mischief done,
The prince of darkness; glad would also seem
Of this fair change, and to our Saviour came;
Yet with no new device; (they all were spent)
Rather by this his last affront resolved,
Desperate of better course, to vent his rage
And mad despite to be so oft repell'd.
Him walking on a sunny hill he found,
Back'd on the north and west by a thick wood.
Out of the wood he starts in wonted shape',
And in a careless mood thus to him said:

f Who with her radiant finger still'd the roar

Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds, &c.

430

435

450

445

450

This is an imitation of a passage in the first Æneid of Virgil, where Neptune is represented with his trident laying the storm which Æolus had raised, ver. 142. There is the greater

beauty in the English poet, as the scene he is describing under this charming figure is perfectly consistent with the course of nature, nothing being more common than to see a stormy night succeeded by a pleasant serene morning.-THYER.

And grisly spectres, &c.

See our author's "Ode on the Nativity," st. xxvi. where he beautifully applies the vulgar superstition of spirits disappearing at the break of day as the ground-work of a comparison. He supposes that all the false deities of every species of the heathen theology departed at the birth of Christ, as spectres and demons vanish when the morning dawns. Under the same superstitious belief, Milton here makes the fiends retire, who had been assembled in the night to terrify our Saviour, when the morn arose.-T. WARTON.

h To tempt the Son of God, &c.

An eminent and excellent divine is of the same opinion as the poet with respect to “the evil spirits which the fiend raised," when he tempted our Lord:-"This, as we may probably suppose, was the devil's way of tempting or trying our Lord, during the forty days and nights of his fast; and many opportunities, no doubt, he had in so long a time by frightful dreams when he slept, frequent apparitions and illusions of evil spirits in the night," &c. Bragge | on the Miracles, vol. ii. p. 12.-TODD.

And now the sun, &c.

There is in this description all the bloom of Milton's youthful fancy. We may compare an evening scene of the same kind, "Paradise Lost," b. ii. 488-495.-THYER.

It is impossible to forbear remarking that the preceding description exhibits some of the finest lines which Milton has written in all his poems.-Jos. WARTON.

In wonted shape.

That is, in his own proper shape, and not under any disguise, as at each of the former times when he appeared to our blessed Lord.-DUNSTER.

Compare "Par. Lost," b. iv. 819.

So started up in his own shape the fiend.-Todd.

Fair morning yet betides thee, Son of God,
After a dismal night: I heard the wrack,

As earth and sky would mingle; but myself

Was distant; and these flaws, though mortals fear them

As dangerous to the pillar'd frame of heaven',
Or to the earth's dark basis underneath,
Are to the main as inconsiderable

And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze
To man's less universe, and soon are gone :
Yet, as being ofttimes noxious where they light
On man, beast, plant, wasteful and turbulent,
Like turbulencies in the affairs of men,
Over whose heads they roar, and seem to point,
They oft fore-signify and threaten ill :
This tempest at this desert most was bent;
Of men at thee, for only thou here dwell'st.
Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
The perfect season offer'd with my aid m
To win thy destined seat, but wilt prolong
All to the push of fate, pursue thy way

Of gaining David's throne, no man knows when,
For both the when and how is nowhere told?
Thou shalt be what thou art ordain'd, no doubt;
For angels have proclaim'd it, but concealing.
The time and means. Each act is rightliest done,
Not when it must, but when it may be best:
If thou observe not this, be sure to find,
What I foretold thee ", many a hard assay
Of dangers, and adversities, and pains,
Ere thou of Israel's sceptre get fast hold;

Whereof this ominous night, that closed thee round,
So many terrors, voices, prodigies,

May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign.

k These flaws.

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470

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480

“Flaw" is a sea-term, as Mr. Dunster observes, for a sudden storm or gust of wind. See "Par. Lost," b. x. 697.-TODD.

1 As dangerous to the pillar'd frame of heaven.

So also "Comus," v. 597.

If this fail,

The pillar'd firmament is rottenness.

In both, no doubt, alluding to Job, xxvi. 11. "The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his reproof."-THYER.

Did I not tell thee, if thou didst reject
The perfect season offer'd with my aid, &c.

Here is something to be understood after "Did I not tell thee?" The thing told we may suppose to be what Satan had before said, b. iii. 351.

Thy kingdom, though foretold

By prophet or by angel, unless thou
Endeavour, as thy father David did,
Thou never shalt obtain, &c.-DUNSTER.

n What I foretold thee, &c.

See ver. 374, and ver. 381 to ver. 389 of this book.-DUNSTER.

So talk'd he, while the Son of God went on
And stay'd not, but in brief him answer'd thus:

Me worse than wet thou find'st not; other harm,
Those terrours, which thou speak'st of, did me none :
I never fear'd they could, though noising loud
And threatening nigh: what they can do, as signs
Betokening, or ill boding, I contemn

As false portents, not sent from God, but thee:
Who, knowing I shall reign past thy preventing,
Obtrudest thy offer'd aid, that I, accepting,
At least might seem to hold all power of thee,
Ambitious spirit! and wouldst be thought my God;
And storm'st refused, thinking to terrify

Me to thy will! desist, (thou art discern'd,
And toil'st in vain) nor me in vain molest.

To whom the fiend, now swoln with rage, replied:
Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born,
For Son of God to me is yet in doubt°;
Of the Messiah I have heard foretold
By all the prophets; of thy birth at length,
Announced by Gabriel, with the first I knew;
And of the angelick song in Bethlehem field,
On thy birth-night that sung thee Saviour born.
From that time seldom have I ceased to eye
Thy infancy, thy childhood, and thy youth;
Thy manhood last, though yet in private bred;
Till at the ford of Jordan, whither all
Flock'd to the Baptist, I among the rest,
(Though not to be baptized) by voice from heaven
Heard thee pronounced the Son of God beloved.

• Then hear, O Son of David, virgin-born,

For Son of God to me is yet in doubt.

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300

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$10

That Satan should seriously address our Lord as " virgin-born," because he entertained doubts whether he was in any respect the Son of God, is palpably inconsequent. “To be born of a virgin," Mr. Calton observes, from bishop Pearson in a subsequent note, “is not so far above the production of all mankind, as to place our Lord in that singular eminence which must be attributed to the only-begotten Son of God." But it must be recollected that the subject of this poem is a trial ad probandum whether the person declared to be the Son of God was really the Messiah: to acknowledge therefore that he was beyond all dispute born of a virgin, and had thereby fulfilled so material a prophecy respecting the Messiah, would be to admit in some degree the point in question: and however "virginborn" might not be supposed to ascertain in any degree the claim to the Messiahship, still

"Son

it could never be used in an address to our Lord meant to lower him to mere man. of David," single and by itself, was an expression that Satan might be expected to use, when, characterising our Lord as a mere human being, he professed to disbelieve that be was the Son of God, born in a miraculous manner of a pure virgin, as it was foretold the Messiah should be. "Virgin-born" then must be considered as intended to be highly sarcastic it is an epithet of the most pointed derision; resembling the "Hail, king of the Jews and they smote him with their hands." It is that species of blasphemous insult, which might be expected from the arch-fiend, who at the opening of the speech is described "swoln with rage."-DUNSTER.

Dr. Joseph Warton is also of opinion, that "virgin-born" is here a highly sarcastical expression.-TODD.

1

Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view
And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art call'd
The Son of God; which bears no single sense.
The son of God I also am, or was;
And if I was, I am; relation stands :

All men are sons of God; yet thee I thought
In some respect far higher so declared:

Therefore I watch'd thy footsteps from that hour,
And follow'd thee still on to this waste wild;
Where, by all best conjectures, I collect
Thou art to be my fatal enemy:

Good reason then, if I before-hand seek

To understand my adversary, who

And what he is; his wisdom, power, intent;
By parl or composition, truce or league,

To win him, or win from him what I can:
And opportunity I here have had

To try thee, sift thee, and confess have found thee
Proof against all temptation P, as a rock

Of adamant, and, as a centre, firm;

To the utmost of mere man both wise and good,
Not more; for honours, riches, kingdoms, glory,
Have been before contemn'd, and may again.
Therefore to know what more thou art than man,
Worth naming Son of God by voice from heaven 9,
Another method I must now begin.

So saying, he caught him up, and, without wing
Of hippogrif', bore through the air sublime,
Over the wilderness and o'er the plain;
Till underneath them fair Jerusalem,
The holy city, lifted high her towers,

P Proof against all temptation.

Compare Spenser, "Faer. Qu." i. vi. 4.

But words, and lookes, and sighs, she did abhore,

As rock of diamond stedfast evermore.

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"Rock of adamant is a phrase in Sandys's "Job," p. 29, ed. 1641, and in Shirley's "Imposture," p. 67, ed. 1652.-TODD.

q What more thou art than man,

Worth naming Son of God by voice from heaven.

See Bishop Pearson "on the Creed," p. 106.-CALton.

Of hippogrif.

Without wing

Here Milton designed a reflection upon the Italian poets, and particularly upon Ariosto. Ariosto frequently makes use of the hippogrif to convey his heroes from place to place.ΝΕΠΤΟΝ,

Not intended, as Dr. Newton supposes, as a reflection upon the Italian poets; but as an allusion merely to his favourite Ariosto, whose charming fancies he could not forget even in his old age.-Jos. WARTON.

s The holy city.

Jerusalem is frequently so called in the Old Testament: it is also called the “holy city”

And higher yet the glorious temple rear'd
Her pile, far off appearing like a mount
Of alabaster, topt with golden spires:
There, on the highest pinnacle, he set

The Son of God"; and added thus in scorn:

There stand, if thou wilt stand; to stand upright
Will ask thee skill: I to thy Father's house

Have brought thee, and highest placed: highest is best :
Now show thy progeny; if not to stand,

Cast thyself down; safely, if Son of God:
For it is written,-He will give command
Concerning thee to his angels: in their hands
They shall uplift thee, lest at any time
Thou chance to dash thy foot against a stone.

To whom thus Jesus: Also it is written,
Tempt not the Lord thy God. He said, and stood:
But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell.

As when Earth's son, Antæus", (to compare
Small things with greatest) in Irassa strove

With Jove's Alcides 2, and, oft foil'd, still rose a,

by St. Matthew, who wrote his Gospel for the use of the Jewish converts; but by him only, of the four Evangelists.-DUNSTER.

t Lifted high her towers.

Sandys, describing Jerusalem, gives a minute account of the remarkable height of her various towers; some of which, he adds, were topped with spires, as Milton says, ver. 548. See his "Travels," edit. 1615, pp. 156, 157.-TODD.

"There, on the highest pinnacle, he set

The Son of God.

He has chosen to follow the order observed by St. Luke, in placing this temptation last; because if he had, with St. Matthew, introduced it in the middle, it would have broke that fine thread of moral reasoning, which is observed in the course of the other temptations.THYER.

Tempt not the Lord thy God. He said, and stood.

Here is what we may call, after Aristotle, the avayvapois, or the discovery. Christ declares himself to be the God and Lord of the tempter; and to prove it, stands upon the pinnacle. This was evidently the poet's meaning.-CALTON.

w Earth's son, Antæus.

This simile in the person of the poet is amazingly fine.-WARBURTON.

Small things with greatest.)

(To compare

This is the third time Milton has imitated Virgil's "sic parvis componere magna solebam," -Ecl. i. 24. See "Paradise Lost," b. ii. 921, b. x. 306. Some such mode of qualifying common similes is necessary to a poet writing on divine subjects.-Dunster.

y In Irassa.

Antæus dwelt at the city Irassa, according to Pindar; but it was not there that he wrestled with Hercules, but at Lixos, according to Pliny, "Nat. Hist." lib. v. cap. — MEADOWCOURT.

2 With Jove's Alcides.

There were so many Hercules in the Grecian mythology and history, that it was neces sary to specify when the principal Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alemena, was meant. Thus Cicero, "De Nat. Deor." lib. iii. 16:-"Quanquam quem potissimum Herculem colamus, scire sane velim ; plures enim nobis tradunt ii, qui interiores scrutantur et re ditas literas; antiquissimum Jove natum." Varro says there were forty-three Hercules It may be observed, that, though Hercules the son of Jupiter is introduced with propries!,