But drive far off the barbarous diffonance
Of Bacchus and his revelers, the race

Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears
To rapture, till the favage clamor drown'd
Both harp and voice; nor could the Mufe defend
Her fon. So fail not thou, who thee implores:
For thou art heav'nly, fhe an empty dream.
Say Goddess, what enfued when Raphaël,
The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarn'd

ble him to foar to fuch highths, as no human genius ever reached before? 31.- and fit audience find, though few.] He had Horace in

mind, Sat. I. X. 73.

-neque te ut miretur turba, labores, Contentus paucis lectoribus.

33. Of Bacchus and his revelers,] It is not improbable that the poet intended this as an oblique fatir upon the diffoluteness of Charles the fecond and his court; from whom he feems to apprehend the fate of Orpheus, a famous poet of Thrace, who tho' he is faid to have charm'd woods and rocks with his divine fongs, yet was torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women on Rhodope a mountain of Thrace, nor could the Mufe Calliope his mother defend him. So fail not thou, who thee implores; nor was his with ineffectual, for the government fuffer'd him to live and die unmolested.

35

40

Adam

40.-what ensued when Raphaël,

&c.] Longinus has obferved, that there may be a loftinefs in fentiments, where there is no paffion, and brings inftances out of ancient The pathetic, as that great critic authors to fupport this his opinion.

obferves, may animate and inflame the fublime, but is not effential to it. Accordingly, as he further remarks, we very often find that those who excel moft in ftirring up the paffions, very often want the talent of writing in the great and fublime manner, and fo on the contrary. Milton has fhown himself a master in both these ways of writing. The seventh book, which we are now entring upon, is an inftance of that fublime, which is not mixed and worked up with paffion. The author appears in a kind of compofed and fedate majefty; and tho' the fentiments do not give fo great an emotion, as those in the former book, they abound

To those apoftates, left the like befall
In Paradife to Adam or his race,

45

Charg'd not to touch the interdicted tree,

If they tranfgrefs, and flight that fole command,
So easily obey'd amid the choice

Of all taftes elfe to please their appetite,

Though wand'ring. He with his conforted Eve
The story heard attentive, and was fill'd
With admiration and deep mufe, to hear

50

Of things fo high and strange, things to their thought
So unimaginable as hate in Heaven,

with as magnificent ideas. The fixth
book, like a troubled ocean, repre-
fents greatness in confufion; the fe-
venth affects the imagination like
the ocean in a calm, and fills the
mind of the reader, without pro-
ducing in it any thing like tumult
or agitation. The critic above men-
tion'd, among the rules which he
lays down for fucceeding in the fub-
lime way of writing, propofes to his
reader, that he fhould imitate the
moft celebrated authors who have
gone before him, and been engaged
in works of the fame nature; as in
particular, that if he writes on a
poetical fubject, he fhould confider
how Homer would have spoken on
fuch an occafion. By this means
one great genius often catches the

And

flame from another, and writes in his fpirit, without copying fervily after him. There are a thoufand fhining paffages in Virgil, which have been lighted up by Homer. Milton, tho' his own natural ftrength of genius was capable of furnishing out a perfect work, has doubtless very much raifed and ennobled his conceptions, by fuch an imitation as that which Longinus has recommended. In this book, which gives us an account of the fix days works, the poet received very few affistances from Heathen writers, who were strangers to the wonders of creation. But as there are many glorious ftrokes of poetry upon this fubject in holy Writ, the author has numberlefs allufions to them through the

whole

And war fo near the peace of God in bliss
With fuch confufion: but the evil foon
Driv'n back redounded as a flood on those
From whom it fprung, impoffible to mix
With blessedness. Whence Adam foon repeal'd
The doubts that in his heart arose: and now
Led on, yet finlefs, with defire to know
What nearer might concern him, how this world
Of Heav'n and Earth confpicuous first began,
When, and whereof created, for what cause,
What within Eden or without was done
Before his memory, as one whofe drouth
Yet fcarce allay'd ftill eyes the current stream,

whole course of this book. The
great critic I have before mention'd,
though an Heathen, has taken no-
tice of the fublime manner in which
the Lawgiver of the Jews has de-
scribed the creation in the first chap-
ter of Genefis; and there are many
other paffages in Scripture which
rife up to the fame majefty, where
this fubject is touched upon. Milton
has fhown his judgment very re-
markably, in making ufe of fuch of
these as were proper for his poem,
and in duly qualifying those high
ftrains of eastern poetry, which were
fuited to readers, whofe imagina-
tions were fet to a higher pitch than
thofe of colder climates. Addifon.

47. If they tranfgrefs, &c.] We fhould obferve the connexion; Left

55

60

65

Whofe

the like befall to Adam or his race, if they tranfgrefs, &c.

50. He with his conforted Eve] Conforted from Confort, Cum conforte tori, as Ovid says, Met. I. 319.

59.-Whence Adam foon repeal'd

The doubts that in his heart arofe:] Dr. Bentley would read difpell'd: but if an alteration were neceffary, I fhould rather read repell'd, as in ver. 610. we have their counfels vain Thou haft repell'd. But in the fame fenfe as a law is faid to be repeal'd, when an end is put to all the force and effect of it; fo, when doubts are at an end, they may be faid to be repeal`d.

Pearce.
69. Pro-

Whofe liquid murmur heard new thirft excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his heav'nly gueft.

1

Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, 70 Far differing from this world, thou haft reveal'd, Divine interpreter, by favor fent

Down from the empyréan to forewarn

76

Us timely' of what might else have been our loss,
Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach:
For which to th' infinitely Good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment
Receive with folemn purpose to observe
Immutably his fovran will, the end

Of what we are. But fince thou haft vouchfaf'd 80
Gently for our inftruction to impart

69. Proceeded thus &c.] The conftruction is, And led on with defire to know &c proceeded thus to ask his heav'nly gueft.

70. Great things, &c.] Adam's fpeech to the Angel, wherein he defires an account of what had paffed within the regions of nature before the creation, is very great and folemn. The following lines, in which he tells him, that the day is not too far fpent for him to enter upon fuch a fubject, are exquifite in their kind.

And the great light of day yet

wants to run

Much of his race &c. Addifon.

Things above earthly thought, which yet concern'd
Our knowing, as to highest wisdom seem'd,

Deign to defcend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known,
How first began this Heav'n which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorn'd
Innumerable, and this which yields or fills
All space, the ambient air wide interfus'd
Embracing round this florid earth, what cause
Mov'd the Creator in his holy reft
Through all eternity fo late to build

In Chaos, and the work begun, how foon
Abfolv'd, if unforbid thou may'ft unfold
What we, not to explore the fecrets ask

interfus'd denotes the air not only furrounding the earth, but flowing into and fpun out betweeen all bodies; and is a fuller and finer notation of its liquid and spiritual texture, leaving no Vacuum in nature than that of Ovid,

Nec circumfufo pendebat in aere tellus. Met. I. 12. Hume.

92. fo late to build] It is a queftion that has been often asked, Why God did not create the world fooner? but the fame queftion might

85

90

95 Of

And that can never be a juft exception against this time, which holds equally against all time. It must be refolved into the good will and pleafure of almighty God; but there is a farther reafon according to Milton's hypothefis, which is that God, after the expelling of Satan and his Angels out of Heaven, declar'd his pleasure to fupply their place by creating another world, and other creatures to dwell therein.

94. Abfolv'd,] Finish'd, com

be asked, if the world had been pleted, perfected, from Abfolutus created at any time, for ftill there (Latin.) were infinite ages before that time.

Richardfon.

98. And