Urim and Thummim, those oraculous gems These God-like virtues wherefore dost thou hide, In savage wilderness? wherefore deprive to the children of Israel during iii. 17. -thy Of conduct would be such,] 25. glory the reward] Our Saviour having withstood the allurement of riches, Satan attacks him in the next place with the charms of glory. Milton might possibly take the hint of thus connecting these two temptations from Spenser, who in his second book of the Faery Queen, representing the virtue of temperance under the character of Guyon, and leading him through various trials of his constancy, brings him to the house of riches, or Mammon's delve as he terms it, and VOL. III. 15 20 25 immediately after it to the palace 25. glory the reward Ethereal, who all pleasures else despise Cicero. Pro Archia. Trahimur tes. 27. Erected spirits is a classical phrase. Magno animo et erecto est, nec unquam succumbit inimicis, nec fortunæ quidem. Cic. Pro Deiotaro, 13. See also Seneca, Epist. ix. And it occurs in Par. Lost, i. 679. Mammon the least erected spirit that fell. Dunster. 31. Thy years are ripe, and over-ripe;] Our Saviour's tempt ation was soon after his baptism, and he was baptized when he was about thirty years of age, . Luke iii. 23. And the son of Macedonian Philip, Alexander the Great, had ere these, before these years, won Asia and the throne of Cyrus, the Persian empire founded by Cyrus, held at his dispose; for Alexander was but twenty when he began to reign, and in a few years overturned the Persian empire, and died in the thirty-third year of his age. Young Scipio had brought down the Carthaginian pride; for Scipio Africanus was no more than twenty-four years old, when he was sent proconsul into Spain, and was only between twentyeight and twenty-nine, when he 30 his was chosen consul before the usual time, and transferred the war into Africa. Young Pompey quelled the Pontic king, and in triumph had rode. In this instance our author is not so exact as in the rest, for when Pompey was sent to command the war in Asia against Mithridates king of Pontus, he was above forty, but had signalized himself by many extraordinary actions in younger years, and had obtained the honour of two triumphs before that time. Pompey and Cicero were born in the same year; and the Manilian law, which gave the command in Asia to Pompey, was proposed when Cicero was in the forty-first year of his age. But no wonder that Milton was mistaken in point of time, when several of the ancients were, and Plutarch himself, who speaking of Pompey's three memorable triumphs over the three parts of the world, his first over Africa, his second over Europe, and this last over Asia, says, that as for his age, those who affect to make the parallel exact in all things betwixt him and Alexander the Great, would not allow him to be quite thirtyfour, whereas in truth at this time he was near forty. λ de TOTS (as perv oi naтa warta TO Αλεξανδρα παραβαλλοντες αυτόν και προσβιβάζοντας αξιούσι) νεωτερος των τριακοντα και τετταρων, αληθεια δε τοις τετταράκοντα προσήγε». Plat. Vit. Pompeii. Of Macedonian Philip had ere these At his dispose; young Scipio had brought down To whom our Saviour calmly thus replied. 34. At his dispose ;] Shakespeare writes dispose for disposal. King John, a. i. sc. 3. Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose. Dunster. 41. wept that he had liv'd so long Inglorious:] Alluding to a story related of Julius Cæsar, that one day reading the history of Alexander, he sat a great while very thoughtful, and at last burst into tears, and his friends wondering at the reason of it, Do you not think, said he, I have just cause to weep, when I consider that Alexander at my age had conquered so many nations, and I have all this time done nothing that is memorable? See Plutarch's Life of Cæsar. Others say, it was at the sight of an image of Alexander the Great animadversa apud Herculis templum magni Alexandri imagine ingemuit; et 35 40 quasi pertæsus ignaviam suam, quod nihil dum à se memorabile actum esset in ætate qua jam Alexander orbem terrarum subegisset, &c. Suetonii Jul. Cæs. cap. 7. 44. Thou neither dost persuade me to seek wealth For empire's sake,] This refers to ver. 422, and 427 of b. ii. Dunster. 44. Thou neither dost persuade me &c.] How admirably does Milton in this speech expose the emptiness and uncertainty of a popular character, and found true glory upon its only sure basis. the approbation of the God of truth? There is a remarkable dignity of sentiment runs quite through it, and I think it will be no extravagance at all to assert, that he has comprised in this short compass the substance and quintessence of a subject which has exercised the pens of the greatest moralists in all ages. Thyer. For empire's sake, nor empire to affect The justness of this remark will appear to greater advantage by the learned collection out of the heathen moralists in the following note of Mr. Jortin. 47. For what is glory &c.] The love of glory is a passion deeply rooted in us, and difficultly kept under. Την κενοδοξίαν, ὡς τελευταίον χιτωνα, ή ψυχη πεφυκεν αποτιθεσθαι, says Plato. Helvidius Priscus, as Tacitus relates, was possessed of all the virtues which make a great and a good man. He was a Stoic into the bargain, and therefore bound by the principles of his philosophy to set a small value upon the Taoux Q' yet erant quibus appetentior famæ videretur: quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur. Hist. iv. 5. As at Rome and in Greece a spear, a crown of oak or laurel, a statue, a public. commendation, was esteemed an ample recompense for many brave actions; so it is as true, that not a few of their great men were over fond of fame, and mere slaves to the love of it. Let us see what the philosophers have said concerning a greedy desire of glory, such a desire of it as leads men to make it the ruling principle of their actions, and incites them to do well only, or chiefly in order to be admired. We shall find them condemning it, and saying things agreeable enough to what Milton puts into the mouth of our Saviour. Illud autem te admoneo, ne eorum more, qui non proficere sed con 54 spici volunt, facias aliqua. Seneca, epist. v. Qui virtutem suam publicari vult, non virtuti laborat, sed gloriæ. Id. epist. cxiii. Cavenda est gloriæ cupiditas, is a lesson delivered by one who in that particular did not practise what he taught. De Officiis, i. Laudis amore tumes? sunt certa pia- Ter pure lecto poterunt recreare li- An quidquam stultius, quam quos αυτόν επαίνη, καταγέλα του επαινουντος αυτος παρ' ἑαυτῷ· και ψεγη, ουκ απολογείται. Signa proficientis sunt: neminem vituperat, neminem laudat, de nemine queritur, neminem incusat, nihil de seipso dicit,--et si quis ipsum laudet, ridet laudantem ipse secum ; et The people's praise, if always praise unmix'd? 50 Things vulgar, and well weigh'd, scarce worth the praise? To live upon their tongues and be their talk, si vituperet, non se purgat. Idem Se 55 Profunda supra nos altitudo temporis veniet, pauca ingenia caput exserent, et in idem quandoque silentium abitura oblivioni resistent, ac se din vindicabunt. Epist. xxi. We expect that Time should take the charge of our writings, and deliver them safe to the latest posterity: but he is as surly and whimsical as Charon: Stabant orantes primi transmittere cursum, Tendebantque manus ripa ulterioris amore. Navita sed tristis nunc hos, nunc Ast alios longe summotos arcet arena. 49. And what the people but a A miscellaneous rabble, who extol Things vulgar, &c.] These lines are certainly no proof of a democratic disposition in our author. Dunster. 56. Of whom to be disprais'd were no small praise?] So it is in Milton's own edition, dispraised; in most of the others it is despised, Of whom to be despis'd were no small praise: |