This our old conquest, than remember hell, 50 55 interval always so. Why to the succeeding sentence. Time is as nothing to the Deity; long and short having in fact no existence to a Being with whom all duration is present. Time to human beings has its stated measurement, and by this Satan had just before estimated it; How many ages, as the years of men, This universe we have possess❜d. Time to guilty beings, human or spiritual, passes so quick, that the hour of punishment, however protracted, always comes too soon, And now, too soon for us, the circling hours This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we Must bide the stroke of that longthreaten'd wound. Dunster. And now too soon for us the circling hours. This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we Must bide the stroke of that long threaten'd wound, At least if so we can, and by the head Broken be not intended all our power To be infring'd, our freedom and our being, In this fair empire won of earth and air His birth to our just fear gave no small cause, But his growth now to youth's full flow'r, displaying Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear. 57. the circling hours] Milton seems fond of this expression. See Par. Lost, vi. 3. vii. 342. And so Virgil, Georg. ii. 4.02. -redit labor actus in orbem, annus. Kuxλta to circle, as used by the 60 65 70 ગ 75 80 to lead the choral dance. The circling hours then are the same with "the hours in dance." Par. Lost. iv. 266. Dunster. 74. Purified to receive him pure,] Alluding to the Scripture expression 1 John iii. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure. Out of the water, heav'n above the clouds He who obtains the monarchy of heaven, And what will he not do to' advance his Son? His first begot we know, and sore have felt, When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep; Who this is we must learn, for man he seems 83. A perfect dove descend,] He had expressed it before ver. 30. in likeness of a dove, agreeably to St. Matthew, the Spirit of God descending like a dove, iii. 16. and to St. Mark, the Spirit like a dove descending upon him, i. 10. But as Luke says, that the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape, iii. 22. the poet supposes with Tertullian, Austin, and others of the fathers, that it was a real dove, as the painters always represent it. 87. He who obtains the monarchy of heaven:] Obtains is in the sense of obtineo in Latin; to hold, retain, or govern. Dun ster. 89. and sore have felt, us to the deep:] In reference to the sublime description, in the Par. Lost, vi. 834-866, of the Messiah driving the rebel angels out of heaven. Dunster. 91. Who this is we must learn,] Our author favours the opinion of those writers, Ignatius and 85 90 others among the ancients, and Beza and others among the moderns, who believed that the Devil, though he might know Jesus to be some extraordinary person, yet knew him not to be the Messiah, the Son of God: and the words of the Devil, If thou be the Son of God, seem to express his uncertainty concerning that matter. The devils indeed afterwards knew him, and ́ proclaimed him to be the Son of God, but they might not know him to be so at this time, before this temptation, or before he had entered upon his public ministry, and manifested himself by his miracles. And our author, who makes the Devil to hear the voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son, still makes him doubt in what sense Jesus was so called. See iv. 514. Thenceforth I thought thee worth my nearer view, And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn In what degree or meaning thou art called In all his lineaments, though in his face Of hazard, which admits no long debate, But must with something sudden be oppos'd, Not force, but well couch'd fraud, well woven snares, Ere in the head of nations he appear Their king, their leader, and supreme on earth. The dismal expedition to find out And ruin Adam, and th' exploit perform'd Will waft me; and the way found prosp'rous once He ended, and his words impression left 95 100 105 110 To him their great dictator, whose attempt From hell's deep-vaulted den to dwell in light, 113. To him their great dictator,] Milton applies this title very properly to Satan in his present situation, as the authority he is now vested with is quite dictatorial, and the expedition on which he is going of the utmost consequence to the fallen angels. Thyer. 116. Hell's deep-vaulted den] In the Par. Lost there are some similar descriptions of hell. 115 120 danger and difficulty as in his first expedition to ruin mankind. It is said in reference to what he had spoken before, I, when no other durst, sole under- The dismal expedition to find out -a calmer voyage now Girded with snaky wiles, alluding to the habit of sorcerers and necromancers, who are represented -the fiery concave. ii. 635. Hovering on wing under the cope of in some prints as girded about hell. -the torrid clime i. 345. Smote on him sorc besides, vaulted with fire. i. 297. Dunster. the middle with the skins of snakes and serpents; a cincture totally opposite to that recommended by the Apostle, Eph. vi. 14. having your loins girt about with truth; and worn by our Saviour, Isa. xi. 5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 120. girded with snaky wiles,] The imagery very fine, and the circumstances extremely proper. Satan is here figured engaging on a great expedition, succinct, and his habit girt about him with a girdle of snakes; which puts us in mind of the instrument of the fall. Warburton. But girded here is used only in a metaphorical sense, as in C |