THE ARGUMENT. SATAN, persisting in the temptation of our Lord, shews him Imperial Rome in its greatest splendour, as a power which he probably would prefer before that of the Parthians; and tells him that he might with ease expel Tiberius, restore the Romans to their liberty, and make himself master not only of the Roman empire, but by so doing of the whole world, and inclusively of the throne of David. Our Lord, in reply, expresses his contempt of grandeur and worldly power, notices the luxury, vanity, and profligacy of the Romans, declaring how little they merited to be restored to that liberty, which they had lost by their misconduct, and briefly refers to the greatness of his own future kingdom. Satan, now desperate, to enhance the value of his proffered gifts, professes that the only terms, on which he will bestow them, are our Saviour's falling down and worshipping him. Our Lord expresses a firm but temperate indignation at such a proposition, and rebukes the Tempter by the title of "Satan for ever damned." Satan abashed, attempts to justify himself: he then assumes a new ground of temptation, and, proposing to Jesus the intellectual gratifications of wisdom and knowledge, points out to him the celebrated seat of ancient learning, Athens, and her schools; accompanying the view with a highly-finished panegyric on the Grecian musicians, poets, orators, and philosophers. Jesus replies by shewing the vanity of their boasted philosophy; and prefers to the music, poetry, eloquence, and didactic policy of the Greeks, those of the inspired Hebrew writers. Satan, irritated at the failure of all his attempts, upbraids the indiscretion of our Saviour in.rejecting his offers; and, having in ridicule of his expected kingdom foretold our Lord's future sufferings, carries him back into the wilderness, and leaves him there. Night comes on: Satan raises a violent tempest, and attempts further, but in vain, to alarm Jesus with frightful dreams, and threatening spectres. A calm and beautiful morning succeeds to the horrors of the night. Satan again presents himself, and, noticing the storm of the preceding night as pointed chiefly at our Lord, once more insults him with an account of the sufferings which he was cer tainly to undergo. This only draws from our Lord a brief rebuke. Satan, now at the height of his desperation, confesses that he had frequently watched Jesus from his birth, in order to discover if he was the true Messiah; and, collecting from what passed at the river Jordan that he most probably was so, he had from that time more assiduously followed him, in hopes of gaining some advantage over him, which would prove him to be not the Divine Person destined to be his " fatal enemy." In this he acknowledges that he has hitherto completely failed; but still determines to make one more trial of him. Accordingly he conveys him to the Temple at Jerusalem, and, placing him on a pointed eminence, requires him to prove his divinity either by standing there, or casting himself down with safety. Our Lord reproves the Tempter, and at the same time manifests his own divinity by standing on the dangerous point. Satan, amazed and terrified, instantly falls; and repairs to his infernal compeers, to relate his bad success. Angels meanwhile convey our Lord to a beautiful valley, minister to him a repast of celestial food, and celebrate his victory in a triumphant hymn. Dunster. PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK IV. PERPLEX'D and troubled at his bad success That sleek'd his tongue, and won so much on Eve, 5 7. This far his over-match, who self-deceiv'd &c.] An usual construction in Milton, This far an over-match for him, who self-deceived and rash, beforehand had no better weighed &c. Neither is this inconsistent, as Mr. Thyer conceives it to be, with what Satan had declared in book ii. 131. Have found him, view'd him, tasted him, but find Far other labour to be undergone &c. He had made some trials of his strength, but had not sufficiently considered it beforehand; he VOL. III. 10 had weighed it, but should have weighed it better; if he had been fully apprised whom he was contending with, he would have ceased from the contention. 10. But as a man &c.] It is the method of Homer to illustrate and adorn the same subject with several similitudes, as the reader may see particularly in the second book of the Iliad before the catalogue of ships and warriors; and our author here follows his example, and presents us, as I may say, with a string of similitudes together. This fecundity and variety of the two M In cunning, over-reach'd where least he thought, To salve his credit, and for very spite, Still will be tempting him who foils him still, And never cease, though to his shame the more; Or as a swarm of flies in vintage time, poets can never be sufficiently admired: but Milton, I think, has the advantage in this respect, that in Homer the lowest comparison is sometimes the last, whereas here in Milton they rise in my opinion, and improve one upon another. The first has too much sameness with the subject it would illustrate, and gives us no new ideas. The second is low, but it is the lowness of Homer, and at the same time is very natural. The third is free from the defects of the other two, and rises up to Milton's usual dignity and majesty. 10. "A poetical simile," says Dr. Johnson in his life of Addison, "is the discovery of likeness between two actions, in their general nature dissimilar, or of causes terminating by different operations in some resemblance of effect. But the mention of another like consequence from a like cause, or of a like performance by a like agency, is not a simile but an exemplification." The comparison of Satan's conduct to that of the man of cunning is indeed, strictly speaking, no simile; it is only an exemplification of Satan's "vain importunity" in the frequent conduct of persons in real life. Moreover the character of the man of cunning irritated by defeat, however well drawn, is here an image too general and indistinct 15 materially to illustrate, or in any way to decorate, this part of the poem. Perhaps therefore the description here was personal; referring to Milton's old literary, political, enemy Salmasius, or to his later antagonist Alexander More, or Morus. Dunster. 15. Or as a swarm of flies in vintage time, &c.] The comparison is very just, and also in the manner of Homer, Iliad. xvi. 641. Οἱ δ' αιει περι νεκρὸν ὁμιλεῖν, ὡς ὅτε revices Σταθμῷ ενι βρομεωσι περιγλαγίας κατα πελλας Ωρη εν ειαρινη, ότε τε γλαγος αγγια Illi vero assidue circa mortuum ver- Tempore in verno, quando lac vasa Iliad. xvii. 570. |