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For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.

Yet thou pretend'st to truth; all oracles

By thee are giv'n, and what confess'd more true
Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.
But what have been thy answers, what but dark,
Ambiguous and with double sense deluding,
Which they who ask'd have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Who ever by consulting at thy shrine

xxii. 6. See the note, 1. 372.
Dunster.
432. that hath been thy craft
By mixing somewhat true to
vent more lies.]
Compare St. Austin. De Div.
Dæmon. Sect. 12. Miscent tamen
isti (Dæmones) fallacias; et
verum quod nôsse potuerint, non
docendi magis quam decipiendi
fine, prænuntiant. Thyer.

434. But what have been thy answers, what but dark,] The oracles were often so obscure and dubious, that there was need of other oracles to explain them. Sed jam ad te venio,

Sancte Apollo qui umbilicum certum
terrarum obsides,
Unde superstitiosa primum sæva
evasit vox fera,

tuis enim oraculis Chrysippus
totum volumen implevit, partim
falsis, ut ego opinor, partim casu
veris, ut fit in omni oratione
sæpissime; partim flexiloquis, et
obscuris, ut interpres egeat inter-
prete, et sors ipsa ad sortes refe-
renda sit; partim ambiguis, et quæ
ad dialecticum deferenda sint.
Cicero De Div. ii. 56. Calton,

430

435

Milton in these lines about the heathen oracles seems to have had in view what Eusebius says more copiously upon this subject in the fifth book of his Præparatio Evangelica. tio Evangelica. That learned father reasons in the very same way about them, and gives many instances from history of their delusive and double meanings. It may not perhaps be impertinent to mention one by way of illustration. Croesus sending to consult the Delphic oracle about the success of his intended expedition against the Persian received this answer,

Κροίσος Αλυν διαβας μεγάλην αρχην

καταλύσει.

Croesus Halym penetrans magnam pervertet opum vim,

which by the ambiguity of one word might either signify the conquest of the Persian empire, or the ruin of his own: but he, as it was natural enough for an ambitious prince to do, construing it according to his own flattering hopes, was overcome and lost his kingdom. Thyer.

Return'd the wiser, or the more instruct
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
For God hath justly giv'n the nations up
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous: but when his purpose is
Among them to declare his providence

440

445

To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth, But from him or his angels president

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This notion Milton very probably had from Tertullian and St. Austin. Tertullian speaking of the gods of the Heathens and their oracles says, Dispositiones etiam Dei et tunc prophetis concionantibus exceperunt, et nunc lectionibus resonantibus carpunt, ita et hinc sumentes quasdam temporum sortes æmulantur divinitatem, dum furantur divinationem. In oraculis autem, quo ingenio ambiguitates temperent in eventus, sciunt Crœsi, sciunt Pyrrhi. Apol. C. 22. St. Austin more appositely to our present purpose, answering the Heathen boasts of

VOL. III.

their oracles, says, tamen nec ista ipsa, quæ ab eis vix raro et clanculo proferuntur, movere nos debent, si cuiquam Dæmonum extortum est id prodere cultoribus suis, quod didicerat ex eloquiis prophetarum, vel oraculis Angeforum. Aug. De Div. Dæmonum. Sect. 12. tom. 6. Ed. Bened. And again, Cum enim vult Deus etiam per infimos infernosque spiritus aliquem vera cognoscere, temporalia dumtaxat atque ad istam mortalitatem pertinentia, facile est, et non incongruum, ut omnipotens et justus ad eorum pœnam, quibus ista prædicuntur, ut malum quod eis impendet ante quam veniat prænoscendo patiantur, occulto apparatu ministeriorum suorum etiam spiritibus talibus aliquid divinationis impertiat, ut quod audiunt ab Angelis, prænuntient hominibus. De Div. Quest. ad Simpl. 1. ii. s. iii. tom. 6. Thyer.

447. or his angels president, In every province ?]. Milton has here followed the Septuagint reading in Deuteronomy. Ors dispıçığı, ó inlıços εθνηεςησεν όρια εθνων κατα αριθμου ayyar bov. Warburton.

E

In every province? who themselves disdaining
-T' approach thy temples, give thee in command
What to the smallest tittle thou shalt say
To thy adorers; thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parasite obey'st;
Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,
And thou no more with pomp and sacrifice
Shalt be inquir'd at Delphos or elsewhere,

453. Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.] The Demons (Lactantius says) could certainly foresee and truly foretel many future events, from the knowledge they had of the dispositions of Providence before their fall. And then they assumed all the honour to themselves, pretending to be the authors and doers of what they predicted. Nam cum dispositiones Dei præsentiant, quippe qui ministri ejus fuerunt, interponunt se in his rebus; ut quæcunque a Deo vel facta sunt, vel fiunt, ipsi potissimum facere, aut fecisse videantur. Div. Inst. ii. 16. Calton.

456. henceforth oracles are ceas'd,] I would not censure Milton for mentioning the silence of oracles, at our Saviour's appearing in the world, both here and in his elegant hymn on Christ's nativity, because it adorns the poems, though it be a vulgar error. Jortin.

As Milton had before adopted the ancient opinion of oracles being the operations of the fallen angels, so here also again he

450

455

follows the same authority in making them cease at the coming of our Saviour. See this matter fully discussed in Fontenelle's history of oracles, and father Baltus's answer to him. Thyer.

Thus Juvenal Sat. vi. 554.

-Delphis oracula cessant. And in Lucan's Pharsalia, b. v. sult the Delphic oracle, but finds where Appius is desirous to conit dumb, the priestess tells him ;

muto Parnassus hiatu Conticuit, pressitque Deum, seu spiritus istas

Destituit fauces

-seu sponte Deorum
Cyrrha silet.

Thus Milton in the Hymn on the
Nativity, st. xix.

The oracles are dumb, &c.,
And before him Giles Fletcher
in Christ's Victory in Heaven,
st. lxxxii.

The angels caroll'd loud their song of
peace,

The cursed oracles were strucken dumb.
Dunster.

458. at Delphos] In the fa

At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute. God hath now sent his living oracle

mous controversy about ancient and modern learning Mr. Wotton reproves Sir William Temple, for putting Delphos for Delphi, every where in his Essays. Mr. Boyle justifies it, and says that it is used by all the finest writers of our tongue, and best judges of it, particularly Waller, Dryden, Creech, &c. If these authorities may justify Sir William Temple, they may also justify Milton; but certainly the true way of writing is not Delphos in the accusative case, but Delphi in the nominative. And though one would not condemn those excellent writers, who have unawares fallen into the common error, yet to defend Delphos upon this only pretence, that it has been the custom of our English writers to call it so, is, as Dr. Bentley replies, like the Popish priest, who for thirty years together had read Mumpsimus in his breviary instead of Sumpsimus; and when a learned man told him of his blunder, I'll not change, says he, my old Mumpsimus for your new Sumpsimus.

458. But Delphos in English is as proper as Argos, which by Livy, Virgil, and most of the Latin authors, is written Argi. Dunster.

460. God hath now sent his

living oracle Into the world] This heavenly oracle delivers himself here, in terms clear enough to alarm the Tempter: but it was not time yet to put

460

an end to the temptation by giving him full conviction. Tantum vero ei innotuit (Christus) quantum voluit: tantum autem voluit, quantum oportuit. [Aug. De Civ. Dei, ix. 21. I have put ei for eis to suit it to my present purpose.] Christ in the Greek Fathers is styled avtown. (woa Bouλn, λoyos (ar, essential life, the living counsel, and the living word of God. And St. John says, that in him was life, and the life was the light of men, i. 4. This meaning was not unob served by the Tempter. He easily perceived that the eternal Word might be the living oracle intended: and his words a little below, ver. 475. seem to be a feigned acknowledgment of what he would not yet believe, though he feared it might be true.

But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord;

From thee I can and must submiss indure

Check or reproof, and glad to 'scape

so quit.

Thou art the first-begotten of God, and Lord of all things; and thou canst remand me to that dreadful deep, whither thy thunder drove me out of heaven. Callon.

460. his living oracle] We have here corrected an error, which has prevailed in most of the editions, loving oracle instead of living oracle; and another a little afterward, and inward oracle instead of an inward oracle.

Into the world to teach his final will,

And sends his Spi'rit of truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requisite for men to know.

So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend, Though inly stung with anger and disdain, Dissembled, and this answer smooth return'd.

Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,

And urg'd me hard with doings, which not will
But misery hath wrested from me: where
Easily canst thou find one miserable,

465

470

475

And not enforc'd oft-times to part from truth;
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can and must submiss indure
Check or reproof, and glad to 'scape so quit.
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
Smooth on the tongue discours'd, pleasing to th' ear,
And tuneable as sylvan pipe or song;

474. Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?] Might not Milton possibly intend here, and particularly by the word abjure, to lash some of his complying friends, who renounced their republican principles at the Restoration? Thyer.

478. Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk, Smooth on the tongue discours'd, &c.]

Compare Comus, 476.

How charming is divine philosophy! Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,

480

But musical as is Apollo's lute, &c.

Much the same sentiments appear in the Tractate on Education, P. 101. ed. 1675. "I will point ye out the right path of a virtuous and noble education, laborious indeed at the first ascent, but also so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melodious sounds, that the harp of Orpheus was not more charming." Compare Pref. Ch. Gov. b. ii. Pr. W. vol. i. 61. T. Warton.

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