1. Mean while the new-baptiz'd, &c.] The greatest and indeed justest objection to this poem is the narrowness of its plan, which being confined to that single scene of our Saviour's life on earth, his temptation in the desert, has too much sameness in it, too much of the reasoning, and too little of the descriptive part, a defect most certainly in an epic poem, which ought to consist of a proper and happy mixture of the instructive and the delightful. Milton was himself, no doubt, sensible of this imperfection, and has therefore very judiciously contrived and introduced all the little digressions that could with any sort of propriety connect with his subject, in order to relieve and refresh the reader's attention. The following conversation betwixt Andrew and Simon upon the missing our Saviour so long,

with the Virgin's reflections on the same occasion, and the council of the Devils how best to attack their enemy, are instances of this sort, and both very happily executed in their respective ways. The language of the former is not glaring and impassioned, but cool and unaffected, corresponding most exactly to the humble pious character of the speakers. That of the latter is full of energy and majesty, and not a whit inferior to their most spirited speeches in the Paradise Lost. This may be given as one proof out of many others, that, if the Paradise Regained is inferior, as indeed I think it must be allowed to be, to the Paradise Lost, it cannot justly be imputed, as some would have it, to any decay of Milton's genius, but to his being cramped down by a more barren and contracted subject. Thyer.

16. And the great Thisbite.] Or Tishbite, as he is called in Scripture, 1 Kings xvii. 1. Elijah, a native of Thisbe or Tishbe, a city of the country of Gilead beyond Jordan. Yet once again to come. For it hath been the opinion of the Church, that there would be an Elias before Christ's second coming as well as before his first: and this opinion the learned Mr. Mede supports from the prophecy of Malachi, iv. 5. Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, &c.: and from what our Saviour says, Matt. xvii. 11. Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. These words our Saviour spake when John Baptist was beheaded, and yet speaks as of a thing future, αποκαταστησει Tarra, and shall restore all things. But as it was not Elias in person, but only in spirit, who appeared before our Saviour's first coming, so will it also be before his second. The reader may see the arguments at large in Mr. Mede's Discourse xxv. which no doubt Milton had read, not only on account of the fame and excellence of the writer, but as he was also his fellow-collegian.

17. yet once again to come.] Milton's words however may refer to the coming of Elijah in the person of the Baptist; we may with equal propriety understand, who was, or, who is, yet once again to come. So likewise (as Mr. Dunster observes) Bp.

Pearce and Beza interpret our Saviour's words, (Matt. xvii. 11.) with reference to the prophecy already fulfilled when our Saviour uttered them. Mr. Warton and Mr. Dunster notice Milton's frequent allusions to Elijah and his ascension, El. iv. 97. In obitum Præs. Eliensis, 49. Epigr. i. 5. and in the Passion, st. vi. and Mr. Dunster even imagines that the undaunted spirit of this eminent prophet, and the part assigned him of resisting the tyranny of wicked kings, and denouncing God's judgments against them, might contribute to make him a favourite with our author. E. 18. Therefore as those young

prophets then with care Sought lost Elijah, &c.] 2 Kings ii. 17. They sent fifty men, and they sought three days, but found him not. So in each place these nigh to Bethabara: such ellipses, as Mr. Sympson observes, are frequent, and especially in our author. In Jericho the city of palms, so it is called, Deut. xxxiv. 3. and Josephus, Strabo, Pliny, and all writers, describe it as abounding with those trees. Enon, mentioned John iii. 23. as is likewise Salim or Salem. And John also was baptizing in Enon near to Salim. But there appears to be no particular reason for our author's calling it Salem old, unless he takes it to be the same with the Shalem mentioned Gen. xxxiii. 18. or confounds it with the Salem where Melchizedeck was king.

Macharus, a castle in the mountainous part of Peraa or the country beyond Jordan, which river is well known to run through the lake of Genezareth, or the sea of Tiberias, or the sea of Galilee, as it is otherwise called. So that they searched in each place on this side Jordan, or in Peraa, igav Iogdavov, beyond it.

21. -Salem old,] Milton had good authority for terming Salem, Salem old. Adrichomius, speaking of Salem or Salim, says, Ex veteribus Hebræorum Rabbinis docet Hieronymus, non videri hanc esse Hierusalem, quod nomen ipsum demonstrat ex Græco Hebraicoque compositum, sed oppidum juxta Scythopolim, quod usque hodie appellatur Salem; ubi ostenditur palatium Melchizedec, ex magnitudine ruinarum veteris operis ostendens magnificentiam de quo in posteriore parte Geneseos scriptum est: Venit Jacob in Soccoth, et transivit in Salem civitatem regionis Sichem. See Hieronym. Epist. ad Evag. The Septuagint, Gen. xxxiii. 18, writes it us aλnu. Dunster.

26. Where winds with reeds and osiers whisp'ring play,] Reland in his Palæstina, speaking of the river Jordan, says, Salices, tamarisci, agnus castus, et cannæ ingentes, quæ usum hastarum præbent, crescunt ad ripam ejus, uti referunt «vronтai. Illa arundineta ripam Jordanis ita obsident, ut per ea aqua fluminis vix conspici possit. To this purpose he cites Joannes Phocas, and De la Valle. And the descriptions of Adrichomius and Dr. Maundrell agree with theirs.

whispering play. Milton is particularly fond of this image, and has introduced it in many beautiful passages of the Par. Lost. He also applies whispering to the flowing of a stream; to the air that plays upon the water, or by the side of it; and to the

combined sounds of the breeze and the current: as in the Latin poem in adventum Veris, 89. and in Lycidas, 136. Dunster.

27. Plain fishermen, no greater men them call,] Imitated from the beginning of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar.

A shepherd's boy, no better do him call.