Of fond desire? or should she confident,

As sitting queen ador'd on beauty's throne, Descend with all her winning charms begirt T'enamour, as the zone of Venus once Wrought that effect on Jove, so fables tell; How would one look from his majestic brow

Seated as on the top of virtue's hill,
Discount'nance her despis'd, and put to rout
All her array; her female pride deject,

Or turn to reverent awe? for beauty stands

In th' admiration only of weak minds

Led captive; cease to' admire, and all her plumes
Fall flat and shrink into a trivial toy,

At every sudden slighting quite abash'd:
Therefore with manlier objects we must try

220

225

Among Milton's early Latin Elegies we find one (the seventh) of the amatory kind. But when he published his Latin poems, eighteen years afterwards, he thought it necessary to add to it ten lines, apologizing for the puerile weakness, or rather vacancy, of his mind that could admit such an impression. Dun

ster.

222. -cease to admire, and all her plumes

Fall flat, &c.] This is a very beautiful and apposite allusion to the peacock; of which Pliny says, that it spreads its tail under a sense of admiration; gemmantes laudatus expandit colores, adverso maximè sole, quia sic fulgentius radiant. Nat. Hist. x. 20. Tasso compares Armida, in all the vanity of her beauty and ornaments, to a peacock with its tail spread, c. xvi. st. 24. But Milton had here in his mind, Ovid, de Art. Amand. i. 627.

Laudatas ostentat avis Junonia pen

nas;

Si tacitus spectes, illa recondit opes.
Dunster.

His constancy, with such as have more show
Of worth, of honour, glory', and popular praise;
Rocks whereon greatest men have oftest wreck'd ;
Or that which only seems to satisfy
Lawful desires of nature, not beyond;

And now I know he hungers where no food
Is to be found, in the wide wilderness;

The rest commit to me, I shall let pass

No' advantage, and his strength as oft assay.

230

He ceas'd, and heard their grant in loud acclaim; 235 Then forthwith to him takes a chosen band

Of spirits likest to himself in guile

To be at hand, and at his beck appear,

If cause were to unfold some active scene
Of various persons each to know his part;
Then to the desert takes with these his flight;
Where still from shade to shade the Son of God
After forty days' fasting had remain'd,
Now hung'ring first, and to himself thus said.

240

244

accuracy in this place. It is plain by the Scripture account, that our Saviour hungred before the Devil first tempted him by proposing to him his making stones into bread, and Milton's own account in the first book is consistent with this: is there not therefore a seeming impropriety in saying that he now first hungred, especially considering the time that must have necessarily elapsed during Satan's convening and consulting with his companions? Thyer.

Milton comprises the principal action of the Poem in four

Where will this end? four times ten days I've pass'd Wand'ring this woody maze, and human food

Nor tasted, nor had appetite; that fast
To virtue I impute not, or count part
Of what I suffer here; if nature need not,
Or God support nature without repast
Though needing, what praise is it to indure?
But now I feel I hunger, which declares
Nature hath need of what she asks; yet God
Can satisfy that need some other way,
Though hunger still remain so it remain
Without this body's wasting, I content me,
And from the sting of famine fear no harm,
Nor mind it, fed with better thoughts that feed
Me hung'ring more to do my Father's will.

successive days. This is the second day; in which no positive temptation occurs, for Satan had left Jesus (b. ii. 116.) vacant, i. e. unassailed that day. Previous to the Tempter's appearing at all, it is said (b. i. 303.) that our Lord had "passed full forty days" in the wilderness. All that is here meant is, that he was not hungry till the forty days were ended; and accordingly our Saviour himself presently says, that during that time he

-human food

Nor tasted, nor had appetite. As to the time necessary for convening the infernal council, there is the space of twenty-four hours taken for the Devil to go up to the region of mid air, where his council was sitting, and where we are told he went with speed,

VOL. III.

250

255

(b. ii. 117.) and for him to debate the matter with his council, and return with his chosen band of spirits: for it was the commencement of night, when he left our Saviour, (b. i. 498.) and it is now the hour of night, (b. ii. 260.) when he is returned. But it must also be considered, that spiritual beings are not supposed to require for their actions the time necessary to men. See Raphael's speech, Par. Lost, viii. 107. We are also expressly told by St. Luke, that the Devil shewed unto our Lord all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, Luke iv. 5. Dunster.

259. Me hung'ring more to do my Father's will.] In allusion to our Saviour's words, John iv. 34. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

G

It was the hour of night, when thus the Son
Commun'd in silent walk, then laid him down
Under the hospitable covert nigh

Of trees thick interwoven; there he slept,
And dream'd, as appetite is wont to dream,

260

Of meats and drinks, nature's refreshment sweet; 265 Him thought, he by the brook of Cherith stood,

264. And dream'd, as appetite is wont to dream, Of meats and drinks,] To this purpose Lucretius with great strength and elegance, iv. 1018.

Flumen item sitiens, aut fontem pro

pter amænum Adsidet, et totum prope faucibus occupat amnem.

266. Him thought, &c.] We say now, and more justly, he thought; but him thought is of the same construction as me thought, and is used by our old writers, as by Fairfax, cant. 13. st. 40.

Him thought he heard the softly

whistling wind.

He by the brook of Cherith stood, &c. Alluding to the account of

Elijah, 1 Kings xvii. 5, 6. He went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan: and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. As what follows, He saw the prophet also, &c. is in allusion to 1 Kings xix. 4, &c. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a junipertree

-And as he lay and slept under a juniper-tree, behold then, an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head; and he did eat and drink, and laid him down again. And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights, unto Horeb the ing upon pulse and water rather mount of God. And Daniel's livthan the portion of the king's meat and drink, is celebrated Dan. i. So that, as our dreams are often composed of the matter of our waking thoughts, our Saviour is with great propriety supposed to dream of sacred and subjects. Lucretius iv. 959. persons