Their noxious vapour, or inur'd not feel,

Or chang'd at length, and to the place conform'd
In temper and in nature, will receive

Familiar the fierce heat, and void of pain;

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light,
Besides what hope the never-ending flight

220

Of future days may bring, what chance, what change
Worth waiting, since our present lot appears

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst,
If we procure not to ourselves more woe.

Thus Belial with words cloth'd in reason's garb
Counsell❜d ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth,
Not peace and after him thus Mammon spake.
Either to disenthrone the King of heaven

:

220. This horror will grow mild, this darkness light,] It is quite too much, as Dr. Bentley says, that the darkness should turn into light but light, I conceive, is an adjective here as well as mild; and the meaning is, This darkness will in time become easy, as this horror will grow mild; or, as Mr. Thyer thinks, it is an adjective used in the same sense as when we say It is a light night. It is not well expressed, and the worse as it rimes with the following line.

227. Counsell'd ignoble ease,] Virgil. Studiis ignobilis ott. Georg. iv. 564.

228. Mammon spake.] Mammon's character is so fully drawn in the first book, that the poet adds nothing to it in the second. We were before told, that he was the first who taught mankind to ransack the earth for

225

gold and silver, and that he was the architect of Pandemonium, or the infernal palace, where the evil spirits were to meet in council. His speech in this book is every way suitable to so depraved a character. How proper is that reflection, of their being unable to taste the happiness of heaven were they actually there, in the mouth of one, who while he was in heaven, is said to have had his mind dazzled with the outward pomps and glories of the place, and to have been more intent on the riches of the pavement, than on the beatific vision! I shall also leave the reader to judge how agreeable the following sentiments are to the same character.

We war, if war be best, or to regain
Our own right lost him to unthrone we then
May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife:
The former vain to hope argues as vain

The latter for what place can be for us

280

235

240

Within heav'n's bound, unless heav'n's Lord supreme
We overpow'r? Suppose he should relent,
And publish grace to all, on promise made
Of new subjection; with what eyes could we
Stand in his presence humble, and receive
Strict laws impos'd, to celebrate his throne
With warbled hymns, and to his Godhead sing
Forc'd Halleluiah's; while he lordly sits
Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes
Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers,
Our servile offerings? This must be our task

233. and Chaos judge the strife:] Between the King of heaven and us, not between Fate and Chance, as Dr. Bentley supposes. Pearce.

234. The former vain to hope] That is to unthrone the King of heaven, argues as vain the latter, that is to regain our own lost right.

242. With warbled hymns,] "Warbled song,". Comus, 854. "Warbled string," Arcades, 87. T. Warton.

244. and his altar breathes Ambrosial odours and ambrosial flowers,] Dr. Bentley would read from for and,

Ambrosial odours from ambrosial flowers,

245

and asks how an altar can
breathe flowers, especially when
flowers are, as here, distinguished
from odours? But when the altar
is said to breathe, the meaning
is that it smells of, it throws out
the smell of, or (as Milton ex-
presses it, iv. 265.) it breathes out
the smell of &c. In this sense
of the word breathe, an altar
may be said to breathe flowers,
and odours too as a distinct thing;
for by odours here Milton means
the smells of gums and sweet
spicy shrubs, see viii. 517. Not
unlike is what we read in Fair-
fax's Tasso, cant. xviii. 517.

Flowers and odours sweetly smell'd.
Pearce.

In heav'n, this our delight; how wearisome
Eternity so spent in worship paid

To whom we hate! Let us not then pursue
By force impossible, by leave obtain'd
Unacceptable, though in heav'n, our state
Of splendid vassalage; but rather seek
Our own good from ourselves, and from our own
Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess,
Free, and to none accountable, preferring
Hard liberty before the easy yoke

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear

Then most conspicuous, when great things of small,
Useful of hurtful, prosp'rous of adverse

We can create, and in what place so e'er
Thrive under ev'il, and work ease out of pain

Through labour and indurance. This deep world
Of darkness do we dread! How oft amidst
Thick clouds and dark doth heav'n's all-ruling Sire
Choose to reside, his glory unobscur'd,

And with the majesty of darkness round
Covers his throne; from whence deep thunders roar
Must'ring their rage, and heav'n resembles hell?
As he our darkness, cannot we his light
Imitate when we please? This desert soil

250

255

260

265

270

254. Live to ourselves,] Hor. Imitated from Psalm xviii. 11, Epist. i. xviii. 107.

-Ut mihi vivam
Quod superest ævi.

and Persius, Sat. iv. 52.

Tecum habita.

263. -How oft amidst Thick clouds and dark &c.]

13. He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies.-The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And from Ps. xcvii. 2. Clouds and darkness are round about him, &c.

Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold;
Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise
Magnificence; and what can heav'n show more?
Our torments also may in length of time
Become our elements, these piercing fires
As soft as now severe, our temper chang'd
Into their temper; which must needs remove
The sensible of pain. All things invite
To peaceful counsels, and the settled state
Of order, how in safety best we may
Compose our present evils, with regard

275

280

274. Our torments also may in firmed by the whole host of

length of time Become our elements, &c.] Enforcing the same argument that Belial had urged before, ver. 217; and indeed Mammon's whole speech is to the same purpose as Belial's; the argument is improved and carried farther, only with such difference as is suitable to their different characters.

278. The sensible of pain.] The sense of pain. Tò sensibile, the adjective used for a substantive. Hume.

279. To peaceful counsels,] There are some things wonderfully fine in these speeches of the infernal spirits, and in the different arguments so suited to their different characters: but they have wandered from the point in debate, as is too common in other assemblies. Satan had declared in i. 660.

-Peace is despair'd,

For who can think submission? War then, war,

Open or understood, must be resolv'd.

Which was approved and con

VOL. I.

angels. And accordingly at the
opening of the council he pro-
poses for the subject of their
consideration, which way they
would make choice of, ii. 41.

Whether of open war or covert guile,
We now debate:

Moloch speaks to the purpose,
and declares for open war,

ver. 51.

My sentence is for open war: of wiles

More unexpert, I boast not, &c. But Belial argues alike against war open or concealed, ver. 187. War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike

So

My voice dissuades; for what can
force or guile &c.
Mammon carries on the same
arguments, and is for dismissing
quite all thoughts of war.
that the question is changed in
the course of the debate, whether
through the inattention or inten-
tion of the author it is not easy
to say.

281. —with regard
Of what we are and where,]

H

Of what we are and where, dismissing quite
All thoughts of war: ye have what I advise.

He scarce had finish'd, when such murmur fill'd
Th' assembly, as when hollow rocks retain
The sound of blust'ring winds, which all night long
Had rous'd the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull
Sea-faring men o'er-watch'd, whose bark by chance
Or pinnace anchors in a craggy bay

After the tempest: Such applause was heard
As Mammon ended, and his sentence pleas'd,
Advising peace: for such another field

:

It is thus in the first edition in the second edition it is, with regard of what we are and were: and it is varied sometimes the one and sometimes the other in the subsequent editions. If we read with regard of what we are and were, the sense is, with regard to our present and our past condition; if we read with regard of what we are and where, the sense is, with regard to our present condition and the place where we are; which latter seems much better.

285. as when hollow rocks retain &c.] Virgil compares the assent given by the assembly of the gods to Juno's speech, An. x. 96. to the rising wind, which our author assimilates to its decreasing murmurs,

-cunctique fremebant Cælicolæ assensu vario: ceu flamina prima,

Cum deprensa fremunt sylvis, et

cæca volutant

Murmura, venturos nautis proden.

tia ventos.

Hume.

The conduct of both poets is

285

290

equally just and proper. The
intent of Juno's speech was to
rouse and inflame the assembly
of the gods, and the effect of it
is therefore properly compared
by Virgil to the rising wind:
but the design of Mammon's
speech is to quiet and compose
the infernal assembly, and the
effect of this therefore is as pro-
perly compared by Milton to the
wind falling after a tempest.
Claudian has a simile of the
same kind in his description of
the infernal council. In Rufi-
num,
i. 70.

-ceu murmurat alti Impacata quies pelagi, cum flamine fracto

Durat adhuc sævitque tumor, dubiumque per æstum

Lassa recedentis fluitant vestigia

venti.

And in other particulars our author seems to have drawn his council of devils with an eye to Claudian's council of furies; and the reader may compare Alecto's speech with Moloch's, and Megara's with Belial's or rather with Beelzebub's.