The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased, And sends his Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell To all truth requisite for men to know. So spake our Saviour; but the subtle fiend, Where And urged me hard with doings, which not will, Henceforth oracles are ceased, &c. 460 435 470 475 As Milton had before adopted the ancient opinion of oracles being the operations of the fallen angels; so here again he follows the same authority, in making them cease at the coming of our Saviour. See the 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 the fifth book of Lucan's "Pharsalia," where Appius is desirous to consult the Delphic oracle, but finds it dumb, the priestess tells him: And before him, Giles Fletcher, in his "Christ's Victory in Heaven," st. 82:- The cursed oracles were strucken dumb.-DUNSTER. h His living oracle. Christ is styled by the Greek fathers "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.-CALTON. And in Acts, vii. 38, where it is said,-"Who received the lively (or living) ɔracles to give unto us."-DUNSTER. iSharply thou hast insisted, &c. The smoothness and hypocrisy of this speech of Satan are artful in the extreme, and cannot be passed over unobserved.-Jos. WARTON. 3 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. Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk, Her dictates from thy mouth? Most men admire To hear thee when I come, (since no man comes) To whom our Saviour, with unalter'd brow: k Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk. Thus Silius Italicus, b. xv., where Virtue is the speaker: Casta mihi domus, et celso stant colle penates; Ardua saxoso perducit semita clivo; Asper principio (nec enim mihi fallere mos est) Prosequitur labor. Adnitendum intrare volenti.-DUNSTER. 48C 485 490 We must not here overpass Milton's "Preface to his Reason of Church Government," &c., b. ii. :-" Those who will not so much as look upon Truth herself, unless they see her elegantly dressed; that whereas the paths of honesty and good life appear now rugged and difficult, though they be indeed easy and pleasant; they will then appear to all men both easy and pleasant, though they were rugged and difficult indeed." pare also "Comus," ver. 476 et seq.-TODD. 1 Tunable as sylvan pipe or song. So, in "Paradise Lost," v. 149: Such prompt eloquence Flow'd from their lips in prose or numerous verse, More tunable than needed lute or harp To add more sweetness. And Shakspeare, "Midsummer Night's Dream," a. i. s. 14:— More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear.-DUNSTER. m Most men admire Virtue, who follow not her lore. Imitated from the well-known saying of Medea, Ovid, "Met." viii. 20: Video meliora proboque; Deteriora sequor.-NEWTON. n Atheous. Com Cicero, speaking of Diagoras, says, "Atheos qui dictus est," De Nat. Deor. i. 23.DUNSTER. "Atheous" may have hence been coined by the poet. name signification, is not uncommon in Old English.-TODD. • Praying or vowing. "Atheal," which has the Besides sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving, the Jews had vow-sacrifices (Lev. vii. 16), oblations for vows (xxii. 18), and sacrifices in performing their vows. (Numb. xv. 3, 8.)-DUNSTER. ℗ And vouchsafed his voice To Balaam reprobate. An argument more plausible and more fallacious could not have been put into the mouth of the tempter. Perfectly to enter into all the circumstances of this remarkable piece of scripture history, and clearly to apprehend this judicious application of it by the poet in this place, we may refer to bishop Butler's excellent "Sermon on the Character of Balaam," or to Shuckford's account of it in the twelfth book of his “Connection of Sacred and Profane History."-DUNSTER. Thy coming hither, though I know thy scope, Night with her sullen wings to double-shadet The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couch'd; q Thou canst not more. So Gabriel replies to Satan, "Paradise Lost," book iv. 1006: Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'st mine; To boast what arms can do! since thine no more So Virgil, "En." iv. 278: r Into thin air diffused. Et procul in tenuem ex oculis evanuit auram.-NEWTON. And Shakspeare, "Tempest," a. iv. s. 2:— These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Virgil, "En." viii. 369: Nox ruit, et fuscis tellurem amplectitur alis. 495 500 And Tasso describes Night covering the sky "with her wings," Gier. Lib. c. viii, st. 57: Sorgea la Notte in tanto, e sotto l'ali Compare Spenser also, "Faery Queen,” vi. viii. 54: And now the even-tide His broad black wings had through the heavens wide And see "Allegro," ver. 6.-Dunster. t To double-shade. 1. e. to double the natural shade and darkness of the place. This is more fully expressed in Hogæus's translation of this passage: Nam nunc obscuras Nox atra expandere pennas Thus in "Comus," ver. 335: In double night of darkness and of shades. In a note on which last verse, in Mr. Warton's edition of the "Juvenile Poems," the following line of Pacuvius, cited by Cicero ("De Divinat." i. 14), is exhibited :Tenebræ conduplicantur, noctisque et nimborum occæcat nigror. We may also compare Ovid, "Met." xi. 548: Tanta vertigine pontus Fervet, et inducta piceis a nubibus umbra And see ibid. 521.-DUNSter. And now wild beasts came forth the woods to roam. This brief description of night coming on in the desert is singularly fine: it is a small but exquisite sketch, which so immediately shows the hand of the master, that his larger and more finished pieces can hardly be rated higher. The commencement of this description, both in respect of its beginning with an hemistich, and also in the sort of instantaneous coming on of night which it represents, resembles much a passage in Tasso, "Gier. Lib." c. iii. st. 71: Cosi diss' egli;-e gia la Notte oscura Havea tutti del giorno i raggi spenti.-DUNSTER. The description of the probable manner of our Lord's passing the forty days in the wilderness is very picturesque; and the return of the wild beasts to their paradisiacal mildness is finely touched. The appearance of the tempter in his assumed character; the deep art of his first two speeches, covered, but not totally concealed, by a semblance of simplicity; his bold avowal and plausible vindication of himself; the subsequent detection of his fallacies, and the pointed reproofs of his impudence and hypocrisy on the part of our blessed Lord, cannot be too much admired. Indeed, the whole conciusion of this book abounds so much in closeness of reasoning, grandeur of sentiment, elevation of style, and harmony of numbers, that it may well be questioned, whether poetry on such a subject, and especially in the form of dialogue, ever produced anything superior to it. The singular beauty of the brief description of night coming on in the desert, closes the book with such admirable effect, that it leaves us con la bocca dolce.-DUNSTER. BOOK II. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Ir is sometimes useful to warn the reader what he is to expect in each portion of a long poem, as it is offered to him. The second book of the "Paradise Regained" begins soberly, perhaps in a tone almost prosaic. To begin low, and rise by a gradual climax, is admitted to be one of the great arts of beautiful composition. The anxiety and alarm felt by the disciples of Jesus, at missing him so soon, while detained in the wilderness, coming suddenly on their joy at the discovery of his advent; and the pathetic yet patient reflections of Mary at the loss of her son, though related with extreme plainness, are full of deep interest, and the most affecting natural touches : they abound in passages which excite human sympathy. Satan, hitherto defeated in his temptations of our Saviour, now resorts again to his council of peers: at which occurs that magnificent dialogue between the sensual Belial and him, which is at any rate as rich and poetical as the finest in "Paradise Lost;" and shows a vein of warmth, and imagery, and invention, and language, that is evidence how strongly the poet's genius was yet in its full bloom and verdure. Satan's answer to Belial is the more powerful, as coming from the prince of darkness himself: how then does the lustful fiend stand rebuked! Now Jesus had fasted forty days, and began to suffer by hunger: Satan seizes the occasion, and resolves to take advantage of it. Our Saviour, weary and exhausted, slept under the cover of trees, and dreamed of food supplied by an angel, who invited him to eat. He waked with the morning, and found that all was but a dream : Fasting he went to sleep, and fasting waked. He walked to the top of a hill, to see if there was any human habitation within reach; and there a rich but solitary landscape displayed itself before him, raised magically by Satan and his imps, for the purposes of the delusion which was to follow. While gazing upon this magnificent prospect, Satan again accosts him, and endeavours to alarm his faith at being left thus destitute :— As his words had end, Our Saviour, lifting up his eyes, beheld, A dinner spread, &c. Here is an invented array, than which nothing in "Paradise Lost" can be richer either in imagery or poetical language. Our Saviour rejects with scorn the temptation: he says: I can at will, doubt not, as soon as thou, Why shouldst thou then obtrude this diligence In vain, where no acceptance it can find? And with my hunger what hast thou to do? Thy pompous delicacies I contemn, And count thy specious gifts, no gifts, but guiles. Satan grows angry at the refusal, and With that Both table and provision vanish'd quite, With sound of harpies' wings and talons heard. The tempter was not yet to be foiled: he now makes an offer of riches, and descants upon their advantages for the purposes of that dominion which he assumes that our Saviour was sent to obtain. Jesus answers, that wealth without virtue, valour, and wisdom, is impotent; and that |