Which God hath in his mighty angels placed !)
Their arms away they threw, and to the hills
(For earth hath this variety from heaven

Of pleasure, situate in hill and dale),

Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew ;
From their foundations loosening to and fro,
They plucked the seated hills, with all their load,
Rocks, waters, woods, and, by the shaggy tops
Uplifting, bore them in their hands. Amaze,
Be sure, and terror, seized the rebel host,

640

645

When, coming towards them, so dread they saw
The bottom of the mountains upward turned,

Till on those cursèd engines' triple row

650

They saw them whelmed, and all their confidence

Under the weight of mountains buried deep,

Themselves invaded next, and on their heads
Main promontories flung, which in the air

654

Came shadowing, and oppressed whole legions armed. Their armour helped their harm, crushed in and bruised, Into their substance pent, which wrought them pain Implacable, and many a dolorous groan,

Long struggling underneath, ere they could wind
Out of such prison, though spirits of purest light,
Purest at first, now gross by sinning grown.
The rest, in imitation, to like arms

660

Betook them, and the neighbouring hills uptore:
So hills amid the air encountered hills,

Hurled to and fro with jaculation dire,

665

That underground they fought in dismal shade:
Infernal noise! war seemed a civil game
To this uproar; horrid confusion heaped
Upon confusion rose. And now all heaven
Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread,
Had not the Almighty Father, where he sits
Shrined in his sanctuary of heaven secure,
Consulting on the sum of things, foreseen
This tumult, and permitted all, advised,
That his great purpose he might so fulfil,
To honour his anointed Son, avenged

M

670

675

Upon his enemies, and to declare

All power on him transferred.

[The Son of God now goes forth and drives the enemy out of heaven.]

NOTES.

A FOUL NIGHT.

(From Paradise Regained, Book IV.)

[Satan has shewn the Son of God all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them-in vain; and has taken him back to the wilderness. The Saviour is wearied, hungry, and cold; and when he tries to sleep, the tempter disturbs him with ugly dreams.]

And either tropic now

'Gan thunder, and both ends of heaven; the clouds,
From many a horrid rift, abortive poured
Fierce rain with lightning mixed, water with fire
In ruin reconciled: nor slept the winds

Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines,
Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks
Bowed their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blasts,
Or torn up sheer. Ill wast thou shrouded then,
O patient Son of God, yet only stood'st

Unshaken! Nor yet stayed the terror there :
Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round

Environed thee; some howled, some yelled, some shrieked,
Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou
Sat'st unappalled in calm and sinless peace,

NOTES.

Shaped, put, arrayed. † As (if). Sheep. Habit, dress. Hermit, eremite.

coverings by the side of the building.

420. Only. In prose, one would prefer 'alone.' It is an adjunct to 'thou,' 'thou only,' 'thou alone.'-Stood'st. In 425 is 'sat'st.' Landor calls this 'a small oversight.'

423. Environed,' surrounded, encompassed. Fr. environ (about, around), from en (in), and O. Fr. viron, a noun from virer (to veer, turn about).

425. Fine contrast.

A FAIR MORNING.

(From Paradise Regained, Book IV.)

Thus passed the night so foul, till Morning fair
Came forth with pilgrim steps in amice gray,
Who with her radiant finger stilled the roar
Of thunder, chased the clouds, and laid the winds,
And grisly spectres, which the Fiend had raised
To tempt the Son of God with terrors dire.
And now the sun with more effectual beams
Had cheered the face of earth, and dried the wet
From drooping plant, or dropping tree; the birds,
Who all things now behold more fresh and green,
After a night of storm so ruinous,

up

Cleared their choicest notes in bush and spray,
To gratulate the sweet return of morn.

NOTES.

427. Pilgrim steps. The progress of

day is represented as a pilgrimage. 'Pilgrim' is Fr. pélerin, from Lat. peregrinus (foreigner), from per (through) and ager (territory).Amice, an oblong cloth tied about the neck of a Roman Catholic priest, and hanging down behind. From Lat. amictus (outer garment), from amicio (to wrap about), probably from am (about) and jacio (to throw).

428. Radiant finger, streaks of dawn.

'Radiant,' sending forth rays or beams of light: Lat. radiantem, participle of radio, from radius (staff, rod, ray); 'whence Fr. raie and our ray. Cf. Homer's 'rosyfingered morn.'

430. Grisly, frightful, hideous: from old agrisan (to agrise, to dread or

430

435

frighten greatly).-Spectres, appa ritions, phantoms: Lat. spectrum, from specio (to see). Fiend, old feond, foe, hater: from old feon, fian, to hate. Cf. 'friend,' old freond, from freon, to love. The

Fiend is the universal foe and archhater, Satan.

432-8. Cf. Spenser, Sonnet xl. (p 107). 434. Drooping and dropping. Milton

has also 'beseeching or besieging,'' at one slight bound high overleapt all bound,' 'and brought into the world a world of woe,' 'lest I should be condemned of introducing license, while I oppose Licensing' (Areop.), &c. Addison (Spectator, No. 297) notes it as 'a fault in his language,' 'that he often affects a kind of jingle in his words'-as in these examples. In the face of high authority,

Addison thinks 'it is in itself poor and trifling.'

435. Who. Observe the relative: 'the birds, who'

436. Ruinous, lit. tending to ruin, falling headlong. 'Ruin' is Fr. ruine, Lat. ruina, from ruo (to rush or tumble down). The reference here is to the wild downpour during the

night. (See lines 410-3). When Satan was hurled headlong down from heaven, it was said to be 'with hideous ruin' (Par. Lost, i. 46).

438. Gratulate, congratulate, greet with joy, manifest gladness at: Lat. gratulor, from gratus (causing or feeling joy).

Write in prose the contrast in these last two extracts.

ABRAHAM COWLEY.-1618-1667.

ABRAHAM COWLEY was born in London, and educated at Westminster School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Driven from Cambridge by the Puritan visitors in 1643, he took refuge in Oxford; and 'when Oxford was surrendered to the Parliament, he followed the queen to Paris, where he became secretary to the Lord Jermyn, afterwards Earl of St Albans, and was employed in such correspondence as the royal cause required, and particularly in ciphering and deciphering the letters that passed between the king and queen." After being twelve years abroad, he returned (1656), and took to studying medicine. At the Restoration (1660), he was rewarded with the free lease of lands yielding three hundred pounds a year, and retired to live at Chertsey. His early 'prophecy against himself,' which he calls 'a shrewd' one, was tolerably obvious and safe:

'Thou neither great at court, nor in the war,

Nor at the exchange shalt be, nor at the wrangling bar.'

The Davideis, an epic poem, was almost finished while he was yet a student at Cambridge. The Anacreontics, free translations from the Greek of Anacreon, shew some of his finest work. The Pindaric Odes are the most important of his other pieces in verse. Dr Johnson considers him undoubtedly the best' of the 'metaphysical' or 'fantastic' poets. (See, below, Samuel Johnson.) The chief part of his prose is contained in about a dozen Essays, which are interspersed with verse. 'A little tomb of marble' seemed to him a better monument than a vast heap of stones and rubbish.'

'Forgot his Epic, nay Pindaric, art;

But still I love the language of his heart.' (Pope.)

LOT'S WIFE.

(From the Davideis, Book III.)

Afar old Lot toward little Zoar hies,

And dares not move (goo1 man!) his weeping eyes.