Perhaps he had in mind Virgil, Æn. IX. 528. Et mecum ingentes oras evolvite belli. B. II. 684. Through them I mean to pass, That be affur'd, without leave afk'd of thee. See in page 166. the remark on Spenfer, Faery Queen. B. III. Cant. iv. St. 15. B. IV. 716. when to th' unwifer fon Of Japhet brought by Hermes The epithet unwifer does not imply that his brother Prometheus was unwife. Milton uses unwifer, as any Latin writer would imprudentior, for not fo wife as he should have been." So audacior, timidior, vehementior, iracundior, &c. mean "bolder, &c. quam par eft; more than is right and fit;" and imply less than audax, timidus, &c. in the Pofitive degree. B. V. 357. . Dazles the crowd, and fets them all agape. Virgil, Georg. II. 463. Nec varios inhiant pulchra teftudine poftes. v. 689. The quarters of the north. Sannazarius, de Partu Virginis, III. 40. Vos, quum omne arderet Cælum fervilibus armis, There are other paffages in the fame poem, of which Milton has made use. B. VI. 552. in hollow Cube Training his devilish enginry. I knew one, who ufed to think it fhould be bollow Tube: To which it may be objected, that Enginry, (Machine,) are the hollow Tubes, or Guns, themfelves. B. VII. 173. and what I will, is Fate. Statius Statius, Theb. I. 212. grave et immutabile fan&tis Pondus adeft verbis, et vocem Fata fequuntur. B. VIII. 2. So charming left his voicè, that he a while Thought him still speaking; ftill ftood fix'd to hear. ་ Imitated probably from Apollonius, I. 512. See before, Remarks on Spenfer, Page 184. The Thought was originally Homer's. Iliad. B. 40. Lucian, Somn. Ελι γουν - η φωνη των ακουσθεντων Evauλos and Socrates, in Plato's Crito; Kai ev pos αύτη ή ηχη τουτων των λογων βομβει, και ποιει μη δυνασθαι των αλλων ακγειν. B. IX. 312. while Shame, thou looking on, &c. Milton often uses the Nominative cafe abfolute, as the Creeks do; which, whether it fhould be called a cafe abfolute, or an ellipfis, we leave to the Grammarians to determine. B. X. 304. From hence a paffage, broad, Smooth, eafy, inoffenfive down to hell. Alluding perhaps to Virgil, Æn. VI. 126. Facilis defcenfus Averni: or, to the Paths of Wickednefs, as in Hefiod, Epy. I. 285. Τήν μένοι κακότητα καὶ ἰλαδόν ἐστιν ἐλέσθαι v. 655. from the fouth to bring Solftitial fummer's heat. The ancient Poets reprefent the fouth as the region of heat. Statius, Theb. I. 160. --aut Boreâ gelidas, madidive tepentes Igne Noti. Lucan, I. 54. very extravagantly; Nec polus averfi calidus quâ vergitur Auftri, She ended here V. 1007. fo much of death her thoughts Had entertain'd, as dy'd her cheeks with pale. Virgil, Virgil, Æn. IV. 499. Hæc effata, filet: Pallor fimul occupat ora. B. XI. 564. In other part stood one, who at the forge Quod fupereft, as atque aurum, &c. See hereafter, in Vol. II. Remarks on Lucretius. II. PARADISE REGAINED. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION. This Poem of Milton has not met with the approbation that it deferves. It has not the harmony of numbers, the fublimity of thought, and the beauties of diction, which are in Paradife Loft. It is composed in a lower and less striking style, a style suited to the subject. Artful sophistry, false reasoning, set off in the most specious manner, and refuted |