refuted by the Son of God with strong unaffected eloquence, is the peculiar excellence of this Poem. Satan here defends a bad caufe with great skill and fubtilty, as one thoroughly verfed in that Craft, Qui facere affuerat

Candida de nigris, et de candentibus atra.

Ovid, Met. XI. 314.

His character is well drawn. In his fpeeches we obferve the following Particulars.

may

1. His pretended frankness and ingenuity, in confeffing who he was, when he found he was difcovered: B. I. 358.

'Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,

Who, leagu'd with millions more in rash revolt, Kept not my happy station.

II. His plea for himfelf, that he was not a crea ture quite loft to all good: B. I. 377

For what he bids I do: though I have lost
Much luftre of my native brightness, loft
To be belov'd of God; I have not loft
To love, at least contemplate and admire,
What I fee excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous; I fhould fo have loft all fenfe.

III. His ingenious, moving, and humble apology for lying and fhuffling; B. I. 468.

Sharply thou haft insisted on rebuke,

And urg'd me hard with doings, which not Will But mifery hath wrefted from me. Where

Eafily canft thou find one miferable,

And not inforc❜d oft-times to part from truth,
If it may ftand him more in ftead to lie,
Say, and unfay, féign, flatter, or abjure?
But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can, and muft, fubmifs endure
Check or reproof, and glad t' escape so quit.
HARD are the ways of truth, and rough to walk;
Smooth on the tongue difcours'd, pleafing to

th' ear,

And tuneable as filvan pipe or fong, &c.

V. His ftrong and lively defcription of his own wretched state. Chrift fays to him, B. III. 198, &c.

But what concerns it thee, when I begin
My everlasting kingdom? why art thou
Solicitous? what moves thy inquifition ?
Know'st thou not that my rifing is thy fall,
And my promotion will be thy destruction?

To whom the Tempter, inly rack'd, reply'da Let that come when it comes; all hope is loft Of my reception into grace; what worse? For where no hope is left, is left no fear: If there be worse, the expectation more Of worse torments me than the feeling can. I would be at the worst: worft is my port, My harbour, and my ultimate repofe; The end I would attain, my final good.

1

VI. His artful flattery to Chrift, B. III. 214 I fhall, fays he, be punish'd,

Whether thou

Reign or reign not; though to that gentle brów
Willingly I could flie, and hope thy reign
(From that placid aspect and meek regard,)
Rather than aggravate my evil ftate,

Would stand between me and thy Father's ire,
Whofe ire I dread more than the fire of Hell;
A fhelter, and a kind of fhading cool
Interpofition, as a fummer's cloud.

Ifaiah, xviii. 4. Like a cloud of dew in the beat of barvest. xxv. 4. A shadow from the beat. xxxii. 2. As the fhadow of a great rock in a weary land.

VII. His fubmiffive and cunning reply, taught him by his fear, after he had endeavoured to perfuade Chrift to worship him, and had received a fevere reprimand: B. IV. 196.

Be not fo fore offended, Son of God,

Though fons of God both angels are and men,
If I, to try whether in higher fort

Than thefe thou bear'ft that title, have propos'd
What both from men and Angels I receive,
Tetrarchs of fire, air, flood, add on the earth
Nations befides, from all the quarter'd winds,
God of this world invok'd, and world beneath.
Who then thou art, whose coming is foretold
To me fo fatal, me it most concerns.

The

The tryal hath endamag'd thee no way,

Rather more honour left, and more esteem; Me nought advantag'd, miffing what I aim'd.

REMARKS

ON

PARADISE REGAINED.

BOOK I. 175.

BUT to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles.

Milton lays the accent on the last fyllable of vanquish here, as elsewhere in triumph: and in many places, in my opinion, he imitates the Latin and Greek profody, and makes a vowel long before two confonants.

v. 201,

When I was yet a child, no childish play
To me was pleasing: -

Milton feems to allude to Callimachus, who fays

elegantly of young Jupiter.

Hymn in Jov. 56.

Οξυ δ' ανάβησας, ταχινοι δε τοι ηλθον ίόλοι.

Αλλ' ετι παιδος των εφρασσαο πανία τέλεια.

Swift was thy growth, and early was thy bloom; But earlier wisdom crown'd thy infant days.

V. 222.

By winning words to conquer willing hearts.

Virgil, Georg. IV. 561.

Villorque volentes

Per populos dat jura.

Which expreffion of Virgil's, by the way, feems to be taken from Xenophon, Oeconom. XXI. 12. Ου γαρ πάνυ μοι δοκει όλον τόλι το αγαθον ανθρωπινου ειναι, αλλα θείον, το εθελοντων αρχειν. I could add other paffages of Xenophon, which Virgil has manifeftly copied,