Perfia a water, called golden; that it confifts of feventy streams; that none drink of it except the King, and his eldeft fon ; and that if any other perfon does, death is the punifhment. See Herodot. Edit. Gronov. p. 594. where this paffage is to be found. IV. It appears not that the golden water, and Choafpes, were the fame. Euftathius, tranfcribing fron Agathocles, fays, on Homer, Il. v. p. 1301. Ed. Bafil. . Το παρα Περσαις χρυσον καλέμενον ύδωρ, όπερ ην λιβαδες εβδομηκονία, ἅπερ εδεις, φασιν, επινεν ότι μη βασιλευς, καὶ ὁ των παίδων αυτά πρεσβυΐαίος· των δ' αλλων ει τις πιη, θανατος ή ζημια. Ζηλήλου δε ει και το Χοασπειον ύδωρ, άπερ επινε στρατευόμενος ὁ Περσών βασιλευς, τοιαύτην επίτιμιον, κηρα εφειλκείο. "The Perfians had a water called golden, &c. It is doubted whether the water of Choafpes, which the Perfian king drank in his expeditions, was forbidden to all others, under the fame capital penalty." V. It may be granted, and it is not at all improbable, that none befides the king might drink of that water of Choafpes, which was boiled and barrelled up for his use in his military expeditions. VI. Solinus indeed, who is a frivolous writer, fays, " Choafpes ita dulcis eft, ut Perfici reges quamdiu intra ripas Perfidis fluit, folis fibi ex eo pocula vendicarint. VII. Milton, * VII. Milton, confidered as a poet, with whofe purpose the fabulous suited beft, is by no means to be blamed for what he has advanced; and even the authority of Solinus is fufficient to justify him. From his calling Choafpes" amber ftream,' he feems to have had in view the golden water of Agathocles, and of his tranfcribers. -B. IV. 15. Or as a fwarm of flies in vintage time, About the wine-prefs where sweet muft is pour'd, Yet gives not o'er, though defperate of fuccefs, The comparison is very juft, and alfo in the manner of Homer. II. II. 641. Σταθμῷ ἔνι βρομέωσι περιγλαγέας κατὰ πέλλας Illi afidue circa mortuum verfabantur, ut quum mufce So likewife, Il. Ρ. 570. Καὶ οἱ μυίης θάρσος· ἐνὶ σήθεσσιν ἐνῆκεν, Et Et ei mufce audaciam pectoribus immifit, v. 67. Or embaffies from regions far remote, Syene, fartheft fouth. How can that be? when Meroe, mentioned in the next line (to fay nothing of other places) was farther fouth. Milton knew it, and thought of it too, as appears from his saying, . and where the fhadow both way falls, Meroe, Nilotic ille. Syene being fituate under the Tropic of Cancer, the fhadow falls there always one way; except at the fummer Solstice, when the Sun is vertical; and then, at noon, the fhadow falls no way: Umbras nufquam flettente Syene. Lucan, II. 587. But in Meroe the fhadow falls both ways, at different times of the year; and therefore Meroe muft be farther fouth than Syene, and nearer the Equator. To this I fay, that Milton had in view what he had read in Pliny and other authors, that Syene was the limit of the Roman Empire, and the remoteft place to the fouth that belonged to it; and to that he alludes. Or, it may be faid, that poets have not fcrupled to give the epithets extremi, ultimi, fartheft, remoteft, to any people that lived a great way off; and that poffibly Milton intended that fartheft fouth fhould be fo applied, both to Syene and to Meroe. v. 130. Chrift fays of Tiberius, Let his tormentor Confcience find him out. Milton had in view what Tacitus and Suetonius have related of this imperial monster. Tiberius, that complete pattern of wickedness and tyranny, had taken as much pains to conquer thefe fears [of confcience] as any man, and had as many helps and advantages towards it, from great fplendor and power, and a perpetual fucceffion of new business, and new pleasures; and yet, as great a master of the art of diffimulation as he was, he could not diffemble the inward fenfe of his guilt, nor prevent the open very improper occafions. eruptions of it, upon Witness that Letter, which he wrote to the Senate, from his impure from 1 |