Of Heav'n perhaps, or all the elements At least had gone to wrack, disturb'd and torn Hung forth in Heav'n his golden fcales, yet feen 996. Th' Eternal to prevent fuch horrid fray] The breaking off the combat between Gabriel and Satan, by the hanging out of the golden fcales in Heaven, is a refinement upon Homer's thought, who tells us that before the battel between Hector and Achilles, Jupiter weighed the event of it in a pair of fcales. The reader may fee the whole paffage in the 22d Iliad. Virgil before the laft decifive combat defcribes Jupiter in the fame manner, as weighing the fates of Turnus and Æneas. Milton, tho' he fetch'd this beautiful circumftance from the Iliad and Æneid, does not only infert it as a poetical embellishment, like the authors above mention'd; but makes an artful ufe of it for the proper car 995 Wherein rying on of his fable, and for the breaking off the combat between the two warriors, who were upon the point of engaging. To this we may further add, that Milton is the more juftify'd in this paffage, as we find the fame noble allegory in holy Writ, where a wicked prince, fome few hours before he was affaulted and flain, is faid to have been weighed in the feales, and to have been found wanting. Addison. 997. his golden feales,] So they are in Homer xputed Tαzile, both where he weighs the deftinies of the Greeks and Trojans in book the 8th, and the fates of Hector and Achilles in book the 22d. And this figure of weighing the deftinies of men appear'd fo beautiful to fucceeding poets, that Efchylus (as we are inform'd by Plutarch in his treatife of Hearing the poets) writ a tragedy upon this foundation, which he intitled Juxosasia or the weighing of fouls. 998. Betwixt Aftrea and the Scorpion fign,] Libra or the Scales Wherein all things created first he weigh'd, The pendulous round earth with balanc'd air 1000 In counterpoife, now ponders all events, is one of the twelve figns of the zodiac, as Aftrea (or Virgo the Virgin) and Scorpio alfo are. This does as it were realize the fiction, and gives confequently a greater force to it. Richardfon. This allufion to the fign Libra in the Heavens is a beauty that is not in Homer or Virgil, and gives this paffage a manifeft advantage over both their descriptions. 999. Wherein all things created firft be weigh'd, &c.] This of weighing the creation at first and of all events fince gives us a fublime idea of providence, and is conformable to the ftile of Scripture, Job XXVIII. 25. To make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth the waters by measure. Chap. XXXVII. 16. Doft thou know the balancings of the clouds? Ifaiah XL. 12. Who weighed the mountains in fcales, and the bills in a balance? And then for weighing particular events fince fee 1 Sam. II. 3. By bim actions are weigh'd. Prov. XVI. 2. The Lord weigheth the fpirits. I do not recollect an inftance of aveighing battels particularly, but there is foundation enough for that In Homer and Virgil as we have feen; and then for weighing king. doms we see an inftance in Belfhazzar, and it is faid exprefsly, Dan. V. 26, 27. God bath number'd thy Battels kingdom, and finish'd it, thou art weighed in the balances. So finely hath Milton improv'd upon the fictions of the poets by the eternal truths of holy Scripture. 1003. The fequel each of parting and of fight;] Dr. Bentley reads The fignal each &c. To understand which of these two readings fuits the place beft, let us confider the poet's thought, which was this: God put in the golden scales two weights: in the one scale he put the weight, which was the sequel (that is reprefented the confequence) of Satan's parting from them; in the other scale he put the weight, which was the fequel of Satan's fighting: neither of the fcales had any thing in it immediately relating to Gabriel and therefore Dr. Bentley mistakes (I think) when he fays, that the afcending weight, Satan's, was the fignal to him of defeat; the defcending, Gabriel's, the fignal to him of victory: they were both fignals (if fignals) to Satan only, for he only was weigh'd, ver. 1012; or rather they fhow'd him what would be the confequence both of his fighting and of his retreating. The fcale, in which lay the weight, that was the fequel of his fighting, by afcending fhow'd him that he was light in arms, and could not Battels and realms: in these he put two weights obtain victory; whereas the other fcale, in which was the fequel of his parting or retreating, having defcended, it was a fign that his going off quietly would be his wifeft and weightiest attempt. The reader will excufe my having been fo long in this note, when he confiders that Dr. Bentley and probably many others have misunderstood Milton's thought about the fcales, judging of it by what they read of Jupiter's fcales in Homer and Virgil; the account of which is very different from this of Milton; for in them the fates of the two combatants are weigh'd one against the other, and the descent of one of the scales foreshow'd the death of him whofe fate lay in that scale, quo vergat pondere lethum: whereas in Milton nothing is weigh'd but what relates to Satan only, and in the two scales are weigh'd the two different events of his retreating and his fighting. From what has been faid it may appear pretty plainly, that Milton by Sequel meant the confequence or event, as it is exprefs'd in ver. 1001. and then there will be no occafion for Dr. Bentley's fignal ; both because it is a very improper word in this place, and because a fignal of parting and of fight, can be nothing else than a fignal when to part and when to fight; which he will not pretend to be the Which Gabriel spying, thus befpake the Fiend. 1005 Satan, I know thy strength, and thou know'ft mine, Neither our own but giv'n; what folly then To boast what arms can do? fince thine no more Than Heav'n permits, nor mine, though doubled now To in the 22d book, and there are thus Every reader, who compares thefe tranflated. paffages with our author, muft fee To trample thee as mire: for proof look up, 1010 Where thou art weigh'd, and shown how light, how weak, If thou refift. The Fiend look'd up, and knew Murm'ring, and with him fled the shades of night. 1015 1012. Where thou art weigh'd, and Shown how light, how weak,] He does not make the afcending fcale the fign of victory as in Homer and Virgil, but of lightness and weakness according to that of Belshazzar, Dan. V. 27. Thou art weigh'd in the balances, and art found wanting. So true it is, that Milton oftner imitates Scripture than Homer and Virgil, even where he is thought to imitate them moft. The end of the Fourth Book. |