851 And of their wonted vigor left them drain'd, Exhaufted, fpiritlefs, afflicted, fall'n. Yet half his ftrength he put not forth, but check'd 853. Yet half his ftrength be put not forth, &c.] There is no queftion but Milton had heated his imagination with the fight of the Gods in Homer, before he enter'd upon this engagement of the Angels. Homer there gives us a fcene of men, heroes, and Gods, mix'd together in battel. Mars animates the contending armies, and lifts up his voice in fuch a manner, that it is heard diftinctly amidst all the fhouts and confufion of the fight. Jupiter at the fame time thunders over-their heads; while Neptune raifes fuch a tempeft, that the whole field of battel, and all the tops of the mountains fhake about them. The poet tells us, that Pluto himself, whofe habitation was in the very center of the earth, was fo affrighted at the fhock, that he leap'd from his throne. Homer afterwards describes Vulcan as pouring down a ftorm of fire upon the river Xanthus, and Minerva as throwing a rock at Mars; who, he tells us, cover'd feven acres in his fall. As Homer has introduced into his battel of the Gods every thing that is great and terrible in nature, Milton has filled his fight of good and bad Angels with all the like circumftances of horror. The fhouts of armies, the rattling His thunder in mid voly; for he meant Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven: 855 The overthrown he rais'd, and as a herd Yet half his ftrength he put not forth, but check'd His thunder in mid voly; for he meant Not to destroy, but root them out of Heaven. In a word, Milton's genius, which was fo great in itself, and fo ftrengthen'd by all the helps of learning, appears in this book every way equal to his fubject, which was the moft fublime that could enter into the thoughts of a poet. As he knew all the arts of affecting the mind, he knew it was neceflary to give it certain refting places, and opportunities of recovering itself from time to time he has therefore with great addrefs interfperfed feveral speeches, reflections, fimilitudes, and the like reliefs to diverfify his narration, and ease the attention of the reader, that he might come fresh to his great action, and by fuch a contraft of ideas have a more lively tafte of the nobler parts of his defcription. Addifon. Yet half his firength he put not forth, &c. This fine thought is fomewhat like that of the Pfalmift, LXXVIII. 38. But he being full of compaffion, forgave their iniquity, and deftroyed them not; yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not fir up 856. wavlo operes, and as a herd Of geats &c.] It may feem ftrange that our author amidst so many fublime images fhould intermix fo low a comparison as this. But it is the practice of Homer; and we have fome remarkable inftances in the fecond book of the Iliad, where in a pompous description of the Grecians going forth to battel, and amidst the glare of feveral noble fimilitudes, they are compar'd for their number to flies about a shepherd's cottage, when the milk moistens the pails; and after he has compar'd Agamemnon to Jove, and Mars, and Neptune, he compares him again to a bull. But we may obferve to the advantage of our author, that this low fimile is not apply'd, as Homer's are, to the perfons he meant to honor, but to the contrary party; and the lower the comparison, the more it expreffes their defeat. And there is the Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd And crystal wall of Heav'n, which opening wide, 861 Into the wafteful deep; the monftrous fight attend to the minutenefs of that figurative diftinction between goats and sheep, however beautiful it may be in its proper place: or if he had defigned it, he would have avoided the ambiguity of fuch a word as flock, which feems improper either to goats or deer. 859. With terrors and with furies the greater propriety in the fimilitude of goats particularly, because our Saviour reprefents the wicked under the fame image, as the good are called the sheep. Mat. XXV. 33. And be fhall fet the fheep on his right band, but the goats on the left. For which reason Dr. Pearce is of opinion that by a timorous flock are not meant sheep but deer, that epithet to the bounds] Job VI. 4. The being as it were appropriated by the poets to that animal. Virgil terrors of God do fet themselves in has timidi dame twice at leaft. Or array against me: and the fury of the the author (as Dr. Bentley and Lord is a common expreffion in Dr. Heylin imagin) might have Scriptore. Ifa. LI. 20. They are full faid not or but a timorous flock; of the fury of the Lord. and as a herd of goats a timorous gil frequently ufes furie for fuch flock. But he would hardly have frights and disturbances of mind as call'd the fame a herd of goats, and drive perfons to madness. See then a flock immediately afterwards, Georg. III. 511. Æn. I. 41. IV. and neither would he have ufed 376, 474. &c. And fo the word the expreffion of timorous flock for feems to be used here. a herd of deer in contradiftinction to a herd of goats, tho' it is a proper phrafe for fheep, which feem plainly to be meant by it. And it is probable that in the highth and fury of his description he did not 865. And Vir ----- eternal wrath Burnt after them to the bottomless pit.] The uncommon meafure of this verfe, with only one Iambic foot in it, and that the laft, is admirably contriv'd to exprefs the Down from the verge of Heav'n; eternal wrath 865 Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. Hell heard th' unsufferable noise, Hell faw Heav'n ruining from Heav'n, and would have fled Her dark foundations, and too fast had bound. 870 Through his wild anarchy, so huge a rout 876 Yawning receiv'd them whole, and on them clos'd; To meet him all his Saints, who filent ftood Nine times the space that measures day and night &c. Thus in the first Iliad the plague continues nine days, and upon all occafions the poets are fond of the numbers nine and three. They have three Graces and nine Muses. What might at firft occafion this way of thinking it is not eafy to fay; but it is certainly very ancient, and we are now fo accuftom'd to it, that if here, instead of pine, Milton had faid ten days, I am perfuaded it would not have had fo good an effect. The fame space of time is affign'd for the fall of Angels, as Mr. Lauder remarks, in one of the Eclogues of Baptifta Mantuanus tranflated into English by George Turberville. Nay rather 'twas the cruel'ft imp 880 874. Incumber'd him with ruin:] This too, like the word ruining in ver. 868. must be taken in its Italian fignification. Ingombrate is very poetical, and expreffes the utmost embarafment and confufion; but incumber'd, tho' plainly the fame word, yet in its common acceptalow for the author's purpose in this tion has a meaning too weak and Thyer, verfe. 876. Hell their fit habitation the boufe of woe and pain.] Very |