By force, who reafon for their law refuse, Right reason for their law, and for their king Gabriel, lead forth to battel these my sons By thousands and by millions rang'd for fight, 41. reafon for their law] Alluding to the word Ao.. 44. Go Michael of celestial armies prince,] As this battel of the Angels is founded principally on Rev. XII. 7, 8. There was war in Heaven; Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon, and the Dragon fought and his Angels, and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in Heaven; Michael is rightly made by Milton the leader of the heavenly armies, and the name in Hebrew fignifies the power of God. But it may be cenfur'd perhaps as a piece of wrong con 45 50 His duct in the poem, that the commiffion here given is not executed; they are order'd to drive the rebel Angels out from God and bliss, but this is effected at last by the Meffiah alone. Some reasons for it are affign'd in the fpeech of God, ver. 680. and in that of the Meffiah, ver. 801. in this book. 55. His fiery Chaos] Chaos may mean any place of confufion; but if we take it ftrictly, Tartarus or Hell was built in Chaos (II. 1002.) and therefore that part of it, being ftor'd with fire, may not improperly be call'd a fiery Chaos, Dr. His fiery Chaos to receive their fall. So fpake the sovran voice, and clouds began In dusky wreaths, reluctant flames, the fign That stood for Heav'n, in mighty quadrate join'd In filence their bright legions, to the found Under their God-like leaders, in the cause Dr. Bentley's change of his into its, because which (not who) went 'before, proceeds upon a fuppofition that which is not to be referred to a perfon; though it is well known that formerly which was as often apply'd to a perfon as who: as Dr. Pearce obferves. 56. to roll &c.] In this defcription the author manifeftly alludes to that of God defcending upon mount Sinai, Exod. XIX. 16, &c. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thun 55 60 65 In and mount ders, and lightnings, and a thick 58.- reluctant flames,] As flow Virg. Æn. V.682. 64. In filence] So Homer obferves, Iliad. III. 8. to the honor of his countrymen the Grecians, that they march'd on in filence, while the Trojans advanc'd with noife and clamor. 71.-for Indiffolubly firm; nor obvious hill, 69 Nor ftrait'ning vale, nor wood, nor ftream divides Their perfect ranks; for high above the ground Their march was, and the paffive air upbore Their nimble tread; as when the total kind Their names of thee; fo over many a tract 75 Of Heav'n they march'd, and many a province wide 71. — for high above the ground &c.] Our author attributes the fame kind of motion to the Angels, as the Ancients did to their Gods; which was gliding thro' the air without ever touching the ground with their feet, or as Milton elfewhere elegantly expreffes it (B.VIII. 302.) fmooth-fliding without ftep. And Homer, Iliad. V. 778. compares the motion of two Goddeffes to the flight of doves, as Milton here compares the march of the Angels to the birds coming on the wing to Adam to receive their names, From 73-as when the total kind &c.] Homer has ufed the fimile of a flight of fowls twice in his Iliad, to exprefs the number and the motions, the order and the clamors of an army. See Iliad II. 459III. 2. As Virgil has done the fame number of times in his Æneid, VII. 699. X. 264. But this fimile exceeds any of those; Firft, as it rifes fo naturally out of the subject, and was a comparison fo familiar to Adam. Secondly, the Angels were marching thro' the air, and not on the ground, which gives it another propriety; and here I believe the poet intended the chief AI SE BATHY THрwσl wiredσly likeness. Thirdly, The total kind αθμαθ' ομοια of birds much more properly expreffes a prodigious number than Smooth as the failing doves they any particular species, or a collection in any particular place. Thus glide along. Pope. From skirt to skirt a fiery region, ftretch'd Bristled with upright beams innumerable The banded Pow'rs of Satan hafting on 84. Various, with boastful argu ment portray'd,] Shields various are varied with diverfe fculptures and paintings; an elegant Latinifm. And the thought of attributing fields various, with boaftful argument portray'd, to the evil Angels feems to be taken from the Phoeniffe of Euripides, where the heroes who befiege Thebes are defcrib'd with the like boastful shields, only the prophet Amphiaraus hath no fuch boastful argument on his fhield, but a fhield without argument as became a modest man, ver. 1117. Ο μαλις Αμφιαρα, ο σημεί έχων Υβρισμένο, αλλα σωφρόνως ασημε όπλα. 93. And In the mid way: though ftrange to us it seem'd Unanimous, as fons of one great fire 95 Hymning th' eternal Father: but the shout With flaming Cherubim and golden fhields; 93. And in fierce bofting meet, This word bofing feems to have been first coin'd by our author. It is a very expreffive word, and plainly form'd from the fubftantive boft: And if ever it is right to make new words, it is when the occafion is fo new and extraordi nary. 101. Idol of majefty divine,] This is the very fame with what Abdiel afterwards at ver. 114. calls refemblance of the Higheft, but how judiciously has Milton cull'd out the word idol, which though it be in its original fignification the fame as resemblance, yet by its common application always in a bad fenfe 100 Then |