And now, too foon for us, the circling hours This dreaded time have compass'd, wherein we Muft bide the stroke of that long-threaten'd wound,

: 60

(At least if so we can, and by the head
Broken be not intended all our power
To be infring'd, our freedom and our being,
In this fair empire won of earth and air,)
For this ill news I bring, the Woman's Seed,
Deftin'd to this, is late of Woman born.
His birth to our just fear gave no small caufe:

65

to a Being with whom all duration is prefent. Time to human beings has its ftated measurement, and by this Satan had just before estimated it;

"How many ages, as the years of men,

"This univerfe we have poffeffed,".

Time to guilty beings, human or spiritual, paffes fo quick, that the hour of punishment, however protracted, always comes, too foon ;

"And now, too foon for us, the circling hours

"This dreaded time have compafs'd, wherein we
"Muft bide the ftroke of that long-threaten'd wound.'

دو

DÜNSTER,

Ver. 57. the circling hours] Milton feems fond of this expreffion to mark the recurrence of times and feafons. In the opening of the fixth Book of the Paradife Loft, he describes the Morn "'wak'd by the circling Hours.” And in the seventh Book, ver. 342. he speaks of the "circling years."

Kuxhíw to circle, as ufed by the Greek poets, fometimes fignifics to lead the choral dance.-The circling hours, then, are the fame "with the Hours in dance," Paradife Loft, B. iv. 266.

DUNSTER,

But his growth now to youth's full flower, dif

playing

70

All virtue, grace, and wisdom to achieve
Things highest, greatest, multiplies my fear.
Before him a great Prophet, to proclaim
His coming, is fent harbinger, who all
Invites, and in the confecrated stream
Pretends to wash off fin, and fit them, fo
Purified, to receive him pure, or rather
To do him honour as their king: All come, 75
And he himself among them was baptiz'd;
Not thence to be more pure, but to receive
The teftimony of Heaven, that who he is
Thenceforth the nations may not doubt; I faw
The Prophet do him reverence; on him, rising 80
Out of the water, Heaven above the clouds

Ver. 74. Purified, to receive him pure,] Alluding to the Scrip ture expreffion, I John, iii. 3. "And every man that hath this hope in him, "purifieth himself even as he is pure." NEWTON. Heaven above the clouds

Ver. 81.

Latin

Unfold her crystal doors;] Thus Milton, in his poem on the death of Felton, Bp. of Ely, written at the age of feventeen ;

"Donec nitentes ad fores

"Ventum eft Olympi, et regiam cryftallinam, et

"Stratum fmaragdis atrium."

St. Matthew (iii. 16.) fays, "the Heavens were opened;" St. Mark (i. 10.) that they were cloven or rent, cxicoμévovs. Thus alfo, Pfalm lxxviii. 23. "So he commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of Heaven." DUNSTER.

See alfo Rev. iv. 1. "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in Heaven."

Unfold her crystal doors; thence on his head
A perfect dove descend, (whate'er it meant,)
And out of Heaven the fovran voice I heard,
"This is my Son belov'd, in him am pleas'd."
His mother then is mortal, but his Sire
He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven:
And what will he not do to advance his Son ?
His first-begot we know, and fore have felt,
When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep: 90

86

Ver. 83. A perfect dove defcend,] He had expreffed it before, ver. 30. in likeness of a dove, agreeably to St. Matthew, "the Spirit of God defcending like a dove," iii. 16. and to St. Mark, "the Spirit like a dove defcending upon him," i. 10. But as Luke fays, that the Holy Ghoft defcended in a bodily fhape, iii. 22, the poet fuppofes with Tertullian, Austin, and others of the fathers, that it was a real dove, as the painters always reprefent it.

NEWTON. Vida, like Milton, defcribes the Holy Ghost descending as a "perfect dove ;" Chrift. iv. 214.

"Protinus aurifluo Jordanes gurgite fulfit,

Et fuperûm vafto intonuit domus alta fragore:
" Infuper et cœli claro delapfa columba est
"Vertice per purum, candenti argentea pluma
"Terga, fed auratis circum et rutilantibus alis :
"Jámque viam late fignans fuper aftitit ambos,
"Cœleftique aurâ pendens afflavit utrumque.
"Vox fimul et magni rubrâ genitoris ab æthrâ
"Audita eft, nati dulcem teftantis amorem."

DUNSTER.

Ver. 87. He who obtains the monarchy of Heaven:] Obtains is in the sense of obtineo in Latin; to hold, retain, or govern.

When his fierce thunder drove us to the deep:] In

Who this is we must learn, for Man he feems
In all his lineaments, though in his face
The glimpses of his Father's glory shine.
Ye fee our danger on the utmost edge
Of hazard, which admits no long debate,

95

reference to the fublime defcription, in the Paradife Loft, of the Meffiah driving the rebel Angels out of Heaven, B. vi. 834, &c. DUNSTER.

Ver. 91. Who this is we must learn,] Our author favours the opinion of those writers, Ignatius and others among the ancients, and Beza and others among the moderns, who believed that the Devil, though he might know Jefus to be fome extraordinary perfon, yet knew him not to be the Meffiah, the Son of God. NEWTON.

It was requifite for the poet to affume this opinion, as it is a neceffary hinge on which part of the poem turns. DUNSTER.

Ver. 94.

on the utmoft edge

Of hazard,] Dr. Newton fays, this is borrowed from Shakspeare's All's well that ends well, A. iii. S. iii. "We'll strive to bear it, for your worthy fake,

"To the extreme edge of hazard;”

It is certainly a ftrong coincidence of expreffion. But Milton may be fuppofed to have had in his mind a paffage in Homer: from whom Shakspeare night alfo have borrowed a metaphor fo perfectly Grecian, by the means of his friend Chapman's verfion. See II. x. 173.

Νῦν γὰρ δὴ πάντεσσιν ΕΠΙ ΞΥΡΟΥ ΙΣΤΑΤΑΙ ΑΚΜΗΣ
Η μάλα λυγρὸς ὄλεθρος Αχαιοις, η βιῶναι.

For the very frequent ufe of 'Eni tufe anus, among the Greek writers, fee a note of Valckenaer on Herodotus, 1. vi. c. 11.— And Warton on Theocritus, Idyll. xxii. 6.

Milton has twice ufed nearly the fame expreffion in his Paradise Loft;

"on the perilous edge

"Of battle, when it rag'd," B. i. 276.

But must with something fudden be oppos'd,

(Not force, but well-couch'd fraud, well-woven fnares,)

Ere in the head of nations he appear,

Their king, their leader, and supreme on earth.
I, when no other durft, fole undertook
The dismal expedition to find out

"On the rough edge of battle, ere it join'd,"

B. vi. 108.

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where I am not a little furprised to find Dr. Newton and Dr. Jortin both endeavouring to trace out the phrafe, without being at all aware that it was fo common an expreffion among the Greeks, as to be quite proverbial. See Lucian, Jupit. Tagad. tom. ii. p. 605. Ed. Reitz. DUNSTER.

Milton, I observe, ufes this proverbial expreffion literally in English: "We never leave fubtilizing and cafuifting, till we have ftraitned and pared that liberal path into a razor's edge to walk on, between a precipice of unneceffary mischief on either fide." Profe-W. vol. i. p. 321. ed. 1698.

Ver. 97.

well-couch'd fraud,] So it is faid of the Devil, as Mr. Dunster also has obferved, that he " was the first

"That practis'd falfhood under faintly show,
"Deep malice to conceal, couch'd with revenge.”
Par. Loft. B. iv. 121.

And I find in his Profe-Works, that flattery is called "that deceitful and clafe-coucht evil." vol. i. p. 141. ed. 1698.

Ibid.

well-woven fnares,] Thus

Virgil, En. vi. 609.

"fraus innexa clienti ;"

And Silius Italicus, iii. 233;

"Arte dolos.".

Ver. 100.

"docilis fallendi, et nedtere tectos
DUNSTER.

I, when no other durft, fole undertook

The difmal expedition &c.] The fear and unwil