What, if in wild amazement, and affright,
Or, while we speak, within the direful grasp
Of savage hunger, or of savage heat?

1 BR. Peace, Brother, be not over-exquisite
To cast the fashion of uncertain evils;
For grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
Or if they be but false alarms of fear,
How bitter is such self-delusion!

I do not think my Sister so to seek,
Or so unprincipled in virtue's book,

360

And the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever,
As that the single want of light and noise
(Not being in danger, as I trust she is not)
Could stir the constant mood of her calm thoughts,
And put them into misbecoming plight.

370

Virtue could see to do what virtue would

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk. And Wisdom's self 375
Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude,

Where with her best nurse Contemplation
She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings,

361 For grant] This line obscures the thought, and loads the expression it had been better out. Warburton.

576 seeks to] This expression, seeks to,' common in our transl. of the Bible. Isaiah xi. 10. Deut. xii. 5. 1 Kings x. 24. Eccles. iv. 12. Warton. Todd.

378 plumes] I believe the true reading to be prunes.' Warton.

That in the various bustle of resort

Were all-to ruffled, and sometimes impair'd. 380

He that has light within his own clear breast,
May sit i' th' centre, and enjoy bright day :

But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;
Himself is his own dungeon.

2 BR. 'Tis most true,

That musing meditation most affects
The pensive secrecy of desert cell,

Far from the cheerful haunt of men and herds,
And sits as safe as in a senate house;

385

For who would rob a hermit of his weeds,
His few books, or his beads, or maple dish,
Or do his gray hairs any violence?

390

395

But beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree
Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
Of dragon watch with unenchanted eye,
To save her blossoms, and defend her fruit
From the rash hand of bold incontinence.
You may as well spread out the unsunn'd heaps
Of miser's treasure by an outlaw's den,

And tell me it is safe, as bid me hope
Danger will wink on opportunity,

400

380 all-to] So read as in editions 1637, 1645, 1673, not 'too ruffled;' 'all-to' is entirely.' See Tyrwhitt's Gloss. Chauc. v. To. Upton's Gloss. Spens. v. all.' Warton.

350 ruffled] Benlowes's Theophila, p. 222. Retreating to sweet shades our shattered thoughts we piece.'

369 senate] See Tooke's Div. of Purley, i. p. 90, ed. 4to.

And let a single helpless maiden pass
Uninjur❜d in this wild surrounding waste.
Of night, or loneliness, it racks me not;

I fear the dread events that dog them both, Lest some ill-greeting touch attempt the person Of our unowned Sister.

1 BR. I do not, Brother,

Infer, as if I thought my Sister's state
Secure without all doubt, or controversy;
Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear
Does arbitrate th' event, my nature is
That I incline to hope, rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion.
My Sister is not so defenceless left,

As you imagine; she has a hidden strength.
Which you remember not.

2 BR. What hidden strength, Unless the strength of Heav'n, if

405

410

415

you mean that? 1 BR. Imean that too, but yet a hidden strength, Which, if heav'n gave it, may be term'd her own; 'Tis chastity, my Brother, chastity:

She that has that, is clad in complete steel,

420

And like a quiver'd Nymph with arrows keen May trace huge forests, and unharbour'd heaths, Infamous hills, and sandy perilous wilds,

413 squint] Quarles's Feast for Wormes (1633), p. 48. Heart-gnawing hatred, and squint-eyed suspicion.'

Warton.

424 Infamous] Hor. Od. i. iii. 20. 'Infames scopulos.'

Newton.

Where through the sacred rays of chastity, 425
No savage fierce, bandite, or mountaineer
Will dare to soil her virgin purity:

Yea there, where very desolation dwells,

430

By grots, and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades,
She may pass on with unblench'd majesty,
Be it not done in pride, or in presumption.
Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
In fog, or fire, by lake, or moorish fen,
Blue meager hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost,
That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, 435
No goblin, or swart faery of the mine,

Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
Do ye believe me yet, or shall I call
Antiquity from the old schools of Greece
To testify the arms of chastity?

Hence had the huntress Dian her dread bow,
Fair silver-shafted queen, for ever chaste,
Wherewith she tam'd the brinded lioness

410

And spotted mountain pard, but set at nought The frivolous bolt of Cupid; Gods and men 445

426 bandite] Tickell changed 'bandite' into 'banditti,' and 'Dian' into 'Diana.'

129 shagg'd] Benlowes's Theophila, p. 226.

'Embost with trees, with bushes shagg'd.'

132 Some say] Hamlet, act 1, sc. 1. But then, they say, no spirit walks abroad.'

433 fog] Milton here had his eye on Fletcher's F. Shepherdess, act 1. 'I have heard, (my mother told it me),' &c. Newton.

Fear'd her stern frown, and she was queen o' th'

woods.

What was that snaky-headed Gorgon shield,
That wise Minerva wore, unconquer'd virgin,
Wherewith she freez'd her foes to congeal'd stone,
But rigid looks of chaste austerity,

And noble grace that dash'd brute violence
With sudden adoration and blank awe?
So dear to heav'n is saintly chastity,
That when a soul is found sincerely so,
A thousand liveried angels lacky her,
Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,
And in clear dream, and solemn vision,
Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear,
Till oft converse with heav'nly habitants
Begin to cast a beam on th' outward shape,
The unpolluted temple of the mind,

450

455

460

465

And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence,
Till all be made immortal: but when lust,
By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk,
But most by lewd and lavish act of sin,
Lets in defilement to the inward parts,
The soul grows clotted by contagion,
Imbodies, and imbrutes, till she quite lose
The divine property of her first being.

449 freez'd] Dante Inferno, c. ix. Che se'l Gorgon si

mostra.

455 liveried] Nabbes's Microcosmus, p. 22.

469 divine] Hor. Sat. ii. ii. 79.

'Atque affligit humo divinæ particulam auræ !' Todd.