Forthwith from dance to sweet repast they turn
Desirous; all in circles as they stood,

Tables are set, and on a sudden piled

With angels' food; and rubied nectar flows

In pearl, in diamond, and massy gold,

Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of heaven.

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On flowers reposed, and with fresh flowerets crown'd,
They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet
Quaff immortality and joy, secure

Of surfeit, where full measure only bounds

Excess, before the all-bounteous King, who shower'd
With copious hand, rejoicing in their joy.
Now when ambrosial night with clouds exhaled

From that high mount of God, whence light and shade
Spring both, the face of brightest heaven had changed
To grateful twilight (for night comes not there
In darker veil), and roseat dews disposed

All but the unsleeping eyes of God to rest;
Wide over all the plain, and wider far

Than all this globous earth in plain outspread
(Such are the courts of God), the angelic throng,
Dispersed in bands and files, their
camp extend

By living streams among the trees of life,

Pavilions numberless and sudden rear'd,

Celestial tabernacles, where they slept

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Fann'd with cool winds; save those, who, in their course, 655
Melodious hymns about the sovran throne
Alternate all night long: but not so waked
Satan; so call him now; his former name
Is heard no more in heaven: he of the first,
If not the first archangel, great in power,
In favour, and pre-eminence, yet fraught
With envy against the Son of God, that day
Honour'd by his great Father, and proclaim'd
Messiah King anointed, could not bear

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Through pride that sight, and thought himself impaired.
Deep malice then conceiving and disdain,

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Soon as midnight brought on the dusky hour

Friendliest to sleep and silence, he resolved
With all his legions to dislodge, and leave
Unworshipp'd, unobey'd, the throne supreme,
Contemptuous; and his next subordinate
Awakening, thus to him in secret spake :

Sleep'st thou, companion dear? what sleep can close

Unsleeping eyes of God.

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So the Psalmist, Psalm cxxi. 4:-"He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." The author had likewise Homer in mind, Il. ii. 1.-NEWTON.

By living streams.

Rev. vii. 17:"The Lamb shall lead unto living fountains of water."-TODD.

Thy eyelids? and remember'st what decree
Of yesterday, so late hath pass'd the lips
Of heaven's Almighty? Thou to me thy thoughts
Was wont, I mine to thee was wont to impart :
Both waking we were one; how then can now
Thy sleep dissent? New laws thou seest imposed;
New laws from him who reigns, new minds may raise
In us who serve, new counsels to debate
What doubtful may ensue: more in this place
To utter is not safe. Assemble thou
Of all those myriads which we lead the chief;
Tell them, that by command, ere yet dim night
Her shadowy cloud withdraws, I am to haste,
And all who under me their banners wave,
Homeward, with flying march, where we possess
The quarters of the north"; there to prepare

"The quarters of the north.

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See Sannazarius, de Partu Virginis, iii. 40. There are other passages in the same poem of which Milton has made use.-JORTIN.

Some have thought that Milton intended, but I dare say he was above intending here, a reflection upon Scotland; though being himself an independent, he had no great affection forthe Scotch presbyterians. He had the authority, we see, of Sannazarius for fixing Satan's rebellion in "the quarters of the north;" and he had much better authority, the same that Sannazarius had,-that of the prophet, whose words, though applied to the king of Babylon, yet alluded to this rebellion of Satan, Isaiah xiv. 12:-"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north." St. Austin says, that the devil and his angels, being averse from the light and fervour of charity, grew torpid as it were with an icy hardness; and are therefore, by a figure, placed in the north. See his Epist. cxi. sect. 55. And Shakspeare calls Satan "the monarch of the north,' 1 Hen. VI. a. v., s. 3. I have seen too a Latin poem by Odoricus Valmerana, printed at Vienna in 1627, and entitled "Dæmonomachiae, sive de Bello Intelligentiarum super Divini Verbi Incarnatione." This poem is longer than the Iliad, for it consists of five-andtwenty books, but it equals the Iliad in nothing but in length, for the poetry is very indifferent: however, in some particulars the plan of this poem is very like "Paradise Lost."

It opens with the exaltation of the Son of God; and thereupon Lucifer revolts, and draws a third part of the angels after him into the quarters of the north :

Pars tertia lævam,

Hoc duce persequitur, gelidoque aquilone locatur.

It is more probable that Milton had seen this poem, than some others from which he is charged with borrowing largely. He was indeed a universal scholar, and read all sorts of authors, and took hints from the moderns as well as the ancients. He was a great genius, but a great genius formed by reading; and, as it was said of Virgil, he collected gold out of the dung of other authors.-NEWTON.

The commentators have not observed that there is still another poem, which Milton seems to have copied, "L' Angelida di Erasmo di Valvasone," printed at Venice in 1590, describing the battle of the angels against Lucifer. I beg leave to add that Milton seems also to have attended to a poem of Tasso, not much noticed, on the Creation, "Le Sette Giornate del Mondo Creato," in 1607.-J. WARTON.

This poem of Tasso is in blank verse: the measure, therefore, as well as the subject, would particularly interest Milton. There is another poem, still less noticed, into which also Milton might have looked, "Della Creatione del Mondo, Poema Sacro, del Signor Gasparo Murtola, Giorni sette, Canti sedici," printed at Venice in 1608: the printer of which informs the reader that this work had been expected by

the learned with much impatience.-TODD.

Fit entertainment to receive our King,
The great Messiah, and his new commands;
Who speedily through all the hierarchies
Intends to pass triumphant, and give laws.
So spake the false archangel, and infused
Bad influence into the unwary breast
Of his associate: he together calls,
Or several one by one, the regent powers,
Under him regent; tells, as he was taught,
That the Most High commanding, now ere night,
Now ere dim night had disencumber'd heaven,
The great hierarchal standard was to move;
Tells the suggested cause, and casts between
Ambiguous words and jealousies to sound
Or taint integrity: but all obey'd
The wonted signal and superiour voice
Of their great potentate; for great indeed
His name, and high was his degree in heaven:
His countenance, as the morning star that guides
The starry flock, allured them; and with lies
Drew after him the third part of heaven's host".
Meanwhile the eternal eye, whose sight discerns
Abstrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount,
And from within the golden lamps that burn
Nightly before him, saw without their light
Rebellion rising; saw in whom, how spread
Among the sons of morn', what multitudes
Were banded to oppose his high decree;
And, smiling, to his only Son thus said:-

Son, thou in whom my glory I behold
In full resplendence, heir of all my might',
Nearly it now concerns us to be sure
Of our omnipotence, and with what arms
We mean to hold what anciently we claim
Of deity or empire: such a foe

Is rising, who intends to erect his throne

His countenance, as the morning-star.

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This similitude is not so new as poetical. Virgil, in like manner, compares the beautiful young Pallas to the morning-star, En. viii. 589, &c. But there is a much greater propriety in Milton's comparing Satan to the morning-star, as he is often spoken of under the name of Lucifer, as well as denominated Lucifer, son of the morning.-NBWTON.

"The third part of heaven's host.

See Rev. xii. 3, 4.-NEWTON.

* The golden lamps.

Alluding to the lamps before the throne of God, which St. John saw in his vision, Rev. iv. 5:"And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne."-NEWTON.

Heir of all my might.

"For he is the brightness of his Father's glory, and appointed heir of all things." -NEWTON.

Equal to ours, throughout the spacious north;
Nor so content, hath in his thought to try
In battel, what our power is, or our right.
Let us advise, and to this hazard draw
With speed what force is left, and all employ
In our defence: lest unawares we lose
This our high place, our sanctuary, our hill.

To whom the Son, with calm aspect and clear,
Lightning divine, ineffable, serene,
Made answer:-Mighty Father, thou thy foes
Justly hast in derision, and, secure,

Laugh'st at their vain designs and tumults vain,
Matter to me of glory, whom their hate
Illustrates; when they see all regal power
Given me to quell their pride, and in event
Know whether I be dextrous to subdue
Thy rebels, or be found the worst in heaven.

So spake the Son: but Satan, with his powers,
Far was advanced on winged speed: an host
Innumerable as the stars of night,

Or stars of morning, dew-drops“, which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower.
Regions they pass'd, the mighty regencies
Of seraphim, and potentates, and thrones,
In their triple degrees; regions, to which
All thy dominion, Adam, is no more
Than what this garden is to all the earth,
And all the sea, from one entire globose
Stretch'd into longitude; which having pass'd,
At length into the limits of the north
They came; and Satan to his royal seat,
High on a hill far blazing, as a mount

Raised on a mount, with pyramids and towers

From diamond quarries hewn and rocks of gold;
The palace of great Lucifer (so call
That structure in the dialect of men
Interpreted), which not long after, he,
Affecting all equality with God,
In imitation of that mount whereon
Messiah was declared in sight of heaven,
The mountain of the Congregation" call'd;
For thither he assembled all his train,

Or stars of morning, dew-drops.

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Innumerable as the stars, is an old simile; but this of the stars of morning, dewdrops, seems as new as it is beautiful: and the sun impearls them--turns them by

with orient pearl, ver. 2.-NEWTON.

b The mountain of the congregation.

Isaiah xiv. 13:-"I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north."-NEWTON.

Pretending so commanded to consult
About the great reception of their King,
Thither to come; and with calumnious art
Of counterfeited truth thus held their ears:

Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers;
If these magnific titles yet remain
Not merely titular, since by decree
Another now hath to himself engross'd

All power, and us eclipsed under the name
Of King anointed, for whom all this haste
Of midnight march, and hurried meeting here,
This only to consult how we may best,
With what may be devised of honours new,
Receive him coming to receive from us
Knee-tribute yet unpaid, prostration vile!
Too much to one! but double how endured,
To one, and to his image now proclaim'd?
But what if better counsels might erect
Our minds, and teach us to cast off this yoke?
Will ye submit your necks, and choose to bend
The supple knee? Ye will not, if I trust
To know ye right, or if ye know yourselves
Natives and sons of heaven, possess'd before
By none; and if not equal all, yet free,
Equally free; for orders and degrees
Jar not with liberty, but well consist.
Who can in reason then, or right, assume
Monarchy over such as live by right

His equals? if in power and splendour less,
In freedom equal: or can introduce
Law and edict on us? who without law

Err not much less for this to be our Lord,
And look for adoration; to the abuse
Of those imperial titles, which assert
Our being ordain'd to govern, not to serve.

Thus far his bold discourse without controul
Had audience; when among the seraphim,
Abdiel, than whom none with more zeal adored
The Deity, and divine commands obey'd,
Stood up, and in a flame of zeal severe
The current of his fury thus opposed :

O argument blasphemous, false, and proud!
Words which no ear ever to hear in heaven
Expected, least of all from thee, ingrate,

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Let those who talk of absolute equality, remember these words of one whom they must allow to have been a lover of freedom.-J. WARTON.

d For this.

"For this," must be, "in right of law or edict."