If not disposer; lend them oft my aid,
Oft my advice by presages and signs,
And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,
Whereby they may direct their future life V.
Envy they say excites me, thus to gain
Companions of my misery and woe.

At first it may be; but, long since with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart w,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.
Small consolation then, were man adjoin'd:
This wounds me most; (what can it less ?) that man,
Man fallen shall be restored, I never more.

To whom our Saviour sternly thus replied
Deservedly thou grievest, composed of lies
From the beginning, and in lies wilt end;
Who boast'st release from hell, and leave to come
Into the heaven of heavens: thou comest indeed,
As a poor miserable captive thrall

Comes to the place where he before had sat
Among the prime in splendour, now deposed,
Ejected, emptied, gazed, unpitied, shunn'd,
A spectacle of ruin, or of scorn,

To all the host of heaven: the happy place
Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy;
Rather inflames thy torment; representing

▾ Lend them oft my aid,

Oft my advice by presages and signs,

And answers, oracles, portents, and dreams,

Whereby they may direct their future life.

395

400

405

410

415

The following passage of Cicero reflects so much light on these lines, as would incline one to think that Milton had it in his mind :-"Multa cernunt haruspices; multa augures provident; multa oraculis declarantur, multa vaticinationibus, multa somniis, multa portentis: quibus cognitis, multæ sæpe res hominum sententia atque utilitate partæ," (or, as Lambinus reads, ex animi sententia atque utilitate partæ,) “multa etiam pericula depulsa sunt."- "De Nat. Deor." ii. 65.-NEWTON.

Very artful as he could not acquit himself of envy and mischief, he endeavours to soften his crimes, by assigning this cause of them.-WARBURTON.

The poet very judiciously makes the tempter conclude with these lines concerning the restoration of fallen man, in order to lead our Saviour to say something about the manner of it, to know which was one great part of his design; that he might be able, if possible, to counterplot and prevent it. With no less judgment is our Saviour represented, in the following answer, taking no other notice of it than by replying, "Deservedly thou grievest," &c.-THYER.

Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable y,
So never more in hell than when in heaven.
But thou art serviceable to Heaven's King.
Wilt thou impute to obedience what thy fear
Extorts, or pleasure to do ill excites z?
What but thy malice moved thee to misdeem
Of righteous Job, then cruelly to afflict him
With all inflictions? but his patience won.
The other service was thy chosen task,
To be a liar in four hundred mouths a;
For lying is thy sustenance, thy food.
Yet thou pretend'st to truth; all oracles

By thee are given, and what confess'd more true
Among the nations? that hath been thy craft,
By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies b.
But what have been thy answers, what but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,

y The happy place

Imparts to thee no happiness, no joy;

Rather inflames thy torment; representing
Lost bliss, to thee no more communicable.

We find the same sentiment also in "Paradise Lost," b. ix. 467 :--
But the hot hell that always in him burns,
Though in mid heaven, soon ended his delight,
And tortures him now more, the more he sees
Of pleasure, not for him ordain'd.-THYER.

This passage is at once sublime and pathetic.

Or pleasure to do ill excites.

420

425

430

435

Satan, in "Paradise Lost," b. i. 159, in his first conference with his infernal compeer, says,

To do aught good never will be our task;

But ever to do ill our sole delight.-DUNSTER.

a In four hundred mouths.

"Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men," 1 Kings, ch. xxii. ver. vi.-Dunster.

b That hath been thy craft,

By mixing somewhat true to vent more lies.

The following passage from St. Austin may serve to illustrate what Milton here says: "Miscent tamen isti [dæmones] fallacias; et verum quod nosse potuerint, non docendi magis quam decipiendi fine, prænuntiant."-De Div. Dæmon. sect. 12.-THYER.

But what have been thy answers, what but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding.

The oracles were often so obscure and dubious, that there was need of other oracles to explain them :

"Sed jam ad te venio,

Sancte Apollo, qui umbilicum certum terrarum obsides,
Unde superstitiosa primum sæva evasit vox fera.

Tuis enim oraculis Chrysippus totum volumen implevit, partim falsis, ut ego opinor, partim casu veris, ut fit in omni oratione sæpissime; partim flexiloquis et obscuris, ut interpres egeat interprete, et sors ipsa ad sortes referenda sit; partim ambiguis, et quæ ad dialecticum deferenda sint." Cicero, "De Div." ii. 56.-CALTON.

Milton in these lines about the heathen oracles, seems to have had in view what Eusebius says more copiously upon this subject in the fifth book of his Preparatio

66

Which they who ask'd have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Who ever by consulting at thy shrine
Return'd the wiser, or the more instruct a,
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare ?
For God hath justly given the nations up
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous but, when his purpose is
Among them to declare his providence

To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth,
But from him, or his angels president

In every province, who themselves disdaining

To approach thy temples, give thee in command
What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt say
To thy adorers? Thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parasite obey'st:

440

445

450

Evangelica." That learned father reasons in the very same way about them, and gives many instances from history of their delusive and double meanings.--THYER.

Probably Milton had here in mind the exclamation also of Macbeth, when he finds that the weird sisters had shuffled him with ambiguous expressions, Macbeth, a. and s. ult. And be these juggling fiends no more believed,

That palter with us in a double sense.

But see also Heywood's "Hierarchie of Angels," fol. 1635, p. 442, where the "doubtfull answers of oracles" are noticed, and rightly described :

So intricate that none could vnderstand,

Or meerely toyes and lies; for their words were,

By interpointing, so disposed, to beare

A double sense.-TODD.

d Instruct.

Thus, b. ii. ver. 399, he writes suspect for suspected. In the "Paradise Lost" he always writes the participles at length; but in this poem he has in every respect condensed his style, which may be one reason why it does not please the million.-DUNSTER. e But from him, or his angels president

In every province.

"Utitur etiam eis Deus (dæmonibus) ad veritatis manifestationem per ipsos fiendam, dum divina mysteria eis per angelos revelantur." The words are quoted from Aquinas. (2da 2dæ Quæst. 172, Art. 6.)-CALTON.

This notion Milton very probably had from Tertullian and St. Austin. Tertullian, speaking of the gods of the heathens and their oracles, says, "Dispositiones etiam Dei et tunc prophetis concionantibus exceperunt, et nunc lectionibus resonantibus carpunt: ita et hinc sumentes quasdam temporum sortes æmulantur divinitatem, dum furantur divinationem: in oraculis autem, quo ingenio ambiguitates temperent in eventus, sciunt Croesi, sciunt Pyrrhi." Apol. c. 22. St. Austin, more appositely to our present purpose, answering the heathen boasts of their oracles, says,- -"tamen nec ista ipsa, quæ ab eis vix raro et clanculo proferuntur, movere nos debent, si cuiquam dæmonum extortum est id prodere cultoribus suis quod didicerat ex eloquiis prophetarum, vel ex oraculis angelorum." Aug. "De Div. Dæmonum," sect. 12, tom. 6, ed. Bened. And again:-"Cum enim vult Deus etiam per infimos infernosque spiritus aliquem vera cognoscere, temporalia dumtaxat atque ad istam mortalitatem pertinentia; facile est, et non incongruum, ut Omnipotens et Justus, ad eorum pœnam, quibus ista prædicuntur, ut malum quod eis impendet ante quam veniat prænoscendo patientur; occulto apparatu ministeriorum suorum etiam spiritibus talibus aliquid divinationis impertiat, ut quod audiunt ab angelis prænuntient hominibus." De Div. Quæst. ad Simp. 1. II. s. iii. tom. 6.-THYER.

Then to thyself ascribest the truth foretold f.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse

The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceased g,
And thou no more with pomp or sacrifice
Shalt be inquired at Delphos, or elsewhere;
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his living oracle h
Into the world to teach his final will;

And sends his Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requisite for men to know.

So spake our Saviour; but the subtle fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
Dissembled, and this answer smooth return'd :—
Sharply thou hast insistedi on rebuke,

And urged me hard with doings, which not will,
But misery hath wrested from me.

Where

Then to thyself ascribest the truth foretold.

455

460

465

470

The demons, Lactantius says, could certainly foresee, and truly foretel, many future events, from the knowledge they had of the dispositions of Providence before their fall; and then they assumed all the honour to themselves; pretending to be the authors and doers of what they predicted. "Nam cum dispositiones Dei præsentiant, quippe qui ministri ejus fuerunt, interponunt se in his rebus; ut quæcunque a Deo vel facta sunt vel fiunt, ipsi potissimum facere aut fecisse videantur.' Div. Inst. ii. 16.-CALTON.

Henceforth oracles are ceased, &c.

As Milton had before adopted the ancient opinion of oracles being the operations of the fallen angels; so here again he follows the same authority, in making them cease at the coming of our Saviour. See the matter fully discussed in Fontenelle's "History of Oracles," and Father Baltus's answer to him.-THYER.

Thus Juvenal, Sat. vi. 554:

Delphis oracula cessant.

And in the fifth book of Lucan's "Pharsalia," where Appius is desirous to consult the Delphic oracle, but finds it dumb, the priestess tells him:

And before him, Giles Fletcher, in his "Christ's Victory in Heaven," st. 82:

h His living oracle.

Christ is styled by the Greek fathers, "essential life," the " living counsel," and "the living word of God:" and St. John says, that "in him was life, and the life was the light of men," i. 4.-CALTON.

And in Acts, vii. 38, where it is said, "Who received the lively (or living) oracles to give unto us."-DUNSTER.

i Sharply thou hast insisted, &c.

The smoothness and hypocrisy of this speech of Satan are artful in the extreme, and cannot be passed over unobserved.-Jos. WARTON.

Easily canst thou find one miserable,
And not enforced oft-times to part from truth,
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure j?
But thou art placed above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can, and must, submiss, endure
Check or reproof, and glad to 'scape so quit.
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,
Smooth on the tongue discoursed, pleasing to the ear,
And tunable as sylvan pipe or song1:
What wonder then if I delight to hear

Her dictates from thy mouth? Most men admire
Virtue, who follow not her lorem permit me
To hear thee when I come, (since no man comes)
And talk at least, though I despair to attain.
Thy Father, who is holy, wise, and pure,
Suffers the hypocrite or atheous " priest
To tread his sacred courts, and minister
About his altar, handling holy things,

n

I Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?

475

480

485

Might not Milton possibly intend here, and particularly by the word "abjure," to lash some of his complying friends, who renounced their republican principles at the Restoration?-THYER.

Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk.

Thus Silius Italicus, b. xv. where Virtue is the speaker:—

Casta mihi domus, et celso stant colle penates;

Ardua saxoso perducit semita clivo;

Asper principio (nec enim mihi fallere mos est)

Prosequitur labor. Adnitendum intrare volenti.-DUNSTER.

We must not here overpass Milton's "Preface to his Reason of Church Government," &c. b. ii. :-"Those.... who will not so much as look upon Truth herself, unless they see her elegantly dressed; that whereas the paths of honesty and good life appear now rugged and difficult, though they be indeed easy and pleasant; they will then appear to all men both easy and pleasant, though they were rugged and difficult indeed." Compare also "Comus," ver. 476, et seq.-TODD.

1 Tunable as sylvan pipe or song.

So, in "Paradise Lost," v. 149:

Such prompt eloquence

Flow'd from their lips in prose or numerous verse,

More tunable than needed lute or harp

To add more sweetness.

And Shakspeare, "Midsummer Night's Dream," a. i. s. 14:—

More tunable than lark to shepherd's ear.-DUNSTER.

m Most men admire

Virtue, who follow not her lore.

Imitated from the well-known saying of Medea, Ovid, "Met." viii. 20:

Video meliora proboque;

Deteriora sequor.-NEWTON.

n Atheous.

Cicero, speaking of Diagoras, says, "Atheos qui dictus est," De Nat. Deor. i. 23.DUNSTER.

"Atheous" may have hence been coined by the poet. same signification, is not uncommon in old English.-TODD.

"Atheal," which has the