T'whom Satan turning boldly, thus. Ye Powers And Spirits of this nethermost abyss, Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy,

fies the ufe of the word against Dr. Bentley by another paffage in our author's Latin works, p. 340. Apud vetuftiffimos itaque mythologiæ fcriptores memoriæ datum reperio Demogorgonem Deorum omnium atavum (quem eundem et Chaos ab antiquis nuncupatum hariolor) inter alios liberos, quos fuftulerat plurimos, Terram genuiffe.

965. — Rumor next and Chance,
In Satan's voyage through the
Chaos there are feveral imaginary
perfons described, as refiding in
that immenfe wafte of matter.
This may perhaps be conformable
to the tafte of thofe critics who
are pleased with nothing in a poet
which has not life and manners -
afcribed to it; but for my own
part, I am pleased moft with those
paffages in this defcription which
carry in them a greater measure of
probability, and are fuch as might
poffibly have happen'd. Of this
kind is his first mounting in the
fmoke that rises from the infernal
pit, his falling into a cloud of
nitre and the like combustible ma-
terials, that by their explofion ftill
hurried him forward in his voyage;
his fpringing upward like a pyra-
mid of fire, with his laborious paf-
fage through that confufion of ele-
ments which the poet calls

The womb of nature, and perhaps
her grave. Addifon.
VOL. I.

970 With

Mr. Addifon feems to disapprove of these fictitious beings, thinking them I suppose (like Sin and Death improper for an epic poem: but I fee no reason why Milton may not be allow'd to place fuch imaginary beings in the regions of Chaos, as well as Virgil defcribe the like beings, Grief, and Fear, and Want, and Sleep, and Death, and Difcord likewife within the confines

of Hell; and why what is accounted a beauty in one should be deemed a fault in the other. See En. VI. 273. &c.

Vestibulum ante ipfum, primifque
in faucibus Orci,

Luctus, et ultrices posuere cubilia
Curæ :

Pallentesque habitant Morbi, tri-
ftifque Senectus,

Et Metus, et malesuada Fames, et
turpis Egeftas,

Terribiles vifu formæ : Letumque,
Laborque:

Tum confanguineus Leti Sopor,

et mala mentis Gaudia, mortiferumque adverfo in limine Bellum, Ferreique Eumenidum thalami, et Difcordia demens Vipereum crinem vittis innexa

cruentis.

With purpose to explore or to disturb wi
The fecrets of your realm, but by constraint
Wand'ring this darkfome defert, as my way-
Lies through your fpacious empire up to light,
Alone, and without guide, half loft, I feek
What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds
Confine with Heav'n; or if fome other place,
From your dominion won, th' ethereal king
Poffeffes lately, thither to arrive

I travel this profound; direct my courfe;
Directed no mean recompenfe it brings

975

980

To your behoof, if I that region loft, loquuq duW All ufurpation thence expell'd, reduce to parcul adT To her original darkness and your fway gal thu Vự (Which is my present journey) and once more, 985Erect the standard there of ancient Night;

Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge.

མཐོ

Thus Satan, and him thus the Anarch old, With faltring fpeech and vifage incompos'd, Anfwer'd. I know thee, ftranger, who thou art, 990 That mighty leading Angely who of late eins Made head against Heav'n'sking, though overthrown.

I faw and heard, for such a numerous hoft
Fled not in filence through the frighted deep
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confufion worse confounded; and Heav'n gates
Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here

995

Keep refidence; if all I can will ferve

For fo in the fecond verfe he reads us: but fo is right, and fignifies by keeping refidence on my frontiers and doing all I can. Again, he finds fault with our inteftin broils, and fays that Chaos's or Night's Scepter is not weaken'd, but is ftrengthen'd and fubfifts by them. So far he is right, and therefore Milton, if he wrote our inteftin broils, could never mean the broils within the realm of Chaos. It appears from the following verfes, that the encroachments which Chaos means were the creation of Hell first, and then of the new world, the creation of both which was the effect not of

That

any broils in Chaos's realm, but of the broils in Heaven between God and Satan, the good Angels and the bad, called inteftin war and broils in VI. 259, 277. So that the paffage as it ftands feems to be faulty; but without fo great an alteration as Dr. Bentley makes, we may clear it of all difficulty. We muft remember that it is Satan, to whom Chaos here speaks, and therefore we may suppose that Milton gave it through your inteftin broils. In the first editions there is no comma after broils; and there fhould be none, because broils is the fubftantive with which the participle weakning agrees: It was their broils which weaken'd Night's fcepter, because the confequences of them leffen'd her kingdom.

Pearce.

This change of our into your is fo juft and neceffary, that we thought it beft to admit it into the text.

1005. —link'd in a golden chair] There is mention made in Homer of Jupiter's golden chain, by which he can draw up the Gods and the earth and fea and the whole uni

1000

That little which is left so to defend,
Encroach'd on ftill through your intestin broils
Weakning the scepter of old Night: first Hell
Your dungeon ftretching far and wide beneath;
Now lately Heav'n and Earth, another world,
Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain
To that fide Heav'n from whence your legions fell:

θελουμε ερυσαι,

Αυτή κεν γαιη ερυσαιμ', αυτή τε

θαλασσ

Σειρίω μεν κεν έπειτα περι ριον

Ουλύμποιο

1005

If

Let down our golden, everlasting
chain,
Whose strong embrace holds

Heav'n, and earth and main : Strive all of mortal or immortal birth,

To drag by this the Thund'rer down to earth:

Ye ftrive in vain! If I but ftretch this hand,

I heave the Gods, the ocean, and
the land,

I fix the chain to great Olympus
height,
And the vaft world hangs tremb
ling in my fight. Pope,

It is moft probably and ingenioufly conje&tur'd, that by this golden chain may be understood the fuperior attractive force of the fun, whereby he continues unmov'd, and draws all the reft of the plaAncaiulu. Ta de x' aute μetno- nets toward him. But whatever τα παντα γένοιτο. League all your forces then, ye Pow'rs above, Join all, and try th' omnipotence of Jove:

is meant by it, it is certain that thought of hanging the world by a our poet took from hence the golden chain.

U 3

1009. Havol