In troop or caravan ? for single none

Durst ever, who return'd, and dropt not here
His carcass, pin'd with hunger and with drouth.325
I ask the rather, and the more admire,

For that to me thou feem'ft the man, whom late
Our new baptizing Prophet at the ford

Of Jordan honor'd fo, and call'd thee Son

Of God; I faw and heard, for we fometimes

330

Whodwell this wild, constrain'd by want, come forth
To town or village nigh (nigheft is far).

Where ought we hear, and curious are to hear,
What happens new; fame alfo finds us out,

To whom the Son of God. Who brought me hither, Will bring me hence; no other guide I feek. 336

323. In troop or caravan?] A caravan, as Tavernier says, is a great convoy of merchants, which meet at certain times and places, to put themselves into a condition of defenfe from thieves, who ride in troops in feveral defert places upon the road. A caravan is like an army, confifting ordinarily of five or fix hundred camels, and near as many horfes, and fometimes more. This makes it the fafeft way of travelling in Turky and Perfia with the caravan, though it goes indeed flower, than in lefs company, or with a guide alone, as iome will do. See Travels into

By

Perfia in Harris Vol. II. B. 2. ch.2.

339.-tough roots and fubs]This muft certainly be a mistake of the printer, and inftead of stubs it ought to be read fhrubs. It is no uncommon thing to read of hermits and afcetics living in deferts upon roots and fhrubs, but I never heard of tubs being ufed for food, nor indeed is it reconcileable to common fenfe. Some have thought that the anpides, which the Scripture fays were the meat of the Baptist, were the tops of plants or fhrubs. Thyer. Ifind the word fubs ufed in Spenfer. Faery Queen B. 1. Cant. 9. St. 34.

And

349

By miracle he may, reply'd the fwain, What other way I fee not, for we here Live on tough roots and ftubs, to thirst inur'd More than the camel, and to drink go far, Men to much mifery and hardship born; But if thou be the Son of God, command That out of these hard ftones be made thee bread, So fhalt thou fave thyfelf and us relieve

With food, whereof we wretched feldom taste. 345 He ended, and the Son of God reply'd.

Think'ft thou fuch force in bread? is it not written (For I difcern thee other than thou feem'ft) Man lives not by bread only, but each word Proceeding from the mouth of God, who fed 350 Our And all about old ftocks and ferves in his phyfical obfervations ftubs of trees:

but this only proves the ufe of the word,and not of the thing as food, which feems impoffible, and therefore I embrace the former ingenious conjecture.

340. More than the camel,] It is commonly faid that camels will go without water three or four days. Sitim & quatriduo tolerant. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 8. Sect. 26. But Tavernier fays, that they will ordinarily live without drink eight or nine days. See Harris ibid. And therefore, as Dr. Shaw juftly obVOL. I.

on Arabia Petræa p. 389. we cannot fufficiently admire the great care the camel for the traffic and com and wifdom of God in providing

late countries. For if this service

merce of thefe and fuch like defo

able creature was not able to fub-
fift feveral days without water, or
if it required a quantity of not-
rifhment in proportion to its bulk,
the traveling in these parts would
be either cumbersome and expen
five, or altogether impracticable.
350. Proceeding from the mouth of
God, who fed

Our fathers here with Manna?]
D

The

355

Our fathers here with Manna? in the mount
Mofes was forty days, nor eat nor drank;
And forty days Elijah without food
Wander'd this barren wafte; the fame I now:
Why dost thou then fuggeft to me distrust,
Knowing who I am, as I know who thou art?
Whom thus anfwer'd th'Arch-Fiénd now undif
"Tis true, I am that Spirit unfortunate,
[guis'd.
Who leagu'd with millions more in rash revolt
Kept not my happy ftation, but was driven 360
With

"

when he found himself discover'd, is remarkable. Hitherto he has been called an aged man, and the fwain; and we have no intimation from the poet, that Satan was concealed under this appearance, which adds to our pleasure by an agreeable furprise upon the dif covery. In the first book of the Eneid, Æneas being driven by a form upon an unknown coaft, and going in company with Achates to. take a furvey of the country,is met in a thick wood by a lady, in the habit of a huntress. She inquires of them, if they had feen two fifters of hers in a like dress, employed in the chace. Æneas addreffes her as Diana, or one of her nymphs, and begs he would tell him the name and state of the country the tempeft had thrown him upon. She declines his compliment, informs him she was no Goddess but only a

With them from blifs to the bottomlefs deep,
Yet to that hideous place not so confin'd

By rigor unconniving, but that oft

Leaving my dolorous prifon I enjoy

Large liberty to round this globe of earth,

Or range in th'air, nor from the Heaven of Heav'ns

Hath he excluded my refort fometimes.

I came among the fons of God, when he
Gave up into my hands Uzzean Job

To prove him, and illuftrate his high worth; 370

And when to all his Angels he propos'd

To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud
That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring,
I undertook that office, and the tongues

Of all his flattering prophets glibb'd with lies 375
To his destruction, as I had in charge,
For what he bids I do: though I have lost
Much luftre of my native brightness, loft
To be belov'd of God, I have not loft
To love, at least contemplate and admire
What I fee excellent in good, or fair,
Or virtuous, I fhould fo have loft all fenfe.

372. To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud] That is, into mifchief, as fraus fometimes means in Latin. Fortin. The reader may fee an inftance of fraud and fraus ufed in this fenfe in the Paradife Loft, IX. 643, and the note there. And this ftory of Ahab is related 1 Kings XXII. 19 &c. I faw the Lord fitting on his throne, and all the host of Heaven ftanding by him, on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord faid, Who ·Shall perfuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Romoth-gilead? And one faid on this manner, and another on that manner. And there came forth a Spirit, and food before the Lord, and faid, I will perfuade him. And

380

What

the Lord faid unto him, Wherewith?
And ke faid, I will go forth, and I
will be a lying Spirit in the mouth of
all his prophets. And he faid, Thou
fhalt perfuade him, and prevail alfo :
go forth, and do fo. And this fym-
bolical vifion of Micaiah, in which
heavenly things are spoken of after
the manner of men in condefcen-
fion to the weakness of their capa-
cities, our author was too good a
critic to understand literally, tho'
as a poet he reprefents it fo.
385.

To hear attent
Thy wisdom,] Milton feems to
have borrow'd this word and this
emphatical manner of applying it
from Spenfer, Faery Queen B. 6.
Cant. 9. St. 26.