A kingdom they portend thee, but what kingdom, Nor when, eternal fure, as without end, 390 So fay'ing he took (for ftill he knew his power Not yet expir'd) and to the wilderness 395 Brought back the Son of God, and left him there, Feigning to disappear. Darkness now rose, As day-light funk, and brought in louring night Her shadowy ofspring, unsubstantial both, - 399. unfubftantial both,] His philofophy is here ill placed. It dafhes out the image he had just been painting. Warburton. 408. and foon with ugly dreams &c.] It is remarkable, that the poet made the Devil be gin his temptation of Eve by working on her imagination in dreams, and to end his temptation of Jefus in that manner, I leave it to the critics to find out the Privation 'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav'n, the clouds &c. It thunder'd from both tropics, that is perhaps from the right and from the left. The Ancients had the world. very different opinions concerning the right and the left fide of Plutarch fays, that Ariftotle, Plato, and Pythagoras were of opinion, that the eaft is the right fide, and the weft the left; but that Empedocles held reafon; for I will venture to fay that the right fide is towards the he had a very good one. Warburton. 409. and either tropic now Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav'n, the clouds &c.] Place the flops thus: and either tropic now fummer tropic, and the left towards the winter tropic. Tulαγορας, Πλατων, Αρισοτέλης, δεξία το oμs ta avaτokina μspo, ap wv n αρχη της κινησεως agisiga di, τα δυτικά. Εμπεδοκλης δεξία με την θερινου τροπικον a Privatión mere of light and absent day. 400 Our Saviour meek and with untroubled mind fhield 405 From dews and damps of night his shelter'd head, But shelter'd slept in vain, for at his head The Tempter watch'd, and foon with ugly dreams 7601 οιόνται δε τα κατα τον χειμερινον. 2158200 De Placit. Philof. II. 10. Αιγυπ τα μεν έωα, το κοσμα πρόσωπον είναι, τα δε προς βορέαν, δέξια, τα de Id. προς νότον αριτερα. de Ifid. p. 363. If by either tropic be meant the right fide and the left, by both ends of Heav'n may be understood, before and behind. I know it may be objected, that the tropics cannot be the one the right fide, and the other the left, to those who are placed without the tropics: but I do not think that objection to be very material. I have another expofition to offer, which is thus: It thundered all along the Heav'n, from the north pole to the tropic of Cancer, from thence to the tropic of Capricorn, from thence to the fouth pole. 409 'Gan 'Gan thunder, and both ends of Heav'n, the clouds ferving Milton's own punctuation, unless there be very good reafon for departing from it, and I underftand the paffage thus: and either tropic now 'gan thunder, it thundered from the north and from the fouth, for this I conceive to be Milton's meaning, tho' the expreffion is inaccurate, the fituation of our Saviour and Satan being not within the tropics: and both ends of Heav'n, that is, and from or at both ends of Heav'n, the præpofition being omitted, as is frequent in Milton, and feveral inftances were given in the notes on the Paradife Loft. See particularly Dr. Pearce's note on I. 282. and from both ends of Heav'n, the clouds &c. This ftorm is defcrib'd very much like one in Taffo, which was raifed in the fame manner by evil Spirits. See Canto 7. St. 114, 115. for I would not lengthen this note, .too long already with the quotation. 415 Or perhaps it means only water and fire falling down both together, according to Milton's ufage of the word ruin in Paradife Loft, I. 46. VI. 868. 415. From the four hinges of the world,] That is from the four cardinal points, the word cardines fignifying both the one and the other. This, as was obferved before, is a poetical tempeft like that in Virgil. Æn. I. 85. Unà Eurufque Notufque ruunt, And as Mr. Thyer adds, tho' fuch Though rooted deep as high, and sturdiest oaks 420 Unfhaken; nor yet ftay'd the terror there, ftorms are unknown to us in thefe parts of the world, yet the accounts we have of hurricanes in the Indies agree pretty much with them. 417. Though rooted deep as high,] Virgil Georg. II. 291. Æn. IV. 445. quantum vertice ad auras thereas, tantum radice in Tartara tendit. Richardfon. 420. - yet only food' ft Unphaken; &c. ] Milton feems to have raised this fcene out of what he found in Eufebius de Dem. Evan. Lib. 9. Vol. 2. p. 434. Ed. Col.] The learned father obferves, that Chrift was tempted forty days and the fame number of nights Kas sedne nepais τεσσαράκοντα, και ταις τοσαύταις νυξιν επειράζετο. And to thefe night temptations he applies what is faid in the 91ft Pfalm, v. 5. and 6. Ου φοβηθηση απο φοβε νυκτερινε, Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night, añо @gayμат #2 OXOTEL SIATTORεvovou, nor for the Some danger that walketh in darkness. The firft is thus paraphras'd in the Targum, (tho' with a meaning very different from Eufebius's) Non timebis à timore Dæmonum qui ambulant in nocte. The Fiends furround our Redeemer with their threats and terrors; but they have no effect. Infernal ghofts, and Hellish furies, round Environ'd thee, This too is from Eufebius, [ibid. p. 435.] Επειπες εν το πειράζειν δυναμεις ποιηςαι εκυκλων αυτόν. quoniam dum tentabatur, malignæ poteftates illum circumftabant. And their repulfe, it feems, is predicted in the 7th verfe of this Pfalm: A thousand shall fall befide thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Calton. 422. Infernal ghosts, &c.] This taken from the legend or the pictures of St. Anthony's temptation. Warburton. This defcription is taken from a print which I have feen of the temptation of St. Anthony. Fortin. 426. - till 425 Some bent at thee their fiery darts, while thou Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, and laid the winds, Clear'd up their choiceft notes in bush and spray 426. till morning fair Came forth &c] As there is a ftorm raised by evil Spirits in Taffo as well as in Milton, fo a fine morning fucceeds after the one as well as after the other. See Taffo Cant. 8. St. 1. But there the morning comes with a forehead of rofe, and with a foot of gold; con la fronte di rofe, e co' piè d'oro; here with pilgrim fteps in amice gray, as Milton defcribes her progrefs more leifurely, firft the gray morning, and afterwards the fun rifing: with pilgrim fteps, with the flow folemn pace of a pilgrim on a journey of 436 Το devotion; in amice gray, in gray cloathing; amice, a proper and fignificant word, derived from the Latin amicio to clothe, and used by Spenfer, Faery Queen. B. 1. Cant. 4. St. 18. Array'd in habit black, and amice thin, Like to an holy monk, the service to begin. 428. Who with her radiant finger Still'd the roar Of thunder, chas'd the clouds, &c] This is a very pretty imitation of a paffage in the firft Eneid of Vir |