585

Of angels on full sail of wing flew nigh,
Who on their plumy vans receiv'd him soft
From his uneasy station, and upbore
As on a floating couch through the blithe air,
Then in a flow'ry valley set him down
On a green bank, and set before him spread
A table of celestial food, divine,
Ambrosial fruits, fetch'd from the tree of life,
And from the fount of life ambrosial drink,

590

with a banquet ministered by air, and the propriety of such a spirits. Psycham autem pa- metaphor wants no justification ventem ac trepidam, et in ipso or explanation. scopuli vertice deflentem, mitis 585. This description of the aura molliter spirantis zephyri, descent of our Lord on the anvibratis hinc inde laciniis et re- gels' plumy vans reminds me of flato sinu sensim levatam, suo an Assumption of the Virgin, tranquillo spiritu vehens paula- by Guido, in St. Ambrosio's tim per devexa rupis excelsa, church at Genoa; only the movallis subditæ florentis cespitis tion of the whole group there gremio leniter delapsam reclinat. is ascending. If it is not from And at the beginning of the fifth any famous painting, it is cerbook-Et illico vini nectarei tainly a subject for one.

It is to eduliorumque variorum fercula be lamented that we find any copiosa, nullo şerviente, sed tan- inaccuracy in a part of the poem tum spiritu quodam impulsa, so eminently beautiful: the word subministrantur. Nec quemquam him in v. 583, is evidently incorilla videre poterat, sed verba rect, but the intended reference tantum audiebat excidentia, et to our Saviour cannot be misunsolas voces famulas habebat. Post derstood. With the description opimas dapes quidam intro cessit, of the banquet, &c. v. 587–595. et cantavit invisus; et alius ci- compare G. Fletcher's Christ's tharam pulsavit, quæ non vide- Triumph upon earth, st. 61. batur, nec ipse. Tunc modulata multitudinis conferta vox aures

But to their Lord now musing in his

thought ejus affertur; ut quamvis homi

A heavenly volley of light angels flew, num nemo pareret, chorum ta

And from his father him a banquet men esse pateret. Dunster.

brought 585. As on a floating couch Through the fine element, for well through the blithe air,] Mr. they knew

After his lenten fast he hungry grew ; Sympson objects to the word

And, as he fed, the holy quires comblithe, but I conceive through the bine blithe air to be much the same To sing a hymn of the celestial trine. as if he had said through the glad

Dunster.

That soon refresh'd him wearied, and repair'd
What hunger, if ought hunger had impair'd,
Or thirst; and as he fed, angelic quires
Sung heav'nly anthems of his victory
Over temptation, and the Tempter proud.

595 True Image of the Father, whether thron’d 593. -angelic quires

596. True image of the Father Sung heav'nly anthems of his is from Heb. i. 8. Who being the victory]

brightness of his glory, and the As Milton in his Paradise Lost express image of his person, &c. had represented the angels sing. Thus also, Par. Lost, iii. 384. ing triumph upon the Messiah's

Begotten Son! Divine similitude. victory over the rebel angels; throned in the bosom of bliss, is an so here again with the same pro- expression often found in the priety they are described cele- Par. Lost

, see iii. 238, 305. X. brating his success against tempt. 226. -light of light conceiving, ation, and to be sure he could is from the Nicene creed. -innot have possibly concluded his shrined in fleshly tabernacle and work with greater dignity and human form, so St. John, i. 14. solemnity, or more agreeably to

Και ο Λογος σαρξ εγένετο, και εσκηνωσεν the rules of poetic decorum.

sy peso, literally, the Word was Thyer. 596. True Image of the Father, made flesh, and tabernacled among

St. Paul terms the body, &c.]

our earthly house of this taberCedite Romani scriptores, cedite racle, (2 Cor. v. 1.) Indeed oxnvas,

tabernacle, is frequently used by All the poems that ever were profane writers also, to signify written, must yield, even Para, the mortal body. So Longinus, dise Lost must

yield to Regained sect. xxxii. has avgativov oknuovg. in the grandeur of its close. And Plato, gntov oxuvos: and again, Christ stands triumphant on the

as cited by Æschines the Socratic, pointed eminence. The Demon

το δε σκηνος τουτο προς κακα περιηςfalls with amazement and terror,

και φυσις.

See Parkhurst's on this full proof of his being, Lexicon in voc. oxnvos, cxnvow, that very Son of God, whose

oxmuwa. Thus also Milton in thunder forced him out of heaven. the Passion, The blessed angels receive new knowledge. They behold a sublime truth established, which was And in the poem, On the death

Poor Aeshly tabernacle entered. a secret to them at the beginning of Fellon Bp. of Ely, he speaks of of the temptation; and the great discovery gives a proper opening Animasque mole carnea reconditas. to their hymn on the victory of Seneca has the expression, Deum Christ, and the defeat of the in humano corpore hospitantem, Tempter, Calton.

epist. xxxi. But it is only a

Graii.

μοσεν

He sovran Priest

In the bosom of bliss, and light of light
Conceiving, or remote from heav'n, inshrin'd
In fleshly tabernacle, and human form,
Wand'ring the wilderness, whatever place,

600
Habit, or state, or motion, still expressing
The Son of God, with God-like force indued
Against th' attempter of thy Father's throne,
And thief of Paradise; him long of old
Thou didst debel, and down from heaven cast 605
With all his army, now thou hast aveng'd
Supplanted Adam, and by vanquishing
Temptation, hast regain'd lost Paradise;
And frustrated the conquest fraudulent:
He never more henceforth will dare set foot

610 In Paradise to tempt; his snares are broke : For though that seat of earthly bliss be faild, A fairer Paradise is founded now For Adam and his chosen sons, whom thou A Saviour art come down to re-install Where they shall dwell secure, when time shall be,

615

strong way of expressing the Omnis Aristippum decuit color, et

status, et res, sentiment in ep. lxxiii

. and in other parts of his writings, Nulla

604. And thief of Paradise ;] sine Deo mens bona. Dunster.

Thus, Par. Lost, iv. 192. where The expression is much the Satan first enters Paradise ; same, but far less dignified, in

So clomb this first grand thief into Il Penseroso, 91.

God's fold ; Th'immortal mind, that hath forsook

Her mansion in this fleshly nook. supplanted, v. 607. is in the sense Spenser calls the body the soul's of supplantatus in Latin, overcome « Aeshly form.” F. Q. iii. v. 23. in wrestling, or having his heels T. Warton.

tripped up, as in Seneca, epist. 600. whatever place,

usus.

Of Tempter and temptation without fear,
But thou, infernal Serpent, shall not long
Rule in the clouds; like an autumnal star
Or lightning thou shalt fall from heav'n, trod down 620
Under his feet: for proof, ere this thou feel'st
Thy wound, yet not thy last and deadliest wound,
By this repulse receiv'd, and hold'st in hell
No triumph; in all her gates Abaddon rues
Thy bold attempt ; hereafter learn with awe

625 To dread the Son of God: he all unarm’d Shall chace thee with the terror of his voice From thy demoniac holds, possession foul, Thee and thy legions ; yelling they shall fly, 619. -like an autumnal star

-semper me reppulit ipse, Or lightning]

Non armis ullis fretus, non viribus The poet does here, as in other places, imitate profane authors But all unarmed seems here to and Scripture both together. Like be an intended contrast to the an autumnal star, Actig' oragiva fine description of the Messiah svadbyxboy. Iliad. v. 5. Or like driving the rebel angels out of lightning fall from heaven, Luke heaven, Par. Lost, vi. 76. x. 18. I behelă Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

He in celestial panoply all arm'd

Of radiant Urim, &c. 619. Par. Lost, iv. 556.

Dunster. ---swift as a shooting star In Autunın thwarts the night

628. From thy demoniac holds, trod down under his feet; so possession foul,] The daljeovicoRomans xvi. 20. And the God revos, or demoniacs of the Gospel, of peace shall bruise Satan under are constantly rendered in our your feet. The marginal reading version possessed with a devil. for bruise is tread. -In all her And Rev. xviii. 2. Babylon is gates— Matt. xvi. 18. The gates called, the habitation of devils, and of hell shall not prevail against it. the hold of every foul spirit. -yellDunster.

ing they shall fly, and beg to hide 624. Abaddon] The name of them in a herd of swine, &c. from the angel of the bottomless pit. Matt. viii. 28-32. and Rev. xx. Rev. ix. 11. Here applied to the 1-3. —our Saviour meek, Matt. bottomless pit itself.

xi. 29. Learn of me, for I am 626. -all unarm’d.] So in meek, and lowly of heart. DunVida’s Christiad, i. 192. Satan ster. says of our Saviour,

630

And beg to hide them in a herd of swine,
Lest he command them down into the deep
Bound, and to torment sent before their time.
Hail Son of the Most High, heir of both worlds,
Queller of Satan, on thy glorious work
Now enter, and begin to save mankind.

Thus they the Son of God our Saviour meek
Sung victor, and from heav'nly feast refresh'd
Brought on his way with joy; he unobserv'd
Home to his mother's house private return’d.

635

638. -he unobserv'd

some pains, to shew the fitness Home to his mother's house pri- and propriety of giving the name vate return'd.]

of Paradise Regained to so conA striking contrast in the deli- fined a subject, as our Saviour's neation of circumstances in a temptation. Confined as the subcertain degree similar by great ject was, I make no question poets, strongly points out to us that he thought the Paradise their recollection of the prior Regained an epic poem as well description, for the purpose of as the Paradise Lost. For in adopting a manner totally differ- , his invocation he undertakes ent, but calculated to produce

to tell of deeds no less effect sui generis. See the

Above heroic: note on v. 626. Another instance is the brief relation of the refresh- and he had no notion that an ment ministered to our Lord by epic poem must of necessity be angels, v. 587. compared with the formed after the example of Hocopious and embellished descrip- mer, and according to the pretion of the banquet in b. ii. And cepts of Aristotle. In the introthis very unadorned account of duction to the second book of our Lord's return from his pre- his Reason of Church-Government sent victory recals, in this re- he thus delivers his sentiments. spect, to our minds the sublime

“ Time serves not now,

and

perpassage in the Paradise Lost, “haps I might seem too profuse where

" to give any certain account of

« what the mind at home, in Sole victor from the expulsion of his foes

“ the spacious circuits of her Messiah his triumphant chariot “musing, hath liberty to proturn'd, &c.

“pose to herself, though of highSee Par. Lost, vi. 880–892. “ est hope, and hardest attemptDunster.

ing; whether that epic form 639. In the concluding hymn

“ whereof the two poems of of the angels, the poet has taken Homer, and those other two VOL. III.

Q