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Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair
And utter diffolution, as the scope

Of all his aim, after fome dire revenge.

130

First, what revenge? the tow'rs of Heav'n are fill'd
With armed watch, that render all accefs
Impregnable; oft on the bord'ring deep
Incamp their legions, or with óbfcure wing
Scout far and wide into the realm of night,
Scorning surprise. Or could we break our way
By force, and at our heels all Hell should rife 135
With blackest infurrection, to confound
Heav'n's pureft light, yet our great enemy
All incorruptible would on his throne
Sit unpolluted, and th' ethereal mould
Incapable of stain would foon expel
Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire

from the known profeffion of the ancient Sophifts, Tor hoyor for now κρείτίω ποιειν. Bentley.

124.1 in fact of arms,] Dr. Heylin fays it is from the Italian Fatto d'arme a battel; or else we fhould read here feats of arms, as in ver. 537.

140

Victorious.

Or poffibly the author might have given it in facts of arms, fuch errors of the prefs being very common and cafy.

138.- would on his throne

Sit unpolluted,] 'Tis a reply to that part of Moloch's speech, where he had threaten'd to mix the throne with feats of arms itfelf of God with infernal fulphur From either end of Heav'n the and strange fire, welkin burns.

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Victorious. Thus repuls'd, our final hope
Is flat defpair: we must exasperate

Th' almighty victor to spend all his rage,

And that muft end us, that must be our cure, 145
To be no more; fad cure; for who would lofe,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity,
To perish rather, fwallow'd up and loft
In the wide womb of uncreated night,

Devoid of fenfe and motion? and who knows,
Let this be good, whether our angry foe
Can give it, or will ever? how he can.
Is doubtful; that he never will is fure.
Will he, fo wife, let loose at once his ire,
Belike through impotence, or unaware,
To give his enemies their wish, and end

151. Devoid of fenfe and motion?] Dr. Bentley reads Devoid of fenfe and action: but motion includes action. Mr. Warburton is of opinion, and fo likewife is the learned Mr. Upton in his Critical Obfervations upon Shakespear, that it fhould be read Devoid of fenfe and notion: but the common reading seems better, as it is stronger and expreffes more; they fhould be deprived not only of all fenfe but of

150

155

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Them in his anger, whom his
whom his anger faves
To punish endless? Wherefore cease we then?
Say they who counfel war, we are decreed,
Referv'd, and deftin'd to eternal woe;

160

Whatever doing, what can we fuffer more,
What can we fuffer worfe? Is this then worst,
Thus fitting, thus confulting, thus in arms? :
What when we fled amain, pursued and ftruck 165
With Heav'n's afflicting thunder, and befought
The deep to fhelter us? this Hell then feem'd
A refuge from those wounds or when we lay
Chain'd on the burning lake? that fure was worse.
What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 170
Awak'd fhould blow them into fey'nfold rage,
And plunge us in the flames? or from above
Should intermitted vengeance arm again

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His red right hand to plague us? what if all
Her ftores were open'd, and this firmament.
Of Hell should spout her cataracts of fire,
Impendent horrors, threatning hideous fall
One day upon our heads; while we perhaps
Designing or exhorting glorious war,
Caught in a fiery tempeft fhall be hurl'd
Each on his rock transfix'd, the sport and
Of wracking whirlwinds, or for ever funk
Under yon boiling ocean, wrapt in chains;
There to converse with everlasting groans,
Unrefpited, unpitied, unrepriev'd,

prey

Ages of hopeless end? this would be worse,
War therefore, open or conceal'd, alike

175

189

185

My

174. His red right band] So Horace fays of Jupiter rubente dextara. But being poken of Vengeance, it must be her right hand, as in the next line ber ftores. Bentley. There is fomething plaufible and ingenious in this obfe vation: but by his feems to have been meant God's, who is mention'd fo often in the course of the debate, that he might very well be underflood without being nam'd; and by her tores in the next line, I fuppofe, are meant Hell's, as mention is made afterwards of her catara&s of fire.

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My voice diffuades; for what can force or guile
With him, or who deceive his mind, whofe eye
Views all things at one view? he from Heav'n's highth
All these our motions vain fees and derides;
Not more almighty to refift our might

Than wife to fruftrate all our plots and wiles.
Shall we then live thus vile, the race of Heaven.
Thus trampled, thus expell'd to suffer here

191.

195

Chains and these torments; better these than worfe
By my advice; fince fate inevitable
Subdues us, and omnipotent decree,

The victor's will. To fuffer, as to do,
Our strength is equal, nor the law unjust
That fo ordains: this was at first resolv'd,

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200

If

ferved that this is conftantly Milton's way, and the true way of fpelling highth, and not as commonly heighth, where what the e has to do or how it comes in it is not easy to apprehend.

199. To fuffer, as to do,] Et facere, et pati. So Scævola boafted that he was a Roman, and knew as well how to fuffer as to act. Et facere et pati fortia Romanum eft. Liv. II. 12. So in Horace, Od. III. XXIV. 43. Quidvis et facere et pati.

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