He fpake: and to confirm his words, out-flew Millions of flaming fwords, drawn from the thighs Of mighty Cherubim; the fudden blaze 665 Far round illumin'd Hell: highly they rag'd Against the High'eft, and fierce with grasped arms Clash'd on their founding shields the din of war, Hurling defiance toward the vault of Heaven. There stood a hill not far, whofe grifly top Belch'd fire and rolling smoke; the rest entire Shone with a gloffy fcurf, undoubted sign That in his womb was hid metallic ore, 670 The work of fulphur. Thither wing'd with speed A the fixed ftars above which God and Angels inhabit? Hurling defiance toward the vifible Heaven is in effect hurling defiance toward the invifible Heaven, the feat of God and Angels. 671. Belch'd] So Virgil, Æn. III. 576. fays eructans of Etna, from which, or from mount Vefuvius, or the like, our poet took the idea of this mountain. 673. That in his womb] A very great man was observing one day a little inaccuracy of expreffion in the poet's making this mountain a perfon and a male perfon, and at the fame time attributing a womb to it: And perhaps it would have been better if he had written its aomb; but womb is used in as large a fenfe as the Latin uterus, which 675 A numerous brigad haften'd: as when bands The riches of Heav'n's pavement, trodden gold, two effential parts or principles; mercury, as the bafis or metallic matter; and fulphur as the binder or cement, which fixes the fluid mercury into a coherent malleable mafs. See Chambers's Dict. of Sulphur. And fo Johnson in the Alchemist, Act 2. Sc. 3. It turns to fulphur, or to quickfilver, Who are the parents of all other metals. 681 685 Ranfack'd true? Some look upon Mammisas the God of riches, and Mamman is accordingly made a perfon-by our poet, and was fo by Spenfer before him, whofe defcription of 4 Mammon and his cave our poet feems to have had his eye upon in feveral places. 682. The riches of Heav'n's pare ment, trodden gold,] So Homer fpeaks of the pavement of Heaven, as if it was of gold, po678. Mammon] This name is Syfo the heavenly Jerufalem is deσew er SameSw, Iliad. IV. 2. And riac, and fignifies riches. Te cannot fcribed by St. John, Rev. XXI. zt.. ferve God and Mammon, fays our Sa- and the street of the city is pure gold. viour, Mat. VI. 24. and bids us make to ourselves friends of the Mam mon of unrighteousness, Luke XVI. 9. and ver. 11. If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon, who will commit to your trust the 684 by bim firft Men alfa, and by bis fuggeftioxtaught,] Dr. Bentley fays, the poet affigns as tree caufes and bis fuggeftion, which are one and Ranfack'd the center, and with impious hands and the fame thing. This obfervation has the appearance of accuracy. But Milton is exact, and alludes in a beautiful manner to a fuperftitious opinion, generally believed amongst the miners: That there are a fort of Devils which converse much in minerals, where they are frequently feen to busy and employ themselves in all the operations of the workmen; they will dig, cleanfe, melt, and feparate the metals. See G. Agricola de Animantibus fubterraneis. So that Milton poetically fuppofes Mammon and his clan to have taught the fons of earth by example and practical inftruction, as well as precept and mental fuggeftion. Warburton. 687. Rified the bowels of their mo ther earth] VOL. I. 690 695 By -Itum eft in vifcera terræ, Ov. Met. I. 138, &c. Aurum irrepertum, et fic meliùs 694.and the works of Mem phian kings,] He seems to allude particularly to the famous Pyramids of Egypt, which were near Memphis. Barbara Pyramidum fileat miracu- By Spirits reprobate, and in an hour 700 What in an age they with inceffant toil paffage has been mifunderftood by Dr. Bentley and others. Strength and art are not to be conftrued in the genitive cafe with fame, but in the nominative with monuments. And then the meaning is plainly thus, Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, and how their firength and art are cafily outdone &c. 699. And hands innumerable] There were 360000 men employ'd for near twenty years upon one of the Pyramids, according to Diodorus Siculus, Lib. 1. and Pliny Lib. 36. cap. 12. 702. a fecond multitude With wondrous art founded the mally ore,] The first band dug the metal out of the mountain, a fecond multitude on the plain hard by founded or melted it; for founded it should be read as in the firft edition, and not found out as it is in the fubfequent ones; founded from fundere, to melt, to caft metal. 7° 704. — and scumm'd the bullien drofs:] Dr. Bentley fays that bullion drofs is a ftrange blunder to pafs thro' all editions: He fuppofes that the author gave it, and fumm'd from bullion drofs. But I believe that the common reading may be defended. The word bullion does not fignify purify'd bre, as the Doctor fays; but ore boiled or boiling then it is purify'd ore. Agreeably and when the drofs is taken off, the Reformation of England, lays to this Milton in his tract called Of to extract hetips of gold and filter out of the droffy bullion of the people's fins. And Milton makes bulliman adjective here, tho' commonly it is a fubftantive; juft as in V. 140, we have ocean brim, and in III. 284. wirgin feed. And fo bullion dres may fignify the drofs that came from the metal, as Spenfer expreffes it, or the drofs that fwam on the furface of the boiling ore. The fenfe of the paffage is this; They founded or A various mold, and from the boiling cells By strange conveyance fill'd each hollow nook, To many a row of pipes the found-board breathes. Rafe like an exhalation, with the found or melted the ore that was in the mafs, by feparating or fevering each kind, that is, the fulphur, earth, 5. from the metal; and after that, they fumm'd the dros that flated on the top of the boiling ore. Pearce Bullion drafs, as one would fay golddrofs or filver-drofs, the drofs which arofe from the melted metal in refining it. Richardfon. 708. As in an organ &c.] This fimile is as exact, as it is new. And we may obferve, that our author frequently fetches his images from mufic more than any other English poet, as he was very fond of it, and was himself a performer upon the organ and other instruments. 713. Rofe like an exhalation, ] The fudden rifing of Pandemonium is fuppofed, and with great probability, to be a hint taken from fome of the moving fcenes and machines invented for the ftage by the famous Inigo Jones. 710 713.where pilafters round &c.] One of the greateft faults of Milton is his affectation of showing his learning and knowledge upon every occafion. He could not fo much as defcribe this ftructure without bringing in I know not how many terms of architecture, which it will be proper for the fake of many readers to explain. Pilafters round, pillars jutting out of the wall, were fet, and Doric pillars, pillars of the Doric order; as their mufic was to the Dorian maad, ver. 550, fo their architecture was of the Doric or der; overlaid with golden architrave, that part of a column above the capital; nor did there want com nice, the uppermost member of the O 2 inta |