Wise, perfect in himself, and all possessing,
Equals to God, oft shames not to prefer,

As fearing God nor man, contemning all
Wealth, pleasure, pain or torment, death and life,
Which when he lists he leaves, or boasts he can,
For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,

Or subtle shifts conviction to evade.

Alas what can they teach, and not mislead,
Ignorant of themselves, of God much more,
And how the world began, and how man fell
Degraded by himself, on grace depending?
Much of the soul they talk, but all awry,
And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves

Provident. c. 6. Ferte fortiter,
hoc est quo Deum antecedatio.
Ille extra patientiam malorum
est, vos supra patientiam. As
fearing God nor man. Seneca de
Beneficiis, iv. 19. Deos nemo sa-
nus timet. Furor est enim me-
tuere salutaria, nec quisquam
amat quos timet; and again, 1.
vii. 1. Si animus Deorum homi-
numque formidinem ejecit, et
scit non multum esse ab homine
timendum, a Deo nihil, &c.—
contemning all, wealth, pleasure,
&c. These are the well known
doctrines of the Stoics; our au-
thor in all probability had here
in his mind the conclusion of
Seneca de Providentia-contem-
nite paupertatem, &c. contemnite
dolorem-fortunam-mortem-
patet exitus. Si pugnare non
vultis licet fugere &c. Exactly
similar to which last passage is
the language of Epictetus, 1. iv.

305

310

and of Seneca again, epist. lxx. Dunster.

303. Equals to God,] In Milton's own edition, and all following, it is Equal to God: but I cannot but think this an error of the press, the sense is so much improved by the addition only of a single letter.

Equals to God, oft shames not to prefer.

307. For all his tedious talk is but vain boast,

Or subtle shifts] Vain boasts relate to the Stoical paradoxes, and subtle shifts to their dialectic, which this sect so much cultivated, as to be as well known by the name Dialectici as Stoici. Warburton.

313. Much of the soul they talk, but all awry,] See what Mr. Warburton has said upon this subject in the first volume of the Divine Legation.

314. And in themselves seek virtue, and to themselves

All glory arrogate, to God give none,
Rather accuse him under usual names,
Fortune and Fate, as one regardless quite
Of mortal things. Who therefore seeks in these
True wisdom, finds her not, or by delusion
Far worse, her false resemblance only meets,
An empty cloud. However
However many books,

Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not

All glory arrogate, to God give

none,]

Cicero speaks the sentiments of ancient philosophy upon this point in the following words: propter virtutem enim jure laudamur, et in virtute recte gloriamur: quod non contingeret, si id donum a Deo, non a nobis haberemus. At vero aut honoribus aucti, aut re familiari, aut si aliud quippiam nacti sumus fortuiti boni, aut depulimus mali, cùm Diis gratias agimus, tum nihil nostræ laudi assumptum arbitramur. Num quis, quòd bonus vir esset, gratias Diis egit unquam ? At quòd dives, quòd honoratus, quòd incolumis.-Ad rem autem ut redeam, judicium hoc omnium mortalium est, fortunam à Deo petendam, à se ipso sumendam esse sapientiam. De Nat. Deor. iii. 36. - Warburton.

316. under usual names ; Fortune and Fate,] Several of the ancient philosophers, but especially the Stoics, thus characterised the Deity. Sic hunc naturam vocas, fatum, fortunam; omnia ejusdem Dei nomina sunt, varie utentis suâ potestate. De Beneficiis, iv. 8.

315

320

and Nat. Quæst. ii. 45. and Seneca, the tragic poet, Edip. 980. The Stoic poet, Lucan, frequently terms the Deity, fate, or fortune, as Pharsal. i. 87. iii. 96. Dunster.

321. An empty cloud,] A metaphor taken from the fable of Ixion, who embraced an empty cloud for a Juno

322. Wise men have said,] Alluding to Eccles. xii. 12. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

322. Aiunt enim, says the younger Pliny; multum legendum esse non multa, 1. viii. ep. 9. It is indeed a Stoical precept, any de Bibliav difav prov. Antonin. Meditat. 1. xi. 3. And Seneca has the same sentiment, ep. ii. and De Tranquillitate Animi, c. 9. Dunster.

A spirit and judgment equal or superior,

(And what he brings, what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains,

Deep vers'd in books and shallow in himself,

Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys,

And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge;

As children gathering pebbles on the shore.
Or if I would delight my private hours
With music or with poem, where so soon
As in our native language can I find

That solace? All our law and story strow'd

With hymns, our psalms with artful terms inscrib'd, 335
Our Hebrew songs and harps in Babylon,

That pleas'd so well our victor's ear, declare
That rather Greece from us these arts deriv'd;

Ill imitated, while they loudest sing

The vices of their deities, and their own
In fable, hymn, or song, so personating

Their gods ridiculous, and themselves past shame.
Remove their swelling epithets thick laid

As varnish on a harlot's cheek, the rest,
Thin sown with ought of profit or delight,
Will far be found unworthy to compare

and even ridiculous length by
Huetius and Gale. Warburton.

Clemens Alexandrinus ascribes the invention of hymns and songs to the Jews; and says that the Greeks stole theirs from them. (Stromat. 1. i. p. 308. Ed. Colon. 1688.) He also charges the Grecian philosophers with stealing many of their doctrines from

340

345

bably suggested the following lines in the Duke of Buckingham's Essay on Poetry,

Figures of speech, which poets think so fine,

(Art's needless varnish to make nature shine,)

Are all but paint upon a beauteous face,

And in descriptions only claim a place.

the Jewish prophets, (1. i. p. 312.) As Milton, perhaps, had ShakeDunster.

341. -personating,] This is in the Latin sense of persono, to celebrate loudly, to publish or proclaim. Dunster.

343. swelling epithets] Greek compounds. Warburton.

The hymns of the Greek poets to their deities consist of very little more than repeated invocations of them by different names and epithets. Our Saviour very probably alluded to these, where he cautions his disciples against vain repetitions and much speaking (Barroλoya) in their prayers, Matt. vi. 7. Thyer.

Swelling epithets thick laid is particularly applicable to the Orphic hymns. Indeed gods and heroes were scarcely ever mentioned by the Greek poets without some swelling or compound epithet. -thick laid as varnish on a harlot's cheek; these words pro

speare in his mind:

The harlot's cheek, beautied with

plastering art,

Is not more ugly to the thing that

helps it,

Than is my deed to my most painted
word.
Hamlet, a. iii. s. 1.
Dunster.

345. Thin sown with ought of profit and delight,] In allusion to Horace, Art. Poet. 333.

Aut prodesse volunt, aut delectare poetæ.

Plato also (De Repub. x. p. 607.
ed. Serran.) has said, that the
only justification of poetry is
when it unites the power of
pleasing with civil and moral
instruction; ὡς ου μονον ήδεια αλλά
και ωφέλιμη προς τας πολιτείας και
τον βίον τον ανθρωπινον εστι. Dun-
ster.

346. Will far be found unwor-
thy to compare
With Sion's songs,]

With Sion's songs, to all true tastes excelling,
Where God is prais'd aright, and God-like men,
The Holiest of Holies, and his saints;

Such are from God inspir'd, not such from thee,
Unless where moral virtue is express'd

By light of nature not in all quite lost.
Their orators thou then extoll'st, as those
The top of eloquence, statists indeed,

He was of this opinion not only
in the decline of life, but like-
wise in his earlier days, as ap-
pears from the preface to his
second book of the Reason of
Church-Government. "Or if
"occasion shall lead to imitate
"those magnific odes and hymns
"wherein Pindarus and Calli-
"machus are in most things
worthy, some others in their
"frame judicious, in their mat-
"ter most an end faulty. But
"those frequent songs through-
"out the law and prophets be-

yond all these, not in their di"vine argument alone, but in "the very critical art of compo"sition, may be easily made appear over all the kinds of lyric "poetry, to be incomparable."

948. Where God is prais'd aright, and God-like men,] The only poetry which Plato recommends to be admitted into a state are hymns to the gods, and encomiums on virtuous actions. Είδεναι δε ὅτι ὅσον μονον ὕμνους θεοις και εγκωμία της αγαθης ποιησεως πα

endENTION EIS TOMLY. De Repub. lib.
x. p. 607. ed. Serran. Dunster.

350. Such are from God inspir'd,
not such from thee,
Unless where moral virtue is ex-
press'd &c.]

The sense of these lines is ob

350

scure, and liable to mistake. The meaning of them is, poets from thee inspired are not such as these, unless where moral virtue is expressed &c. Meadowcourt.

The obscurity, if not caused, is increased by departing from the punctuation of the first edition, which had a semicolon after not such from thee. Unless certainly has no reference to the line immediately preceding, but to v. 346.

Will far be found unworthy to com

pare

With Sion's songs, &c.

Unless where moral virtue is express'd

By light of nature, not in all quite lost.

I could wish however that the passage had been otherwise arranged, and these two lines, 351,352, inserted in a parenthesis, after v. 345. Dunster.

V.

353. -as those] I should prefer as though. Calton.

354. statists] Or statesmen. Α word in more frequent use formerly, as in Shakespeare, Cymbeline, act ii. sc. 5..

I do believe,

(Statist though I am none, nor like to be ;)

and Hamlet, act v. sc. 3.

I once did hold it, as our statists do, &c.