E Th' invention all admir'd, and each, how he To be th'inventor mifs'd; fo eafy' it seem'd Once found, which yet unfound most would have thought Impoffible: yet haply of thy race In future days, if malice should abound, And Spenfer has the fame thought, As when that devilish iron engin In deepett Hell, and fram'd by Furies fkill, ordain'd to kill &c. But tho' the poets have agreed to attribute the invention to the Devil from a notion of its being fo deAtructive to mankind, yet many authors have obferved, that fince the ufe of artillery there has lefs flaughter been made in battels than was before, when the engagements were clofer and laited longer. 500 505 Were 502. In future days-Some one in tent &c.] This speaking in the fpirit of prophecy adds great diguity to poetry. It is in the fame fpirit that Dido makes the imprecation, Virg. Æn. IV. 625. Exoriare aliquis noftris ex offibus ultor &c. This here very properly comes from the mouth of an Angel. 507. Forthwith from council to the work they flew ; &c.] This and the two following lines are admirably contriv'd to expreis the hurry of the Angels; and confift therefore of fhort periods, without any particles to connect them. H h 4 5121 Were ready; in a moment up they turn'd 510 Το To juftify this great alteration of the text, the Doctor premifes one poftulatum (tho' it is properly two) that Milton is here defcribing the making of gun-powder, and that he was not ignorant Low it was made. Agreed. Let us now examin the Doctor's objections particularly. Sulphurous and nitrous team adufted? (fays he) why at the leaft approach of heat they will fly away in exhalations. I think that this is not true: tho' thefe ingredients be he ted to fome degree, yet they wil not fly away in exhalations unlefs fome fpark of fire gets to them. But why mult aduffed fignify burnt or heated to a great degree? If the word will fignify parch'd or dry'd any way in fuch a manner as things commonly are by fire, it will be a very proper expreffion here: for by being recuc'd to grain they were concocted, and by being reduc'd to the blackeft grain, they were fufficiently adufted. Again, the Doctor obferves that only two materials are here mention'd, and thefe without charcoal can never make gun-powder. This is true; but is it neceffary that a poet fhould be as exact as a writer about arts and fciences? If fo, not only Milton but Spenfer must be blam'd, who has done the fame thing as Milton has done; for in his Faery Queen, Book 1. Cant. 7. St. 13. defcribing a cannon charg'd with gun-powder, he fays, With windy nitre and quick ful phur fraught, To blackest grain, and into store convey'd : Whereof to found their engins and their balls Of miffive ruin; part incentive reed Provide, pernicious with one touch to fire. 515 520 So tractedly for charcoal; and is but a cant word fit only for the powdermill, not for a poem: for charcoal is, in its etymology, what is chark'd or rather charr'd to a coal, that is, burnt tho' not afhes. Sooty coal, V. 440. is right but when the word chark, or charcoal at length is ufed, footy feems a fuperfluous epithet, because it is implied in the word charr'd. In the common reading the Doctor miffes the word pound; a neceffary word, because without long pounding the three ingredients together, no powder can be made. But is not the fenfe of the word pound fufficiently imply'd in reduc'd to grain? The words found, mingled, reduc'd, convey'd, digg'd, were chang'd (fays the Doctor) from the prefent to the perfect tenfe: for the prefent tense provide in ver. 520, demonftrates that all the foregoing verbs were of the fame manner. If there were any demonftration to be drawn from hence, one would think rather that it would fall against the prefent tenfe provide. But there is hardly a page were Milton has not run from one tenfe to another, and 516. Part hidden veins digg'd up ftone,] Dr. Bentley has carried on the mark of parenthesis to the end of the verfe; but it should be plac'd after unlike; and the ftone may have been mention'd here as what they used for balls. That ftone-bullets have been in ufe, fee Chambers's Univ. Dict. in Cannon. Or Milton by the word ftone here would exprefs more diftinctly that the metal, of which they made their engins and balls, was inclos'd in and mix'd with a stony fubftance in the mine. See Furetiere's French Dictionary upon the word Mineral. So all ere day-spring, under conscious night, With filent circumfpection unefpy'd. Now when fair morn orient in Heav'n appear'd, Up rofe the victor Angels, and to arms The matin trumpet fung: in arms they stood Soon banded; others from the dawning hills Look'd round, and scouts each coaft light-armed fcour, Each quarter, to defcry the distant foe, 531. quorum nox confcia fola eft. 525 539 Where 527. Of golden panoply,] With golden armour from head to foot completely arm'd. Panoply, ПavoTA, Greek, armour at all points. Hume. 526. The trumpet fung:] A claffical expreffion. So Virg. Æn. V. 528-others from the dawning bills] This epithet is ufu413. ally apply'd to the light, but here Et tuba commiffos medio canit very poetically to the bills, the aggere ludos. To arms the matin trumpet fung: So Quando à cantar la matutina Comincia à l'arme. Gier. Lib. Cant. 11. St. 19. dawn first appearing over them, and they feeming to bring the rifing day; as the evening ftar is faid likewife first to appear on his bill-top, VIII. 520. 532.halt:] Milton spells it as the Italians do alte, but we commonly write it with an b like the French and Germans. 533.-is Where lodg'd, or whither fied, or if for fight, 1 Zophiel, of Cherubim the swiftest wing, 535 Arm, warriors, arm for fight; the foe at hand, Whom fled we thought, will fave us long pursuit This day; fear not his flight; fo thick a cloud He comes, and fettled in his face I fee Sad refolution and secure: let each 540 His 793, and clouds of foot in Paradife Regain'd. III. 327. We have peditum equitumque nubes in Livy, Lib. 5 and even nubem belli in Virgil, En. X. 809. and armorum nubem in Statius, Theb. IV. 839. 541. Sad refolution and fecure:] By fad here is meant four and fullen, as triftis in Latin and trißio in Italian fignify. Pearce. Or poffibly it means no more than ferious or in earnest, a fense frequent in all our old authors. And I remember a remarkable inftance of the ufe of the word in Lord Bacon's Advice to Villiars Duke of Buckingham; " But if it were an "embaffy of weight, concerning " affaire |