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implies not what we commonly mean by it,' but a very great Sword, Such as the Champions us'd in former times. Brando in Italian is the Poetic Word for Such a One, and Thence Doubtless Milton has taken it. See Spenf. V. I. 9. Ariofto. XVIII. St. 43, and Others.

Ibid.

the Gate

with Dreadfull Faces Throng'd and Fierie Armes:

Dreadful, Forbidding Entrance not only to Them, but to the Evil Angels, as XI. 123.

Milton in Borrowing Images from the An- * cients, Frequently either Raifes them, or Applies them more Nobly, or Both: As Here, though from One of the moft Beautiful Images of Virgil, and the moft Finely Apply'd. This might have been taken Notice of throughout the Poem, but we have Industriously Avoided Citing Paffages, as much as poffible; Befides This Part is Referv'd for a Future Work. What a Surprizing Picture is given • Here! It Strikes the Imagination Nobly; as the Two Others, That Immediately Before, and That with which the Poem Con'cludes Touch with Exceeding Tenderness.

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648 They Hand in Hand with Wandring Steps and Slow,

Through Eden took their Solitarie Way. These two lines are an Intire Period, as That from 640 to 645, They looking back, &c. as the three lines following, Some Natural Tears

They

They dropt, &c. their Steps were Wandring though Guided by Providence, for the Places appear'd Unhofpitable and Defert, not Knowing, nor Known by Them, XI. 305, and Solitarie, for though they were Company to Each Other, There was None that could be So to Them; Nor Man, nor Angel.

This laft Circumftance brings our Progenitors into the Condition in Which We Are, on Even Ground with Us, Wandring in Doubt and Uncertainty; in Sorrow, but Recompens'd with Comfort and Joy, always under the Unfleeping Eye of Divine, Paternal Goodness; and Intitled by Piety and Vertue to Eternal Happiness, through Chrift: and Herein they are the Representatives of all their Posterity, and Every One of Us in particular; now They and Wee Stand no longer on the Sandy Foundation of Our Own Righteoufnefs but on God's Paternal Goodnefs, who knoweth our Frame, who remembereth that we are but Duft. a Happier State than That of Eden.

There are two Ways of Juftifying God's Difpenfations with regard to the Evils we Suffer, or are Expos'd to. One is upon the Principle of Neceffity, which Excludes Punishment, and Supposes a Univerfal, Paternal Indulgence to All Creatures as Acting, or Moving, or being Mov'd, according to their Several Natures and Capacities; the Other on that of Liberty, whereby came Sin, Moral Evil, and its Confequences, Pain, Grief, &c. Milton has Wifely Chofen the Later, and fhewn that God is not

the

536

the Author of Evil, that our Sufferings are due to our Own Tranfgreffions, and that Happinefs is open to us, the Effect of his Infinite Goodness through Him that Loved us, and Wafhed us from Our Sins in his own Blood. Rev. i. 5.

Thus, as we have Seen the Original of Evil, the History of Human Nature, and of the Church of God; Eternal Providence is Afferted, and the Ways of God are Juftify'd to Men, as was Undertaken at the Entrance on this Divine Poem.

And Thus the Poem is Compleat; More So than the Iliad, the Odyfey, or the Eneid, as it is Superiour to Them in the Dignity of the Subject, it's Concern to Us, and in the Sublimity of its Thoughts, Unattainable but by the Affiftance of the Chriftian Revelation, on a Mind at least Equal in Other Refpects to Homer or Virgil.

If the Publick was troubled with an Account of the Caufes, we Hope it would Allow of them as Our Sufficient Excufe; the Text of Milton is not fo Exactly Correfpondent with the Edition of 74 as we Intended, and as was Thought had been done when what is in p. clxxiv. of the Introductory Difcourfe was Written; the Words indeed are hardly ever Wrong, the Pointing Rarely, Efpecially in what is Material, but the Spelling Somtimes Degenerates with the Later Editions, Moftly in the Former Part of the Work. These Inftances However we thought Needlefs to give a Detail of, as Very Little, if at All Important to the Author's Senfe, or Our Explanations.

nor did We when we Examin'd the Sheets from the Prefs take the Pains, or had Time Alwaies to Recurr to the Books and Paffages we Quote, or Referr to: Several Errors of This Sort Therefore Efcap'd Us Then; but by a Carefull Review they are Corrected, as will be Seen Presently; This was Abfolutely Neceffary.

As for Other Overfights, bating Here and There a Word Mif-fpelt, a Few Inaccurate Pointings, and Want of Noting the Emphafis by Great Letters, as our Way Generally is, N n They

They are as Rare as in Most Printed Books.
the Moft Material of all thefe Several Kinds
of Errata are Specify'd; the Reft are left to
the Judgment and Candour of thofe who
fhall do us the Honour to Read us.

We have Subjoyn'd Some Few Alterations
and Additions, Improvements 'tis hop'd, which
will be Acceptable if Thefe Effects of our
Great Labour and Study in This Noble and
Ufefull Undertaking is So in the main; As
will Alfo be the Uncommon Index of the
Principal Subjects of Paradife Loft, and the
Contracted View of the Whole Poem.

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