But what have been thy answers, what but dark,
Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,
Which they who ask'd have seldom understood,
And not well understood as good not known?
Who ever by consulting at thy shrine

435

Ver. 434. But what have been thy answers, what but dark, Ambiguous, and with double sense deluding,] The oracles were often so obscure and dubious, that there was need of other oracles to explain them. "Sed jam ad te venio,

"Sancte Apollo, qui umbilicum certum terrarum obsides, "Unde superstitiosa primum sæva evasit vox fera.”

"Tuis enim oraculis Chrysippus totum volumen implevit, partim falsis, ut ego opinor, partim casu veris, ut fit in omni oratione sæpissime; partim flexiloquis, et obscuris, et interpres egeat interprete, et sors ipsa ad sortes referenda sit; ambiguis, et quæ ad dialecticum deferenda sint." Cicero De Div. ii. 56.

CALTON.

Milton, in these lines about the Heathen oracles, seems to have had in view what Eusebius says more copiously upon this subject in the fifth Book of his Preparatio Evangelica. That learned father reasons in the very same way about them, and gives many instances from history of their delusive and double meanings.

THYER.

Probably Milton had here in mind the exclamation also of Macbeth, when he finds that the weird sisters had shuffled him with ambiguous expressions, Macbeth, A. and S. ult.

"And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,
"That palter with us in a double sense.”

But see also Heywood's Hierarchie of Angels, fol. 1635, p. 442. where the “doubtfull answers of oracles" are noticed, and rightly described:

"So intricate that none could vnderstand,

"Or meerely toyes and lies; for their words were,
"By interpointing, so dispos'd, to beare

"A double sense." TODD.

Return'd the wiser, or the more instruct,
To fly or follow what concern'd him most,
And run not sooner to his fatal snare?
For God hath justly given the nations up
To thy delusions; justly, since they fell
Idolatrous: but, when his purpose is
Among them to declare his providence

440

445

To thee not known, whence hast thou then thy truth, But from him, or his Angels president

In every province, who themselves disdaining

instruct,] Thus, B. ii. ver.

Ver. 439. 399, he writes suspect for suspected. In the Paradise Lost he always writes the participles at length; but in this Poem he has in every respect condensed his style, which may be one reason why it does not please the million. DUNSTER.

But he abbreviates the participle also in Par. Lost; as he writes unsuspect for unsuspected, B. ix. 771. And, in his Translation of the 6th Psalm, he writes deject for dejected. He was preceded by Shakspeare, Hamlet, A. iii. S. i.

"And I of ladies most deject, and wretched." Todd.

Ver. 447. But from him, or his Angels president

In every province,]

"Utitur etiam eis Deus

(Dæmonibus) ad veritatis manifestationem per ipsos fiendam, dum divina mysteria eis pèr Angelos revelantur." The words are quoted from Aquinas (2da 2dæ Quest 172. Art. 6.)

CALTON.

This notion Milton very probably had from Tertullian and St. Austin. Tertullian, speaking of the gods of the Heathens and their oracles, says " Dispositiones etiam Dei et tunc prophetis concionantibus exceperunt, et nunc lectionibus resonantibus carpunt. Ita et hinc sumentes quasdam temporum sortes æmulantur divinitatem, dum furantur divinationem. In oraculis autem, quo ingenio ambiguitates temperent in eventus, scient Crœsi, sciunt Pyrrhi." Apol. C. 22. St. Austin, more appositely to our present purpose, answering the Heathen boasts of their oracles,

say

To approach thy temples, give thee in command
What, to the smallest tittle, thou shalt
To thy adorers? Thou with trembling fear,
Or like a fawning parasite, obey'st:
Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.
But this thy glory shall be soon retrench'd;
No more shalt thou by oracling abuse
The Gentiles; henceforth oracles are ceas'd,

450

*.455

says—“ tamen nec ista ipsa, quæ ab eis vix raro et clanculo proferuntur, movere nos debent, si cuiquam Dæmonum extortum est id prodere cultoribus suis quod didicerat ex eloquiis prophetarum, vel ex oraculis Angelorum." Aug. De Div. Dæmonum, sect. 12. tom. 6. ed. Bened. And again, "Cum enim vult Deus etiam per infimos infernósque spiritus aliquem vera cognoscere, temporalia dumtaxat atque ad istam mortalitatem pertinentia, facile est, et non incongruum, ut omnipotens et justus ad eorum pœnam, quibus ista prædicuntur, ut malum quod eis impendet ante quam veniat prænoscendo patientur, occulto apparatu ministeriorum suorum etiam spiritibus talibus aliquid divinationis impertiat, ut quod audiunt ab Angelis prænuntient hominibus." De Div. Quæst. ad Simpl. L. 2. S. 3. Tom. 6. THYER.

Milton has here followed the Septuagint reading in Deuteronomy. "Οτε διεμέριζεν ὁ ὕψιστος ἔθνη—ἔστησεν ὅρια ἐθνῶν κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων θεοῦ. WARBURTON.

Ver. 453. Then to thyself ascrib'st the truth foretold.] The Demons, Lactantius says, could certainly foresee, and truly foretel, many future events, from the knowledge they had of the dispositions of providence before their fall. And then they assumed all the honour to themselves, pretending to be the authors and doers of what they predicted. "Nam cum dispositiones Dei præsentiant, quippe qui ministri ejus fuerunt, interponunt se in his rebus ; ut quæcunque à Deo vel facta sunt vel fiunt ipsi potissimum facere, aut fecisse videantur." Div. Inst. ii. 16. CALTON.

Ver. 456.

—henceforth oracles are ceas'd, &c.] As Milton had before adopted the ancient opinion of oracles being

And thou no more with pomp or sacrifice
Shalt be inquir'd at Delphos, or elsewhere;
At least in vain, for they shall find thee mute.
God hath now sent his living oracle

460

the operations of the fallen Angels, so here again he follows the same authority, in making them cease at the coming of our Saviour. See the matter fully discussed in Fontenelle's History of Oracles, and Father Baltus's answer to him. THYER.

Thus Juvenal, Sat. vi. 554;

66

Delphis oracula cessant."

And in the fifth Book of Lucan's Pharsalia, where Appius is desirous to consult the Delphick oracle, but finds it dumb, the priestess tells him;

"Muto Parnassus, hiatu

"Conticuit, pressítque Deum, seu spiritus istas
"Destituit fauces, mundíque in devia versum
"Duxit iter."

Thus also Milton, in his Hymn on the Nativity;

"The oracles are dumb, &c."

And before him, Giles Fletcher, in his Christ's Victory in Heaven, st. 82.

"The Angels caroll'd loud their song of peace,

"The cursed oracles were strucken dumb." DUNSTER. Ver. 460. his living oracle] Christ is styled by the Greek Fathers αυτοζωή, ζῶσα βουλὴ, λόγος ζῶν, essential life, the living counsel, and the living word of God. And St. John says, that "in him was life, and the life was the light of men," i. 4. CALTON.

And in Acts, vii. 38. where it is said, "Who received the lively (or living) oracles to give unto us," instead of Xóyia Lavra, some copies read λóyov vra. DUNster.

Ibid.

his living oracle

Into the world &c.] Dr. Newton says he has here.

Into the world to teach his final will,

And sends his Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell
In pious hearts, an inward oracle

To all truth requisite for men to know.

So spake our Saviour; but the subtle Fiend,
Though inly stung with anger and disdain,
Dissembled, and this answer smooth return'd.
Sharply thou hast insisted on rebuke,

And urg❜d me hard with doings, which not will
But misery hath wrested from me. Where
Easily canst thou find one miserable,

And not enforc❜d oft-times to part from truth,
If it may stand him more in stead to lie,
Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?
But thou art plac'd above me, thou art Lord;
From thee I can, and must submiss, endure
Check or reproof, and glad to 'scape so quit.
Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,

465

470

475

corrected an errour, which had prevailed in most of the editions, except Milton's own, "loving oracle" instead of "living oracle." He notices another errour a little afterwards," and inward oracle" instead of "an inward oracle." Fenton had also rectified this last mistake. And Tonson's edit. of 1747 had rectified both.

Ver. 468. Sharply thou hast &c.] The smoothness and hypocrisy of this speech of Satan are artful in the extreme, and cannot be passed over unobserved. Jos. WARTON.

Ver. 474. Say and unsay, feign, flatter, or abjure?] Might not Milton possibly intend here, and particularly by the word abjure, to lash some of his complying friends, who renounced their republican principles at the Restoration? THYER.

Ver. 478. Hard are the ways of truth, and rough to walk,] Thus Silius Italicus, Book xv, where Virtue is the speaker;