s, taught to abstain from what they brought.

Milton was no philologist, and we may be permitted in charity to suppose
that he derived "raven" and "ravenous" from the same root.

Some of his puns are to be justified for another reason--that they are
made the weapons of mockery. So when Satan rails against Abdiel he says--

Thou shalt behold
Whether by supplication we intend
Address, and to begirt the Almighty Throne
Beseeching or besieging.

The long punning-bout between Satan and Belial in the Sixth Book
exemplifies the more usual form of the Miltonic pun. When he introduces
the newly-invented artillery, Satan makes a speech, "scoffing in
ambiguous words"--

Ye, who appointed stand,
Do as you have in charge, and briefly touch
What we propound, and loud that all may hear.

And again, when it has taken effect, scattering the heavenly host in
unseemly disorder, he says--

If our proposals once again were heard,
We should compel them to a quick result.

Belial, "in like gamesome mood," replies to the jests of his leader,
until, by the providence of Heaven, his wit and his artillery are buried
under a weight heavier than themselves. On this whole scene Landor
remarks that "the first overt crime of the refractory angels was
punning"; and adds, with true Miltonic conciseness, "they fell rapidly
after that."

Some minor flaws, which may be found in Milton by those who give a close
examination to his works, are to be attributed to the same cause--his
love of condensed statement. Mixture of metaphors in poetry is often
caused merely by the speed of thought, which presents a subject in a new
aspect without care taken to adjust or alter the figure. In these cases
the obscurity or violence of expression arises not from defect, but from
excess of thought. Some few instances occur in Milton, who, in _Lycidas_,
writes thus--

But now my oat proceeds,
And listens to the Herald of the Sea.

The syntax of the thought is sufficiently lucid and orderly, but it is
compressed into too few words. In the Fifth Book of _Paradise Lost_ is
described how--

The Eternal Eye, whose sight discerns
Abtrusest thoughts, from forth his holy mount,
And from within the golden lamps that burn
Nightly before him, saw without their light
Rebellion rising--saw in whom, how spread
Among the Sons of Morn, what multitudes
Were banded to oppose his high decree;
A