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To vex the government, disturb the laws; 
Drunk with the fumes of ignorant applause, 
He courts the idle crowd to make him great. 
And sweats, and toils in vain, to mount the sov’reign seat; 
For still to aim at pow’r, and still to fail, 
Ever to strive, and never to prevail, 
What is it but, in Reason’s true account, 
To heave the stone against the rising mount ? 
The idea of subterranean fires, and the spirits of the damned inhabiting them, arose from that 
superstition, which personified all extraordinary natural powers. Hence the fable of the giants, 
from yn, the earth, and yeivopou, to spring from, born of the earth: these are represented as in that 
part of Tartarus, or Hell, where the depth in the earth is twice as great as the height extends to the 
throne of Heaven. 
--— Turn Tartarus ipse 
Bis patet in prasceps tantum, tenditque sub umbras, 
Quantus ad astherium Coeli suspectus Olympum, 
Hie genus antiquum terras, Titania pubes 
Fulmine dejecti, fundo volvuntur in imo. 
Virg. 
Hence the description of FEneas’s terror when he was shewn, 
Et centumgemitus Briareus, et bellua Lernc&. 
Horrendum stridens, flammisque armata chimasra. 
All which is descriptive of burning mountains, and this is more fully verified by Jupiter’s putting over 
these giants the mountains of Peleon, and Ossa, in order to keep them under. 
The fable of the rape of Proserpine, by Pluto, fully verifies this supposition. She is described as 
the offspring of Ceres, and is plainly delineated, as a city situate where the Lake Pergusa is at present, 
and the country around is filled with cascades, woods, and flowers, just such as Proserpine is said to 
have been innocently sporting in, when Pluto on a sudden seized upon her, and carried her to his 
dreary realms. In this metamorphosis, or fable, the rebellious giant Typhasus is represented as covered 
by the Island Tinacria, Sicily; and such was his violent struggle to get liberated, that Dis or Pluto is 
fearful lest the vault of earth covering his own residence should be broken up, 
-- Et Rex pavet ipse silentutn. 
This brought the God of Terrors up, who falls in love with the beauty of Proserpine, that is, becomes 
enamoured of the fair town of Pegusa, and it is swallowed up, and the remainder of the story is taken 
up with a description of the devastation occasioned by this earthquake, by representing the pursuit of 
Ceres after her daughter, over the earth, and her return to Sicily, shewing how Sicily was again 
rendered fruitful and abundant in corn. 
Milton’s rebellion of the angels is taken from the Gigantomachia of the ancients, 
Forthwith (behold the excellence, the pow’r. 
Which God hath in his mighty angels plac’d) 
Their arms away they threw, and to the hills 
(For earth hath this variety from heavbi 
Of pleasure situate in hill and dale) 
Light as the lightning glimpse they ran, they flew; 
From their foundations loos’ning to and fro, 
They pluck’d the seated hills, with all their load, 
Rocks, waters, woods, and by the shaggy tops 
Up-lifting bore them in their hands. Amaze, 
And fright, and terror seiz’d the rebel host. 
When coming towards them so dread they saw“ 
The bottom of the mountains upward turn’d; 
2 E 
