"
In answer to which, I say that this machine is one of those which
the poet uses only for ornament, and not out of necessity. Nothing
can be more beautiful or more poetical than his description of the
three Dirae, or the setting of the balance, which our Milton has
borrowed from him, but employed to a different end; for, first, he
makes God Almighty set the scales for St. Gabriel and Satan, when he
knew no combat was to follow; then he makes the good angel's scale
descend, and the devil's mount--quite contrary to Virgil, if I have
translated the three verses according to my author's sense:-
"Jupiter ipse duas aequota examine lances
Sustinet, et fata imponit diversa duorum;
Quem damnet labor, et quo vergat pondere letum."
For I have taken these words Quem damnet labor in the sense which
Virgil gives them in another place (Damnabis tu quoque votis), to
signify a prosperous event. Yet I dare not condemn so great a
genius as Milton; for I am much mistaken if he alludes not to the
text in Daniel where Belshazzar was put into the balance and found
too light.
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