In short, the Poet never mentions anything of this Battel but in such Images of Greatness and Terror as are suitable to the Subject.  Among several others I cannot forbear quoting that Passage, where the Power, who is described as presiding over the Chaos, speaks in the Third Book.

  Thus Satan; and him thus the Anarch old
  With faultring Speech, and Visage incompos’d,
  Answer’d, I know thee, Stranger, who thou art,
  That mighty leading Angel, who of late
  Made Head against Heavens King, tho overthrown. 
  I saw and heard, for such a numerous Host
  Fled not in silence through the frighted Deep
  With Ruin upon Ruin, Rout on Rout,
  Confusion worse confounded; and Heavns Gates
  Pour’d out by Millions her victorious Bands
  Pursuing—­

It requir’d great Pregnancy of Invention, and Strength of Imagination, to fill this Battel with such Circumstances as should raise and astonish the Mind of the Reader; and at the same time an Exactness of Judgment, to avoid every thing that might appear light or trivial.  Those who look into Homer, are surprized to find his Battels still rising one above another, and improving in Horrour, to the Conclusion of the Iliad.  Milton’s Fight of Angels is wrought up with the same Beauty.  It is usher’d in with such Signs of Wrath as are suitable to Omnipotence incensed.  The first Engagement is carry’d on under a Cope of Fire, occasion’d by the Flights of innumerable burning Darts and Arrows, which are discharged from either Host.  The second Onset is still more terrible, as it is filled with those artificial Thunders, which seem to make the Victory doubtful, and produce a kind of Consternation even in the good Angels.  This is follow’d by the tearing up of Mountains and Promontories; till, in the last place, the Messiah comes forth in the Fulness of Majesty and Terror, The Pomp of his Appearance amidst the Roarings of his Thunders, the Flashes of his Lightnings, and the Noise of his Chariot-Wheels, is described with the utmost Flights of Human Imagination.

There is nothing in the first and last Days Engagement which does not appear natural, and agreeable enough to the Ideas most Readers would conceive of a Fight between two Armies of Angels.

The second Days Engagement is apt to startle an Imagination, which has not been raised and qualify’d for such a Description, by the reading of the ancient Poets, and of Homer in particular.  It was certainly a very bold Thought in our Author, to ascribe the first Use of Artillery to the Rebel Angels.  But as such a pernicious Invention may be well supposed to have proceeded from such Authors, so it entered very properly into the Thoughts of that Being, who is all along describ’d as aspiring to the Majesty of his Maker.  Such Engines were the only Instruments he could have made use of to imitate those Thunders, that in all Poetry, both sacred and profane, are represented as the Arms of the Almighty.  The tearing up the