Death stretches o'er the plain 50 Wide-wasting, and grim slaughter red with blood: Urged on by hunger keen, they wound, they kill, Their rage licentious knows no bound; at last Incumbered with their spoils, joyful they bear Upon their shoulders broad, the bleeding prey.

But, scarce observed, the knowing and the bold Fall in the general massacre of gold; Wide-wasting pest!

No age, no sex, no rank, no condition, was exempt from the fatal influence of this wide-wasting calamity.

Oft have I rag'd, when their wide-wasting cannon Lay pointed at our batt'ries yet unform'd, And broke the meditated lines of war.

20 But, scarce observed, the knowing and the bold Fall in the general massacre of gold; Wide-wasting pest!

And Fever here with looks forever lean, Swoln Dropsy, halting Gout, profuse of woes, And Madness fierce & hopeless of repose, Wide-wasting Plague; but chief in honour stood More-wasting War, insatiable of blood; With starting eye-balls, eager for the word; Already brandish'd was the glitt'ring sword.

Thus, when a reader not skilled in physick happens in Milton upon this line, pining atrophy, Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence, he will, with equal expectation, look into his dictionary for the word marasmus, as for atrophy, or pestilence; and will have reason to complain if he does not find it.