Catullus—Epithalamium on Julia and Mallius.

[60]

Holy demons rove

This breathing world.]

Milton is thought to have copied Hesiod in this passage:

Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth

Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep.

But the coincidence seems merely incidental, as the parallel wants completeness. There is nothing of angelic guardianship or judicial inspection in the spirits of Milton: he says only,

All these with ceaseless praise his works behold

Both day and night. How often from the steep