Over mount Sion, and, though that were large, 530 Over the Promis'd Land to God fo dear, By which, to visit oft those happy tribes, To Beërfaba, where the Holy Land 535 So wide the opening feem'd, where bounds were set Satan from hence, now on the lower ftair 540 Of erecting fuch an Academy to the -and his eye with choice regard] Dr. Pearce thinks that after regard a verfe feems to be wanting to describe what his eye did with choice regard: but it may be underfood thus, his eye pass'd frequent, as well as his Angels to and fro on high behefts or commands, and furvey'd from Paneas, a city at the foot of a mountain of the fame name, part of mount Libanus where the river Jordan has its fource, to Leerfaba or Beer fheba, that is the whole extent of the Promis'd Land from Paneas in the north to Beerfaba in the fouth, where the Holy Land is bounded by Egypt and Arabia. The limits of the Holy Land are thus exprefs'd in Scripture, from Dan even unto Beersheba, Dan at the northern and Beersheba at the fouthern extremity; and the city that was called Dan was afterwards named Paneas. So wide the opening feem'd, that is fo wide as I have reprefented it, wider than the paffage over mount Sion and the Promis'd Land; So wide the opening feem'd, where the fame divine power fixed the limits of darkness, that faid to the 545 Of all this world at once. As when a scout 550 So the proud ocean, Hitherto halt thou come and no farther. 540. Satan from hence, &c.] Satan after having long wander'd upon the furface, or outmoft wall of the universe, difcovers at laft a wide gap in it, which led into the creation, and is described as the opening through which the Angels país to and fro into the lower world upon their errands to mankind His fitting upon the brink of this paffage, and taking a furvey of the whole face of nature that appeared to him new and fresh in all its beauties, with the fimile illuftrating this circumftance, fills the inind of the reader with as fur prifing and glorious an idea as any that arifes in the whole poem. He looks down into that valt hollow of the univerfe, with the eye, or (as Milton calls it) with the ken of an Angel. He furveys all the wonders in this immenfe amphitheatre that lie between both the poles of Heaven, and takes in at one view the whole round of the creation. Addifon. 555. Round he furveys &c.] Satan is here reprefented as taking a view of the whole creation from east to weft, and then from north to fouth; but poetry delights to fay the most common things in an uncommon manner. Round he furveys as well he So high above the circling canopy Of night's extended shade) from eastern point Beyond th' horizon; then from pole to pole might in his present fituation, fo high above the circling canopy of night's extended fhade. Dr. Bentley objects to the expreffion of circling canopy, when the shade of night muit needs be a cone: but as Dr. Pearce replies, to Satan who look'd down upon it from fuch an highth, it appear'd not a cone as it really was, but a circle. In this fituation then he furveys from eastern point of Libra, one of the twelve figns exactly oppofit to Arics, to the fleecy flar, Aries or the Ram, that is from eaft to weft, for when Libra rifes in the eaft, Aries fets full weft; and Aries is faid to bear Andromeda, because that conftellation reprefented as a woman is placed juft over Aries, and therefore when Aries fets he feems to bear Andromeda far off Atlantic feas, the great western ocean, beyond th' horizon; then from pole to pole be views in breadth, that is from north to fouth, and that is faid to be in breadth, because the Ancients knowing more of the earth from eaft to weft than from north to fouth, and fo having a 560 His much greater journey one way than the other, one was called length or longitude, the other breadth or latitude. It is fine, as it is natural, to reprefent Satan as taking a view of the world before he threw himfelf into it. 562. Down right into the world's &c] Satan after having furvey'd the whole creation, immediately without longer paufe throws himself into it, and is describ'd as making two different motions. At first he drops down perpendicularly fome way into it, down right into the world's first region throws his flight precipitant, and afterwards winds his oblique way, turns and winds this way and that, if he might any where efpy the feat of Man; for tho' in ver. 527 it is faid that the paffage was juft over Paradife, yet it is evident that Satan did not know it, and therefore as it was natural for him to do, winds about in search of it through the pure marble air. The first epithet pure determins the sense of the fecond, and fhows why the air is compared to marble, namely for His flight precipitant, and winds with ease 565 Thrice for its clearnefs and whitenefs, without any regard to its hardness: and the word marmor, marble, is derived from a Greek word μappasfw that fignifies to fhine and glifter. And as Milton ufes the expreffion of the marble air, fo Virgil does likewife of the marble fea, Georg. I. 254. Et quando infidum remis impellere marmor Conveniat : And Æn. VI. 729. (Waller) has faid in his verses upon his mistress's paffing through a croud of people; The yielding marble of a snowy breast. And what is nearer to our purpose, Othello in Shakespear is reprefented as fwearing Act III. -Now by yond marble Heaven. It is common with the Ancients, and those who write in the fpirit and manner of the Ancients, in Et quæ marmoreo fert monftra fub their metaphors and fimiles, if they æquore pontus: And elfewhere he calls Orpheus's neck marble, Georg. IV. 523. Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice revulfum. And Ovid in like manner fpeaks of Narciffus his marble hands, Met. III. 481. agree in the main circumftance, to Stars diftant,] They appeared by their fhining to be ftars. 'Tis a Greek expreffion as Plato in an epigram on his friend Stella preferved by Diogenes Laertius. You fhone whilst living a morning star, but dead you now fhine Hefperus among the fhades. Richardfon. Nudaque marmoreis percuffit pec568, Like thofe Hefperian gardens] tora palmis. So call'd of Hefperus, Vefper, beAnd a famous poet of our own caufe placed in the weft under the evening Thrice happy iles, but who dwelt happy there 570 He stay'd not to inquire: above them all The golden fun in fplendor likest Heaven Allur'd his eye: thither his course he bends evening ftar. Those famous gardens were the iles about Cape Verd in Africa, whofe moft western point is still call'd Hefperium cornu. Others will have 'em the Canaries. Hume. 573.thither his courfe he bends &c.] His fight between the feveral worlds that fhined on every fide of him, with the particular defcription of the fun, are fet forth in all the wantonnefs of a luxuriant imagination. His fhape, fpeech, and behaviour upon his transforming himself into an Angel of light, are touch'd with exquifite beauty, The poet's thought of directing Satan to the fun, which in the vulgar opinion of mankind is the most confpicuous part of the creation, and the placing in it an Angel, is a circumstance finely con 575 580 Days trived, and the more adjusted to a poetical probability, as it was a received doctrin among the most famous philofophers, that every orb had its Intelligence, and as an Apoftle in facred Writ is faid to have seen such an Angel in the fun. Addifon. 574. (but up or down, By center, or eccentric, hard to tell, Or longitude,)] Thefe words (as Dr. Pearce obferves) should be included in a parenthefis, and then the conftruction of the reft will be plain and easy. Satan had now paffed the fix'd ftars, and was directing his courfe towards the fun ; but it is hard to tell (fays the poet) whether his courfe was up or down, that is north or fouth, for so up and down fignifies in IX. 78. and |