599 "The great Creator from his work rcturn'd "Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou seest "And now on earth the Seventh "Ev'ning arose in Eden, for the sun "Was set, and twilight from the East came on, 2 "Invisible, yet staid, (such privilege "Hath Omnipresence,) and the work ordain'd, "But not in silence holy kept: the harp "Had work, and rested not; the solemn pipe, "And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop, "All sounds on fret by string, or golden wire, 66 doors; and the King of glory sball come in." This hymn was sung when the ark of God was carried up into the sanctuary on Mount Sion, and is understood as a prophecy of our Saviour's ascension into heaven; and is therefore fitly applied by our author to the same divine Person's ascending thither after he had created the world.—(N.) » /. e. Set thickly as they are seen in the "Galaxy," or "Milky Way," so called from its whiteness."Galaxy," yxxx, from yaλa, milk. Milton sometimes explains his Greek names; so 619, "the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;" vadion, from ux>os, glass.— (N.) So also his ample and beautiful definition of the rivers of hell, ii. 576, etc. 1 He was in heaven, and at the creation at the same time.—(N.) 8 So Gen. ii. 2, 3. On the finger-board of a bass-viol, for instance, are divisions' alhwart, by which the sound is regulated and varied; these divisions are called "frett."—(R.) By organs before, he means all wind instruments consisting of pipes, and of stops Couched by the band.-(R., N.) 631 "Fuming from golden censers,1 hid the mount. "Great are thy works, Jehovah! * infinite "Thy power! What thought can measure thee, or tongue "Relate thee? Greater now in thy return 3 "Than from the giant angels: thee that day 66 6 Thy thunders magnified; but to create 66 6 Is greater, than created to destroy. "Who can impair thee, Mighty King! or bound "Of spirits apostate, and their counsels vain, 66 6 The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks 66 666 'Thou usest, and from thence creat'st more good. "And worship him; and in reward to rule 66 6 Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air, "And multiply a race of worshippers "Holy and just: thrice happy, if they know i In concert, or sounding alone.—"Of incense clouds;" the use of incense in heaven Is mentioned in Rev. viii. 3, 4: "And an angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and the smoke of the incense ascended up before God out of the angel's hand."—(N.) * Milton is generally orthodox. Here he intimates the unity of Father and Son by the word Jehovah.—(N.) 3 This expression, "giant," is not used to signify the stature and size of the angels, but that disposition of mind which is ascribed to the giants, namely, a fierce, aspiring, temper; and this the Hebrew word, gibbor, signifies, which is rendered a giant in Scripture.-P.) Thus, in Shakspeare (Hen. VIII. act i. sc. 2,) Buckingham is called, a giant traitor—an aspiring traitor." The word may be also explained by the expression, 66 spirits apostate," 610, apostate being the marginal reading in the Latin version of the Bible for the term giants, Gen. vi. 4.—(T.) The "hyaline" or "glassy" is the same as the "crystalline ocean" above the firmament, 271. Rev. iv. 6 : "And before the throne was a sea of glass, like unto crystal."— (N.) See note 578. To distinguish it from the "crystalline ocean," or the waters above the firmament.— (N.) 640 "Their happiness,1 and persevere upright!' "Inform'd by thee, might know. If else thou seek st "Aught not surpassing human measure, say." i Virg. Gcorg. ii. 458 :— "0 fortunaloJ nlmlom, son si bona norlnt."-(N.) BOOK VIII.4 Adam inquires concerning celestial motions; is doubtfully answered, and exhorted to search rather things more worthy of knowledge: Adam assents; and, still desirous to detain Raphael, relates to him what he remembered since his own creation; his placing in Paradise; his talk with God concerning solitude and fit society; his first meeting and nuptials with Eve: his discourse with the angel thereupon; who, after admonitions repeated, departs. sex. The angel ended; and in Adam's ear i This book opens with a beautiful description of the impression which the discourse of the archangel made on Adam. Adam afterwards, by a very natural curiosity, inquires concerning the motions of those celestial bodies which made the most glorious appearance among the six days' works. The poet here, with a great deal of art, represents Eve as withdrawing from this part of their conversation, to amusements more suitable to ber He well knew that the episode in this book, which is filled with aecounts of his passion and esteem for Eve, would have been improper for her hearing; and has therefore devised very just and beautiful reasons for her retiring.—The angel's returning a doubtful answer to Adam's inquiries was not only proper for the moral reason which the poet assigns, but because it would have been improper to have given the sanction of an archangel to any particular system of philosophy. The chief points in the Ptolemaic and Copernican hypotheses are described with great force and perspicuity, and at the same time dressed in pleasing and poetical images.—Adam, to detain the angel, enters afterwards into a detail of the circumstances in which he found himself placed after his creation; as also his conversation with his Maker, and his first meeting with Eve. There is no part of the poem more apt to raise the attention of the reader than this discourse of our great ancestor; as nothing can be more surprising and delightful to us than to hear the sentiments that arose in the first man, while be was yet new and fresh from the bands of his Creator. The poet has interwoven every thing which is delivered on this subject by Holy Writ with so many beautiful imaginations of his own, that nothing can be conceived more just and natural than this whole episode. There are two very shining passages that deserve notice: the first, which contains a very noble moral, is 210, etc. The second begins at 229. There is no question but our poet drew the image in what follows this from that in Virgil's Sixth Book, when Æncas and the Sybil stand before the adamantine gates, which are there described as shut upon the place of torments; and listen to the groans, the clank of chains, and the noise of iron whips, that were heard in those regions of pain and sorrow. The many wonderful and charming incidents in this part of the work have in them all the beauties of novelty, at the same time that they have all the graces of nature. They are such as none but a great genius could have thought of; though upon the perusal of them they seem to rise of themselves from the subject of which he treats. In a word, though they are natural they are not obvious; which is the true character or all line writing.—The sentiments of love in our first parents gave the angel an insight into human nature, that he seems apprehensive of the evils which might befal the species in general, as well as Adam in particular, from the excess of this passion. He therefore fortifies him against it by timely admonitions; which very artfully prepare the mind of the reader for the occurrences of the next book, when the weakness of which Adam gave here such distinct discoveries, brings about that fatal event which is the subject of the poem.—■Ad.) * Newton observes that in the first edition of the poem in ten hooks, here was only this line "What thanks sufficient, or what recompense "Creator? Something yet of doubt remains, "When I behold this goodly frame, this world, 2 "Their distance argues, and their swift return "To whom thus Adam gratefully replied," which in the second edition in twelve books, the author changed into these four lines. A sentiment similar to this is to be found in many of the best ancient authors. Jortin quotes Apollonius, i. 512, in which it is said, that the harp and voice of Orpheus had such a fascinating effect on the Argonauts, that after he had ceased, they still, one and all, held out their heads, and cocked their ears, entranced by his charming melody. Lord Monboddo quotes the Protagoras of Plato, when Socrates says that after Protagoras (one of the greatest and most judicious of all the old philosophers) had finished his explanatory discourse, he was so transported that he thought him still speaking, and scarce at last collected himself. Bowles quotes Dante, lnfern. ii. 113, where the song of Casela the musician, in the regions below, had a similar ravishing effect on Dante. The Oɛen de per αμφεχντ' αμφη in Iliad ii. 41, and the η φωνη των ακουσθέντων εναυλη in Lucian's "Dream," must, I doubt not, occur to every classical scholar. "Stood," i. e. continued in a fixed attitude, even though he may have been sitting at dinner still, as v. 433. So we use the word commonly.—(K.) Milton, after having given so noble an idea of the creation of this new world, takes a proper occasion to show the two great systems; namely, the Ptolemaic and Copernican, as they are usually called; one making the earth, the other the sun, to be the centre and this he does by introducing Adam very judiciously proposing the difficulties that occur in the first, which was the system most obvious to him. The reply of the archangel touches on the expedients the Ptolemaics invented to solve those difficulties, and patch up their system; and then insinuates that, perhaps, the sun is the centre, and so introduces that system, and withal the noble improvements in the new philosophy; not however determining for one or the other: on the contrary, he rather exhorts our progenitor to apply his thoughts to what more nearly concerns him, and is within his reach.—(R.) l "Numbered stars." Numbered by whom? by the Creator alone. Psalm cxlvii. 4 : "He telleth the number of the stars; he callelh them all by their names." Astronomers also tell their number, but it is of that small part only which they see and name. But neither is this the "numbered" meant here. He would only say they are a vast number, numerous.—(K.) "Numbered," "Numerous," as vii. 621.—(M.) But as he could write "numerous" here as well as there, I think he meant something more by "numbered" than "numerous," and that it refers to that passage in the Psalm; if not, that it is to be taken as numeratus sometimes is, as applied to a great collection of valuable things, well arranged, and carefully reckoned. 2 "Spaces incomprehensible," i. e. through spades incomprehensible. When a body is at a vast distance, and performs its circuit in a day, both these circumstances considered together, argue that it rolls through spaces incomprehensible.—'P.) |