565 This more delufive, not the touch, but taste 570 [plagu'd 575 This annual humbling certain number'd days," 580 Ophion with Eury nome, the wide Incroaching Eve perhaps, had first the rule Meanwhile in Paradise the hellish pair 585 Too foon arriv'd; Sin there in Pow'r before, L. 581. Ophion.] Lat. from the Gr. i. e. a ferpent. One of the companions of Cadmus, who fprung out of the teeth of that ferpent which Cadmus flew, Ibid. Eurynome.] Lat. from the Gr. i. e. ruling wide, encroaching; the daughter of Oceanus, and wife of Ophion, which incroached on her husband, and ruined her pofterity. Under this fable the heathens couched Adam and Eve, and their expulfion out of Paradise. L. 584, Ops.] Lat. from the Gr. i. e. riches; the daughter of heaven and earth, the fifter and wife of Saturn. The Greeks called her alfo Rhea, i. e. flowing with wealth. men. Ibid. Ditaan,] of Didea; Lat. Gr. i, e. a place of nets and fifherA city and mountain in Crete, between Gnoffus and Samois, now called Caffiti, where Jupiter was nurfed. Habitual habitant: behind her Death Close following pace 590 Second of Satan sprung, all conqu❜ring Death, What think'st thou of our empire now, though earn'd With travel difficult, not better far Than ftill at hell's dark threshold to' have fat watch, Whom. thus the Sin-born monster answer'd foon: Alike is hell, or Paradise, or heav'n, 595 There beft, where most with ravin I may meet; To whom th' incestuous mother thus reply'd: 605 His thoughts, his looks, words, actions, all infe&; And feafon him thy last and sweetest prey. This faid, they both betook them several ways, 610 Both to deftroy, or unimmortal make All kinds, and for deftruction to mature L. 591. Death.] See it defcribed, Rev. vi. 8. 615 620 And his adherents, that with so much ease I fuffer them to enter and poffefs A place fo heav'nly, and conniving feem To gratify my scornful enemies, That laugh, as if, tranfported with fome fit At random yielded up to their mifrule; 625 630 And know not that I call'd and drew them thither, Of thy victorious arm, well-pleafing Son, Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at laft 635 Then heav'n and earth renew'd shall be made pure Till then the curfe pronounc'd on both precedes. 640 Sung Halleluiah, as the found of feas, Through multitude that fung: Juft are thy ways, 645 Or down from heav'n defcend. Such was their fong, While the Creator calling forth by name 650 655 Solftitial fummer's heat. To the blanc moon The poles of earth twice ten degrees and more 660 665 670 L. 656. Solftitial,] of the folftice; Lat. i. e. the standing of the fun. An aftronomical term. The fummer folftice falls on the 21st of June, and the winter folftice on the 21st of December, to which two points of the tropicks when the fun comes, there is no fenfible increase or decrease of the day and night for a little time: it feems to be at a ftand. Here the first is meant. L. 658. Planetary,] of planets; Gr. i. e. wandering. Here, moving in their feveral orbs. Here feveral terms of aftrology and aftronomy occur, in a continued digreffion. According to aftrologers, the planets make several angles or aspects in their motions through the twelve figns; the chief are conjunction, fextile, quadrate, trine, oppofition. L. 668. Some fay he bid his angels, &c.] It was eternal Spring (B. IV. 1. 268.) before the fall; and he is now accounting for the change of feasons after the fall, and mentions the two famous hypothefes. Some fay it was occafioned by altering the pofition of the earth, by turning the poles of the earth above 20 degrees afide from the fun's orb, he bid his angels turn afcance the poles of earth twice ten degrees and more from the fun's axle; and the poles of the earth are about 23 degrees and a half diftant from those of the ecliptick; they with labour push'd oblique the centrick globe; it was erect before, but is oblique now; the obliquity of a fphere is the pro- per aftronomical term, when the pole is raised any number of degrees less than 90; the centrick globe fixed on its centre, and therefore moved with labour and difficulty, or rather centrick, as being the centre of the world, according to the Ptolemaick fyftem, which our author ufually follows. Oblique the centrick globe: some say the fun 675 L. 674, Twins] Sax. Gemini. Two children born at one birth. Here, Caftor and Pollux, fons of Tindaurus and Leda, king of Sparta; born there, and at the fame time. Caftor and Pollux, i. e. adorned, or fhining, were the eleventh king of it after their father, and reigned cotemporary. They are feigned to be the fign Gemini, by fabulous antiquity, and were much in veneration among the heathens. See Acts xxviii. 11. They are ftars of the second magnitude, which form the two heads of Gemini, the third of the twelve figns of the zodiack. L. 675. Crab.] Cancer; becaufe the fun moves back the fame way as the crab doth; or because it confifts of nine ftars in the fhape of a crab the fourth of the twelve figas; the fun enters into this fign on the 21ft of June. Here, the tropick of Cancer, or the northern tropick. L. 676. Leo.] Lat. from the Gr. i. e. the lion. Here, an aftronomical term. The fifth of the twelve figns, into which the fun enters on the 22d of July. This conftellation hath twenty-seven ftars about it. Ibid. Virgin,] virgo, Lat. i. e. ftrong; a chafte maid, a maiden in her bloom and ftrength. Here, an aftronomical term. The fixth of the twelve figns. It confifts of twenty-fix ftars; the fun enters into it on the 22d of Auguft. This is Aftrea the goddess of juftice, who left the earth because of the wickedness of men after the fall, and flew up to heaven, where the weighs, confiders, and examines all actions of men and things, as the poets feigned. But this is a good emblem of divine justice, and the fall of Adam. Ibid. Scales.] Libra, Lat. i. e. a balance, or pair of fcales. Here, an astronomical term: The feventh of the twelve figns, into which the fun enters on the 22d of September. It is the first of the fix fouthern figns of the zodiack. L. 677. Capricorn. Lat. i. e. an horned goat; because then the fun at this point climbs upward again in his annual courfe, like. that climbing creature the goat: An aftronomical term. The tenth of the twelve figns. It confifts of twenty-one stars; the fun. enters into it on the 22d of December, and makes the winter fo ftice. It is the fouthern tropick. |