But now at last the facred influence Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven 1036 1040 A glimmering dawn; here Nature first begins 1025. -Such was the will Heaven,] Δια διετέλεετο Bλn. Hom. Iliad. I. 5. 1039. As from her outmost works] Dr. Bentley reads his inftead of her: but the meaning is not that Chaos retires as from his own outmost 1045 Far Tenuis relictæ lucis a tergo nitor, Fulgorque dubius folis afflicti cadit. Thyer. 1046. Weighs his spread wings,] works, but retires as from the out- In like manner Taflo defcribing the Far off th' empyreal Heav'n, extended wide 1050 Of the Angel Gabriel's flight, Cant. 1. menfely bigger than the Earth, a St. 14. E fi librò fu l'adeguate penne. But I think notwithstanding the natural partiality one has for one's countryman, the preference muft be given to the Italian. The fame ftanza fuggefts another imitation. Taffo calls Gabriel's wings, Infaticabilmente, agili, e prefte. And Milton, ver. 408, Upborne with indefatigable wings. Thyer 1049. With opal tow'rs] With 2owers of precious ftones. Opal is a ftone of diverse colors, partaking of the carbuncles faint fire, the amethifts bright purple, and the emeralds chearing green. Hume and Richardson, 1052. This pendent world, in big nefs as a flar Of fmalleft magnitude clofe by the moon.] By this pendent world is not meant the Earth; but the new creation, Heaven and Earth, the whole orb of fix'd ftars im mere point in comparison. This is fure from what Chaos had lately faid, ver. 1004. Now lately Heav'n and Earth, another world, Hung o'er my realm, link'd in a golden chain. Befides, Satan did not fee the Earth the fudden view of all this world at yet; he was afterwards furpris'd at once, III. 542. and wander'd long on the outfide of it; till at last he faw our fun, and learned there of the Arch-Angel Uriel, where the Earth and Paradife were. See III. 722. This pendent world therefore muft mean the whole world, the new created univerfe, and beheld far off it appear'd in comparison with the empyreal Heaven no bigger than a fear of smallest magnitude; nay not fo large, it appear'd no bigger than fuch a ftar appears to be when it is close by the moon, the fuperior light whereof makes any ftar that happens to be near her difk, to feem exceedingly finall and almost disappear. Dr. Bentley has strangely mistaken the fenfe of Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge, Accurs'd, and in a curfed hour he hies. this paffage, understanding that the Earth was meant, and yet arguing very juftiy that the Earth could not be meant: and Mr. Addifon has fallen into the like mistake, as appears from his words; "The g immering light which shot in"to the Chaos from the utmost 66 verge of the creation, with the "diftant discovery of the Earth "that hung clofe by the moon, હૃદ are wonderfully beautiful and poetical." But how much more wonderful is the imagination of fuch prodigious distance, that after Satan had traveled on fo far, and 66 105'5 comes within view of the whole world, it fhould ftill appear in comparifon with the empyreal Heaven no bigger than the smallest ftar, and that ftar appearing yet fmaller by its proximity to the moon! and how much more beautiful and poetical is it to open the fcene thus by degrees! Satan at first defcries the whole world at a distance in book the fecond, and then in book the third he difcovers our planetary fyftem and the fun, and afterwards by the direction of Uriel the earth and neighbouring moon. The end of the Second Book. |