50

powers

And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celeftial Light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her
Irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
Purge and difperfe, that I may fee and tell
Of things invifible to mortal fight.

works is an unphilofophical expreffion. If fo, and if the fentence must terminate at blank, why may we not read?

Presented with an univerfal blank; All nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,

that is, all nature's works being, in respect to the univerfal blank, or abfence of light from me, expung'd to me and ras'd. Pearce. It is to be wifh'd that fome fuch emendation as this was admitted. It clears the fyntax, which at prefent is very much embarass'd. All nature's works being to me expung'd and ras'd, and wisdom at one entrance quite fout out is plain and intelligible; but otherwise it is not easy to say what the conjunction And copulates wisdom to; And wifdom at one entrance quite but out.

49. ras'd.] Of the Latin radere; the Romans who writ on waxed tables with iron ftiles, when they ftruck out a word, did tabulam radere rafe it out. Light and the bleffings of it were never drawn in more lively colors and finer ftrokes; nor was the fad lofs

55

Now

of it and them ever fo paffionately and fo patiently lamented. They that will read the most excellent Homer, bemoaning the fame misfortune, will find him far fhort of this. Herodotus in his life gives us fome verses, in which he bewailed his blindness. Hume.

52. Shine inward,] He has the fame kind of thought more than once in his profe works. See his Epift. to Emeric Bigot. Orbitatem certe luminis quidni leniter feram, quod non tam amiffum quam revocatum intus atque retractum, ad acuendam potius mentis aciem quam ad hebetandam, fperem? Epift. Fam. 21. See also his Defenfio Secunda, p. 325. Edit. 1738. Sim ego debiliffimus, dummodo in mea debilitate immortalis ille et melior vigor eò fe efficacius exerat; dummodo in meis tenebris divini vultûs lumen eò clarius eluceat ; tum enim infirmiffimus ero fimul et validiffimus, cæcus eodem tempore et perfpicaciffimus; hac poffim ego infirmitate confummari, hac perfici, poffim in hac obfcuritate fic ego irradiari. Et fane haud ultima Dei cura cæci fumus;

nec

Now had th' almighty Father from above,
From the pure empyréan where he fits
High thron❜d above all highth, bent down his eye,
His own works and their works at once to view:
About him all the Sanctities of Heaven
Stood thick as stars, and from his fight receiv'd

60.

61. and from his fight receiv'd Beatitude paft utterance; ] Our author here alludes to the beatific wifion, in which divines fuppofe the

Beatitude past utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his glory fat,
His only Son; on earth he firft beheld
Our two firft parents, yet the only two

Of mankind, in the happy garden plac'd,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrival'd love

In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd

Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there

Coasting the wall of Heav'n on this fide Night

65

70

In

the happiness of the Saints to or air, but without firmament, withconfift. Thyer.

62.

ho

on his right The radiant image of his glory fat, His only Son; ] According to St. Paul, Heb. I. 3. His Son being the brightness of his glory, and the exprefs image of his perfonfat down on the right hand of the majefty on high. Let the difcerning linguift compare the preceding defcription of God with that by Taffo, Cant. 9. Stan. 55, 56, 57.

Hume.

72. In the dun air] This is the aer bruno of the Italians, who almoft conftantly exprefs a gloomy dufky air in these terms. Thyer.

75. Firm land imbofom'd, without

firmament, &c.] The univerfe appear'd to Satan to be a folid globe, incompass'd on all fides I but uncertain whether with water

out any sphere of fixed ftars over it, as over the earth. The sphere of fixed ftars was itself compre hended in it, and made a part of it. 77. Him God beholding from his profpect high,

Wherein past, prefent, future he beholds,] Boethius, an author not unworthy of our poet's imitation, defcribing the Deity ufes exactly the fame terms. Qui cum ex alta providentiæ fpecula refpicit, quid cuique eveniat. De Conf. Philof. L. 4.

Quæ fint, quæ fuerint, veniant que
Uno mentis cernit in ictu.

Ib. L. 5. Metr. 2. Thyer. 79. Thus to his only Son foreseeing

Spake.] If Milton's majefty forfakes him any where, it is in thofe parts of his poem, where the divine Perfons are introduced as speakers.

In the dun air fublime, and ready now

To stoop with wearied wings and willing feet
On the bare outfide of this world, that feem'd
Firm land imbofom'd, without firmament,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.

Him God beholding from his profpect high,
Wherein past, prefent, future he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.

Only begotton Son, feest thou what rage
Transports our Adverfary? whom no bounds

75

80

Prefcrib'd,

of Christianity, and drawn toge-
ther in a regular scheme the whole
difpenfation of Providence with
refpect to Man.
He has repre-
fented all the abftrufe doctrins of
predeftination, free-will and grace,
as alfo the great points of incarna-
tion and redemption (which natu-
rally grow up in a poem that treats
of the fall of Man) with great
energy of expreffion, and in a
clearer and ftronger light than I
ever met with in any other writer.
As thefe points are dry in them-
felves to the generality of readers,
the concife and clear manner, in
which he has treated them, is very
much to be admired, as is like-
wife that particular art which he
has made ufe of in the interfperf-

fpeakers. One may, I think, observe that the author preceeds with a kind of fear and trembling, whilft he defcribes the fentiments of the Almighty. He dares not give his imagination its full play, but chooses to confine himself to fuch thoughts as are drawn from the books of the most orthodox divines, and to fuch expreffions as may be met with in Scripture. The beauties therefore, which we are to look for in these speeches, are not of a poetical nature, nor fo proper to fill the mind with fentiments of grandeur, as with thoughts of devotion. The paffions, which they are defign'd to raise, are a divine love and religious fear. The particular beauty of the fpeeches in the third book ing of all thofe graces of poetry, confifts in that shortness and per- which the fubject was capable of fpicuity of ftile, in which the poet receiving. Satan's approach to the has couch'd the greatest mysteries confines of the creation is finely

Prefcrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyss
Wide interrupt can hold; fo bent he seems
On desperate revenge, that shall redound

85

Upon his own rebellious head. And now
Through all restraint broke loose he wings his way
Not far off Heav'n, in the precincts of light,
Directly tow'ards the new created world,
And Man there plac'd, with purpose to affay
If him by force he can deftroy, or worse,
By fome false guile pervert; and fhall pervert,
For Man will hearken to his glozing lies,
And easily tranfgrefs the fole command,
Søle pledge of his obedience: So will fall,
He and his faithless progeny: Whose fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.

imaged in the beginning of the fpeech, which immediately follows. Addifon.

101.-4 both them who stood and

them who fail'd;] Both the antitheton and the repetition in the next line fhow that the author gave it,

90

95

Such

both them who stood and them who fell; Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. Bentley.

108. (reafon alfo is choice)] The author had exprefs'd the fame fentiment before in profe. "Many "there be that complain of divine "Provi