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Here is a Sudden Tranfition from the Son to the Father again, and Thus Uniting the two Sacred Perfons. the whole Hymn is Divine! It gives the Moft Sublime Idea of God and Chrift, and upon the Topicks Common to Both, and Peculiar to Each.

412

thy Name

fhall be the Copious Matter of My Song the Poet had been Addreffing himself from his Reader to the Almighty, and, as it were, Hymning him whilft he Relates How the Angels did fo. he goes on to the Son, profecuting the Hymn, and Now you find him Directly Mixing Himfelf with the Heavenly Hoft. He then returns to his Reader. it is to be noted that the Ending of This Hymn is in Imitation of the Hymns of Homer and Calimachus who always promise to return in Future Hymns.

418 mean while upon the Firm Opacous Globe of this round World, whofe firft Convex divides

the Luminous Inferiour Orbs, enclos'd

from Chaos,and th' Inroad of Darkness Old, not our Earth, but the Solid, Lightless Globe which the Poet Imagines to contain the whole New Creation, whofe Shell feperates the Luminous Orbs that are under it, and Thus enclofes them from Chaos and Ancient Night, as he Elsewhere (II. 970.) calls This Dark

I 4

ness

nefs Old. See it further Defcrib'd Immediately.

422 Satan Alighted walks:
v. 71. he is faid to be

Coafting theWall of Heav'n on This fide Night,
in the Dun Air Sublime, and Ready Now
to floop with wearyed Wings, and Willing Feet
on the Bare Outfide of this World,

Now He Has Stoop'd and is Walking on the
Vast Globe containing the New Creation.

ibid.

a Globe far off

it feem'd, Now feems a Boundless Continent This Beautifully expreffes the Vaftness of this Globe; Diminish'd by the Distance it was perceiv'd to be Such, but Now even the Eye of Satan was Loft, not fo much by the Convexity or Darkness as the Prodigious Stretch

every way.

the Orbit of Saturn is Computed to be above 1000 Millions of Miles in Diameter, and Our Planetary Syftem to extend fixteen times the Distance as from the Sun to Saturn.

424 Dark, Wafle, and Wild, under the Frown of Night

Starless expos'd, &c.

Here is a New Region, and the Poet has not let it be Un-peopled though it was so at Prefent. the Paradife of Fools is Finely Imagin'd.

434

Yeanling Kids

Now Yean'd, lately Born, or Fall'n.

438

where Chineses drive with Sails and Wind their CanieWagons light Heylin in his Cofmogr. gave Milton Thefe Waggons driv'n with Wind as Ships; to make the thing more probable the Poet has added that they were of Cane.

457

and in vain,

'till Final Diffolution, wander bere,

to Wander in vain as commonly understood, would be a weak Expreffion, but it has the force of the Greek as the Latin fruftra, temere, fortuito, nullo Confilio, at random.

459 not in the neighbouring Moon as Some have dream'd

he means Ariofto. Orlando. Fur. Cant. XXXIV. Stan. 70, &c.

473 Cleombrotus

was of the City of Ambracia in Epirus famous only for This Action in an Epigram of Callimachus ftill extant, 'tis the 24 h.

474 Embryo's, and Idiots, Eremits and Friers These are not particulars of the Many more in ́ the preceding Line, but a Continuation of what had been faying. the Poet interrupted

his General Inftances by Particulars in the five lines juft before This. 'tis his Concife manner; Let the Reader do Something for Himfelf.

482 and that Chryftalline Sphear whofe Ballance weighs

the Trepidation talk'd,and that First mov'd: the Ptolemaicks plac'd beyond the Sphere of the Fix'd Stars the Crystalline, whose use was to account for the Apparent Acceleration or Retardation of the Motion of the Fix'd Stars, and therefore They fuppos'd the Motion of this Sphere was by Fits Eastward and Weftward, or Vibratory, which the Author expreffes by -- whofe Ballance weighs the Trepidation. This Cryftalline is fuppos'd to be Clear and Tranfparent; Beyond This is the Primum Mobile, or First Mover, and then, Beyond all this the Heaven of Heavens, the Habitation of God and his Saints, the Empyraum.

it is to be Obferved Here that this Crystalline Sphere, this Primum Mobile, are no more parts of Milton's Syftem of the new Creation than the Wicket Gate in the next line; That must be Sought for in the fhort account of it at the Latter end of This Book and the Beginning of the Seventh. He very Poetically fays These were Some of the Reveries of the Philofophers and Aftronomers, Quaint Opinions to be Laught at, as VIII. 78. he fays

This by flinging them into the Paradife of Fools.

489

the Air out of the Way Defert, Uninhabited.

501

the Devious Air

bis Travell'd Steps

Tyr'd Steps, from Travagliato (Ital.)

502 Degrees

Steps, or Stairs as v. 510, 516, 523.

503

—a Structure high,

not a Ladder or plain Steps, to avoid which Idea Milton calls This a Structure.

[blocks in formation]

his Angels to and fro

pafs'd frequent, and his Eye with Choice re gard

the Angels and the Eye of God pafs'd. 'tis Milton's Concife manner; the Eye which fees All things at One view is however faid to Pafs from Place to place, as God Himself, Isa. xxxi. 5. and paffing over he will preferve it. but what is more Common in Scripture than Attributing to God what Strictly and Properly

belongs

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