one; This Epithet therefore is most Judiciously Chofen.

8 That Shepherd

Mofes kept the Sheep of his Father-in Law Jethro, Exod. iii. 1. he was alfo a Shepherd in a Poetical Senfe, God having led his Chofen thro' the Wilderness as a Flock by the Hand of Mofes and Aaron, P. lxxvii. 20.

9 In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth Rofe out of Chaos.

there are Two Notions of Creation:

1. Something Produc'd out of Nothing. 2. a New Form and Properties given to fomething Already Exifting. This is Fourfold,

1. Order brought out of Confufion, as the World out of Chaos.

2. One Inanimate Being produc'd out of Another, as the Sun from Ether, VII. 356, Plants from the Earth, &c. v. 315.

3. An Inanimate Subftance New Formed and Animated, as Adam, the Beasts, Birds, &c.

4. One Animated Being formed out of Another, as Eve. The Scripture is not clear in Which Sense the Heaven and Earth, Light, the Sun, Moon and Stars, were Created, nor even the Vegetables, for Gen. i. 11. the Earth is faid to have brought them forth Ch. ii. 5.

'tis faid God had Made them Before; but as Adam and Eve are faid to have been Created, tho from fomething Pre-exifting, Creation may mean no more when apply'd to the reft. However Milton extends not the Notion of Creation beyond the fecond Senfe of it; and So doubtlefs he Understood the Text, for he Exact in That.

is very

Much is fuggefted by these few Words, Rofe out of Chaos: one fees a vaft Globe containing the Heavens and Earth, the new Creation, as yet without its Finish'd Beauty, and Uninhabited; Slowly and Silently rifing out of the Immenfe Ocean of Univerfal Matter, in Hubbub, Confufion, and Darkness, for this is Chaos.

15 th Aonian Mount.

Parnaffus in Baotia, more antiently called Aonia. Milton well knew that how good foever the Word Parnaffus might have been, the common Ufe of it has Debas'd it, he therefore wifely instead has call'd it the Aonian Mount. And as that Hill was the Seat of the Muses, what he fays here is very Poetically to fay, he aims at a Heigth to which No Poet has Yet attain'd. See alfo IX. 13. &c.

in Profe or Rhime

16 Rhime is not here to be understood as Commonly, but as fignifying Verfe in Oppofition

B 3.

to

to Profe, which was its Antient and Original Signification.

Milton in the fhort Preface which is before this Poem, in the two Editions published in his Lifetime Diftinguishes thefe two Significations by the Spelling, for in That 'Tis Rime without the b, meaning a like Sound at the End of the Verfes, "a Thing (as he fays) in it felf to all judicious Ears, Trivial, and of "no true Musical Delight, which confifts only in apt Numbers, fit Quantity of Syllables, and the Senfe varioufly drawn out from one Verfe into another," and this is the true Explication of the Word Pulμès. But when all Verse was also Rime, no Wonder the Same Word in Sound ftood for Both, or that the New Signification Swallowed the Old one.

When this Poem came out Firft, which was in 1667, it had not the Preface concerning the Kind of Verse 'twas wrote in; This, with the Arguments of the Books (now Twelve, at firft 'twas in Ten only) was added in 1668, and continued in 1669, in both which Years New Title Pages were printed, but 'twas never call'd Another Edition, tho' it hifted Hands, as indeed the Sheets were Still thofe First printed.

20

with mighty Wings outfpread

Dove like fat'
ft Brooding on the vaft Abyss,

and madft it Pregnant.

infufing Warmth and Life into the Dead Grofs

Heap,

Heap, and giving it moreover a Power of Fruitfulness. VII. 235.

22

What in Me is dark Illumine, what is Low Raife and Support, that to the Height of this Great Argument I may Alert Eternal Providence

and Justify the Ways of God to Men. give me Invention, Knowledge and Wisdom; Raife, Exalt my Thoughts, and Keep them to that Height; let there be no Chasm of Dullnefs, but a uniform Vigour and Sublimity Throughout; and in This Manner may I treat the Nobleft Subject, fhow and Prove the Divine Eternal Providence; and that Righteous are all his Ways, and all his Judgments Juft. Thus the Poet Prays, and his Prayers are Heard.

The Providence of God, his Eternal Providence is Manifested in that as He from all Eternity Knew what he Intended throughout the whole Race of Time, from theCreation of Angels to the Confummation of all Things, he Knew that Whatever Evil might arife from the Free Agency of Intellectual Created Beings, it should be the Occafion of Greater Good. and his Ways are Juftified; he is Not the Author of Evil, Moral or Natural, Mifery is the Effect of Sin, it's Punishment, and Vindicates Divine Justice.

39 To fet himself in Glory above his Peers B 4.

hère

I.

here is in fhort Satan's Defign in this War; it was to fet himself not only above his Equals, the Angels, the whole Heavenly Hoft, for he was fo advanced Already; V. 812; but his Prefumption was ftill Higher, as appears by the three following Verfes; he was an Angel, he would be More, he would be Equal to God, perhaps Dethrone him, and Ufurp the Sovereignty, fee also V. 725. VI. 88. VII. 141.&c,

45 from the Ethereal Sky that is, from the highest Heaven, the Empy

reum.

as Fire is the Pureft, the moft Active, and the most approaching to Spirituality of all Matter we know, it has been thought its Place in the Universe is the Higheft, and the most in Dignity; and that the Dwelling of God and the Angelick Orders was in Fire; but then a Kind of Fire was imagin'd without those Corrofive and Terrible Qualities which That We are acquainted with has; its Brightness, Purity, Activity, &c. were only taken into the Idea, and Thofe conceived to be in the Utmoft Degree Poffible. Such a Region of Fire was thought to be the Supreme Heaven, the Heaven of Heavens; and 'twas called the Empyreum; which Name Milton has made Ufe of, tho' he no where intimates any fuch Notion as That implies, for it fignifies a Place of Fire.

Some