66 has been lost sight of. We now generally use the word as equivalent to texture," ," "structure," "fibre," or "material"-speaking of wood or stone as being "hard in grain," and understanding by such a phrase as "a rogue in grain" one who is a rogue in his very fibre. But this meaning, Mr. Marsh contends, is a derivative one. Originally "grain” implied colour-of which, indeed, we have a recollection still along with the other usage. Thus, in reading Milton's invocation of Melancholy in his Penseroso we do interpret "grain" to mean colour rather than texture. We understand, in fact, that the goddess is garbed in a robe of black or dark grey colour. But here, according to Mr. Marsh, we are wrong, or not sufficiently right. "Grain" meant not colour in general, but one particular colour or range of colours. It was a term derived from the Latin "granum," a seed or kernel, or grain in the sense of "grain of corn"which word "granum ,, had come, in later Latin times, to be applied specifically to the coccum, a peculiar dye-stuff consisting of the dried, granular, or seed-like bodies of insects of the genus Coccus, collected in large quantities from trees in Spain and other Mediterranean countries. But that dye was distinctly red. Another name for it, and for the insect producing it, was kermes (borrowed from the Persian and Arabic, where kermes, radically identical with the Latin vermis and our word worm, had come to be the name of this coccus insect in particular)—whence our words " carmine" and "crimson." "Grain" therefore meant a dye of such red, or of one or other such shades of red, as might be produced by the use of kermes or coccum. The classic "purple," which included evidently a wider range of hues than our "purple," might nearly correspond. Melancholy's "robe of darkest grain" in the Penseroso means a robe of the darkest shade of this colour-i.e. a purple gloomed to deep violet. But there were brighter hues of "grain," and these the more usual. Chaucer (Nonne Preestes Tale)— "Him needeth not his colour for to dien Again, in Paradise Lost, Book XI. 240-244, in the description of the Archangel Michael "Over his lucid arms A military vest of purple flowed, Here "grain of Sarra" is Tyrian purple (Sarra being a name for Tyre)— which, however, was procured not from the coccus insect, but from a shell-fish; and the colour suggested is something like scarlet. So, in the passage now under notice, "sky-tinctured grain" means cærulean purple, or purple dipped in the colours of the sky. "Those who remember," says Mr. Marsh, "the hues which the painters of the sixteenth century give to the wings of angels will be at no loss to understand the epithet sky-tinctured which here qualifies grain. Sky-tinctured is not necessarily azure; for sky, in old English and the cognate languages, meant clouds, and Milton does not confine its application to the concave blue, but embraces in the epithet all the brighter tints which belong to meteoric phenomena." In fact he means to suggest that, while the Archangel's middle pair of wings were mainly of a radiant gold-colour, his third pair, covering his feet, were more of a varied or cloudy violet. -But how came "grain," thus meaning originally the red or purple dye of the kermes, to lose that meaning? How it should have come to mean colour in general instead of the precise colour of the kermes dye, is not difficult to understand-such generalizations being not unfrequent in the history of language. But how came it to signify not colour at all, but texture or material? "The colour obtained from kermes or grain," says Mr. Marsh," was a peculiarly durable, or, as it is technically called, a fast or fixed dye. When, then, a merchant recommended his purple stuffs as being dyed in grain, he generally meant that they were dyed with kermes and would wear well." Thus the phrase "in grain" came to imply durability; and such occasional expressions as "scarleten-grayn" in Chaucer and "your purple-in-grain beard" in Shakespeare (Mid. Night's Dr. I. ii.) were interpreted accordingly. When, in the Comedy of Errors (III. ii.), to the remark of Antipholus, "That's a fault that water will mend," Dromio replies, "No, sir, 'tis in grain; Noah's flood could not do it," it is easy to see how the true notion " No, sir, 'tis in the dye of kermes" (or in a fast colour) should give way to the notion "No, sir, 'tis in the very fibre." Indeed, we now speak of ingrained vice, ingrained folly, &c., and we have the phrases "crossgrained," "against the grain," &c.-So far we have in the main followed Mr. Marsh. His exposition, however, appears to us to leave not a little in doubt. Had we not, for example, the word "grain" in its original generic sense of seed or corn at the same time that we were using it also in its secondary sense of "the grain or dye of the coccus," and may not the notion of "grain," therefore, as implying granular structure, and thence texture, be of at least equal antiquity as the notion of it as implying red colour? May not the two notions have become identified, that of structure as the stronger absorbing the other? Or, after all, may not the notion of "grain" as meaning structure be derived from quite another root than the Latin granum? Mr. Marsh himself cites such a possible root in the Scandinavian word gren, meaning a branch or twig; and other etymologists recognise our word "grain," in the sense of direction of the fibres in wood, as derived from grenian, A.-S. "to grow." This sense of "grain" in English is certainly an old one: e.g. Skelton, as quoted in Rich. Dict.. "Her skin loose and slack, grained like a sack." At this day, curiously enough, there is a combination of the two meanings in the word to grain or graining as employed by house-painters. It means to colour in imitation of the fibring or texture of wood. 285-287. "Like Maia's son he stood," &c. i.e. like Mercury. Todd quotes Hamlet, III. iv.— "like the herald Mercury New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill." 294, 295. "Nature here wantoned as in her prime": a common idea with Poets. Todd quotes the exact phrase "While Nature wantons in her prime" from Thomas Watson's Italian Madrigals Englished (1590). 297. "enormous bliss": not only in the derivative sense of "very large," but also in the sense of "out of rule" (e normâ). 299. "as in the door he sat." See Genesis xviii. 1. Milton has this chapter in view in what follows. 321, 322. "Adam, Earth's hallowed mould, of God inspired": Gen. ii. 7. The name Adam implies derivation from the earth. 66 334-336. What order so contrived as not to mix tastes, not welljoined, inelegant, but bring taste after taste," &c. One may choose here among several constructions. One, and perhaps the simplest, would regard" inelegant" as standing for "inelegantly," and would read "so contrived as not inelegantly to mix tastes not well joined, but," &c. Another would make the meaning "so contrived as not to mix tastes (which, when not well joined, are inelegant), but," &c.; and there might be still a third. According to the reading adopted, the pointing, which I have kept as in the original, might be varied. 339. "middle shore": i.e. the Mediterranean lands, including Western Asia (represented here by Pontus in Asia Minor), Southern Europe, and Africa (represented by the Punic or Carthaginian coast). 340, 341. "where Alcinöus reigned": i.e. Phæacia, afterwards Corcyra or Corfu, where King Alcinöus had his gardens (Odyss. vii.). 341, 342. "fruit of all kinds, in coat rough, or smooth rined, or bearded husk, or shell." The reading in most of the editions is "rind," and the construction "fruit of all kinds, in rough coat, or smooth rind, or bearded husk, or shell.” But in the First, Second, and Third Editions the lines stand thus:: "fruit of all kindes, in coate, Rough, or smooth rin'd, or bearded husk, or shell." From the spelling of "rin'd" here it appears that Milton intended the word for an adjective" rined," equivalent to "rinded;" and Mr. Keightley VOL. III. quotes from Spenser the expression "the grey moss marred his rine," containing the substantive "rine" from which such an adjective might be formed. If we are to read "rined" in this sense, one construction of the passage would be "fruit of all kinds, rined in coat rough or smooth, or in bearded husk, or in shell." This is awkward in itself, and does not agree with the pointing. It is probable that Milton meant the construction to be "fruit of all kinds-in coat, whether rough coat or coat smooth-rined, or in bearded husk," &c.; though this agreement of the adjective "rined" with "coat," instead of with "fruit," hardly accords with usage. 345. "inoffensive must"; spelt "moust" in the original. "Inoffensive": i.e. not yet intoxicating: must being new or unfermented wine (Lat. mustus, "fresh").-Meaths, sweet juices (specially, in the form of mead, a liquor made from honey)-Greek μéov, "wine." 349. "odours from the shrub unfumed" means either "odours unfumed (i.e. not yet exhaled) from the shrub," or "odours from the unfumed (i.e. unburnt or natural) shrub." Mr. Browne notes: 'Fire was unknown in Paradise (IX. 392), at least till after the Fall (X. 1073)." 351-353. "without more train accompanied than with his own complete perfections." A curious licence of syntax, which provoked from Bentley this note: "Without more than with is a solecism. It should be without more than his, &c., with being expunged." As the verse does not permit this, Bentley supposed that Milton dictated with no more train than with. The liberties and flexibilities of seventeenth century English were unknown in Bentley's grammar. : 365. "to want" i.e. to be without.-" vouchsafe;" spelt "voutsafe” in the original editions. So at line 312. See Essay on Milton's English. 383, 384. "no veil she needed." That Milton intended the word "she" to be emphatic here is proved by the spelling "shee" in the original. 386, 387. "the holy salutation used . . . to blest Mary:" Luke i. 28. 391. "grassy turf" in the original "terf." : 399. "All perfect good"; spelt "perfet" in the original editions. See Essay on Milton's English. 409. "As doth": "doth" where we should now say “do”—a relic of the older grammar. 413. "And corporeal": perhaps to be pronounced "corporéal;" which strengthens the contrast with "incorporeal" following. 416-418. "Earth the Sea," &c. "Nam ex terrâ, aqua; ex aquâ oritur aer; ex aere æther," &c.: Cicero, de Nat. Deor. ii. 33. (Hume.) Parts of this treatise of Cicero's are in the poet's recollection throughout this passage. 66 419. "Whence in her visage round those spots," &c. Newton quotes a passage from Pliny (ii. 9) where the spots on the moon are said to be 'nothing else than the mud of the earth sucked up with the moisture." 422. "her moist continent." Shakespeare, as Todd noted, calls the moon the moist star" (Hamlet, I. i.). 430. "pearly grain." Manna seems to be meant. 434-436. "nor seemingly the Angel, nor in mist-the common gloss of theologians but with," &c. The construction, is "Nor did the Angel eat only seemingly, or as in a mist-the common gloss, &c.-but," &c. Commenting on this passage, Bishop Newton says, "Several of the Fathers and ancient Doctors were of opinion that the Angels did not really eat, but only seemed to do so; and they ground that opinion principally upon what the Angel Raphael says in the Book of Tobit, xii. 19." 440. the empiric alchemist": i.e. "the experimenting alchemist," not “the quack alchemist," as the phrase would now be interpreted. 442. "perfect gold": again spelt "perfet" in the original. See note to line 399. 445. "crowned" : filled to the brim-a metaphor from the classics. 447. "the Sons of God." See Genesis vi. 2. 469-490. "O Adam," &c. As in a previous passage (lines 414— 426) we have had a sketch of Milton's system of Physical Cosmology, so here we have a sketch of his Metaphysical system. Some recognise in it a form of Materialism; but that name, as commonly understood, is far from appropriate. God made Matter, and all Matter is radically one, though reascending nearer and nearer its divine origin through a series of forms-inorganic, the lower organic, the animal, the human, and the angelic. The passage itself may be studied in detail. 472. one first matter all”: i.e. all of the same primordial matter or stuff. 488. "Discursive or Intuitive." The distinction is an old one in psychology, and is still kept up by many psychologists. "Discursive Reason [or Understanding] is that act of our minds by which, after previous perception and judgment, made by comparing and distinguishing anything under our inquiry with and from others better known, we form more certain notions and conclusions . . . . called discursus (Lat. a discurrendo), from a metaphorical motion in our minds, running as it were from one notion to another, and hunting out our imperfect knowledge." So Shakespeare has the phrase "discourse of reason" (Ham. I. ii.). On the other hand "Intuitive Reason is that more refined, sudden, and satisfactory insight [Lat. intueor, "I look into"], that pure Spirits and illuminated Angels have into the nature of things," without all the trouble of comparing, distinguishing, hesitating, &c., but "at first |