BOOK III. Hail Holy Light! First-born Off spring of Heaven; or may I Unblam'd Addrefs Thee as deriv'd from Light Eternal and Co-Eternal with it. for God Himself is Light, and Never from Eternity dwelt but in Light Unapproachable, He dwelt Therefore in Thee O Thou Bright Overflowing of That Bright, Uncreated, Self-Exiftent Being! Or wilt thou Rather hear me if I ftile Thee Pure Ethereal Stream, deriv'd from a Fountain to Us Unknown? This we know, Thou wert Before the Sun, Before the Heavens were Created, and when God faid Let there be Light didft Cloath, as with a Mantle, the New-born World of Dark and Deep Waters Rifing Out of, and taken From Chaos. 1 Hail from the Saxon Word Hel, but Means a General Wishing Well to, or a Salutation of Refpect, as the Xage, and the Salve of the Greeks and Romans. 2 May I exprefs Thee unblam'd the Ancients were very Cautious by What Names, Names, and in what Manner they Address'd their Deities, in Imitation of Whom Milton is So in This Hymn to Light. Thus Here May I have Leave to call thee Co-Eternal Beam, &c. See also VII. 1. VIII. 357, &c. 7 or bear'st Thou Rather Pure Ethereal Stream, or do'st thou rather hear This Addrefs, Pure Ethereal Stream. a Latinifm. 'tis not Stream doeft thou rather Hear, &c. but art thou better pleas'd that I use This Stile than the Other. 8 Whofe Fountain Who fhall tell! Where is the Way where Light dwelleth Job. xxxviii. 19. whence the Light was which first fhon on this New World Rifing out of Chaos we know not; and yet VII. 244. 'tis faid it Sprung from the Deep; it appear'd to arise from the Surface of Chaos, but This was not her Fountain, no Light was There. whether therefore it was taken from fome of the Light already Exifting, and which has been just Now Spoken of, or was Created in the Stricteft Senfe, not as the World out of Matter tho' in Disorder, but produc'd, but produc'd, from Nothing, Who can tell? II the Rifing World of Waters, Dark and Deep, Milton not only Suppofcs this our Globe of Earth to be Involv'd in Water but the Heavens Surrounding it, VII. 269. See the Note on 232. of That Book.. 12 won from the Void and Formless Infinite 14 though Long Detain'd in that Obfcure Sojourn would not one fay that the Poet was Actually Prefent and Amongst all that he had been Defcribing as Phabus with his Son, or rather Euripides with Both in That Poets Phaeton? See Longinus Sect. xv. but Milton is Here more Poetical and Sublime than Euripides, or even Homer Himself. And he has been Equal to Himself in feveral Other Inftances of This Kind, as particularly in the Beginning of the VIIIth Book. 16 through Utter and through Middle Darkness born See I. 63, 72, 181. II. 1035, 1042. in One part of Hell was Utter Darkness, in Other parts the Flames gave a little Glimmer; Chaos was Dark, but not Utterly So, at least in All Parts, the Fiery Particles might, as the Flames. in fome parts of Hell, a little Temper it, and the the Verge of Chaos had a Sort of Dawn, a Dubious Light. through all These the Poet had pass'd, his Mufe had. 17 with Other Notes than to th' Orphean Lyre I fung of Chaos and Eternal Night, Orpheus made an Hymn to Night which is Still extant; he alfo Wrote of the Creation out of Chaos. This 'he fung to his Lyre to divert the Argonauts while they were Rowing and Spent with Fatigue in that famous Expedition to Colchos, 'tis in the Argonauticks of Apoll. Rhodius, Lib. I. 493. Milton treating the Same Subject as Orpheus,fays he Sung to the Orphean Lyre, just as Horace addreffes his Own as if it was That on which Alcaus had been us'd to play because he Imitated That Poet. as Od. I. 32. 3. Age dic Latinum, Barbite, carmen, Lefbio primum modulate civi. See the Like Od. I. 1, 34. Orpheus was Infpir'd by his Mother Calliope only, Milton by the Heav'nly Mufe; Therefore he boafts he Sung with Other Notes than Orpheus though the Subjects were the fame, I. 17. VII. 1, 19 Taught by the Heavenly Mufe toVenture down, So Circe taught Ulyffes the way down to Hell, not how he was to come Up again, Odyf. X. 501. Orpheus fays the fame of Himself Argonaut. v. 41. Thou know's (fays he fpeak ing to his Mufe) I went down the Dark way Led into Hell by thy Lyre. 20 though Hard and Rare Difficult, and not Commonly done, as only by Hercules, Orpheus, Ulyffes, &c. 25 So Thick a Drop Serene hath Quench'd their Orbs, or Dim Suffufion Veil'd. Drop Serene, or Gutta Serena. It was formerly Thought that That fort of Blindness was an Incurable Extinction or Quenching of Sight by a Transparent, Watry, Cold Humour diftilling upon the Optic Nerve, tho' making very Little Change in the Eye to Appearance, if Any; 'tis Now known to be most Commonly an Obstruction in the Capillary Veffells of That Nerve, and Curable in Some Cafes. A Cataract for many Ages, and till about Thirty years Ago, was thought to be a Film Externally growing over the Eye, Intercepting, or Vailing the Sight, beginning with Dimness, and fo Increafing 'till Vifion was Totally Obftructed; but the Disease is in the Chryftaline Humour lying between the Outmost Coat of the Eye and the Pupilla. the Dimnefs which is at the Beginning is call'd a Suffufion, and when the Sight is Loft 'tisa Cataract; and Cur'd by Couching, which is with a Needle paffing through the External Coat and driving Down the Diseas'd Chry faline |