books, the author changed into these four lines. A sentiment similar to this is to be found in many of the best ancient authors. Jortin quotes Apollonius, i. 512, in which it is said, that the harp and voice of Orpheus had such a fascinating effect on the Argonauts, that after he had ceased, they still, one and all, held out their heads, and cocked their ears, entranced by his charming melody. Lord Monboddo quotes the Protagoras of Plato, when Socrates says that after Protagoras (one of the greatest and most judicious of all the old philosophers) had finished his explanatory discourse, he was so transported that he thought him still speaking, and scarce at last collected himself. Bowles quotes Dante, Infern. ii. 113, where the song of Casela the musician, in the regions below, had a similar ravishing effect on Dante. The Oemn de μiv audeχυτ' ομφη in Iliad ii. 41, and the ἡ φωνη των ακουσθέντων εναυλη in Lucian's "Dream," must, I doubt not, occur to every classical scholar.

3. "Stood," i. e. continued in a fixed attitude, even though he may have been sitting at dinner still, as v. 433. use the word commonly.-(R.)

So we

15. Milton, after having given so noble an idea of the creation of this new world, takes a proper occasion to show the two great systems; namely, the Ptolemaic and Copernican, as they are usually called; one making the earth, the other the sun, to be the centre: and this he does by introducing Adam very judiciously proposing the difficulties that occur in the first, which was the system most obvious to him. The reply of the archangel touches on the expedients the Ptolemaics invented to solve those difficulties, and patch up their system; and then insinuates that, perhaps, the sun is the centre, and so introduces that system, and withal the noble improvements in the new philosophy; not however determining for one or the other: on the contrary, he rather exhorts our progenitor to apply his thoughts to what more nearly concerns him, and is within his reach. —(R.)

19."Numbered stars." Numbered by whom? by the Creator alone. Psalm cxlvii. 4: "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." Astronomers also tell their number, but it is of that small part only which they see and name. But neither is this the "numbered" meant here. He would only say they are a

vast number, numerous.-(R.) "Numbered." "Numerous," as vii. 621.—(N.) But as he could write "numerous" here as well as there, I think he meant something more by "numbered" than "numerous," and that it refers to that passage in the Psalm; if not, that it is to be taken as numeratus sometimes is, as applied to a great collection of valuable things, well arranged, and carefully reckoned.

20. Spaces incomprehensible," i. e. through spaces incomprehensible. When a body is at a vast distance, and performs its circuit in a day, both these circumstances considered together, argue that it rolls through spaces incomprehensible.-(P.)

23, 24."Punctual spot." A spot no bigger than a point, punctum, compared with the firmament and fixed stars.-"One day and night," i. e. in the compaɛs of one day and night.—(P.)

37. "Of incorporeal speed." Not that it was truly so; it significs only very great speed, such as spirits might use; "speed almost spiritual," as he says, 110. -(N.)

40. This is preserving the decorum of character. So, Cephalus in Plato's Republic, and Scævola in Cicero's De Oratore, are made to withdraw when the discourse takes a turn less suited to persons of their character.—(N.)

43." Who saw." Those who saw her. 56. "From his lip not words alone pleased her." Ovid (Met. x. 559,) says of Venus while relating a story to her beloved Adonis

"Sic ait, ac mediis interserit oscula verbis." But how much more delicate is Milton's expression!-(N.)

59-61. "On her, as queen, a pomp of winning graces waited." Tibullus says in praise of Sulpicia, (IV. 2, 7):

"Illam, quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia flectit, Componit furtim, subsequiturque, decor." But how much farther does our poet carry the thought!-(N.) Pomp,” πομπή, in its original sense of, a procession on solemn occasions, hence a train, or attendance, or company. Thyer says the turn of expression here somewhat resembles Homer's description of Helen proceeding from her chamber not alone, but attended by her domestics. Il. iii. 142:—

Ωρματ' εκ θαλαμου -

Ουκ οίη, ἅμα τῇγε και αμφίπολοι. 70. "This to attain," i. e. a knowledge of this hard question, whether it is heaven or earth that moves, as Hume, Richardson, and Dunster understand it-or a

knowledge of the seasons, hours, &c. as Newton understands it, who thus explains the passage: "It imports not, it matters not, whether heaven move, or earth, whether the Ptolemaic or Copernican system be true; a knowledge of the seasons man may still attain; the rest, or other more curious points of inquiry concerning the heavenly bodies God hath wisely concealed from man or angel." See 105.

80, 83, 84." Calculate," and form a judgment of the stars, by computing their motions, distance, situation, &c.: as, to "calculate" a nativity signifies to form a judgment of the events attending it, by computing what planets, in what motions, presided over that nativity: to "calculate the stars," is to make a computation of every thing relating to them, the consequence of which is (in the old system especially) "centric and eccentric, cycle and epicycle," and "orb in orb." "Centric," or concentric, are such spheres whose centre is the same with, and "eccentric" such whose centres are drawn from, the earth. "Cycle" is a circle; "epicycle" (both Greek words) is a circle upon another circle. These were expedients of the Ptolemaics to solve the apparent difficulties in their system.-(P., R.)

102. "His line stretched out so far." A Scripture expression. Job xxxviii. 5: "Who hath stretched out the line upon it;" as if God had measured the heavens and the earth with a line.-(N.)

103. A fine reflection, and confirmed by the authority of the greatest philosophers, who seem to attribute the first notion of religion in man to his observing the grandeur of the universe. See Cic. Tuscul. Disput. lib. i. sec. 28, and De Natur. Deor. lib. ii. sect. 6.-(Stil.)

107, 108. Cic. Somn. Scip. c. iii.: "Stellæ quæ et rotundæ circos suos orbesque conficiunt celeritate mirabili.""Numberless," Bentley would join to "swiftness," as 38. Pearce joins it to "circles," and says the sense is "It is God's omniscience that gives to the circles, though so numberless, such a degree of swiftness."

128-140." In six thou seest," i. e. In the moon and five other planets, the five wandering fires as they are called, 5, 177. Their motions are evident; what if the earth should be a seventh, and "move three different motions," though to thee imperceptible? The three different motions which the Copernicans attribute to

the earth are the diurnal round her own axis, the annual round the sun, and the motion of libration, as it is called, whereby the earth so proceeds in her orbit, as that her axis is constantly parallel to the axis of the world." Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe;" i. e. you must ascribe either these motions to several spheres crossing and thwarting one another with crooked and indirect windings and turnings; or you must attribute them to the earth, and so "save the sun his labour," and the primum mobile too, "that swift nocturnal and diurnal rhomb," or (as he translates the Greek word poußos, as is usual with him, see vii. 619,)"the wheel of day and night;" So he calls the primum mobile; which in the ancient astronomy was an imaginary sphere above those of the planets and fixed stars, and therefore said to be "supposed and invisible above all stars." This was supposed to be the first mover (as the words import) and to carry all the lower spheres round along with it; by its rapidity communicating to them a motion whereby they revolved in twenty-four hours: "which needs not thy belief, if earth," &c.; but there is no need to believe this, if the earth by revolving round on her own axis from west to east in twenty-four hours ("travelling east") enjoys day in that half of her globe which is turned towards the sun, and is covered with night in the other half which is turned away from the sun.-(N.)

145. The spots in the moon cannot be clouds and vapours, because they are observed to be fixed. They are her seas and waters, which reflect only part of the sun's rays and absorb the rest.-(N.) See note on v. 415-419.

150. The suns communicate male, and the moons female light. And thus Pliny mentions it as a tradition, that the sun is a masculine star drying all things; on the contrary, that the moon is a soft and female star dissolving humours: and so the balance of nature is preserved, some of the stars binding the elements, and others loosing them, Plin. Nat. Hist. b. ii. c. 100. (N.)

157. "This habitable," i. e. earth, an adjective used substantively. So "this terrene," vi. 78. So in Greek, oikovμevn, the inhabited, means the earth.—(R.)

158. Pearce agrees with Bentley in his objection to "light" here, "for if the fixed stars convey only a glimpse of light to our earth, it is too much to say that she returns back to them 'light' in general,

which implies more than a glimpse of it." Then as it is intimated (140,) that the earth does send out "light" from her, he would propose to read "like back to them," i. e. only a glimpse of light, just as much and no more than she receives. No doubt "like back to them" would be very proper, if Milton wrote the words, and would be a good emendation, if "light back to them" were indefensible. But as Milton wrote "light," the business of a commentator is to explain it. In my opinion, the reference to 140 is a complete answer to the objection. He speaks here, as he did there, in general terms of the emission of light from the earth, without specifying its quantity. Besides, he says the whole subject may be disputed.

159. After arguing on the supposition of the truth of the Ptolemaic system to v. 122, and then of the Copernican, he now recapitulates the whole.-(N.)

164-166. These lines, which convey metaphors from the spinning of a top (see n. vii. 378,) obviate the objection to the Copernican system, viz. that, if the earth moved on her axle in twentyfour hours, we should be sensible of the rapidity and violence of the motion. -(N.)

167. "Solicit not thy thought." "Solicit" in the sense of solicitare, to disturb. 173. "Be lowly wise." Noli altum sapere." A proverb.- (H.)

183. See Sams. Agon. 300, 306.—(T.) 193. Juv. 13, xx.—

"Hos quoque felices, qui ferre incommoda vitæ,

Nec jactare jugum, vita didicere magistra."

(T.) 201-203. The poet had probably in view that passage, Ecl. v. 45:

One species, the Palma Ægyptiaca, was called, adivos, or, thirst banisher.—(H.) Psalm exix. 103: "How sweet are thy words to my taste: yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth."-(Gil.) See Addison, sect. 3.

222. See note on 60, 61.

225. So the angel says to St. John, Rev. xxii. 9: "I am thy fellow-servant." -(N.)

As

229. Milton had good reason to make his angel absent on the sixth day, not only to vary the speaker, but because Adam could best, or only, tell some particulars not to be omitted.—(R.) man was the principal work of God, and created to supply the place of the fallen angels, Milton says, as an honour to man, that the angels kept watch at the gates of hell to prevent any interruption thence. -(N.) See Addison, sect. 3.

242-244. Æn. vi. 557:

"Hinc exaudiri gemitus, et sæva sonare Verbera; tum stridor ferri, tractæque catenæ: Constitit Eneas, strepitumque exterritus hausit."

Newton adds, that Astolfo is represented in like manner listening at the gates of Todd hell. Orl. Fur. c. xxxiv. st. 4. quotes Dante, Infer. iv. 7.

255. "In balmy sweat." This is an allusion taken from the exudations of the balsamum, the most agreeably odorous of all trees known.-(Stil.) "Reeking," steaming, smoking, from the Saxon rec, smoke.-(N.)

258. "Gazed awhile the ample sky." Here "gazed" is classically used actively, as αγάζομαι (from which it is derived) sometimes is in Homer, to survey with wonder.

263. Liquid lapse of murmuring streams." From Ausonius: "At vada lene meant, liquidarum et lapsus aquarum."- (D.)

265, 266. "All things smiled." Virg. Ecl. vii 55: "omnia nunc rident." In some of the best modern editions a stop has been made after "smiled," and "fragrance" is connected with "joy." This reading is approved of by Newton, Richardson, Thyer, and Todd, because by it the imitation of Virgil is more conspicuous; but I do not think this a sufficient reason, if Milton himself furnishes a reason why 'fragrance" should be joined to "smiled," so iv. 165:

"Pleased with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles."

There ocean smiles in consequence of the smell or fragrance. Here all things smile

in consequence of the fragrance-even things that emitted none, as many did not; and by reason of this smiling aspect of external nature and the fragrance, his heart rebounds.

(Warb.)

Here the

272. There is a contradiction between this passage, and 352, &c. In this passage, Adam says he could name whatever he saw before he got into paradise; in the second, he says that God gave him the ability when the beasts came to him in paradise; for this last passage alludes to the rabbinical opinion that he gave names according to their natures (clearer expressed 438, &c.) and the knowledge of their natures, he says, God then suddenly endued him with. This, I think, is incorrect. names he uses are quite general; the earth, hills, dales, wood, creatures, &c. without any allusion to particular qualities. All elevations he calls "hills;" all places covered with timber, "woods;" all bodies of water, "rivers;" all things that live and move, "creatures;" though each of these classes was afterwards divided into a number of distinct species, according to their natures; and it was particular names that, in the second passage, Adam gave to the several species, according to their separate nature, and particular attributes. I think there is no contradiction, although the other opinion has been adopted by the modern commentators.

66

287, &c. "This passage," says Addison, can never be sufficiently admired." This, and the following lines, says Stillingfleet, resemble the description of the sleep which fell on Ulysses, Odyss. xiii. 79:

Και νήδυμος ύπνος επι βλεφαροισιν επίπτε, τω Νήγρετος, ήδιστος, θανατω αγχιστα εοικως.

292. "Stood at my head a dream." So dream stood over Agamemnon's head, the seat of fancy. Il. ii. 20:

"Those happy places thou hast deign'd a while to want."-(P.)

Though "wants" is a better and more poetical expression than waits, I do not think the passage quoted (though the modern commentators seem to agree with Pearce) is to the point; for there, "want" is in the sense of carere, or abesse, "to be without," or absent from; but here it is in the sense of desiderare, "to long for;" as in Pliny xvii. 26, "desiderant

rigari arbores," "the trees want, or long, to be watered." Bare identity of phrase is not enough, unless there be identity of signification. The word "want" in this sense is now in constant use.

299-303. See note on vii. 535. The poet perhaps had in mind that passage in Virgil, Æn. i. 691, when Venus conveys through the air young Ascanius asleep from Carthage to mount Idalia, where he is laid on a bed of flowers; or he had scriptural authority for such a removal in Acts viii. 39, where it is said, "The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and he was found at Azotus." Milton seems here to agree with those commentators who thought man was not formed in Paradise, but placed there afterwards, to show that he had no title to it by nature, but only by grace.—(N.) 302. See note on vi. 71.

316. Greenwood imagines, and I think justly, that from the position of the words, "I am," so emphatically at the end of the verse, Milton alluded to the name which God gave himself, Exod. iii. 14: "God said unto Moses, I am that I am; and he said, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you."

320. "To till and keep," Gen. ii. 15 : "to dress it and to keep it." Hence Bentley objects to the word "till" here. But Pearce has shown, by many authorities and proofs, that the Hebrew original, Ty, properly means, to labour, cultivate or till, (though the English translators chose to use "dress," as perhaps more applicable to a garden); the Greek and Latin versions so interpret it likewise. The same word is in the English translation, Gen. iii. 23, rendered "till.”

323. As this was the great hinge on which the whole poem turns, the poet has marked the passage with peculiar emphasis, and has strikingly dwelt upon it. —(R.)

330. Gen. ii. 17: i. e. From that day thou shalt become mortal.-(N.)

335. To this he alludes after his fall, x. 779.-(T.)

336, 337. See note on 5,710.

353. See note on 272. Gen. ii. 19, 20. Cicero agrees with Pythagoras that it was an instance of the highest wisdom to give things their right names in the beginning. Tuscul. Disput. i. 25.—(H.) What a noble episode! what a divine dialogue has Milton spun out of only two verses of Gen. ii. 19, 20.—(N.)

357. The reason why Milton ascribes