The Paradife of Fools, to few unknown

Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.

All this dark globe the Fiend found as he pafs'd,
And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thither-ward in haste
His travel'd steps: far diftant he defcries
Afcending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of Heav'n a structure high;
At top whereof, but far more rich appear'd
The work as of a kingly palace gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient

aut poterit videre aliquis. Æn. VIII. 691.

-pelago credas innare revulfas Cycladas; that is Credat quis. See Cowley's Davideis II. Note 17. 493. The sport of winds :] Ludibria ventis. Virg. Æn. VI. 75.

495. Into a Limbo large and broad,] The Limbus patrum as it is call'd, is a place that the Schoolmen fuppofed to be in the neighbourhood of Hell, where the fouls of the patriarchs were detain'd, and those good men who died before our Saviour's refurrection. Our author gives the fame name to his Paradife of Fools, and more rationally places it beyond the backfide of the aworld.

gems

500

505

The

501: His travel'd fteps: ] Tir'd fteps, from travagliato (Italian.)

Richardfon

506. With frontispiece of diamond and gold] Imitated from

Ovid, Met. II. 1.

Regia folis erat fublimibus alta columnis,

Clara micante auro, flammafque imitante pyropo.

The fun's bright palace, on high columns rais'd,

With burnish'd gold and flaming jewels blaz'd. Addison.

507.-with sparkling orient gems] Dr. Bentley would read ardent gems, because orient is proper to fay upon earth only: but Sparkling

and

The portal fhone, inimitable on earth
By model, or by fhading pencil drawn.
The stairs were fuch as whereon Jacob faw
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Efau fled
To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz

Dreaming by night under the

510

514

open sky, And waking cry'd, This is the gate of Heaven. Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood There always, but drawn up to Heav'n fometimes Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flow'd

and ardent are too near akin to be both used together, and fince (as the Doctor allows) the best gems come from the Eaft Indies, it may be allow'd to Milton to mean by

orient gems no more than the best and most precious ones. Milton very frequently uses the word orient in fuch a fenfe as this, and Dr. Bentley generally corrects it, tho' he has made no objection to the expreffion in I. 546.

Of

Which are array'd with much more orient hue.

Spenfer's Hymn of Beauty. I have tranfcribed these lines to deMilton's application of the word fend, against Dr. Bentley's remark,

orient. Thyer.

510. The fairs, the degrees mention'd before, ver. 502. were fuch as whereon Jacob faw &c.] A comparifon fetch'd from Gen. XXVIII. 12, 13. And he dreamed, and bebold a ladder fet upon the earth, and the top of it reached to Heaven, and behold the Angels of God afcending and defcending on it; and behold the Lord flood above it. &c. But this

With orient colors waving. Poets, who write of things out of this world, muft ufe epithets and metaphors drawn from things in this world, if they would make themselves understood. Pearce, line

Why do not then the bloffoms of the field

To Padan-Aram in the field of Lux, muft not be understood as if Padan

Aram

Of jafper, or of liquid pearl, whereon

Who after came from earth, failing arriv'd
Wafted by Angels, or flew o'er the lake

520

Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

The stairs were then let down, whether to dare
The Fiend by eafy' afcent, or aggravate

His fad exclufion from the doors of blifs:
Direct against which open'd from beneath,
Juft o'er the blissful feat of Paradife,
A paffage down to th' Earth, a paffage wide,
Wider by far than that of after-times

Aram was in the field of Luz; but he was flying to Padan-Aram or the country of Aram, that is Syria; and by the way refted and dreamed this dream in the field of Luz, for fo the adjoining city was called at the first; Jacob upon this occafion gave it the name of Bethel, by which it was better known afterwards. The paffage was wrong pointed in all the editions, for there fhould be no comma after Luz: the comma fhould be after PadanAram, in the field of Luz being to be join'd on to dreaming in the next

verse.

525

Over

521. Wafted by Angels, &c.] As Lazarus was carried by Angels, Luke XVI. 22; and Elijah was rapt up in a chariot of fire and horses of fire, 2 Kings II. 11.

525. doors] Milton writes this word dore and dores except only in one inftance in I. 504. of the fecond edition, which he alter'd from the first edition: but the other approaches nearer in found to the original word, if it be deriv'd from the Saxon duru, the German dure, dura, tura; and all as Junius fays from the Greek Jug, janua. And yet I think we commonly pronounce it dore tho' we conftantly write it door. But in all fuch cafes we want an advantage, that the French have enjoy'd, of an Academy to fix and fettle our language. Some proposals were made for

erecting

Over mount Sion, and, though that were large, 530

Over the Promis'd Land to God fo dear,
By which, to vifit oft those happy tribes,

On high behefts his Angels to and fro

Pafs'd frequent, and his eye with choice regard
From Paneas the fount of Jordan's flood

To Beërfaba, where the Holy Land
Borders on Egypt and th' Arabian fhore;

535

So wide the opening feem'd, where bounds were set
To darkness, fuch as bound the ocean wave.

Satan from hence, now on the lower ftair
That fcal'd by steps of gold to Heaven gate,
Looks down with wonder at the fudden view

540

Of

fheba, that is the whole extent of the Promis'd Land from Paneas in the north to Beerfaba in the fouth, where the Holy Land is bounded by Egypt and Arabia. The limits of the Holy Land are thus exprefs'd in Scripture, from Dan even unto Beersheba, Dan at the northern and Beersheba at the fouthern extremity; and the city that was called Dan was afterwards named Paneas. So wide the opening feem'd, that is fo wide as I have reprefented it, wider than the paffage over mount Sion and the Promis'd Land; So wide the opening feem'd, where the fame divine power fixed the limits of darkness, that said to

the

Of all this world at once. As when a fcout

Through dark and defert ways with peril gone
All night, at laft by break of chearful dawn
Obtains the brow of fome high-climbing hill,
Which to his eye discovers unaware
The goodly prospect of some foreign land

545

First seen, or fome renown'd metropolis

With glift'ring fpires and pinnacles adorn'd,

550

Which now the rifing fun gilds with his beams:

Such wonder feis'd, though after Heaven seen,
The Spirit malign, but much more envy feis'd,
At fight of all this world beheld fo fair.
554
Round he furveys (and well might, where he stood

the proud ocean, Hitherto halt thou come and no farther.

540. Satan from hence, &c.] Satan, after having long wander'd upon the furface, or outmost wall of the universe, discovers at laft a wide gap in it, which led into the creation, and is defcribed as the opening through which the Angels país to and fro into the lower world upon their errands to mankind. His fitting upon the brink of this paffage, and taking a furvey of the whole face of nature that appeared to him new and fresh in all its beauties, with the fimile illuftrating this circumstance, fills the mind of the reader with as furprising and VOL. I.