FROM PARADISE LOST. 213 BOOK VI. THE MESSIAH. He, o'er his sceptre bowing, rose From the right hand of glory where he sat ; And the third sacred morn began to shine, Dawning through Heaven. Forth rush'd with whirlwind sound The chariot of Paternal Deity, Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn,' Itself instinct with spirit, but convoy'd By four cherubic shapes; four faces each Had wondrous; as with stars, their bodies all And wings were set with eyes; with eyes the wheels Over their heads a crystal firmament, Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure Of radiant Urim,2 work divinely wrought, Of smoke, and bickering flame, and sparkles dire: OVERTHROW OF THE REBEL ANGELS. So spake the Son, and into terror changed 1 Ezek. i. 4-27, and Isaiah lxvi. 15. 2 See Pictorial Bible, Exod. xxviii. 30. Panoply; compare Ephes. vi. 11. The other insignia of the goddess Victory were the Laurel crown and the Palmbranch. 4 Jude 14-"His coming shone;" see 2 Thes. ii. 8. $ Ps. lxviii. 17. Ps. xviii. 10-14; Ps. lxviii. 4-33. Compare also Hab. iii. 3-15. Of torrent floods, or of a numerous host. Among them he arrived; in his right hand One spirit in them ruled; and every eye Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd Struck them with horror backward, but far worse 1 Hom. Il. i. 47. 2 The highest heaven; the fire-region (Gr. pyr). See Ovid, Met. i. 27. Ether has the same idea, from Gr. aitho, I burn, or shine;-sky, the shadow-region (Gr. skia); -welkin, the cloud-region (Ger. wolke);-firmament, the fixed or solidregion, corresponding to the Greek stereoma;-crystalline, unites the ideas of solidity and clearness (Gr. krustallos, ice, glass);—hyaline, does the same (Gr. hualos, glass);-heaven, has been said to be the past participle of the verb heave; it seems rather to be a change of the German himmel;-lift (Scotch) has a similar origin assigned it; it is the German luft-See Book iii. 715. Milton in the preceding battles has, in imitation of Hesiod and Ovid, in describing the Giant war, made mountains the weapons of the angels against each other. Compare Rev. iv. Used in the literal Latin sense, punctured or spotted. The same remark applies to pernicious, a few lines below. The critics strain panegyric in their admiration of this, and similar passages in the fifth and sixth books. FROM PARADISE LOST. 215 BOOK XI. MICHAEL SHEWS TO ADAM THE FUTURE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH. It was a hill, Of Paradise the highest; from whose top Not higher that hill, nor wider looking round, Our second Adam, in the wilderness; To show him all Earth's kingdoms, and their glory. City of old or modern fame, the seat Of mightiest empire, from the destined walls 6 And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne, 1 View; reach of sight. Germ. kennen, to know. 10 ? Luke iv. Cambalu, Pekin: Cathay, China: Cathaian Can; at the period of the travels of Marco Polo, from whom these names are taken, China was subject to the successors of Genghis Khan.-See Robertson's America, Book i. Tamerlane, or Timour Beg. Samarcand was his capital. He died on the road to China, A.D. 1405. 5 Paquin, Pekin, the same with Cambalu: "in Milton's time the geography of the far East was vague; and, having heard both names, he does not seem to have known that they referred to the same city." The Seres and the Sina, the remotest people of the East, are of doubtful locality. The Moguls were the Mahomedan Tartar dynasty of Hindostan. Their capital was Agra, ultimately Delhi. Malacca, and perhaps the Peguan coast, formed the Chersonnesus Aurea. Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) was the Median or north capital of the Persian empire; Susa was the southern: the former was the summer, the latter the winter residence. • Erroneously identified with Cæsar (Kaiser, Ger.): Tzar (the correct form) is, in Slavonic, sovereign. 10 Byzantium, Constantinople. For the origin of the Turkish sultans, see Gibbon, ch. 57 11 The emperor of Abyssinia (Negus, in Ethiopic, is king): his style is "Negusa Nagaste," King of the kings, viz. of Ethiopia.-Ercoco, Arkeeko, a port on the Red Sea, on the northern frontier of Abyssinia--Less_maritime kings, inferior coast sovereigns: Mombaza, etc. are on the east shore of Africa-Bruce identifies Ophir with Sofala: from the resemblance of the syllables, it has also been conjectured to be the same with Africa generally.-Almanzor, the second of the Abassid caliphs: see Gibbon, ch. 52: after the division of the caliphate, more than one monarch of northwestern Africa bore this name. And Sofala, thought Ophir, to the realm On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons HUMAN ILLS. Immediately a place Before his eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark; TEMPERANCE. Well observe The rule of Not too much; by temperance taught, In what thou eat'st and drink'st; seeking from thence Till many years over thy head return, So may'st thou live; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd; for death mature. This is Old Age; but then, thou must outlive Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forego, 1 See Robertson's America for Montezuma, Cusco, and Atabalipa. Unbounded riches were supposed to exist in Guiana; it was in this country that Sir Walter Raleigh placed his imaginary gold mine. El-dorado (Span. the golden) has become proverbial. Geryon's sons, the Spaniards; from the ancient king of Gades (Cadiz), slain by Hercules. 2 Emaciation (Gr. maraino, I wither). FROM PARADISE REGAINED. To what thou hast ; and, for the air of youth, To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume EXPULSION OF ADAM AND EVE. From the other hill To their fix'd station, all in bright array, Risen from a river o'er the marish1 glides, FROM PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK IV. ATHENS. Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount, 1 Marsh. 2 Heber borrows this line in the "Passage of the Red Sea "- 3 Parched (Lat. adustus). 217 "The poetical imagery of this passage is splendid, sublime, and at the same time pathetic, and of a majestic conciseness."-Brydges. Il. ii. 546. Ancient writers celebrate the clearness and purity of the Athenian air. Eye of Greece; Sparta and Athens were termed the eyes of Greece. Athens might be peculiarly so called from her eminence in intellect. Athens was celebrated for |