But liften not to his temptations, warn Of disobedience; firm they might have stood, 910 As St, Peter calls the wife," the NEWTON. १ THE END OF THE SIXTH BOOK, THE ARGUMENT. Raphael, at the request of Adam, relates how and wherefore this world was firft created; that God, after the expelling of Satan and his Angels out of Heaven, declared his pleafure to create another world, and other creatures to dwell therein; fends his Son with glory, and attendance of Angels, to perform the work of Creation in fix days: the Angels celebrate with hymns the performance thereof, and his reafcenfion into Heaven. PARADISE LOST. BOOK VII. DESCEND from Heaven, Urania, by that name If rightly thou art call'd, whofe voice divine Following, above the Olympian hill I foar, Above the flight of Pegaséan wing! The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou 5 Ver. 1. Defcend from Heaven, Urania,]" Defcende cœlo," Hor. Od. iii. iv. 1. But here it is better applied, as now his fubject leads him from Heaven to Earth. The word Urania in Greek fignifies heavenly; and he invokes the heavenly Muse as he had done before, B. i. 6. And as he had faid in the beginning that he intended to foar above the Aonian mount, fo now he fays very truly that he had effected what he intended, and foars above the Olympian hill, above the flight of Pegafean wing, that is, his fubject was more fublime than the loftiest flight of the heathen poets. NEWTON. Mr. Dunfter is of opinion that Sylvefter's poem, entitled Vrania or The Heavenly Mufe, and following the translation of Du Bartas, ed.1621, p. 525 and feq., might here occur in Milton's mind. I find indeed two or three paffages in the poem to illuftrate this fuppofition. TODD. Ver. 5. for thou Nor of the Mufes nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell'ft; but, heavenly-born,] Taffo, in his invocation, has the fame fentiment, Gier, Lib. C. i. ft. 2. Nor of the Mufes nine, nor on the top "O Mufa, tu, che di caduchi allori "Hai di ftelle immortali aurea corona." THYER. Ver. 7. old] Some would read "cold Olympus," as in B. i. 516. But Milton calls it old, as being famed of old and long celebrated. So, in B. i. 420, he fays "old Euphrates," and, in B. ii. 593," Mount Cafius old." NEWTON. Ver. 8. Before the hills appear'd, &c.] From Prov. viii. 24, 25, and 30, where the phrase of Wifdom always rejoicing before God, is playing, according to the Vulgar Latin, " ludens coram eo omni tempore," to which Milton alludes, v. 10. And fo he quotes it likewife in his Tetrachordon: "God himself conceals not his own recreations before the world was built; I was, faith the eternal Wifdom, daily his delight, playing always before him." NEWTON. So Spenfer, in his Hymne of Heavenly Beautie, having defcribed the throne of God, thus proceeds, v. 183. "There in his bofom Sapience doth fit, "The foveraine dearling of the Deity." Mr. Dunster here agrees with me, in referring also to the opening of Taffo's Il Mondo Creato, where there is a prolix but well imagined address to the Sapienza eterna: "O (fe n'è degno) il chiaro fuono ascolti “Di lei, ch' uscio da la Divina bocca "De le cofe create; e feco alberga “A cui la mente humana aspira indarno." Top, |