God, fitting on his throne, fees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son, who fat at his right hand; foretels the fuccefs of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own juftice and wisdom from all imputation, having created Man free, and able enough to have withftood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him feduced. The Son of God renders praifes to his Father for the manifeftation of his gracious purpose towards Man: But God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the fatisfaction of divine juftice; Man hath offended the majesty of God by afpiring to Godhead, and, therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, must die, unless fome one can be found fufficient to anfwer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for Man: The Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the Angels to adore him: They obey, and, hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he firft finds a place, fince called the Limbo of Vanity: What perfons and things fly up thither: Thence comes to the gate of Heaven, defcribed afcending by ftairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: His paffage thence to the orb of the fun; he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but firft changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel; and, pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed: Alights firft on mount Niphates. PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first born, Or of the Eternal coeternal beam Ver. 1. Hail, holy Light, &c.] Our author's address to Light, and lamentation of his own blindness, may perhaps be cenfured as an excrefcence or digreffion not agreeable to the rules of epick poetry; but yet this is fo charming a part of the poem, that the most critical reader, I imagine, cannot wish it were omitted. One is even pleased with a fault, if it be a fault, that is the occafion of fo many beauties, and acquaints us fo much with the circumftances and character of the author. NEWTON. We may compare Taffo's address to Light in his Il Mondo Creato, Giorn. 1. "O belliffima luce, o luce amica "Della natura, &c." Or the addrefs to Light in Sylvefter's Du Bartas, edit. 1621, p. 12. "All hail, pure lamp, bright, facred, and excelling, Ver. 2. Or of the Eternal coeternal beam Or may I without |