196 Of Majesty Divine; fapience and love Ver. 197. About his chariot numberless were pour'd 202 206 Cherub, and Seraph,] Dr. Bentley calls "Cherub pour'd" an aukward expreffion: But yet we read in B. ii. 997, "Heaven-gates "Pour'd out by millions her victorious bands.” And, in Par. Reg. B. iii. 310, -" and faw what numbers numberless "The city gates out pour'd." And fo, in Virgil, En. i. 214. "Fufi per herbam." Again, En. vii. 812. "Agris effufa juventus." And frequently elfewhere. But the word pour'd has ftill more propriety here, as it fhows the readiness and forwardness of the Angels to attend the Meffiah's expedition: they were so earnest as not to stay to form themselves into regular order, but were POUR'D numberless about his chariot. PEARCE. Ver. 207. On golden hinges moving,] The doors of Armida's palace turn on golden hinges, Taffo, Gier. Lib. c. xvi. ft. 2. "Le porte quì d' effigiato argento, "Sù i cardini ftridean di lucid' oro," The King of Glory, in his powerful Word 210 They view'd the vast immeasurable abyfs 215 Ver. 211. They view'd &c.] Milton's defcription of God the Son and his attendant Angels viewing the vast unmeasurable abyfs &c. has a great refemblance to the following paffage in Vida, Chrift. Lib. i. "Hic fuperum Sator informem fpeculatus acervum, "Ipfe micans radiis, ac multâ luce corufcus." And that he had this in his eye is I think the more probable, because his account of the creation of light and its being after. wards tranfplanted into the fun's orb, which was not yet created, carries a ftrong allufion to the fucceeding lines, "Jámque videbatur fulvâ de nube creare "Stelligeri convexa poli, terráfque, fretúmque, "Et folis radios, et cœli accenderet ignes." THYER. Ver. 214. And furging waves,] I think, with Dr. Newton, that this is an inftance of and having been mifprinted for in, and that we should read "In furging waves;" for it seems better, as the doctor obferves, to fay of the fea, "Up from the bottom turn'd in furging waves," than "Up from the bottom turn'd by furging waves." See alfo note on Comus, v. 325. Ver. 215. and with the center mix the pole.] It is certain that in Chaos was neither center nor pole; fo neither Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace, Said then the Omnifick Word; your difcord end! Nor staid; but, on the wings of Cherubim Uplifted, in paternal glory rode Far into Chaos, and the world unborn ; For Chaos heard his voice: Him all his train Follow'd in bright proceffion, to behold Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then ftaid the fervid wheels, and in his hand He took the golden compaffes, prepar'd 220 225 were there any mountains as in the preceding line; the Angel does not fay there were: He tells Adam there was such confu. fion in Chaos, as if on earth the fea in mountainous waves fhould rife from its very bottom to affault Heaven, and mix the center of the globe with the extremities of it. The apteft illustration he could poffibly have thought of to have given Adam fome idea of the thing. RICHARDSON, Ver. 216. Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace,] How much does the brevity of the command add to the fublimity and majefty of it! It is the fame kind of beauty that Longinus admires in the Mofaick hiftory of the Creation. It is of the fame ftrain with the fame Omnifick Word's calming the tempeft in the Gofpel, when he faid to the raging fea, Peace, be still, Mark iv. 39. And how elegantly has he turned the commanding words filence and peace, making one the first and the other the laft in the fentence, and thereby giving the greater force and emphasis to both! NEWTON. Ver. 224. Od. i. i. 4. the fervid wheels,] Horace's epithet, "Metáque fervidis evitata rotis." HUME. Ver. 225. He took the golden compoffes,] Prov. viii. 27. "When he prepared the Heavens, I was there; when he fet a compafs upon the face of the deep." And Dionyf. Perieg, ad finem: In God's eternal ftore, to circumfcribe Αὐτοὶ γὰρ τὰ πρῶτα θεμείλια ΤΟΡΝΩΣΑΝΤΟ, 236 RICHARDSON. Ver. 232. Thus God the Heaven created, &c.] The reader will naturally remark how exactly Milton copies Mofes in his account of the creation. This feventh book of Paradife Loft may be called a larger fort of paraphrafe upon the firft chapter of Genefis. Milton not only obfervés the fame feries and order, but preferves the very words as much as he can, as we may fee in this and other inftances. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth; and the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Gen. i. 1, 2, The poet fays watery calm, as the Meffiah had before calmed the deep, v. 216; and fays outspread his brooding wings instead of moved, following the original rather than our tranflation, NEWTON. Ver. 236. And vital virtue infus'd,] See St, Bafil's defcription of the Spirit of God exerting the fame effectual energy upon this occafion, Homil. ii. Συνέθαλπε καὶ ζωογόνει τὴν τῶν ὑδάτων φύσιν κατὰ τὴν εἰκόνα τῆς ἐπωαζήσης ὄρνιθος, καὶ ΖΩΤΙΚΗΝ ΤΙΝΑ ΔΥΝΑΜΙΝ ΕΝΙΕΙΣΗΣ τοῖς ὑποθαλπομένοις. The black tartareous cold infernal dregs, Ver. 239. then founded, then conglob'd &c.] Milton had faid that Meffiah firft purged downward the infernal dregs which were adverse to life; and that then of things friendly to life he founded and conglob'd like to like, that is, he caufed them to affemble and affociate together: the rest, that is fuch things as were not of the fame nature and fit for compofing the earth, went off to other places, perhaps to form the planets and fixed ftars. This feems to be Milton's meaning. PEARCE. Here it will be of use to recur to the account in B. iii. 708. The earthy, watery, aery, and fiery particles, which before were blended promifcuously, were now combined and fixed as a foundation; for founded does either fignify that from fundare, or to melt from fundere; this latter it cannot mean; 'twas already fluid. Thus Pfal. lxxxix. 11. "As for the world and the fulnefs thereof, Thou haft founded them." So Prov. iii. 19. "The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth." The rest must be fomething different from the now elementary bodies, and that (B. iii. 716.) is determined to be the ethereal quinteffence of which the heavenly luminous bodies were formed. RICHARDSON. Dr. Newton here refers to Lucretius, lib. v. 438. "Diffugere inde loci partes capere, paréfque Perhaps Milton might alfo have been influenced, in this defcription, by Cicero: "Ac principio terra univerfa cernatur, locata in media fede mundi, folida, et globofa, et undique ipfa in fefe nutibus fuis conglobata." De Nat. Deor. lib. ii. fect. 39. and between fpun out the air; And Earth felf-balanc'd on her center hung.] From Ovid, but very much improved, Met. i. 12. NEWTON. Ver. 241. |