Death is the penalty impos'd; beware,
And govern well thy appetite; left Sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.

545

Here finish'd he, and all that he had made View'd, and behold all was entirely good; So even and morn accomplish'd the fixth day: 550 Yet not till the Creator from his work Defifting, though unwearied, up return'd, Up to the Heaven of Heavens, his high abode; Thence to behold this new created world, The addition of his empire, how it show'd In prospect from his throne, how good, how fair, Answering his great idea. Up he rode

Ver. 548. Here finish'd he, and all that he had made

555

View'd,] The pause is very remarkable, and admirably expreffes the Creator furveying and contemplating his work,

" and behold all was entirely good;

"So even and morn accomplish'd the fixth day."

He finishes the account of the creation, in the fame manner as Mofes, Gen. i. 31. NEWTON,

It is probable, that he had alfo Plato in view, who reprefents the Creator furveying his great work, and delighted, as Milton expreffes it, with its answering his great idea: `n dè xımbév te autò καὶ ζῶν ἐνενόησε τῶν ἀϊδίων θεῶν γεγονὸς ἄγαλμα ὁ γεννήσας πατής, ἠγάσθη τε, καὶ εὐφρανθείς, ἔτι δὴ μᾶλλον ὅμοιον πρὸς τὸ παράδειγμα ἐπενόησεν pyάood. Plat. Opp. edit. Serran. tom. iii. 37.

Ver. 557.

Answering his great idea.] The learned Harris, in his Hermes, asks, "What do we mean by the term Mind? We mean fomething, which, when it acts, knows what it is going to do; fomething ftored with Ideas of its intended Works, agreeably to which Ideas thofe Works are fashioned,”.

Follow'd with acclamation, and the found
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tun'd
Angelick harmonies: The earth, the air
560
Refounded, (thou remember'st, for thou heardft,)
The heavens and all the conftellations rung,
The planets in their station listening stood,
While the bright pomp afcended jubilant.

He then obferves, in an additional note, "that upon thefe principles Nicomachus, in his Arithmetick, p. 7, calls the Supreme Being an Artifέν τῇ τῇ τεχντε Θεῦ διανοίᾳ. Where Philoponus, in his manuscript comment, obferves as follows: Texvítny Quoò tòv Θεὸν, ὡς πάντων τὰς πρώτας αἰτίας καὶ τὰς λόγες αυτῶν ἔχοντα. He calls God an Artist, as poffeffing within himself the first Causes of all things, and their Reafons or Proportions. Soon after, fpeaking of those sketches, after which painters work and finish their pictures, he fubjoins——ὥσπερ ἐν ἡμεῖς, εἰς τὰ τοιαῦτα σκιαγραφήματα βλέποντες, ποιῦμεν τόδέ τι, ὕτω καὶ ὁ δημιυργὸς, πρὸς ἐκεῖνα ἀποβλέπων, τὰ τῆδε πάντα κεκόσμηκεν· ἀλλ ̓ ἰσέον, ὅτι τὰ μὲν τῇδε σκιαγραφήματα ἀτελῆ ἐισιν, ἐκεῖνοι δὲ δι ἐν τῷ Θεῷ λόγοι αρχέτυποι καὶ παντέλειοί ἐἰσιν. As therefore we, looking upon fuch Sketches as thefe, make fuch and Juch particular things, fo alfo the Creator, looking at thofe sketches of his, bath formed, and adorned with beauty, all things here below. We must remember, however, that the sketches here are imperfe&t; but that the others, thofe REASONS or proportions, which exift in GOD, are ARCHETYPAL, and ALL-PERFECT. It is according to this Philosophy, that Milton reprefents God, after he had created this vifible world, contemplating

"how it show'd

"In profpect from his throne, how good, how fair
"Anfwering his great idea."

Ver. 563. The planets in their station liftening ftood,] The tation of a planet is a term of art, when the planet appears neither to go backwards nor forwards, but to stand still and keep the fame place in its orbit. NEWTON.

565

570

Open, ye everlasting gates! they fung,
Open, ye Heavens ! your living doors; let in
The great Creator from his work return'd
Magnificent, his fix days work, a World ;
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
To vifit oft the dwellings of just men,
Delighted; and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his winged meffengers
On errands of fupernal grace. So fung
The glorious train ascending: He through Heaven,
That 'open'd wide her blazing portals, led 575
To God's eternal house direct the way;

appear,

A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold
And pavement stars, as ftars to thee
Seen in the galaxy, that milky way,
Which nightly, as a circling zone, thou seest 580

Ver. 565. Open, ye everlafting gates! &c.] Pfalm, xxiv. 7. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlafting doors; and the King of glory fhall come in." This hymn was fung when the ark of God was carried up into the fanctuary on Mount Sion, and is understood as a prophecy of our Saviour's Afcenfion into Heaven; and therefore is fitly applied by our author to the fame Divine Perfon's afcending thither, after he had created the world. NEWTON.

Ver. 575. That open'd wide her blazing portals,] Thefe words fuggefted to Pope the following verfe in his Meffiah.

"See Heaven its fparkling portals wide display."

Ver. 578. And pavement ftars,] So, in B. iv. 975, "the road of Heaven ftar-pav'd." In Giuftiniano's description of the palace of the Sun, the phrafe ftellati pauimenti occurs, Canzon. 1620, p. 217.

Powder'd with ftars. And now on Earth the

feventh

Evening arose in Eden, for the fun

Was fet, and twilight from the east came on,
Forerunning night; when at the holy mount
Of Heaven's high-feated top, the imperial throne
Of Godhead, fix'd for ever firm and fure,
The Filial Power arriv'd, and fat him down.
With his great Father; for he also went
Invisible, yet staid, (fuch privilege

586

Ver. 581. Powder'd with ftars.] So, in Sylvefter's Du Bart. 1621, p. 76, of the firmament:

"Poudred with ftars ftreaming with glorious light."

And, in Drummond's Poems, 1616.

"And joy'ft to look down to the azur'd bars

"Of heauen, powder'd with troops of ftreaming ftars." From these inftances the expreffion feems to have been not uncommon. I may also add the illuftration from the Mir. of Magiftrates, cited by Mr. Warton in his Obfervations on the Faery Queen of Spenfer;

"Then looking upwards to the heavens leames,

"With night's bright ftarres thick powdred every where."

The word powder'd is a term in heraldry, and fignifies ftrow'd or fprinkled. Thus, in Legh's Accedens of Armorye, 1576, fol. 133. b. "A chemife blanke, powdred and fpotted with mullets fable." And, in Bolton's Elements of Armories, 1610, p. 175. "The choyce skinnes onely were by thofe Germanes pouldred with spots." The word is repeatedly spelt pouldred in this latter book; and Mr. Warton, in his Obfervations before-mentioned, remarks, that it is rightly so spelt in Spenser, according to the etymology to which Skinner conjectures it to belong, viz. " a pulvere, confpergo pulvere." However, fee the word poudratus in Du Cange.

Hath Omniprefence) and the work ordain'd, 596
Author and End of all things; and, from work
Now refting, blefs'd and hallow'd the seventh day,
As refting on that day from all his work,
But not in filence holy kept: the harp
Had work and rested not; the folemn pipe, 595
And dulcimer, all organs of sweet stop,
All founds on fret by string or golden wire,
Temper'd soft tunings, intermix'd with voice
Choral or unifon: of incenfe clouds,

Fuming from golden cenfers, hid the mount. 600

Ver. 591.

and, from work

Now refting, blefs'd and hallow'd the seventh day, As refting on that day from all his work,] The reafon affigned by Mofes, and almost in the very words, Gen. ii. 2, 3. NEWTON.

Ver. 597. All founds on fret by firing or golden wire,] On the finger-board of a bass-viol, for instance, are divifions athwart, by which the found is regulated and varied: Thefe divifions are called frets. RICHARDSON.

Ver. 598.

Temper'd foft tunings, intermix'd with voice
Choral or unifon :] So, in Diodati's tranflation

of the laft Pfalm:

"Gl' organi, e gl' arpicordi,

"Temprin' i lor accordi

"Con vostre note armoniofe, e dive."

Ver. 599.

of incenfe clouds,

Fuming from golden cenfers, hid the mount.] The incenfe fuming from golden cenfers, feems to be founded on Rev. viii. 3, 4. Milton had also seen their manner of incenfing in the churches abroad, and feems to have approved fomething of it, by transferring it to Heaven. NEWTON.

Compare Herrick's addrefs to God, Noble Numbers, 1647, p. 36.