sages of Scripture are obviously the sources of Milton's language; but similar expressions occur in Homer (Il., V., 243) and Virgil (Aen., I., 664).

189. Stony hearts.-Comp. Ezek. xxxvi. 26.

197. Comp. Matt. x. 22.

208. Sacred and devote.-Sacer et devotus is the language of the Roman law, denoting outlawry.

215. Just th' unjust to save.-Comp. 1 Pet. iii. 18.

219. Patron.-Used in its classic sense of a defender and advocate. Comp. Isa. lix. 16.

225. Comp. Col. ii. 9.

231. Unprevented.-Not preceded by any merit or supplication. [Lat. praevenire, to come before.] The theological phrase, prevenient grace" is used by Milton,

B. XI., l. 3. Comp. Ps. lxxxviii. 13.

233. Once dead in sins.-Comp. Col. ii. 13.

236. The construction here reminds us of Virgil's "Me, me, adsum qui feci, in me convertite ferrum" (Aen., IX., 427).

243, 244. Comp. John v. 26.

247-249. Comp. Ps. xvi. 10.

250-256. Comp. Ps. lxviii. 18; Col. ii. 15; 1 Cor. xv. 55.

255. Maugre.-In spite of. [Fr. malgré; Lat. male gratum.]

259. Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 26.

265. Comp. Ps. xvi. 11.

270. Comp. Ps. xl. 6.

274. Comp. Eph. ii. 14.

287-289. Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 22.

294-297. Comp. Rom. viii. 32; 1 Cor. xv. 20-23.

299. Comp. Matt. xx. 28.

306. Comp. Philip. ii. 6.

317, 318. Comp. Matt. xxviii. 18.

318, 319. Assume thy merits.-Comp. Horace (Od. III., xxx., 14):

66 Sume superbiam

Quaesitam meritis."

321. Comp. Philip. ii. 10.

323-329. Comp. 1 Thess. iv. 16; 2 Thess. i. 7; Matt. xxiv. 30, 31; 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. 334. Comp. 2 Pet. iii. 12, 13.

335. Comp. Rev. xxi. 1.

339-341. Comp. 1 Cor. xv. 24-28.

341-343. Ps. xcvii. 7; John v. 23.

348. Jubilee here means "a shout of joy," but originally denoted a peculiar institution among the Hebrews, by which, every fiftieth year, the land that from any cause had passed out of the hands of its original possessors reverted to them. The year of jubilee was proclaimed at the end of the harvest by the yobel (or horn); hence its name. As it was naturally a season of great rejoicings, the word easily acquired the meaning it has in the text.- Hosannas.-Praises. The Hebrew hoshianna literally signifies "Hear, I pray thee."

351, 352. Comp. Rev. iv. 10.

353. Amarantor amaranth- "the symbol of immortality," is a flower whose leaves retain their freshness after it has been plucked. Milton has poetically removed it to heaven. See Lycidas, note, l. 149.

358. Comp. Ps. xxxvi. 8; xlvi. 4; Rev. xxii. 1, 2.

359. Amber stream.—Clear as amber. Comp. Virgil (Georg., III., 522):

"Purior electro campum petit amnis."

363. Comp. Rev. iv. 6; xv. 2.

365. Comp. Rev. v. 8.

380. Dark with excessive bright is an expression no less striking than physically true. Comp. Ovid (Met., II., 181):

"Suntque oculis tenebrae per tantum lumen obortae."

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Againe to shake heav'n's everlasting frame."

396. Disarray'd.-Thrown into disorder.

413. Comp. Ovid (Tr., II., l. 70):

418. Opacous.-Dark, not transparent. [Lat. opacus. Ovid (Met., II., 274) has opaca mater, speaking of the earth.] We generally use the French form, opaque. -It may

be well to remind the reader again that by the round world Milton here means the universe," the new-created Cosmos, opposed to Chaos.

431. Imaüs here denotes the western portion of the Himalayan range, or perhaps the Bolor Tagh, which "bounds the roving Tartar" on the west. But the ancient geographers used the term vaguely. Imaüs is the same as the first part of Himalaya, and means snowy."

436. Hydaspes-mod. Jelum-one of the tributaries of the Indus. It might seem to Milton a more important river than it is, from the Horatian phrase, Fabulosus Hydaspes" (Od. I., xxii., 7).

438. Sericana-or Serica-is the classic name of China, and is derived from ser, a name of the silk-worm, which is native to that region. The "barren plains of Sericana are probably the wastes of Chinese Tartary. What Milton says of their inhabitants seems to have been taken from Heylin's Cosmography (p. 867), where it is said: Agreeable unto the observation of modern writers, the country is so plain and level, that they have carts and coaches driven with sails, as ordinarily as drawn with horses, in these parts." Sir George Staunton (Embassy to China, 1797, vol. II., p. 243) speaks cany waggons as still in use.

of the "

442. Creature. -Created thing. [Lat. creatura.]

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456. Unkindly.-Contrary to nature or kind."

459. The allusion is to Ariosto (Orl. Fur., c. XXXIV., st. 70, et seq.), whose enumeration of things lost upon earth and treasured up in the moon has been adopted by Pope in his Rape of the Lock.

463. Comp. Gen. vi. 4.

467. Sennaär.-The form of "Shinar" in the Vulgate. Comp. Gen. xi. 2-9.

471. Empedocles, a Sicilian philosopher who flourished in the fifth century B. C. According to a Greek legend, he threw himself into the crater of Mount Aetna, in the hope that his sudden disappearance might induce people to reverence him as a god; but an eruption of the volcano threw out one of his brazen sandals, and revealed the imposture.

473. Cleombrotus, a native of Ambracia in Epirus, who is said to have flung himself into the sea after reading the Phaedo of Plato; not because he was tired of life, but because he was ravished by the picture which that work gave of the happiness enjoyed by departed spirits in Elysium.—Too long.-Scil., "to tell.”

474. Embryos, &c.-Milton's contempt for the forms of religious life that sprung up during the Middle Ages is here expressed with his customary vehemence. He classes eremites" and "friars" with abortions and idiots.

475. White, black, and gray.-Carmelites, Dominicans, and Franciscans were so denominated, from the colour of their garb. Comp. Ariosto (Orl. Fur., XIV., 68): "Fratri bianchi, neri e bigi."

476. Here pilgrims roam, &c.-Milton hardly does justice to the devout enthusiasm which underlay the superstitious practices of mediaeval Christianity. The Protestant feeling of his time was perhaps sound in the main, but it was not generous in its interpretation of the religious life of the past.

478-480. It was a popular notion during the Middle Ages, that if a man put on a

friar's robe before death he escaped Hell. Dante (Inferno, XXVII.) and Buchanan (in his Franciscanus) satirize the belief; which, it need hardly be said, never obtained the sanction of the Church, though individuals among the clergy encouraged it at times for avaricious ends.

481-483. According to Ptolemy, the solar system was constituted by "the planets seven," which were all that had then been discovered. Beyond these lay the firmament of "fixed" stars; still further, the "crystalline sphere" of heaven, to which Ptolemy attributed a sort of libration or 'trepidation," in order to account for the irregularities noticed in the movements of the stellar bodies; and, yet more remote, the primum mobile, which was both the sphere "first moved" and that which in turn set in motion all the lower spheres. Above all these Milton places the home of God and the angels.

484. Milton uses the phrase Heav'ns wicket to express contempt for the notion that makes St. Peter the porter at Heaven's gate.

491. Beads.. - Lit., prayers [A.-S. béd and gebéd. Comp. Ger. gebet]; but afterwards used to denote the bits of wood or glass by means of which the tale of prayers was reckoned.

492. Dispenses.-Dispensations-i.e., from particular religious or ecclesiastical obligations to which the Christian community are subject. The power of granting such is affirmed by Roman Catholic theologians to be vested in the Pope. - -Bulls are Papal edicts to which the Pope has affixed his bulla, or "seal."

493. The sport of winds.-Comp. Virgil (Aen., VI., 75): Ludibria ventis." 495. Limbo.--According to the Roman Catholic theology, there is a region on the limbus or "border" of Hell, in which those departed souls are detained which, though free from personal offences, are not thought worthy of the beatific vision of Heaven. This region is divided into the Limbus Patrum and the Limbus Infantum. The former is occupied by those just ones who died before the coming of Christ; the latter contains the souls of unbaptized infants. Milton applies the name to that obscure corner of the world, which he scornfully terms the "Paradise of Fools," and to which he consigns the trumpery" of Romanism. The tone of this passage is polemic rather than epical, and the Puritan is more visible than the poet. Milton might have remembered that Dante, whose genius was not inferior to his own, saw nothing to ridicule in the humane conception.

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501, et seq. Compare this description of the portals of Heaven with Tobit xiii. 16, 17, and Rev. xxi. 12.

510. Comp. Gen. xxviii. 12, 13.

516. Each stair mysteriously was meant―i.e., a mystery or secret meaning was symbolized by each stair.

518. The bright sea here mentioned is the "water above the firmament." Comp. B. VII., l. 619.

520-522. Milton was perhaps thinking of Enoch and Elijah; but the point of the allusion is vague.

529. Wider by far, &c.-Because the Fall had not yet taken place, and the favour of God was not yet restricted to Jerusalem and the Promised Land, but extended to the whole earth.

534. With choice regard.-Comp. Deut. xi. 12.

535. Paneäs-mod. Banias-the Caesarea-Philippi of the New Testament, was situated near the principal source of the Jordan, and was therefore in the extreme north of Palestine. Milton seems to identify it with Dan. The Scripture phrase From Dan to Beersheba" expressed the limits of Palestine north and south, like our own From Land's End to John o' Groat's."

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538. Comp. Job xxviii. 3.

543. Scout.--Lit., one sent to listen. [Fr. escoute, from escouter; Lat. auscultare, from auris, the ear.]

546. High-climbing hill.-Landor, and Kames before him, notice the vividness given to the epithet by the use of the active participle.

551. The sense requires after "beams" some such words as "is seized with wonder."

558-560. Satan surveys one half of the " new-made world," through six signs of the Zodiac, from Libra to Aries ("the fleecy star").

564. Marble.-Lucid, glittering. [Gr. μápμapeos, from μapuaípw, to gleam.] Comp. Shakspeare (Othello, Act iii., sc. 3):

"Now, by yond' marble heaven."

Drummond (Poems, 1616):

"Heaven looks like smoothest marble."

Sophocles speaks (Antigone, 610) of the marble (i.e., the glittering) radiance of Olympus: “Ολύμπου μαρμαρόεσσαν ἄιγλαν.”

565. Amongst, &c.-Milton here abandons the Ptolemaic system, which fixed the stars in the face of one sphere.

568. Comp. Comus, l. 393.

574. The calm firmament—i.e., “the pure marble air" of line 564.Milton means north or south."

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-By up or down

575. By centre, &c.-It is "hard to tell" whether the course of Satan is toward or away from the centre, or whether it is by longitude-i.e., "east or west."

577. Aloof.-Scil., 'from." Aloof is literally "all off.'

580. Numbers.-Measures.

586. To the deep.-To the core of the world.

589. Astronomer, &c.-Probably an allusion to Galileo, whose " covered spots on the sun's disc.

593. Inform'd.-Pervaded.

optic tube" had dis

596. Carbuncle most or chrysolite, ruby or topaz.-These four stones are of a bright and glowing colour. "The ruby," says Keightley, is not among the stones on Aaron's breastplate, in the Septuagint, Vulgate, or in our own translation; but the odem, ("red stone,") which they render sardius, Milton probably took to be the ruby. He uses carbuncle, as the Septuagint does avepas, for the nóphak, which in our version is emerald. He also follows the Septuagint in rendering tarshish chrysolite, instead of beryl, as in our translation."

597. To the twelve-i.e., reckoning up to the twelve.

600. That stone. The discovery of a certain royal "stone, which should transmute the baser metals into gold," was a favourite dream of the mediaeval alchemists. 603. Volatile Hermes.-Mercury, or quicksilver.

604. Proteus, according to the Greek myth, was an old man endowed with the gift of prophecy, who dwelt in the isle of Pharos, near the mouth of the Nile, and tended the Phocaean flocks of Poseidon. Virgil places him in the island of Carpathos, between Crete and Rhodes. During the heat of day he slept under the shadow of the rocks, and, if caught unawares, could be forced to reveal the future; but his power of transformation was so great that it was difficult to seize or retain him. For an account of his curious metamorphoses see the Georgics, IV., 405, et seq. In the passage before us Milton seems to consider Proteus an embodiment of water, which can assume a variety of shapes, as snow, ice, vapour, &c., but can be "drain'd through a limbec to his native form."

605. Limbec.-Alembic [Arab. al, the; and Gr. außig, a cup], a vessel used by alchemists for distilling.

606. Here-i.e., in the sun, whither the fiend had bent his course.

607. Elixir [Arab. al-iksir, the philosopher's stone] was, according to the alchemists, a liquid substance which could prolong life. Hence the phrase, elixir vitae.

608. Potable gold. The aurum potabile of the alchemists.

609. Th' arch-chemic sun.-Comp. Shakspeare (King John, Act iii., sc. 1):

Stays in his course, and plays the alchymist."

617. Culminate from th' equator. As the sun at noon during the equinoxes is directly vertical at the equator, objects cast no shadows. Astronomers call this position of the sun its culmination.

620. Nowhere.-Scil., else."

623. Comp. Rev. xix. 17.

625. Comp. Ovid (Met., II., 40):

66 Dixerat et genitor eircum caput omne micantes
Deposuit radios."

Tiar.—Tiara [Fr. tiare; Gr. Tíapa], properly the ornamental head-dress of the ancient
Persians; now applied to the triple crown of the Pope.

627. Illustrious.-Lustrous. [Lat. illustris.]Fledge-fledged. [A.-S. fleogan, to fly.] A fledgeling is a little bird just able to fly.

634. Casts. Contrives. Comp. Comus, note, l. 360. 637. Not of the prime.-Not of full stature.

Prime is contrasted with " stripling,"

as we speak of "the prime of life." Newton erroneously supposes the phrase to mean 'not of the first rank."

643. Succinct.-Girt up. [Lat. succinctus.] Horace speaks of the succinctus hospes" (Sat., II., vi., 107). Newton suggests that the word habit in this line must refer to 'wings," because Milton does not usually represent the angels as wearing clothes.

644. Decent.-Here used, probably, in its classical sense of "comely."

648. Uriel ("Light of God") is a name that does not appear in the canonical Scriptures; but it occurs several times in the Second Book of Esdras, and in the Rabbinical literature, as that of a "good angel." Its meaning might induce Milton to give Uriel his station in the "golden sun.'

650-653. Comp. Zech. iv. 10.

693. Uprightness. - Straightforward truthfulness; a spirit unsuspicious of deceit or guile.

694. Tends.-Aims. [Lat. tendere.]

704. Comp. Psalm cxi. 4, Prayer Book version : The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in remembrance." 713. The Timaeus, X., of Plato furnished Milton with some of the cosmology of this passage. "Order from disorder sprung "looks like a translation of "Eis Táέiv ἤγαγεν ἐκ τῆς ἀταξίας αὐτὸ·” and Philo Judaeus has expanded the same expression. 715. Cumbrous elements. "Earth, flood, air, fire," are so called because they are heavy compared with the "ethereal quintessence of heav'n." They "haste to their several quarters," but this "flies upward, spirited (i.e., animated) with various forms, that roll'd orbicular," &c. It was a notion of Aristotle and other ancient philosophers, that the heavens and the stars were formed out of a fifth essence, or "quintessence." 721. The rest-i.e., of the “quintessence"-forms the outer wall of the new Cosmos. 730. Triform.-In allusion to the three phases of the moon-new, quarter, and full. The triformis of Horace (Od. III., xxii., 4), on the other hand, refers to her threefold designation in the classic mythology-Luna in heaven, Diana or Artemis, on Earth, and Hecate in the Under-world.

741. In many an airy wheel.-The phrase merely indicates the rapidity of Satan's flight, not, as Newton ludicrously supposes, a sportive motion" because he was near

his journey's end. The expression is familiar to the Italian poets.

742. Niphates, a mountain of Armenia, bordering on Mesopotamia, and therefore in the vicinity of Paradise, according to the common belief.