Upon her center pois'd; when on a day (For time, though in eternity, apply'd To motion, measures all things durable 580 By prefent, paft, and future) on fuch day As Heav'n's great year brings forth, th' empyreal host Innumerable before th' Almighty's throne 585 590 Of from the refolutions taken in the infernal council, or in its more remote beginning, as proceeding from the first revolt of the Angels in Heaven. The occafion which Milton affigns for this revolt, as it is founded on hints in holy Writ, and on the opinion of fome great writers, fo it was the most proper that the poet could have made ufe of. The revolt in Heaven is defcribed with great force of imagination, and a fine variety of circumitances. Addifon. 579. Upon her center pois'd;] Ponderibus librata fuis, as Ovid fays Met. I. 13. or as Milton elfewhere expreffes it, VII. 242. 583. As Heav'n's great year] Our poet feems to have had Plato's great year in his thoughts. Magnus ab integro feclorum na fcitur ordo. Virg. Ecl. IV. 5. -Et incipient magni procedere menfes. Ecl. IV. 12. Hume. Plato's great year of the Heavens is the revolution of all the fpheres. Every thing returns to where it fet out when their motion firit began. See Aufon. Idyl. XVIII. 15. A proper time for the declaration of the vicegerency of the Son of God. Milton has the fame thought for the birth of the Angels (ver. 851.) imagining fuch kind of revolutions long before the Angels or the worlds were in being. So far back And Earth felf-balanc'd on her into eternity did the vaft mind of center hung. this poet carry him! Richardfon. 583.-th Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees; 595 600 Hear all ye Angels, progeny of light, Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, Hear my decree, which unrevok'd shall stand. This day I have begot whom I declare My only Son, and on this holy hill Him have anointed, whom ye now behold 605 All knees in Heav'n, and fhall confefs him Lord: 610 For ever happy: Him who disobeys, Me disobeys, breaks union, and that day 615 So fpake th' Omnipotent, and with his words All feem'd well pleas'd; all feem'd, but were not all. That from holy Writ by comparing it with the following texts. I have fet my Anointed upon my holy bill of Sion; I will declare the decree, The Lord bath faid unto me, Thou art my fon, this day have I begotten thee. Pfal. II. 6, 7. By myself have I favorn, faith the Lord. Gen. XXII. 16. At the name of Jefus every knee Shall bow, of things in Heaven and every tongue fhall confefs that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil. II. 10, 11. -- 620. Mystical dance, &c.] Strange myfterious motions, which the fhining fphere of the planets and fixed ftars in their various revolutions imitates neareft; windings and turnings intangled and obfcure, involving and furrounding one another, altho' not moving on the fame center, yet then moft regular and orderly, when to our weak and diftant understanding they feem moft irregular and disturb'd. And thofe untruly errant call'd, I trow, That day, as other folemn days, they spent 620 Eccentric, intervolv'd, yet regular Then most, when most irregular they seem; 625 So fmooths her charming tones, that God's own ear (For we have alfo' our evening and our morn, With Angels food, and rubied nectar flows Fruit of delicious vines, the growth of Heaven. 635 Of furfeit where full measure only bounds 641 Excefs, before th' all-bounteous King, who show'r'd 633.rubied near] Nectar of the color of rubies; a tranflation of Homer's ventap epubpov. Iliad. XIX. 38. - αμβροσίην και νικίας ερυθρόν. and Odyff. V. 93. - παρέθηκε τραπεζαν 634. In pearl, &c.] This feaft of the Angels is much richer than the banquet of the Gods in Homer's Iliad, IV. 3. Homer's Gods drink nectar in golden cups xpucos dec; but here the nectar flows in pearl, in diamond, and mafly geld. 637. They eat, they drink, &c.] In the first edition it was thus, They eat, they drink, and with refection fweet From Are fill'd, before th' all-bounteous In the fecond edition the author alter'd it and added as follows, They eat they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy, fecure Excefs, before th' all-bounteous Dr. Bentley is for restoring the former reading, but we think that in communion fweet gives a much better idea than with refection fawcet. drink largely and plentifully of imTo quaff immortality and joy, to mortal joy, is a very poetical expreffion, and plainly alluding to Pfal. XXXVI. 8, 9. Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleaJures, for with thee is the fountain of · life, |