And Raphael now to Adam's doubt propos'd
Benevolent and facil thus reply'd.

65

To ask or fearch I blame thee not, for Heaven Is as the book of God before thee fet, Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years: This to attain, whether Heav'n move or Earth, 70 Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest From Man or Angel the great Architect Did wifely to conceal, and not divulge His fecrets to be scann'd by them who ought Rather admire; or if they lift to try Conjecture, he his fabric of the Heavens Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move His laughter at their quaint opinions wide

ner: his words are "To attain to "know whether the fun or the earth "moves is not of ufe to us." But I believe that they are both miftaken in the fenfe of this paffage, for I conceive it otherwise. This to attain is to be referred to what precedes and not to what follows; and accordingly there is only a colon before these words in Milton's own editions, and not a full ftop as in fome others. This to attain, that is to attain the knowledge of feafons, bours, or days, or months, or years, It imports not, it matters not, it

75

Heareafter, when they come to model Heaven
And calculate the ftars, how they will wield
The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive
To fave appearances, how gird the sphere

With centric and eccentric fcribled o'er,

80

Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb:

Already by thy reasoning this I guess,

85

Who art to lead thy ofspring, and fuppofest

That bodies bright and greater fhould not ferve
The less not bright, nor Heav'n fuch journeys run,
Earth fitting ftill, when the alone receives
The benefit: confider first, that great
Or bright infers not excellence: the earth
Though, in comparison of Heav'n, fo fmall,
Nor glift'ring, may of folid good contain
More plenty than the fun that barren fhines,

80. And calculate the furs,] The fenfe is, And form a judgment of the ftars by computing their motions, distance, situation, &c, as to calculate a nativity fignifies to form a judg, ment of the events attending it, by computing what planets, in what motions, prefided over that nativity. But Dr. Bentley takes calculating the ftars here to mean counting their numbers. That might be one thing intended; but it is not all. To cal

90

Whose

culate them is to make a computation of every thing relating to them: the confequence of which is (in the old fyftem especially) centric and eccentric, cycle and epicycle, and orb in orb. Pearce.

83. With centric and eccentric] Centric or concentric are such spheres whofe center is the fame with, and eccentric fuch whofe centers are different from that of the earth, Cycle is a circle; Epicycle is a circle upon

another

Whofe virtue on itself works no effect,

95

But in the fruitful earth; there firft receiv'd
His beams, unactive elfe, their vigor find.
Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee earth's habitant.

And for the Heav'n's wide circuit, let it speak 100
The Maker's high magnificence, who built
So fpacious, and his line ftretch'd out so far;
That Man may know he dwells not in his own;
An edifice too large for him to fill,

105

Lodg'd in a small partition, and the reft
Ordain'd for ufes to his Lord best known.
The swiftness of thofe circles attribúte,
Though numberless, to his omnipotence,
That to corporeal fubftances could add
Speed almost spiritual; me thou think'ft not flow,

another circle. Expedients of the Ptolemaics to folve the apparent difficulties in their fystem.

Richardfon. 102. and his line ftretch'd out fo far:] A Scripture expreffion, Job XXXVIII. 5. Who hath fretched the line upon it? as if God had meafar'd the Heavens and the Earth with a line.

108. Though numberless,] It may be join'd in conftruction with circles,

109

Who

and not with fwiftness, as Dr. Bentley conceiv'd. And the fenfe is (as Dr. Pearce expreffes it) that it is God's omnipotence which gives to the circles, though fo numberless, fuch a degree of fwiftnefs. Or if we join numberless in conftruction with fwiftnefs, it may be understood as in ver 38.

Speed, to defcribe whofe fwiftness number fails.

128. In

Who fince the morning hour fet out from Heaven
Where God refides, and ere mid-day arriv'd
In Eden, distance inexpreffible

urge,

By numbers that have name. But this I
Admitting motion in the Heav'ns, to show
Invalid that which thee to doubt it mov'd;
Not that I fo affirm, though so it seem

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To thee who hast thy dwelling here on earth.
God to remove his ways from human sense,
Plac'd Heav'n from Earth fo far, that earthly fight,
If it prefume, might err in things too high,
And no advantage gain. What if the fun
Be center to the world, and other stars

By his attractive virtue and their own
Incited, dance about him various rounds?

121

125

Their wand'ring course now high, now low, then hid,

128. In fix thou feeft, &c.] In the moon, and the five other wand'ring fres, as they are call'd V. 177. Their motions are evident; and what if the earth fhould be a feventh planet, and move three different motions though to thee infenfible? The three different motions which the Copernicans attribute to the earth are the diurnal round her own axis, the annual round the fun, and the motion of libration as it is call'd, whereby

Pro

the earth fo proceeds in her orbit, as that her axis is constantly parallel to the axis of the world. Which elfe to feveral spheres thou must afcribe, &c. You must either afcribe these motions to several spheres croffing and thwarting one another with crooked and indirect turnings and windings: Or you must attribute them to the earth, and fave the fun his labor and the primum mobile too, that fwift nocturnal and diurnal rhomb. It was

obferved

Progreffive, retrograde, or standing still,
In fix thou feeft, and what if sev'nth to these
The planet earth, so stedfaft though she seem,
Infenfibly three different motions move?
Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,
Mov'd contrary with thwart obliquities,
Or fave the fun his labor, and that swift
Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb fuppos'd,
Invisible elfe above all ftars, the wheel

Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,
If earth industrious of herself fetch day
Traveling east, and with her part averfe

130

135

From the fun's beam meet night, her other part
Still luminous by his ray. What if that light 140
Sent from her through the wide tranfpicuous air,
To the terreftrial moon be as a star

obferved in the note on VII. 619. that when Milton ufes a Greek word, he frequently fubjoins the English of it, as he does here, the wheel of day and night. So he calls the primum mobile: and this primum mobile in the ancient aftronomy was an imaginary sphere above thofe of the planets and fixed ftars; and there fore faid by our author to be fuppos'd and invifible above all ftars. This was conceived to be the first mover,

Inlight

and to carry all the lower spheres round along with it; by its rapidity communicating to them a motion whereby they revolved in twentyfour hours. Which needs not thy belief, if earth &c. But there is no need to believe this, if the earth by revolving round on her own axis from west to eat in twenty-four hours (traveling eaft) enjoys day in that half of her globe which is turn'd towards the fun, and is cover'd with night