How first began this heaven which we behold
Distant so high, with moving fires adorn'd
Innumerable; and this which yields or fills
All space, the ambient air wide interfused,
Embracing round this florid earth: what cause
Moved the Creator, in his holy rest
Through all eternity, so late to build
In Chaos; and the work begun, how soon
Absolved; if unforbid thou mayst unfold
What we, not to explore the secrets, ask,
Of his eternal empire, but the more

To magnify his works, the more we know :
And the great light of day yet wants to run
Much of his race though steep; suspense in heaven,
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears;
And longer will delay to hear thee tell

His generation, and the rising birth
Of Nature from the unapparent deep:

Or if the star of evening and the moon

Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring
Silence; and Sleep, listening to thee, will watch;
Or we can bid his absence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought;
And thus the godlike angel answer'd mild:

This also thy request, with caution ask'd,
Obtain; though to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?

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110

Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve

115

And the great light of day.

up

into d

Mr. Thyer is of opinion that there is not a greater instance of our author's exquisite skill in the art of poetry than this and the following lines. There is nothing more really to be expressed than Adam's telling Raphael his desire to hear the continuance of his relation and yet the poet, by a series of strong and noble figures, has worked it half a score of as fine lines as any in the poem. Lord Shaftesbury has observed, that Milton's beauties generally depend upon solid thought, strong reasoning, noble passion, and a continued thread of moral doctrine; but in this place he has shown what an exalted fancy and mere force of poetry can do.-NEWTON.

Lord Shaftesbury had not a very accurate idea of Milton's genius; which, if it had all the qualities here ascribed to it, was not less rich and gigantic in imagination and invention. h Bid his absence, till thy song

End.

The sun did stand still at the voice of Joshua.-NEWTON.
Milton's favourite Ovid touches upon the suspense of day :-

-et euntem multa loquendo

Detinuit sermone diem.

To ask; nor let thine own inventions' hope
Things not reveal'd, which the invisible King',
Only Omniscient, hath suppress'd in night,
To none communicable in earth or heaven;
Enough is left besides to search and know:
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temperance over appetite, to know

In measure what the mind may well contain ;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind *.
Know then, that, after Lucifer from heaven
(So call him, brighter once amidst the host
Of angels, than that star the stars among)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son return'd
Victorious with his saints, the Omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake :

At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought
All like himself rebellious; by whose aid

This inaccessible high strength, the seat

Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed,

He trusted to have seized, and into fraud

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Drew many, whom their place' knows here no more;
Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,
Their station; heaven, yet populous, retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms
Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due, and solemn rites:
But, lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled heaven,
My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair
That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost; and in a moment will create
Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here; till by degrees of merit raised,

i Thine own inventions.

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150

153

So in Psalm cvi. 29: "Thus they provoked him to anger with their own inventions."

-PEARCE

i The invisible King.

As God is styled, 1 Tim. i. 17, “the invisible King," so this is the properest epithet that could have been employed here, when he is speaking of “ things not revealed, suppressed in night, to none communicable in earth or heaven," neither to men nor angels; as it is said of the day of judgment, Matt. xxiv. 36: “Of that day and hour knoweth no man: no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."-NEWTON.

k Nourishment to wind.

See St. Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 1: "Knowledge puffeth up."-TODD.

1 Whom their place.

See Job, vii. 10:"Neither shall his place know him any more."-NEWTON.

How first began this heaven whic, the way
Distant so high, with moving “ tried ;
Innumerable; and this wh
All space, the ambient a
Embracing round thi
Moved the CreatoTM
Through all ete
In Chaos; ar
Absolved;

ren, and heaven to earth,
without end.

What we
Of his
Το τ

A'

Fe powers of heaven ;

begotten Son, by thee

geak thou, and be it done!

m

Spirit and Might with thee
ride forth, and bid the deep
nted bounds be heaven and earth;
he deep, because I Am, who fill
nor vacuous the space;

1, uncircumscribed myself, retire,
not forth my goodness, which is free
or not: necessity and chance

proach not me, and what I will is fate.

50

So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake,
His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion; but to human ears
Cannot without process of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.

Great triumph and rejoicing was in heaven,

When such was heard declared the Almighty's will;
Glory they sung to the Most High, good will

To future men, and in their dwellings peace:
Glory to him, whose just avenging ire
Had driven out the ungodly from his sight
And the habitations of the just ; to him
Glory and praise, whose wisdom had ordain'd
Good out of evil to create; instead

Of spirits malign, a better race to bring
Into their vacant room, and thence diffuse
His good to worlds and ages infinite.

So sang the hierarchies; meanwhile the Son
On his great expedition now appear'd,
Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crown'd
Of majesty divine: sapience and love
Immense, and all his Father in him shone.
About his chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub and seraph, potentates and thrones,
And virtues, winged spirits, and chariots wing'd
From the armoury of God; where stand of old
Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged
Against a solemn day, harness'd at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth

m My overshadowing Spirit.

See Luke i. 35: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest

shall overshadow thee."-NEWTON.

1

s, for within them spirit lived,
their Lord: heaven open'd wide

gates, harmonious sound,

moving, to let forth

Glory, in his powerful Word

it, coming to create new worlds.

cavenly ground they stood; and from the shore
ney view'd the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turn'd by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole.

Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then the omnific Word; your discord end!
Nor stay'd; 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 procession, to behold
Creation and the wonders of his might.

Then stay'd the fervid wheels; and in his hand
He took the golden compasses ", prepared

In God's eternal store, to circumscribe

This universe, and all created things:
One foot he centred, and the other turn'd
Round though the vast profundity obscure;
And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds;
This be thy just circumference, O world!
Thus God the heaven created, thus the earth,
Matter unform'd and void: darkness profound
Cover'd the abyss; but on the watery calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth,

They view'd.

From the shore

Here is a most magnificent picture, breathing all the powers of poetry.

• Silence, ye troubled wares.

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210

213

220

223

230

235

How much does the brevity of the command add to the sublimity and majesty of it! It is the same kind of beauty that Longinus admires in the Mosaic history of the creation: it is of the same strain with the same "Omnific Word's" calming the tempest in the Gospel, when he said to the raging sea, Peace, be still." Mark iv. 39. And how elegantly has be turned the commanding words, silence and peace, making one the first and the other the last in the sentence, and thereby giving the greater force and emphasis to both!-NEWTON.

66

P He took the golden compasses.

See Prov. viii. 27: "When he prepared the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the deep.'-RICHARDSON.

4 Thus God the heaven created.

The reader will naturally remark how exactly Milton copies Moses in his account of the creation. The seventh book of Paradise Lost may be called a larger sort of paraphrase upon the first chapter of Genesis: Milton, not only observes the same series and order, but preserves the very words as much as he can.-NEWTON.

while. God saw the light was good;

Infinitude

And

Though I

d the

He

named.

Nor past

Br

from darkness by the hemisphere

light the day, and darkness night

Thus was the first day even and morn: uncelebrated, nor unsung

the celestial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld:

Birth-day of heaven and earth: with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they fill'd,

And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works; Creator him they sung,

Both when first evening was, and when first morn.
Again, God said, Let there be firmament t

Amid the waters, and let it divide

The waters from the waters: and God made
The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffused

In circuit to the uttermost convex

Of this great round; partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing for as earth, so he the world
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule

Of Chaos far removed; lest fierce extremes

Let there be light, said God.

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213

250

255

260

263

279

Gen. i. 3.-" And God said, Let there be light; and there was light." This is the passage that Longinus particularly admires; and no doubt its sublimity is greatly owing to its conciseness: but our poet enlarges upon it, endeavouring to give some account how light was created the first day, when the sun was not formed till the fourth day. He says that it was sphered in a radiant cloud, and so journeyed round the earth in a cloudy taber nacle; and herein is he justified by the authority of some commentators, though others think this light shone but imperfectly, and did not appear in full lustre till the fourth day. -NEWTON.

With joy and shout.

Job xxxviii. 4. 7. "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ?"-NEWTON. Let there be firmament.

See Gen. i. 6:-" Firmament" signifies expansion.-NEWTON.