But he, her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyed Peace :

She, crown'd with olive green, came softly slidii
Down through the turning sphere,
His ready harbinger,

With turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing:
And, waving wide her myrtle wand,
She strikes a universal peace through sea and land

b Spangled host. A magnificent line : but these four introductory stanzas are not cq

c The star-led wisards. Wise men.-T. WARTON.

d From out his secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire. Alluding to Isaiah vi. 6, 7.--Newton.

e Fears to cease. I believe cease is seldom used as a verb active.

f she strikes a universal peace through sea and land. Dr. Newton perhaps too nicely remarks, that for “Peace to str

55

No war, or battle's sound,
Was heard the world around:

The idle spear and shield were high up hung ;
The hooked chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood ;

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng ;
And kings sat still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

60

But peaceful was the night,
Wherein the Prince of light

His reign of peace upon the earth began :
The winds, with wonder whist",
Smoothly the waters kist,

Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave'.

OS

70

The stars, with deep amaze,
Stand fix'd in steadfast gaze,

Bending one way their precious influence ;
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,

Or Lucifer, that often warn'd them thence ;
But in their glimmering orbs did glow,
Until their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

75

And, though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,

The sun himself withheld his wonted speed; 11 !! inaccuracy : yet he allows that “fædus feriro" is classical. But Roman phrascology is here 11 quite out of the question. It is not a league, or agreeinent of peace between two parties,

that is intended : a quick and universal diffusion is the idea. It was done as with a stroke. -T. WARTON.

Yet it will perhaps be generally supposed that Milton had tho“ feriro fædus,” which Stephens interprets“ pacem componere,” in his wind.—DUNSTER.

& The hooked chariot stood

Unstain'd with hostile blood. Liv, l. xxxvii. xli. “Falcatæ quadriga, quibus se perturbaturum hostium aciem Antiochus crediderat, in suos terrorem verterunt."-Bowle.

Nothing can be more poetically grand than this stanza. In all Milton's noblo poetry there are few passages finer than this.

The winds, with wonder whist. “ Whist" is silenced. In Stanyhurst's Virgil, “ Intentiquo ora tenebant," is translated, “ They whisted all.” B. ii. 1.-T. WARTON.

i While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
Another glorious line. The whole stanza breathes the essence of descriptive poetry.

And, though the shady gloom, &c.
Mr. Bowle saw with me that this stanza is a copy of one in Spenser's “ April :”—

And hid his head for shame,
As his inferiour flame

The new-enlighten'd world no more should ne
He saw a greater sun appear
Than his bright throne, or burning axletree coul

The shepherds on the lawn,
Or e'er the point of dawn,

Sat simply chatting in a rustick row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them belows:
Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy kee

When such music sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,

As never was by mortal finger strook ;
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringed noise,

As all their souls in blissful rapture took :
The air, such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echoes still prolongs each heaven

Nature, that heard such sound',
Beneath the hollow round

Of Cynthia's seat, the aery region thrilling,
Now was almost won,
To think her part was done,

And that her reign had here its last fulfilling
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all heaven and earth in happier unio

I sawe Phæbus thrust out his golden hede

Vpon her to gaze:
But, when he saw howe broade her beames did spred

It did him amaze.
Hee blusht to see another sunne belowe,
Ne durst againe his fierie face outshowe, &c.-T.

k That the mighty Pan

Was kindly come to live with them below. That is, with the shepherds on the lawn. So, in Spenser's “ May,' in“ Lycidas :"

I muse what account both these will make,
The one for the hire which he doth take;
And the other for leaving his lordes taske,

When great Pan account of shepheards shall ask We should recollect that Christ is styled a shepherd in the sacred observes, that Dante calls him Jupiter, “ Purgat.” c. vi. v. 118; a literally adopted by Pulci, “Morgant. Magg.” c. ii. v. 2.—T. WAR

I Nature, that heard such sound. I suppose this is one of the stanzas which Warton deemed a conci

it so.

110

At last surrounds their sight
A globe of circular light,

That with long beams the shamefaced night array'd ;
The helmed cherubim,
And sworded seraphim,

Are seen in glittering ranks with wings display'd,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes m, to Heaven's new-born heir.

115

120

Such musick ", as 'tis said,
Before was never made,

But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator great
His constellations set,

And the well-balanced world on hinges hung ;
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltering waves their oozy channel keep.

125

Ring out, ye crystal spheres;
Once bless our human ears,
If

ye have power to touch our senses so ;
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time ;

And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow °;
And, with your ninefold harmony P,
Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.

130

135

For, if such holy song
Enwrap our fancy long,

Time will run back, and fetch the age of gold ;
And speckled Vanity 9

m With unexpressive notes. So, in “Lycidas," v. 176:

And hears the unexpressive nuptial song. The word, which is the object of this noto, was perhaps coined by Shakspeare, “ As you Like it,'' a. iii. s. 2:

The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.-T. WARTON. This stanza is sublime, and in Milton's peculiar manner.

n Such musick. This stanza also is of equal excellence ; and so the stanza which follows.

o And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blou. Here is another idea caught by Milton from St. Paul's cathedral while he was a schoolboy. Milton was not yet a puritan : afterwards, he and his friends the fanatics would not have allowed of so papistical an establishment as an organ and choir, even in heaven. -T. WARTON. I think, to name the organ, in speaking of the music of the spheres, is rather the bathos.

P And, with your ninefold harmony.
There being“ nine infolded spheres," as in “ Arcades," v. 64.-Newton.

9 And speckled Vanity, &c. Plainly taken from the “ maculosum nefas" of Horace, “Od." v.4. 23.- Jos. Wartox.

Will sicken soon and die,

And leprous Sin will melt from earthly mou
And Hell itself will pass away,
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering

Yea, Truth and Justice then
Will down return to men,
Orb'd in a rainbow; and, like glories wearing,
Mercy will sit between,
Throned in celestial sheen,

With radiant feets the tissued clouds down si
And heaven, as at some festival,
Will open wide the gates of her high palace hall

But wisest Fate says no,
This must not yet be so ;

The Babe yet lies in smiling infancy,
That on the bitter cross
Must redeem our loss ;

So both himself and us to glorify :
Yet first, to those ychain'd in sleep,
The wakeful trump of doom must thunder thro

With such a horrid clang
As on Mount Sinai rang,

While the red fire and smouldering clouds out
The aged earth aghast,
With terrour of that blast,

Shall from the surface to the centre shake;
When, at the world's last session,
The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread hi

Vanity dressed in a variety of gaudy colours. Unless he mea discase and corruption, and the symptoms of approaching death.—T

r And Hell itself till pass away,

And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering di
The image is in Virgil, “ Æn.” viii. 245 :-

Regna recludat
Pallida, Dis invisi; superque immane barathrum

Cernatur, trepidentque immisso lumine Manes.-T. W
TA Alexandrine here is sonorous and majestic.

• Vith radiant feet. Isaak in. i : -" Hor beautiful upon the mountains are the feet ndeslim*--that publisheth salvation ; that saith unto Sion, TI IN

• Doron steering. The ull writers use this word simply for moving. Thus our authe DAS " ver. 110:

I hear
The tread of many feet steering this way.-HURD.

# Ile wall Ared trwamp of doom must thunder through the ' 12 of great energy, elegant and sublime.-T. Warton.