FROM BOOK VI. THE MESSIAH. He, o'er his sceptre bowing, rose From the right hand of glory where he sat ; And the third sacred morn began to shine, Dawning through Heaven. Forth rush'd with whirlwind sound Flashing thick flames, wheel within wheel undrawn,1 Itself instinct with spirit, but convoy'd By four cherubic shapes; four faces each Had wondrous; as with stars, their bodies all And wings were set with eyes; with eyes the wheels Of beryl, and careering fires between; Over their heads a crystal firmament, Whereon a sapphire throne, inlaid with pure Of radiant Urim,2 work divinely wrought, Sat eagle-wing'd, beside him hung his bow Of smoke, and bickering flame, and sparkles dire: OVERTHROW OF THE REBEL ANGELS. So spake the Son, and into terror chang'd 1 Ezek. i. 4-27. 9 2 See Pictorial Bible, Exod. xxviii. 30. Panoply; compare Ephes. vi. 11. The other insignia of the goddess Victory were the Laurel crown and the Palm branch. See note 1, p. 194. Ps. lxviii. 17. Jude 14.-"His coming shone;" see 2 Thess. ii. 8. 7 Ps. xviii. 10-14; Ps. Ixviii. 4-33. Compare also Hab. iii. 3—15. Four, i. e. the cherubic shapes of the preceding extract. Hom. II. i. 47. The stedfast empyréan1 shook throughout, Full soon Yet half his strength he put not forth, but check'd Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd, Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight Struck them with horror backward, but far worse Urg'd them behind: headlong themselves they threw FROM BOOK XI. MICHAEL SHOWS TO ADAM THE FUTURE KINGDOMS OF THE EARTH. It was a hill, Of Paradise the highest; from whose top The highest heaven; the fire-region (Gr. pyr). See Ovid, Met. i. 27. Ether has the same idea, from Gr. aitho, I burn, or shine:-sky, the shadow-region (Gr. skia) ;—welkin, the cloud-region (Ger. wolke);—firmament, the fixed or solid-region, corresponding to the Greek stereoma :-crystalline, unites the ideas of solidity and clearness (Gr. krustallos, ice, glass) hyaline, does the same (Gr. hualos, glass);-heaven, has been said to be the past participle of the verb heave; it seems rather to be a change of the German himmel ;lift (Scotch) has a similar origin assigned it; it is the German luft.-See Book iii. 715. 2 Milton in the preceding battles has, in imitation of Hesiod and Ovid, in describing the Giant war, made mountains the weapons of the angels against each other. Compare Rev. iv. 16. 3 Used in the literal Latin sense, punctured or spotted. The same remark applies to pernicious, a few lines below. 4 The critics strain panegyric in their admiration of this, and similar passages in the fifth and sixth books. The hemisphere of Earth, in clearest ken,1 To show him all Earth's kingdoms, and their glory.' City of old or modern fame, the seat Of mightiest empire, from the destin'd walls 10 And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne, On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway Rich Mexico, the seat of Montezume, 12 And Cusco in Peru, the richer seat 1 Prospect. See note 11, p. 3. 2 Luke iv. 3 Cambalu, Pekin: Cathay, China: Cathaian Can; at the period of the travels of Marco Polo, from whom these names are taken, China was subject to the successors of Genghis Khan.-See Robertson's America, Book i. 4 Tamerlane, or Timour Beg- Samarcand was his capital. See Gibbon, vol. xii. ch. 65. 5 Paquin, Pekin, the same with Cambalu: "in Milton's time the geography of the far Fast was vague; and, having heard both names, he does not seem to have known that they referred to the same city." The Seres and the Since, the remotest people of the East, are of doubtful locality. The Moguls were the Mahomedan Tartar dynasty of Hindostan. Their capital was Agra, ultimately Delhi.-See Gibbon, vol. xi. Malacca, and perhaps the Peguan coast, formed the Chersonnesus Aurea. 8 Ecbatana (modern Hamadan) was the Median or north capital of the Persian empire; Susa was the southern: the former was the summer, the latter the winter residence. Erroneously identified with Cæsar (Kaiser, Ger.): Tzar (the correct form) is, in Slavonic, sovereign. 10 Byzantium, Constantinople. For the origin of the Turkish sultans, see Gibbon, vol. x.ch. 57. 11 The emperor of Abyssinia (Negus, in Ethiopic, is king): his style is "Negusa Nagaste," King of the kings, viz. of Ethiopia.-Ercoco, Arkeeko, a port on the Red Sea, on the northern frontier of Abyssinia -Less maritime kings, inferior coast sovereigns: Mombaza, &c. are on the east shore of Africa.-Bruce identifies Ophir with Sofala: from the resemblance of the syllables, it has also been conjectured to be the same with Africa generally. -Almanzor, the second of the Abassid caliphs: see Gibbon, vol. x. ch. 52: after the division of the caliphate, more than one monarch of north-western Africa bore this name. 12 See Robertson's America for Montezuma, Cusco, and Atabalipa. Unbounded riches were supposed to exist in Guiana; it was in this country that Sir Walter Raleigh placed his imaginary gold mine. El dorado has become proverbial. Geryon's sons, the Spaniards; from the ancient king of Gades (Cadiz), slain by Hercules. Of Atabalipa; and yet unspoil'd Guiana, whose great city Geryon's sons Call El Dorado. HUMAN ILLS. Immediately a place Before his eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark; Of ghastly spasm, or racking torture, qualms TEMPERANCE. Well observe The rule of Not too much; by temperance taught, In what thou eat'st and drink'st; seeking from thence Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight; Till many years over thy head return, So may'st thou live; till, like ripe fruit, thou drop Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd; for death mature. This is Old Age; but then, thou must outlive Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume EXPULSION OF ADAM AND EVE. From the other hill To their fix'd station, all in bright array, 1 Emaciation (Gr. maraino, I wither). T Gliding meteorous, as evening-mist Ris'n from a river o'er the marish1 glides, FROM PARADISE REGAINED. BOOK IV. ATHENS. Look once more, ere we leave this specular mount, 5 Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil,- 6 City or suburban, studious walks and shades. 1 Marsh. 2 Heber borrows this line in the "Passage of the Red Sea" "Blazed broad and fierce the brandished torch of God." 3 Parched (Lat. adustus). "The poetical imagery of this passage is splendid, sublime, and at the same time pathetic, and of a majestic conciseness."-Brydges. 5 Il. ii. 546.-Newton. Ancient writers celebrate the purity of the Athenian air. Eye of Greece; Sparta and Athens were termed the eyes of Greece. Athens might be peculiarly so called from her eminence in intellect. Athens was celebrated for her hospitality to men of genius and to strangers generally. See Dunster's Note, and Potter's Greek Antiq (Boyd), p. 716. The school of Plato. See Potter, p. 44. Attic bird, the nightingale. Philomela, who was changed into this bird, was the daughter of Pandion, king of Athens.-See Ovid, Met. vi. 424-675. Thick-warbled, one of Milton's picture words. The whole line has been admired for the beauty of its construction. Hymettus, a mountain district near Athens, is still celebrated for its honey. Ilissus, a stream near Athens, where Plato has placed the scene of his Phædrus.-Newton. |