Rolls o'er Elysian1 flowers her amber stream: With these, that never fade, the spirits elect Impurpled with celestial roses smiled. 360 Then, crowned again, their golden harps they took- 365 Their sacred song, and waken raptures high: No voice exempt-no voice but well could join 370 Thee, Father, first they sung, Omnipotent- Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st Begotten Son, Divine Similitude! 375 380 1 Elysian,-alluding to the Elysian fields, the fabled abodes of the blessed, of ancient mythology. 2 Now in loose garlands thick thrown off,-ie. these amarantine crowns being thrown off, the pavement smiled, &c. Jasper, a precious stone of various colours, among which occurs a green, not unlike the hue known as "sea-green." It receives a fine polish. See Rev. xxi. 11, 18; Exod. xxiv. 10. 4 The sublimity of these lines need hardly be pointed out. The idea in line 380 is at once highly poetical and philosophically just. Extreme light paralyzes the organs of sight; and, by putting an end to vision, has the same effect as darkness. See Isa. vi. 2. Of all creation first-begotten Son, Col. i. 15; Rev. iii. 14; John i. 1-3. The word first-begotten should be read together as a compound epithet, being an evident reference to the Scriptures quoted, especially the first. In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud Impressed the effulgence of his glory abides; Transfused on thee his ample Spirit rests. 385 He Heaven of Heavens, and all the Powers therein, 390 Not so on man: him, through their malice fallen, 395 400 405 This dividing of a word between two lines is not unexampled in classical usage; and an instance occurs in Milton, Sonnet xi. 7, 8. 1 Whom else no creature can behold:-No creature can behold the Father otherwise than as he is made manifest in the Son, God and man in one person. John i. 18; xiv. 9. 2 Back from pursuit, &c.-i. e. Thy Powers extolled thee returning from pursuit, and thee only. He was sole victor-all the rest stood silent eyewitnesses of his almighty acts. See b. vi. 1. 880, &c. Whenever mention is made of the good angels joining in the pursuit, it is by the evil angels, whose imaginations were disturbed and frightened on occasion of their expulsion from Heaven; while Satan's pride may have induced him to ascribe his defeat rather to the whole host of Heaven than to the Son of God alone. See b. i. 1. 169, &c.; vi. 871, &c. 3 But much more to pity inclined, &c.-Construction: "No sooner did thy Son perceive thee resolved not to doom man, but he, much more to pity inclined, just as thou wert, offered himself to die, &c., the words, "much more to pity inclined," originally used to express the Father's feelings, being elegantly repeated, and applied to the Son to express congeniality of sentiment.-PR. Regardless of the bliss wherein he sat Second to thee, offered himself to die 410 1 Love no where to be found, less than Divine ! Thus they in Heaven, above the starry sphere, 415 Of this round world, whose first convex divides 420 From Chaos and the inroad of Darkness old, Dark, waste, and wild, under the frown of Night Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling kids 425 430 1 My song,-Milton here adds his own resolution to return to the subject celebrated in the angels' hymn, of which he had given the substance. 2 Imaüs,-a celebrated mountain range in Asia, a branch of which forms the eastern boundary of Western Tartary. Its name, according to Pliny, means "Snowy;" and in its more definite application it seems to correspond with the western part of the Himalaya range, the higher ridges of which are covered with perpetual snow, several of them being the highest mountains in the world- Dhawalagiri reaching, according to recent observations, a height of 28,000, and Kunchinginga the still greater elevation of 28,176 feet. The name Himalaya is derived from the Sanscrit term Hem, snow; and is thus proved to have affinity to the ancient names Imaüs and Emodi montes; while it recalls also the ancient classical names of Hamus in Thrace, and Hymettus in Attica. On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs 435 Of Ganges, or Hydaspes,1 Indian streams; But in his way lights on the barren plains With sails and wind their cany waggons light: 440 445 Of all things transitory and vain, when sin All who have their reward on Earth, the fruits 450 1 Hydaspes,-now Jelum, the northernmost of the five great tributaries to the Indus, which, with the Indus itself, water the great plain of the Punjaub, or Plain of the Five Waters; all of which, like the Ganges, owe their origin to the perpetual snows of the peaks of the Imaüs. 2 Sericana, the native country of the silk-worm, formerly understood to lie between China on the N.E. and Imaüs on the S. W., but now believed to correspond to China itself. (See Murray's Encyclopædia of Geography, p. 46.) This agrees with the cane-waggons driven with sails; as it appears, from accounts of a late embassy to China, that goods are conveyed on the level plains by double barrows or small carts, the movement of which is produced, when the wind favours, by the use of sails. The passage of whole fleets of wheelbarrows with a fair wind is noticed occasionally in the accounts referred to. (Murray's Encyc. of Geog., p. 1036.) The flight of the vulture alluded to (431) corresponds better with the Geography of Ptolemy (see his Map of the World, Murray, p. 42) than with the assignation of localities verified by modern travellers. But Milton's noble figures must not be tried by mere statistics. The terms Imaüs and Sericana were more or less vague in their meaning; and are employed by him consistently enough with the state of knowledge at the time. In cases where accuracy was attainable, no man was ever more exact than Milton. 3 Sea of land,-alluding to the Latin name of sea, æquor, which signifies level. 455 All the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand, Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly1 mixed, Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain, Till final dissolution, wander here: (Not in the neighbouring moon, as some have dreamed; Those argent fields more likely habitants, 460 Translated saints or middle spirits, hold Betwixt the angelical and human kind :) Hither, of ill-joined sons and daughters born,3 With many a vain exploit, though then renowned: 465 Of Sennaär, and still with vain design New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build : 1 Unkindly contrary to kind-mixed contrary to natural affinities. 470 2 Argent,-white, silvery-from Latin, argentum. The term is used in heraldry. 3 Of ill-joined sons and daughters born,-See Gen. vi. 4. The posterity of Seth and other patriarchs, who were worshippers of the true God, intermarried with the idolatrous posterity of the wicked Cain. 4 Senaar-or Shinar, a province of Babylonia. Milton here follows the orthography of the vulgate Latin translation of the Bible, as he frequently does in names of places. 5 Empedocles,-a distinguished poet and philosopher, born at Agrigentum in Sicily; universally admired for his rare talents, and the practical application of his philosophy in curing disease, and other ways of doing good. Milton alludes to the story, that, fancying he might be deemed a god if his death were concealed, he threw himself into the crater of Etna; which, however, threw up one of his iron pattens and disclosed the secret of his death. 6 Cleombrotus,-a native of Ambracia in Epirus, who was so charmed with Plato's views on the immortality of the soul, that he leaped from a high wall into the sea that he might immediately enjoy it. 7 Embryo,-The first rudiments of animal life-a thing still growing but not yet fully formed. Eremites; hermits, inhabiting desert solitudes. Friars; brethren of the various monkish orders, to whom Milton assigns a conspicuous place in the Paradise of Fools. |