Heav'n's highth, and with the centre mix the pole. 215 Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,

18. Dunster.

giving the greater force and emphasis to both! And how nobly has he concluded the verse with a spondee or foot of two long syllables, which is not a common measure in this place, but when it is used, it necessaciation, and thereby fixes more rily occasions a slower pronunthe attention of the reader! It is a beauty of the same kind as the spondee in the fifth place in Greek or Latin verses, of which there are some memorable examples in Virgil, as when he speaks of low valleys, Georg. iii. 276.

Saxa per et scopulos et depressas convalles:

215. —and with the centre mix the pole.] It is certain that in chaos was neither centre nor pole; so neither were there any mountains as in the preceding line; the angel does not say there were: he tells Adam there was such confusion in chaos, as if on earth the sea in mountainous waves should rise from its bottom to assault heavery ven, and mix the centre of the globe with the extremities of it. The aptest illustration he could possibly have thought of to Æn. viii. 679. have given Adam some idea of the thing. Richardson.

216. Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,] 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 he turned the commanding words silence and peace, making one the first and the other the last in the sentence, and thereby

or when he would describe the majesty of the gods, Ecl. iv. 49. Cara Deûm soboles, magnum Jovis incrementum:

-Penatibus, et magnis Diis: or great caution and circumspection, Æn. ii. 68.

Constitit, atque oculis Phrygia agmina circumspexit : or a great interval between two men running, Æn. v. 320.

Proximus huic, longo sed proximus intervallo.

The learned and ingenious Mr. Upton, in his Critical Observations, hath given us a parallel instance out of Shakespeare, and says that no poet did ever equal this beauty but Shakespeare. In Macbeth, act II.

What hath quench'd them hath giv'n me fire. Hark, peace.

Said then th' 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, prepar'd

220

225

Minerva's Ægis or buckler in the fifth book, with her spear which would overturn whole squadrons, and her helmet that was sufficient to cover an army drawn out of a hundred cities. The golden compasses in the above-mentioned passage appear a very natural instrument in the

hand of him, whom Plato somewhere calls the divine geometrician. As poetry delights in clothing abstracted ideas in allegories and sensible images, we find a magnificent description of the creation formed after the same manner in one of the prophets, wherein he describes the almighty Architect as measuring the waters in the hollow of his hand, meting out the heavens with his span, comprehending the dust of the earth in a measure, weighing the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance. Another of them describing the Supreme Being in this great work of creation represents him as laying the foundations of the earth, and stretching a line upon it: and in another place as garnishing the heavens, stretching out the north

In God's eternal store, to circumscribe

This universe, and all created things:
One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure,
And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds,
This be thy just circumference, O world.
Thus God the heav'n created, thus the earth,
Matter unform'd and void: darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss: but on the wat❜ry calm
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd

over the empty place, and hanging the earth upon nothing. This last noble thought Milton has expressed in the following

verse,

And earth self-balanc'd on her centre hung.

Addison.

232. Thus God the heav'n created, &c.] The reader will naturally remark how exactly Milton copies Moses in his account of the creation. This 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, as we may see in this and other instances. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face

230

235

of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Gen. i. 1, 2. The poet says watery calm, as the Messiah had before calmed the deep, ver. 216. and says, outspread his brooding wings instead of moved, following the original rather than our translation.

239.then founded, then conglob'd &c.] Milton had said that Messiah first purged downward the infernal dregs which were adverse to life; and that then of things friendly to life he founded and conglobed like to like, that is he caused them to assemble and associate together: the rest, that is, such things as were not of the same nature and fit for composing the earth, went off to other places, perhaps to form the planets and fixed stars. This seems to be Milton's meaning. Pearce.

Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the air,
And earth self-balanc'd on her centre hung.

Let there be light, said God, and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure

Here it will be of use to recur to the account in iii. 708. The earthy, watery, airy, and fiery particles, which before were blended promiscuously, were now combined and fixed as a foundation; for founded does either signify that from fundare, or to melt from fundere; this latter it cannot mean, it was already fluid. Thus Psalm 1xxxix. 11. As for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. So Prov. iii. 19. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth. The rest must be something different from the now elementary bodies, and that (iii. 716.) is determined to be the ethereal quintessence of which the heavenly luminous bodies were formed. Richardson.

Diffugere inde loci partes cœpere, paresque

Cum paribus jungi res &c.

240

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 tabernacle; and herein he is justified by the authority of some commentators; though others think this light was the light of the sun, which shone as yet very imperfectly, and did not appear in full lustre till the fourth day. It is most probable, that by light (as it was produced the first day) we must not understand the darting of rays from a luminous body, such as do now proceed from the sun, but those particles of matter which we call fire, (whose properties we know are light and heat,) which the Almighty produced, as a proper instrudigestion of other matter. So ment for the preparation and Bp. Patrick upon the text. However it be, Milton's account is certainly very poetical, though you may not allow it to be the most philosophical, and is agreeable to the description before quoted from Vida. See Mr. Thyer's note upon ver. 211.

Sprung from the deep, and from her native east
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

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250

Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided: light the day, and darkness night
He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn :
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unsung

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

Birth-day of heav'n and earth; with joy and shout

247. Spher'd in a radiant cloud,] So Shakespeare, Troil. Cress. a. i. sc. 3.

-The glorious planet Sol

In noble eminence enthron'd, and
spher'd
Amidst the ether.

255

evening and the morning were the first day. Gen. i. 4, 5.

253. Nor past uncelebrated, &c.] The beauties of description lie so very thick, that it is almost impossible to enumerate them. The poet has employed on them the whole energy of our tongue. The several great scenes of the creation rise up to view one after another, in such a manner, that the reader seems present at this wonderful work, and to assist among the quires of angels, who are the spectators of it. How glorious is the conclusion of the first day! Addison. 256. -with joy and shout The hollow universal orb they filled,]

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? And with this joy and shout they filled the hollow universal orb, the great round (as it is called ver. 267.) of the universe.