For ought appears, and on their orbs impose Repeated, while the sedentary earth, 30 35 That better might with far less compass move, 37. Of incorporeal speed,] Not that it was truly so, it signifies only very great speed, such as spirits might use. Speed almost spiritual, as he expresses it a little afterwards, ver. 110. 40. which Eve Perceiving &c.] What a lovely picture has the poet here drawn of Eve! As it did not become her to bear a part in the conversation, she modestly sits at a distance, but yet within view. She stays as long as the angel and her husband are discoursing of things, which it might concern her and her duty to know: but when they enter upon abstruser points, then she decently retires. This is preserving the decorum of character and so Cephalus in Plato's Republic, and Scævola in Cicero's treatise De Oratore, stay only as long as it was suitable for persons of their character, and are made to withdraw when the discourse was less proper for them to hear. Eve's withdrawing is juster and more beautiful than these in Perceiving where she sat retir'd in sight, And grace that won who saw to wish her stay, Of what was high: such pleasure she reserv'd, Her husband the relator she preferr'd Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix Not words alone pleas'd her. O when meet now 46.they at her coming sprung, &c.] The same pretty thought Marino applies to his Venus, which probably Milton might have in view. L'herbe dal sole impallidite, e gialle Verdeggian tutte, ogni fior s'apre et alza, &c. Adone, cant. iii. st. 65. In the same manner also speaking of Adonis, Tutto al venir d'Adon par che ri Rivesta il bel giardin novi colori &c. Thyer. 59. With goddess-like demeanour forth she went, Not unattended,] In the turn of expression in these two lines, Milton seems to allude to Homer's description of Helen. Iliad. iii. 142. Ωρματ' εκ θαλαμοιο, τερεν κατα δακρυ χευσα, Thyer. 60. Not unattended, for on her as queen A pomp of winning graces waited still.] Pomp, retinue, train. Her train A pomp of winning graces waited still, To ask or search I blame thee not, for heaven Is as the book of God before thee set, of regal attendants were win- it is the true, sense of pomp, in L'Allegro, v. 127. With pomp, and feast, and revelry. So in Par. Lost, viii. 564. While the bright pomp ascended jubilant. And v. 353. More solemn than the tedious pomp T. Warton. 66. To ask or search &c.] The angel's returning a doubtful answer to Adam's enquiries, was not only proper for the moral reason which the poet assigns, but because it would have been highly absurd to have given the sanction of an archangel to any particular system of philosophy. The chief points in the Ptolemaic and Copernican hypotheses are described with great conciseness and perspicuity, and at the same time dressed in very pleasing and poetical images. Addison. 70. This to attain,] To attain to the knowledge of this 65 70 hard question, whether heaven Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest His secrets to be scann'd by them who ought Already by thy reasoning this I guess, Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest 76. he his fabric of the hea vens Hath left to their disputes.] Mundum tradidit disputationi eorum, ut non inveniat homo opus quod operatus est Deus, ab initio usque ad finem. Vulg. Lat. Eccles. iii. 11. Heylin. 80. And calculate the stars,] The sense is, and form a judgment of the stars by computing their motions, distance, situation, &c. as to calculate a nativity signifies to form a judgment of the events attending it, by computing what planets, in what motions, presided over that nativity. But Dr. Bentley takes calculating the stars here to mean counting their num 75 80 85 bers. That might be one thing intended; but it is not all. To calculate them is to make a computation of every thing relating to them: the consequence of which is (in the old system especially) centric and eccentric, cycle and epicycle, and orb in orb. Pearce. 83. With centric and eccentric] Centric or concentric are such spheres whose centre is the same with, and eccentric such whose centres are different from, that of the earth. Cycle is a circle; Epicycle is a circle upon another circle. Expedients of the Ptolemaics to solve the apparent difficulties in their system. Richardson. 90 95 The less not bright, nor heav'n such journeys run, 102. and his line stretch'd out so far:] A Scripture expression, Job xxxviii. 5. Who hath stretched the line upon it? as if God had measured the heavens and the earth with a line. 108. Though numberless,] It may be joined in construction with circles, and not with swiftness, as Dr. Bentley conceived. 100 105 And the sense is (as Dr. Pearce expresses it) that it is God's omnipotence which gives to the circles, though so numberless, such a degree of swiftness. Or, if we join numberless in construction with swiftness, it may be understood as in ver. 38. Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails. |