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For ought appears, and on their orbs impose
Such restless revolution day by day

Repeated, while the sedentary earth,

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That better might with far less compass move,
Serv'd by more noble than herself, attains
Her end without least motion, and receives,
As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;
Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.
So spake our sire, and by his count'nance seem'd
Ent'ring on studious thoughts abstruse, which Eve 40

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

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Perceiving where she sat retir'd in sight,
With lowliness majestic from her seat,

And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,
Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers,
To visit how they prosper'd, bud and bloom,
Her nursery; they at her coming sprung,
And touch'd by her fair tendence gladlier grew.
Yet went she not, as not with such discourse
Delighted, or not capable her ear

Of what was high: such pleasure she reserv'd,
Adam relating, she sole auditress;

Her husband the relator she preferr'd
Before the angel, and of him to ask

Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix
Grateful digressions, and solve high dispute
With conjugal caresses; from his lip

Not words alone pleas'd her. O when meet now
Such pairs, in love and mutual honour join'd?
With goddess-like demeanour forth she went,
Not unattended, for on her as queen

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
denti,

Rivesta il bel giardin novi colori &c.
Ib. cant. vi. st. 146.

Thyer.

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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,
Ουκ οιη, άμα τηγε.

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,
And from about her shot darts of desire
Into all eyes to wish her still in sight.
And Raphael now to Adam's doubt propos'd
Benevolent and facile thus replied.

To ask or search I blame thee not, for heaven

Is as the book of God before thee set,
Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn
His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years:
This to attain, whether heav'n move or earth,

of regal attendants were win-
ning graces. It is the same, and

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
which waits
On princes, &c.

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

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hard question, whether heaven
or earth move, is of no concern
or consequence to thee; N'im-
porte (French) it matters not;
says Mr. Hume. Mr. Richard-
son understands it in the same
manner: his words are,
σε Το
"attain to know whether the
sun or the earth moves is not
"of use to us." But I believe
that they are both mistaken in
the sense of this passage, for I
conceive it otherwise. This to
attain is to be referred to what
precedes and not to what fol-
lows; and accordingly there is
only a colon before these words
in Milton's own editions, and
not a full stop as in some others.
This to attain, that is, to attain
the knowledge of seasons, hours,
or days, or months, or years. It
imports not, it matters not, it
makes no difference, whether
heaven move or earth, whether
the Ptolemaic or the Copernican
system be true. This know-
ledge we may still attain; the
rest, other more curious points
of enquiry concerning the hea-
venly bodies, God hath done
wisely to conceal.

Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest
From man or angel the great Architect
Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge

His secrets to be scann'd by them who ought
Rather admire; or if they list to try
Conjecture, he his fabric of the heavens
Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter, when they come to model heaven
And calculate the stars, how they will wield
The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive
To save appearances, how gird the sphere
With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er,
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb:

Already by thy reasoning this I guess,

Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest
That bodies bright and greater should not serve

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

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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.

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The less not bright, nor heav'n such journeys run,
Earth sitting still, when she alone receives
The benefit: consider first, that great
Or bright infers not excellence: the earth
Though, in comparison of heav'n, so small,
Nor glist'ring, may of solid good contain
More plenty than the sun that barren shines,
Whose virtue on itself works no effect,
But in the fruitful earth; there first receiv'd
His beams, unactive else, their vigour find.
Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee earth's habitant.
And for the heav'n's wide circuit, let it speak
The Maker's high magnificence, who built
So spacious, and his line stretch'd out so far;
That man may know he dwells not in his own;
An edifice too large for him to fill,
Lodg'd'in a small partition, and the rest
Ordain'd for uses to his Lord best known.
The swiftness of those circles attribute,
Though numberless, to his omnipotence,
That to corporeal substances could add
Speed almost spiritual; me thou think'st not slow, 110

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.

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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.

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