Alone, for other creature in this place,
Living or lifeless, to be found was none;

None yet, but store hereafter from the earth
Up hither, like aëreal vapours, flew
Of all things transitory and vain, when sin
With vanity had fill'd the works of men ;
Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
Built their fond hopes of glory or lasting fame,
Or happiness in this or the other life;

All who have their reward on earth, the fruits
Of painful superstition and blind zeal,

Nought seeking but the praise of men, here find
Fit retribution, empty as their deeds;

445

450

All the unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand, 455
Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd,

Dissolved on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,
Till final dissolution, wander here:

460

Not in the neighbouring moon, as some have dream'd;
Those argent fields more likely habitants,
Translated saints, or middle spirits hold
Betwixt the angelical and human kind.
Hither of ill-join'd sons and daughters born

456. unkindly mixed: not mixed according to kind.

457. 'in vain has the force of the Gr. auтws, the Lat. frustra, temere, fortuito, nullo consilio, at random.' RICHARDSON.

459. Ariosto, in his Orlando Furioso, Cant. 34. St. 70. gives a much larger description of things lost upon earth and treasured up in the moon, than our poet here makes of the Limbo of Vanity. See also Pope's Rape of the Lock, Canto 5.' N.

460. argent: bright like silver.

463. The sons of God ill-united with the daughters of men: in allusion to Gen. vi. 4. Most interpreters understand by the Sons of God the posterity of Seth, who were worshippers of the true God, and who intermarried with the idolatrous race of Cain.

First from the ancient world those giants came

With many a vain exploit, though then renown'd: 465 The builders next of Babel on the plain

Of Sennaar, and still with vain design

New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build :
Others came single; he, who to be deem'd
A god, leap'd fondly into Etna flames,
Empedocles; and he, who to enjoy
Plato's Elysium, leap'd into the sea,
Cleombrotus; and many more too long,
Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars,

470

White, black, and gray, with all their trumpery. 475

467. Sennaar: or Shinar, a province of Babylon. Milton follows the vulgate, as he frequently does in the names of places.' N. 470. fondly: foolishly, weakly.

471. Hor. A. P. 464.

'Deus immortalis haberi

Dum cupit Empedocles, ardentem frigidus Ætnam

Insiluit,'

A philosopher, poet and historian of Agrigentum in Sicily, who florished B. C. 444. See Lempriere's Class. Dict.

473. Cleombrotus, of Ambracia, a city of Epirus. His death is thus noticed by Callimachus, Ep. 29.

Εἴπας, ἥλιε, χαῖρε, Κλεόμβροτος ὦμβρακιώτης,

“Ηλατ ̓ ἀφ ̓ ὑψηλοῦ τείχεος εἰς ἀΐδην.

*Αξιον οὐδὲν ἰδὼν θανάτου κακὸν, ἀλλὰ Πλάτωνος
“Εν τὸ περὶ ψυχῆς γράμμ ̓ ἀναλεξάμενος.

See Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 34. Ovid Ibis 493.' N.

ib. too long, i. e. to name. The same elliptical mode of expression is cited by Newton from Par. Reg. ii. 182.

Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,

Daphne or Semele, Antiopa,

Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more

Too long.'

474. embryos: see the note on ii. 900. eremites, hermits: Lat. eremita, fr. the Gr. epnuos, a wilderness.

475. white, black, and gray: so named from their habits, white friars or Carmelites, black or Dominicans, gray or Franciscans; names derived from St. Francis, St. Dominic, and mount Carmel

Here pilgrims roam, that stray'd so far to seek
In Golgotha him dead, who lives in heaven;
And they, who, to be sure of Paradise,
Dying put on the weeds of Dominic,
Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised;
They pass the planets seven, and pass the fix'd,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talk'd, and that first moved;
And now Saint Peter at heaven's wicket seems
To wait them with his keys, and now at foot
Of heaven's ascent they lift their feet, when lo
A violent cross wind from either coast

Blows them transverse, ten thousand leagues awry

480

485

where that order pretend they were first instituted.' N. Their trumpery is specified in v. 490. Fr. tromperie, a cheat.

476. pilgrims: those who had gone upon pilgrimages to the Holy Land, to visit our Lord's sepulchre; in reference to St. Luke xxiv. 5. Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but risen.'' N.

479. Dominicus, a Spaniard, was the author of the order called Dominican Friars, instituted A. D. 1205. The Inquisitors were of this order. St. Francis was an Italian merchant, first called John, who instituted the order of Franciscan friars, A. D. 1192. A priest's robe of these orders put upon dying persons was held to carry them safe through purgatory.' RAYMOND DE ST. MAUR.

482. He speaks here according to the ancient astronomy, adopted and improved by Ptolemy. They pass'd the planets seven, our planetary or solar system, and beyond this pass the fix'd, the firmament or sphere of the fixed stars, and beyond this that crystalline sphere, the crystalline Heaven, clear as crystal, to which the Ptolemaics attributed a sort of libration or shaking (the trepidation so much talked of) to account for certain irregularities in the motion of the stars, and beyond this that first moved, the primum mobile, the sphere which was both the first moved and the first mover, communicating its motions to all the lower spheres; and beyond this was the empyrean Heaven, the seat of Ġod and the Angels.' N.

Into the devious air: then might ye see

Cowls, hoods, and habits, with their wearers, tost, 490 And flutter'd into rags; then reliques, beads,

Indulgences, dispenses, pardons, bulls,

The sport of winds: all these, upwhirl'd aloft,

Fly o'er the backside of the world far off,
Into a Limbo large and broad, since call'd
The Paradise of Fools, to few unknown
Long after, now unpeopled, and untrod.
All this dark globe the fiend found as he pass'd,
And long he wander'd, till at last a gleam
Of dawning light turn'd thitherward in haste
His travell'd steps: far distant he descries
Ascending by degrees magnificent

Up to the wall of heaven a structure high :
At top whereof, but far more rich, appear'd

495

500

489. devious air: as the Lat. devius: out of the common track, unfrequented, pathless; Ovid ex Ponto Ep. iii, 1, 27. ' procul hæc regio est, et ab omni devia cursu.'

ib. then might ye see. This manner of speaking, which puts the second person indefinitely, is very frequent among the poets: as Virg. Æn. iv. 401. Migrantes cernas : 490. mugire videbis :' viii. 691.pelago credas innare revulsas Cycladas." N.

492. dispenses for dispensations: not in use.

ib. bulls: rescripts or letters, issued by Popes, and sealed with lead. The pendant seal, of a round shape, was properly the bull, Lat. bulla.

493. Virg. Æn. vi. 75. rapidis ludibria ventis.'

495. The Limbus Patrum, a place on the skirts of Hell, destined, according to the Roman Catholics, to receive the souls of the Patriarchs and others.

497. now: 'not when Milton wrote, but the time of which he is speaking, when Satan passed that way.' PEARCE.

501. travell'd tired: from travagliato (Italian).' RICHARDSON. Perhaps it should be written travailed.

502. by degrees: steps, stairs: see 510. 516. 523. ·

The work as of a kingly palace-gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on earth

By model, or by shading pencil, drawn.

The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan-Aram, in the field of Luz,

Dreaming by night under the open sky,

505

510

And waking cried, This is the gate of heaven.' 515
Each stair mysteriously was meant, nor stood

There always, but drawn up to heaven sometimes
Viewless; and underneath a bright sea flow'd
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl, whereon.

Who after came from earth, sailing arrived,
Wafted by angels, or flew o'er the lake

520

Rapt in a chariot drawn by fiery steeds.

The stairs were then let down, whether to dare

The fiend by easy ascent, or aggravate

His sad exclusion from the doors of bliss:

525

506. frontispiece: 'in architecture, the principal face of a building the face that directly presents itself to the eye.' WEBSTER'S Dict.

510. See Gen. xxviii. 12. 16.

513. Padan-Aram, the northern part of Mesopotamia. Luz received on this occasion from Jacob the name of Bethel, the house of God; although that name occurs proleptically in Gen. xii. 8. 516. meant: designed, constructed.

518. The author himself explains this, in the argument of this book, to be meant of the water above the firmament. He mentions it again vii. 619.' HEYLIN.

521. Wafted by angels: as Lazarus and Elijah: Luke xvi. 22. 2 Kings ii. 11.