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.

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70

hard question, whether heaven or earth move, is of no concern or consequence to thee; N'importe (French) it matters not; says Mr. Hume. Mr. Richardson understands it in the same manner: his words are, "To "attain to know whether the "sun or the earth moves is not "of use to us." But I believe

More solemn than the tedious pomp that they are both mistaken in

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

It

the sense of this passage, for I conceive it otherwise. This to attain is to be referred to what precedes and not to what follows; 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. imports not, it matters not, it makes no difference, whether heaven move or earth, whether the Ptolemaic or the Copernican system be true. This knowledge we may still attain; the rest, other more curious points of enquiry concerning the heavenly 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

75

80

85

bers. That might be one thing intended; but it is not all. To calculate them is to make a com

putation 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 sys

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

90

95

100

105

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.

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.

Who since the morning hour set out from heaven
Where God resides, and ere mid-day arriv'd
In Eden, distance inexpressible

115

By numbers that have name. But this I
urge,
Admitting motion in the heav'ns, to show
Invalid that which thee to doubt it mov'd;
Not that I so affirm, though so it seem
To thee who hast thy dwelling here on earth.
God to remove his ways from human sense,
Plac'd heav'n from earth so far, that earthly sight, 120
If it presume, might err in things too high,
And no advantage gain. What if the sun
Be centre to the world, and other stars

By his attractive virtue and their own
Incited, dance about him various rounds?

125

Their wand'ring course now high, now low, then hid, Progressive, retrogade, or standing still,

In six thou seest, and what if sev'nth to these

128. In six thou seest, &c.] In the moon, and the five other wandering fires, as they are called v. 177. Their motions are evident; and what if the earth should be a seventh planet, and move three different motions though to thee insensible? The three different motions which the Copernicans attribute to the earth are the diurnal round her own axis, the annual round the sun, and the motion of libration as it is called, whereby the earth so proceeds in her orbit, as that her axis is constantly parallel to the axis of the world. Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe, &c. You must either

ascribe these motions to several spheres crossing and thwarting one another with crooked and indirect turnings and windings: or you must attribute them to the earth, and save the sun his labour and the primum mobile too, that swift nocturnal and diurnal rhomb. It was observed in the note on vii. 619. that when Milton uses a Greek word, he frequently subjoins the English of it, as he does here, the wheel of day and night. So he calls the primum mobile: and this primum mobile in the ancient astronomy was an imaginary sphere above those of the planets and fixed stars; and

The planet earth, so stedfast though she seem,
Insensibly three different motions move?
Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,
Mov'd contrary with thwart obliquities,

Or save the sun his labour, and that swift
Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb suppos'd,
Invisible else above all stars, the wheel

Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,
If earth industrious of herself fetch day

Travelling east, and with her part averse
From the sun's beam meet night, her other part
Still luminous by his ray. What if that light
Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,

To the terrestrial moon be as a star
Enlight'ning her by day, as she by night

This earth? reciprocal, if land be there,
Fields and inhabitants: her spots thou seest

therefore said by our author to be supposed and invisible above all stars. This was conceived to be the first mover, and to carry all the lower spheres round along with it; by its rapidity communicating to them a motion whereby they revolved in twenty-four hours. Which needs not thy belief, if earth &c. But there is no need to believe this, if the earth by revolving round on her own axis from west to east in twenty-four hours (travelling east) enjoys day in that half of her globe which is turned towards the sun, and is covered with night in the other half which is turned away from the

sun.

130

185

145. Her spots thou seest

140

145

As clouds,] It seems by this and by another passage, v. 419. as if our author thought that the spots in the moon were clouds and vapours: but the most probable opinion is, that they are her seas and waters, which reflect only part of the sun's rays, and absorb the rest. They cannot possibly be clouds and vapours, because they are observed to be fixed and permanent. But (as Dr. Pearce observes) Mr. Auzout in the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1666 thought that he had observed some difference between the spots of the moon as they then appeared, and as