God, fitting on his throne, fees Satan flying towards this world, then newly created; shows him to the Son, who fat at his right hand; foretels the fuccefs of Satan in perverting mankind; clears his own juftice and wifdom from all imputation, having created Man free, and able enough to have withftood his tempter; yet declares his purpose of grace towards him, in regard he fell not of his own malice, as did Satan, but by him feduced. The Son of God renders praises to his Father for the manifeftation of his gracious purpose towards Man: But God again declares, that grace cannot be extended towards Man without the fatisfaction of divine juftice; Man hath offended the majesty of God by afpiring to Godhead, and, therefore, with all his progeny, devoted to death, must die, unless fome one can be found fufficient to anfwer for his offence, and undergo his punishment. The Son of God freely offers himself a ransom for Man: The Father accepts him, ordains his incarnation, pronounces his exaltation above all names in Heaven and Earth; commands all the Angels to adore him: They obey, and, hymning to their harps in full quire, celebrate the Father and the Son. Mean while Satan alights upon the bare convex of this world's outermost orb; where wandering he first finds a place, fince called the Limbo of Vanity: What perfons and things fly up thither: Thence comes to the gate of Heaven, defcribed afcending by ftairs, and the waters above the firmament that flore about it: His paffage thence to the orb of the fun; he finds there Uriel, the regent of that orb, but first changes himself into the shape of a meaner Angel; and, pretending a zealous defire to behold the new creation, and Man whom God had placed here, inquires of him the place of his habitation, and is directed: Alights firft on mount Niphates. PARADISE LOST. BOOK III. HAIL, holy Light, offspring of Heaven firft born, Or of the Eternal coeternal beam Ver. 1. Hail, holy Light, &c.] Our author's addrefs to Light, and lamentation of his own blinduefs, may perhaps be cenfured as an excrefcence or digreffion not agreeable to the rules of epick poetry; but yet this is fo charming a part of the poem, that the most critical reader, I imagine, cannot wish it were omitted. One is even pleased with a fault, if it be a fault, that is the occafion of fo many beauties, and acquaints us fo much with the circumstances and character of the author. NEWTON. We may compare Taffo's addrefs to Light in his Il Mondo Creato, Giorn. 1. "O belliflima luce, o luce amica "Della natura, &c." Or the addrefs to Light in Sylvefter's Du Bartas, edit. 1621, p. 12. "All hail, pure lamp, bright, facred, and excelling, Ver. 2. Or of the Eternal coeternal beam May I express thee unblam'd?] Or may I without May I express thee unblam'd? fince God is light, blame call thee, the coeternal beam of the Eternal God? The ancients were very cautious and curious by what names they addreffed their deities, and Milton in imitation of them questions whether he should addrefs the Light as the first-born of Heaven, or as the coeternal beam of the Eternal Father, or as a pure ethereal stream whofe fountain is unknown: But as the fecond appellation feems to afcribe a proper eternity to Light, Milton very juftly doubts whether he might ufe that without blame. NEWTON. In his Sumfon Agonistes, he gives to Light the first of these appellations," O first created beam!" TODD. "O Ver. 3. fince God is light, &c.] From I. John i. 5. "God is light." And I. Tim. vi. 16. "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, which no man can approach unto." NEWTON. Ver. 6. Bright effluence of bright essence increate.] What the Wisdom of Solomon fays of Wisdom, Milton applies to Light. See ch. vii. 25, 26. "She is a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty: She is the brightnefs of the everlasting light." NEWTON. Ver. 7. Or hear'ft thou rather.] Or doft thou rather hear this addrefs, doft thou delight rather to be called, pure ethereal Stream? An excellent Latinifm, as Dr. Bentley obferves, Hor. Sat. II. vi. 20. Matutine pater feu Jane libentius audis?” And we have an expreffion of the fame kind in Spenser, as Dr. Newton remarks, Faery Queen, i. v. 23. "If old Aveugle's fons fo evil hear." See alfo Milton's Areopagitica; "For which Britain hears ill abroad." And the note on ver. 25, Ad Salfillum.. TODD. Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the fun, 10 The rifing world of waters dark and deep, 19. Ver. 8. Whofe fountain who fhall tell?] As in Job xxxviii. "Where is the way where light dwelleth?" HUME. Ver. 10. as with a mantle didst invest The rifing world, &c.] See note, B. 1. 207. But Milton, perhaps, had the following paffage of Job in view, xxxviii. 9. "I made the cloud the garment thereof and thick darkness fwaddling-band for it." TODD. Ver. 11. The rifing world of waters dark and deep,] For the world was only in a state of fluidity, when the light was created. See Gen. i. 2, 3. The verse is plainly formed upon this of Spenfer, Faer. Qu. i. i. 39. "And through the world of waters wide and deep." NEWTON. But Milton's exact combination occurs, as Mr. Dunfter alfo notices, in Drayton's Polyolb. S. ix. "The hanging rocks, and vallies dark and deep." TODD. Ver. 12. Won from the void and formless infinite.] Void muft not here be understood as emptiness, for Chaos is defcribed full of matter; but void, as deftitute of any formed being, void as the earth was when firft created. What Mofes fays of that, is here applied to Chaos; without form and void. A short but noble de scription of Chaos, which is faid to be infinite, as it extended underneath, as Heaven above, infinitely. RICHARDSON. Ver. 16. Through utter and through middle darkness,] Through Hell, which is often called utter darkness; and through the great gulf between Hell and Heaven, the middle darkness. NEWTON. 1 |