620

Culminate from the equator, as they now
Shot upward ftill direct, whence no way round
Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,
No where fo clear, sharpen'd his visual ray
To objects diftant far, whereby he foon
Saw within ken a glorious Angel stand,
The fame whom John faw alfo in the fun:
His back was turn'd, but not his brightness hid;
Of beaming funny rays a golden tiar

625

Circled his head, nor less his locks behind Illuftrious on his shoulders fledge with wings Lay waving round; on fome great charge employ'd

He feem'd, or fix'd in cogitation deep.

Glad was the Spirit impure, as now in hope 630

Culminate from the equator, as they now

Shot upward ftill direct,] The firft as is ufed by way of fimilitude, in the fenfe of like as; There was no shadow but all fun-fhine, like as when his beams at noon culminate from the equator, that is, are vertical and shoot directly from the equator, which is the reafon why thofe who live under the equator, under the line, are called Afcii, and at noon caft no fhadows. The other as is ufed by way of reafon, in the fenfe of forafmuch as; There was no fhadow but all fun-fhine, forafmuch as his beams Shot now directly upward. NEWTON.

"He

Ver. 622. Saw within ken] The fame expreffion is in his Profe-Works, as Mr. Bowle has obferved, Eikon. p. 411. pretends to forefee within ken." So, in Greene's Neuer too late, part the first, 1616.

"I might fee in my ken

"Such a flame as fiereth men." TODD.

Ver. 623. The fame whom John faw alfo &c.] Rev. xix. 17. "And I faw an Angel ftanding in the fun." NEWTON.

To find who might direct his wandering flight To Paradise, the happy feat of Man,

His journey's end and our beginning woe.
But firft he cafts to change his proper shape,
Which elfe might work him danger or delay: 635
And now a stripling Cherub he appears,
Not of the prime, yet such as in his face
Youth fmil'd celeftial, and to every limb
Suitable grace diffus'd, fo well he feign'd:
Under a coronet his flowing hair

Ver. 634.

640

he cafts] He confiders, contrives: a metaphor taken, not from the founder's art, as Dr. Warburton fuppofed; or from cafting the eye about every way, as Mr. Richardfon afferts; but rather from aftrology, according to Mr. Warton; as, to caft a nativity." See alfo Par. Loft, B. xii. 43. And Comus, ver. 369. TODD.

Ver. 636. a ftripling Cherub] Doctor Newton is certainly mistaken in fuppofing that the poet means a Cherub "not of the prime order or dignity." He is defcribing a Cherub in the figure, and with the beauty, of a ftripling. Prime is oppofed to ftripling. T. WARTON.

Dr. Newton has noticed Spenfer's defcription of the young Angel, in the Faerie Queene, ii. viii. 5, and Taffo's representation of Gabriel as a ftripling, when he is fent to roufe the Chriftian army, Gier. Lib. C. i. ft. 13. But Milton, if he had any preceding writer in view, remembered perhaps the defcent, and magnificent defcription, of the heavenly Angel, in the fecond book of Marino's Strage de gli Innocenti, ft. 96, and 97. TODD. Ver. 639. So well he feign'd:] Here feems to be an allufion to Spenfer, Faer. Qu. i. viii. 1.

"By which Deceit doth mask in vifor fair,
"And caft her colours died deep in grain,

"To feem like Truth, whofe fhape the well can feign. Mr. Dunfter alfo notices this imitation, and adds that, if we

In curls on either cheek play'd; wings he wore
Of many a colour'd plume, sprinkled with gold;
His habit fit for speed fuccinct, and held
Before his decent fteps a filver wand.

He drew not nigh unheard; the Angel bright, 645
Ere he drew nigh, his radiant visage turn'd,
Admonish'd by his ear, and straight was known
The Arch-Angel Uriel, one of the feven
Who in God's prefence, nearest to his throne,

attend to the defcription of Satan, B. i. 591, 601. B. iv. 869, we shall be more ftruck with the very oppofite form and character which for his immediate purpose he here affumes. TODD.

Ver. 643. His habit fit for Speed fuccinct,] If Milton meant that Satan had clothes on as well as wings, it is contrary to his ufual manner of representing the Angels; but I rather understand. it, that the wings he wore were his habit, and they were certainly a habit fit for Speed fuccinct: But fuccinct I understand, with Dr. Pearce, not in its firft and literal fenfe, girded or tucked up; but in the metaphorical fenfe, ready and prepared: As Fabius, in Inft. Orat. ii. 2, fays, " Proni fuccinctuque &c." NEWTON.

But this expreffion, as Mr. Bowle alfo obferves, is applied to the habit of the Angel by Marino, in the paffage to which I have juft referred:

"Fendefi in due la lieve falda, e quefta
"Succinta."

"In abito

Mr. Bowle adds from Ariosto, Orl. Fur. C. xvii. ft. 52, fuccinto era Marfifa, &c." And from Horace, in the metaphorical fenfe, Serm. II. vi. 107, “Succinctus curfitat hofpes." TODD.

Ver. 644. His decent fteps] The word decent, in its common acceptation in our language, will, I think, fcarcely come up to what our poet is here describing; and therefore we ought, in juftice to him, to recur to its Latin original. Hor. Od. III. xxvii. 35. "Antequam turpis macies decentes "Occupet malas." THYER.

Stand ready at command, and are his eyes 650 That run through all the Heavens, or down to the Earth

Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,
O'er fea and land: him Satan thus accofts.

Uriel, for thou of those seven Spirits that stand
In fight of God's high throne, gloriously bright,
The first art wont his great authentick will 656
Interpreter through highest Heaven to bring,
Where all his fons thy embaffy attend;
And here art likelieft by fupreme decree
Like honour to obtain, and as his

eye

To vifit oft this new creation round;
Unfpeakable defire to fee, and know

660

All these his wonderous works, but chiefly Man, His chief delight and favour, him for whom

Ver. 650. and are his eyes] An expreffion borrowed from Zechariah, iv. 10. "Those feven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro the whole earth." The Jews therefore believed there were feven principal Angels, who were the captains and leaders, as it were, of the heavenly hoft. See Tobit, xii. 15, Rev. i. 4, v. 6, and viii. 2. NEWTON.

Ver. 652.

Iliad xiv. 308.

over moist and dry,] From Homer,

οἱ μ' οἴσεσιν ἐπὶ τραφερήν τε καὶ ὑγρήν. STILLINGFLEET. Ver. 654. Uriel,] His name is derived from two Hebrew words, which fignify God is my light. He is mentioned as good Angel in the fecond book of Efdras; and the Jews, and fome Chriftians, conceive him to be an Angel of light according to his name: And therefore he has, properly, his station in the fun. NEWTON.

Ver. 664. His chief delight and favour,] By delight is plainly

All these his works fo wonderous he ordain'd, 665
Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim
Alone thus wandering. Brightest Seraph, tell
In which of all these fhining orbs hath Man
His fixed feat, or fixed feat hath none,
But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell; 670
That I may find him, and with fecret
gaze
Or open admiration him behold,

On whom the great Creator hath bestow'd
Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces pour'd;
That both in him and all things, as is meet, 675
The univerfal Maker we may praise;

Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and, to repair that loss,
Created this new happy race of Men

To ferve him better: Wife are all his ways. 690
So fpake the false diffembler unperceiv'd;

For neither Man nor Angel can discern

meant, as Dr. Pearce obferves, not his delight itself, but the object of his delight; and, by favour, the object of his favour. It is only using the abstract for the concrete, as Mr. Upton adds. Thus Virgil, En. v. 541.

"Nec bonus Eurytio prælato invidit honori;"

honori is the honourable perfon, prælato which was preferred be fore him. NEWTON.

Ver. 678.

to repair that loss,] Tickell reads "to repair their lofs," which Fenton and Bentley have followed without any reafon. TODD.

Ver. 682. For neither Man, nor Angel can difcern

Hypocrify,] This paffage has been well imitated

by Lillo, in his Chriftian Hero, A. ii. S. i.