80 Heareafter, when they come to model Heaven With centric and eccentric fcribled o'er, Already by thy reasoning this I guess, 85 Who art to lead thy ofspring, and fuppofest That bodies bright and greater fhould not ferve 80. And calculate the ftars,] The fenfe is, And form a judgment of the stars by computing their motions, diftance, fituation, &c, as to calculate a nativity fignifies to form a judgment of the events attending it, by computing what planets, in what motions, prefided over that nativity. But Dr. Bentley takes calculating the fars here to mean counting their numbers. That might be one thing intended; but it is not all. To cal 90 Whofe virtue on itself works no effect, 95 But in the fruitful earth; there firft receiv'd And for the Heav'n's wide circuit, let it fpeak 100 Lodg'd in a small partition, and the reft another circle. Expedients of the Ptolemaics to folve the apparent difficulties in their fystem. Richardfon. 102.- and his line ftretch'd out fo far:] A Scripture expreffion, Job XXXVIII. 5. Who bath fretched the line upon it? as if God had meafur'd the Heavens and the Earth with a line. 108. Though numberless,] It may be join'd in conftruction with circles, 105 109 Who fince the morning hour set out from Heaven Where God refides, and ere mid-day arriv'd In Eden, distance inexpreffible But this I urge, 115 By numbers that have name. 128. In fix thou feeft, &c.] In the moon, and the five other wand'ring fires, as they are call'd V. 177. Their motions are evident; and what if the earth fhould be a feventh planet, and move three different motions though to thee infenfible? The three different motions which the Copernicans attribute to the earth are the diurnal round her own axis, the annual round the fun, and the motion of libration as it is call'd, whereby 121 125 Progreffive, retrograde, or standing still, Of day and night; which needs not thy belief, From the fun's beam meet night, her other part obferved in the note on VII. 619. that when Milton ufes a Greek word, he frequently fubjoins 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 aftronomy was an imaginary fphere above thofe of the planets and fixed ftars; and therefore faid by our author to be fuppos'd and invifible above all ftars. This was conceived to be the firft mover, 130 135 140 Inlight and to carry all the lower spheres Inlightning her by day, as the by night This earth? reciprocal, if land be there, 145 As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce in the other half which is turn'd away from the fun. 145. Her Spots thou feeft As clouds,] It feems by this and by another paffage V. 419. as if our author thought that the spots in the moon were clouds and vapors: but the most probable opinion is, that they are her feas and waters, which reflect only part of the fun's rays, and absorb the reft. They cannot poffibly be clouds and vapors, because they are observed to be fix'd and permanent. But (as Dr. Pearce obferves) Mr. Auzout in the Philofophical Tranfactions for the year 1666 thought that he had obferved fome difference between the spots of the moon as they then appear'd, and as they are defcribed to have appear'd long before: and Milton, who wrote this poem about that time, might approve of Auzout's observation, though others do not. 150 For 150. Communicating male and fe male light,] The funs communicate male, and the moons female light. And thus Pliny mentions it as a tradition, that the fun is a mafculine ftar, drying all things: on the contrary the moon is a foft and feminine ftar, diffolving humors: and fo the balance of nature is preferved, fome of the ftars binding the elements, and others loofing them. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. 2. C. 100. Solis ardore ficcatur liquor; et hoc effe mafculum fidus accepimus, torrens cuncta forbenfque. E contrario ferunt lunæ femineum ac molle fidus, atque nocturnum folvere humorem. -Ita penfari naturæ vices, femperque fufficere, aliis fiderum elementa cogentibus, aliis vero fundentibus. 155. Only to fhine, get fcarce to contribute] The accent here upon contribute is the fame as upon attribute in ver. 107. The |