Page images
PDF
EPUB

To add more sweetness; and they thus began.

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, Almighty, thine this univerfal frame,

Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who fitft above these Heavens
To us invifible, or dimly feen

In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and pow'r divine.
Speak ye who beft can tell, ye fons of light,
Angels; for ye behold him, and with fongs
And choral fymphonies, day without night,
Circle his throne rejoicing; ye in Heaven,

The author has raifed our expecta-
tion by commending the various
file, and holy rapture, and prompt
eloquence of our firft parents; and
indeed the hymn is truly divine,
and will fully answer all that we
expected. It is an imitation, or
rather a fort of paraphrafe of the
148th Pfalm, and (of what is a pa-
raphrafe upon that) the Canticle
placed after Te Deum in the Li-
works of the Lord,
turgy, O all
bless ye the Lord, &c. which is the
fong of the three children in the
Apocrypha.

ye

155.-thyself how wondrous then!] Wild. XIII. 3. 4, 5. With whofe beauty, if they being delighted, took them to be Gods; let them know how much better the Lord of them is: for

156

160

On

the firft author of beauty bath created them. But if they were aftonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them, how much mightier he is that made them. For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures, proportionably the maker of them is feen.

160. Speak ye who beft can tell,&c.] He is unspeakable, ver. 156. no creature can speak worthily of him as he is; but fpeak ye who are best able ye Angels, ye in Heaven; on Earth join all ye creatures, &c.

[ocr errors]

162. day without night,] According to Milton there was grateful viciffitude like day and night in Heaven, VI. 8. and we prefume that he took the notion from Scripture, Rev. VII. 15. They are before

the

[merged small][ocr errors]

Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. 165 Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,

If better thou belong not to the dawn,

Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet, praise him in thy fphere,
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.
Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
Acknowledge

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

170

Lucifer, et cæli ftatione noviffimus exit.

The ftars were fled, for Lucifer had chas'd

The ftars away, and fled himself

at laft. Addison.

I don't know whether it is worth re

marking that our author feems to have committed a mistake. The planet Venus, when she rifes before the fun, is called Phosphorus, Lucifer, and the Morning Star; when the fets after the fun is called Hefperus, Vefper, and the Evening Star; but fhe cannot rife before him, and fet after him at the fame time: and yet it may be objected that our author makes her do fo; for defcribing the laft evening, he particularly mentions Hiperus that led the farry hoft, IV. 605. and the very laft in the train of night. If this next morning the is addrefs'd as objection fhould be admitted, all we can say to it is, that poet is not obliged to speak with the strictnefs and accuracy of a philofopher. 172. Acknow

Acknowledge him thy greater, found his praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'ft,
And when high noon haft gain'd, and when thou fall'st.
Moon, that now meet'ft the orient fun, now fly'ft,
With the fix'd stars, fix'd in their orb that flies,
And ye five other wand'ring fires that move
In mystic dance not without fong, refound
His praise, who out of darkness call'd

172. Acknowledge him thy greater,]

It is not an improbable reading

up light.

176

Air,

Eternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem.:

which Dr. Bentley propofes Ac- and ufes the adverb æternum in knowledge him Creator, or as Mr. the fame manner for continually. Thyer Acknowledge thy Creator: but

I fuppofe the author made ufe of Georg. II. 400.

greater answering to great.

Thou Sun, of this great world

both eye and foul, Acknowledge him thy greater.

So Ovid calls the fun the eye of the world, Mundi oculus, Met. IV. 228. And Pliny the foul, Nat. Hift. Lib. 1. c. 6. Hunc mundi effe to. tius animum. And the expreffion thy greater may be fitly parallel'd with thy fierceft IV. 927. and bis greater in Paradise Regain'd I. 279.

173. In thy eternal courfe,] In thy continual courfe. Thus Virgil calls the fun, moon and ftars eternal fires, En. II. 154. Vos, aterni ignes; and the facred fire that was conftantly kept burning eternal fire, En. II. 297.

VOL. I.

-

glebaque verfis

Eternum frangenda bidentibus.

175. Moon, that now meet'ft the

orient fun, now flyft, &c.] The conftruction is, Thou Moon, that now meet'ft and now flyft the orient fun, together with the fix'd fars, and ye five other wand'ring fires &c. He had before called upon the fun who governs the day, and now he invokes the moon, and the fix'd ftars, and the planets who govern the night, to praise their Maker. The moon fometimes meets and fometimes fies the fun, approaches to and recedes from him in her

monthly course With the fix'd ftars, fix'd in their orb that flies; they are fix'd in their orb, but their orb flies, that is moves round with the utmost rapidity; for Adam I i

is

Air, and ye Elements, the eldest birth

Of Nature's womb, that in quaternion run
Perpetual circle, multiform; and mix

And nourish all things; let your ceafelefs change
Vary to our great Maker ftill new praise.

Ye Mifts and Exhalations that now rife
From hill or fteaming lake, dufky or gray,
Till the fun paint your fleecy fkirts with gold,
In honor to the world's great Author rife,
Whether to deck with clouds th' uncolor'd sky,

is made to fpeak according to appearances, and he mentions in another place, VIII. 19 and 21. their rolling Spaces incomprehenfible, and their fwift return diurnal. And ye five other wandring fires. Dr. Bentley reads four, Venus and the Sun and Moon being mention'd before, and only four more remaining, Mercury and Mars and Jupiter and Saturn. And we muft either fuppose that Milton did not confider the morning ftar as the planet Venus; or he must be supposed to include the earth, to make up the other five befides thofe he had mention'd; and he calls it elfewhere VIII. 129. The planet earth; tho' this be not agreeable to the fyftem, according to which he is fpeaking at present. Wand'ring fires in oppofition to fix'd ftars. That move in myftic dance not without fong, alluding to the doctrin of the An

180

185

[blocks in formation]

Or wet the thirsty earth with falling fhowers,
Rifing or falling ftill advance his praise.

199

195

His praise ye Winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe foft or loud; and wave your tops, ye Pines,
With every plant, in fign of worship wave.
Fountains and ye, that warble, as ye flow,
Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praise.
Join voices all ye living Souls; ye Birds,
That finging up to Heaven gate ascend,
Bear on your wings and in your notes his praise.

181.-that in quaternion run &c.] That in a fourfold mixture and combination run a perpetual circle, one element continually changing into another, according to the doctrin of Heraclitus, borrow'd from Orpheus. Et cum quattuor fint genera corporum, viciffitudine eorum mundi continuata natura eft. Nam ex terra, aqua: ex aqua, oritur aer: ex aere, æther: deinde retrorfum, viciffim ex æthere, aer: inde aqua: ex aqua, terra infima. Sic naturis his, ex quibus omnia conftant, furfus, deorfus, ultro, citro commeantibus, mundi partium conjunctio continetur. Cicero de Nat. Deor. II. 33.

197. -ye living Souls;] Soul is ufed here as it fometimes is in Scripture for other creatures befides Man. So Gen. I. 20. the moving creature that hath life, that is foul in the Hebrew, and in the

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »