...present, and with mighty wings out-spread, Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant : what in me is dark, Illumine ; what is low, raise and support ; That to the heighth of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men....

...Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples, the upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for Thou knowest : What in me is dark Illumine; what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men....

...much worse, if the sense were sacrificed to the sound. For instance, in the following lines of Milton: "What in me is dark, Illumine; what is low, raise and support." The sense clearly dictates the pause after illumine, at the end of the third syllable, which, in reading,...

...present, and with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark. Illumine: what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men."...

...present, and with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark, Illumine : what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men."...

...present, and with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark, Illumine ; what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument, 1 may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to man."...

...present, and with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark, Illumine: what is low, raise and support; That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men."...

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...his purpose, so magnificently set forth in the crowning lines of the clause :— " That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal providence. And justify the ways of God to man." subject of Milton's exordium. This he might do Now, let any man attempt to tell to...

...his purpose, so magnificently set forth in the crowning lines of the clause :— " That to the height of this great argument I may assert eternal providence. And justify the ways of God to man." Now, let any man attempt to tell to another the subject of Milton's exordium. This...