1020

Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steer'd.
So he with difficulty and labour hard
Moved on, with difficulty and labour he;
But, he once past, soon after, when man fell,
Strange alteration! Sin and Death amain
Following his track, such was the will of Heaven,
Paved after him a broad and beaten way

Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length,
From hell continued, reaching the utmost orb

1026

Of this frail world; by which the spirits perverse 1030 With easy intercourse pass to and fro

To tempt or punish mortals, except whom

God and good angels guard by special grace.
But now at last the sacred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of heaven 1035

is very true; but it does not affect what Milton here says; for the sense may be, not that Ulysses shunned Charybdis situated on the larbord of his ship as he was sailing; but that Ulysses sailing on the larbord (to the left-hand where Scylla was) did thereby shun Charybdis; which was the truth of the case. The Doctor's other objection is, that Scylla was no whirlpool, which yet she is here supposed to have been. But Virgil (whom Milton follows oftener than he does Homer) describes Scylla as naves in saxa trahentem,' Æn. iii. 425. and what is that less than calling it a whirlpool? The truth is, that Scylla is a rock situated in a small bay on the Italian coast, into which bay the tide runs with a very strong current, so as to draw in the ships which are within the compass of its force, and either dash them against the rock, or swallow them in the eddies; for when the streams have thus violently rushed into the bay, they meet with the rock Scylla at the farther end; and being beat back must therefore form an eddy or whirlpool.' N.

1025. • Hom. II. Α. 5. Διὸς δ' ετελείετο βουλή. Ν.

1028. This bridge is farther described in B. x. 300.

Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night
A glimmering dawn: here Nature first begins
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire,
As from her outmost works a broken foe,
With tumult less, and with less hostile din ;
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light,
And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds
Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
Far off the empyreal heaven, extended wide
In circuit, undetermined square or round,
With opal towers and battlements adorn'd
Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
And fast by, hanging in a golden chain,

1040

1045

1050

1039. her outmost works: i. e. of Nature: works, as the Lat. opera, walls, trenches, fortifications.

1042. wafts: floats.

1043. holds the port: Hor. occupat portum.

1045. emptier waste: the thinnest part of that crude consistence which is like air compared to what he had passed through; a kind of atmosphere to Chaos.' RICHARDSON.

1046. weighs his spread wings: as a bird hovering: like the Lat. librare: Ovid. Met. viii. 201. 'geminas opifex libravit in alas Ipse suum corpus; motâque pependit in aura.' Amor. ii. 6. 11. 'Omines, quæ liquido libratis in aëre cursus: Tu tamen ante alias, turtur amice, dole.'

1048. Of what form the Empyrean is, round or square, has been disputed.' RICHARDSON.

1049. opal: a stone of divers colors, partaking of the carbuncle's faint fire, the amethyst's bright purple, and the emerald's cheering green.' RICHARDSON.

1050. sapphire: a precious stone of a bright blue color.

This pendent world, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon.
Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accursed, and in a cursed hour, he hies.

1055

1052. By this pendent world is not meant the Earth; but the new creation, Heaven and Earth, the whole orb of fixed stars immensely bigger than the Earth, a mere point in comparison: this appears from what Chaos lately said I. 1004. Besides, Satan did not see the Earth yet; he was afterwards surprised at the sudden view of all this world at once, iii. 542. and wandered long on the outside of it; till at last he saw our sun, and learned there of the Arch-Angel Uriel, where the Earth and Paradise were. See iii. 722. This pendent world therefore must mean the whole world, the new created universe, and beheld far off it appeared in comparison with the empyreal Heaven no bigger than a star of smallest magnitude; nay not so large; it appeared no bigger than such a star appears to be when it is close by the moon, the superior light of which makes any star that happens to be near her disk, to seem exceedingly small and almost disappear.' BENTLEY and NEWTON.

PARADISE LOST.

BOOK III.