To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows, And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven 360 Bind their resplendent locks inwreath'd with beams; Then, crown'd again, their golden harps they took, 365 357. The abundant happiness and immortal joys of Heaven are in Scripture generally expressed by the fountain of life' and rivers of pleasure.' So: Thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures, for with thee is the fountain of life,' Psalm xxxvi. 8. 9. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters,' Rey. vii. 17. He showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal,' xxii. 1.' HUME. 359. Propertius mentions Elysian roses: El. iv. 7. 'Mulcet ubi Elysias aura beata rosas." MASON. ib. amber stream: on account of its clearness and transparency, not its color. The clearness of amber was proverbial among the ancients: Callimachus in his Hymn to Ceres v. 29. has åλékтpivov oup and in like manner Virgil says of a river, Geo. iii. 522. 'Purior electro campum petit amnis." N. 363. Jasper, jaspe Fr. iaspis Lat. A hard stone of a bright beautiful green color, sometimes clouded with white, found in masses of various sizes and shapes. It is capable of a very elegant polish, and is found in many parts of the East Indies, and in Egypt, Africa, Tartary, and China.' TODD's Johnson. So marmor for the sea in Latin: Virg. G. i. 254. &λa μapuapény, Hom. II. E. 273. 'glassy wave,' Gray. 364. impurpled: made red: so Hor. Od. iii. 15. 'flos purpureus rosæ.' ib. smiled, looked joyous: iv. 164. pleased with the grateful smell old Ocean smiled.' See Blomfield's Glossary on the expression in Æsch. Prom. 90. ποντίων τε κυμάτων ̓Ανήριθμον γέλασμα. Harps ever tuned, that glittering by their side Eternal King; thee, Author of all being, Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st 370 375 380 377. The word but is here the same as except, unless; inaccessible but when thou shadest, i. e. then only accessible when thou shadest. Perhaps Milton had in view what Ovid says of Phoebus when his son Phaethon came to him: Met. ii. 39. 'circum caput omne micantes Deposuit radios, propiusque accedere jussit." PEARCE. See Exod. xxxiii. 20. Isaiah vi. 2. Above the throne stood the Seraphims; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face,' &c.' N. Over all. 383. of all creation first: before all created beings; or supreme 'So in Col. i. 15. the first-born of every creature,' or of all creation, wάσns Kтiσews: and Rev. iii. 14. 'the beginning of the creation of God." N. Begotten Son, Divine Similitude, In whose conspicuous countenance, without cloud 385 Whom else no creature can behold; on thee He heaven of heavens and all the powers therein 390 Thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare, Back from pursuit thy powers with loud acclaim Not so on man him, through their malice fall'n, 400 405 387. John i. 18. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him:' xiv. 9. he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." N. 396. disarrayed: discomfited, routed, overthrown. 398. Thy Powers extolled thee returning from pursuit, and thee only; for he was the sole victor; all the rest stood silent eyewitnesses of his almighty acts: vi. 880.' NEWTON. 405. A repetition in imitation of Homer. He, to appease thy wrath, and end the strife Thus they in heaven, above the starry sphere, 410 415 Of this round world, whose first convex divides 420 From Chaos, and the inroad of darkness old, 425 406. Understand than or but to connect the passage with the preceding part, no sooner. 412. So in the conclusion of the Hymn to Hercules, Virg. Æn. viii. 301. Salve vera Jovis proles, decus addite Divis."N. 413. The ending of this hymn is in imitation of the hymns of Homer and Callimachus, who always promise to return in future hymns.' RICHARDSON. 419. of this round world: not our earth, but the solid, lightless globe which the Poet imagines to contain the whole new creation, whose shell separates the luminous orbs that are under it, and thus encloses them from chaos and ancient night, as he elsewhere (ii. 970.) calls this darkness old." RICHARDSON. Save on that side which from the wall of heaven, 430 On hills where flocks are fed, flies towards the springs Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams: 436 But in his way lights on the barren plains With sails and wind their cany waggons light: 440 431. Imaus is a celebrated mountain in Asia; its name signifies 'spowy' in the language of the inhabitants, according to Pliny, 1. vi. c. 21. incolarum lingua nivosum significante;' and therefore it is said here, whose snowy ridge." It is the boundary to the East of the Western Tartars, who are called roving, as they live chiefly in tents, and remove from place to place for the convenience of pasturage, their herds of cattle and what they take in hunting being their principal subsistence. Ganges and Hydaspes are famous rivers of India; and Serica is a region betwixt China to the east and the mountain Imaus to the west; and what our author says of the Chineses, he seems to have taken from Heylin's Cosmography, p. 867. where it is said, 'Agreeable unto the observation of modern writers, the country is so plain a level, that they have carts and coaches driven with sails, as ordinarily as drawn with horses in these parts.'' N. Todd has shown that Milton is correct, from Sir G. Staunton's Embassy to China, who states that these cany waggons are small carts or double barrows of bamboo, with one large wheel between them; and that they are assisted in their progress when the wind is favorable by a sail, consisting of a mat fixed between two poles arising from the opposite sides of the cart. 438. Sericana, or Serica, a large plain lying between China on the East, and the mountain Imaus on the West. |