Prefented with a universal blank

Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd, And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out. So much the rather thou, celestial Light,

51

There is likewife a fimilar turn of the words in Petrarch's beautiful Sonnet, beginning,

"Zefiro torna e 'l bel tempo rimena." TODD.

Ver. 48. Prefented with a univerfal blank

Of nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,] Per

haps we fhould read and point the paffage thus:

"Prefented with a univerfal blank;

"All nature's works to me expung'd and ras'd,”

that is, "all nature's works being, in respect to the univerfal blank, or absence of light from me, expung'd to me and ras'd." PEARCE.

It is to be wifhed that fome such emendation as this was admitted. It clears the fyntax, which at present is very much embarraffed. All nature's works being to me expung'd and ras'd, and wisdom at one entrance quite shut out, is plain and intelligible; but otherwife it is not eafy to fay what the conjunction and copulates wisdom to, v. 50. NEWTON.

There is little difficulty in this paffage, if we confider wisdom as the genitive cafe; of nature's works, and of wifdom &c. TODD.

Ver. 49. ras'd,] Of the Latin radere; the Romans, who wrote on waxed tables with iron ftyles, when they ftruck out a word, did tabulam radere, rafe it out. Light, and the bleffings of it, were never drawn in more lively colours and finer ftrokes; nor was the fad lofs of it, and them, ever fo paffionately and fo patiently lamented. They, that will read the moft excellent Homer bemoaning the fame misfortune, will find him far fhort of this. Herodotus, in his life, gives us fome verfes in which he bewailed his blindnets. HUME..

Ver. 51. So much the rather thou, celestial Light,

Shine inward, &c.] See Hamer, Oduff, K. 492.

Shine inward, and the mind through all her

powers Irradiate; there plant eyes, all mift from thence Purge and disperse, that I may fee and tell Of things invisible to mortal fight.

55

Now had the Almighty Father from above, From the pure empyrean where he fits High thron'd above all highth, bent down his His own works and their works at once to view:

Θηβαίο Τειρεσίαο

Μάντιος ἀλαδ, τί τε φρένες ἔμπεδοί εἰσι.

And compare alfo Guarini, Puft. Fid. A. v. S. vi.

"O' quanto fpeffo giova

"La cecità de gli occhi al veder molto!

"Ch' allor non traviata

"L'anima, ed in se stessa

"Tutta raccolta, fuole

eye

Milton represents Sampfon, "though blind of fight, with inward eyes illuminated, v. 1689." And in his Profe-Works, when he fpeaks of his blindnefs, he expreffes the fame fentiment. In these various paffages he also bore in mind the fublime expreffion of St. Paul, Ephef. i. 18. " The eyes of your understanding being enlightened." TODD.

Ver. 56. Now had the Almighty Father &c.] The picture of the Almighty's looking down from Heaven is much the fame with that which Taffo gives in the following lines, Gier. Lib. C. i. ft. 7. "Quando dall' alto foglio il Padre Eterno,

"Ch' è ne la parte più del ciel fincera;
"E quanto è dalle ftelle al baffo inferno,
"Tanto è più in fù della ftellata spera;

"Gli occhi in giù volfe, e in un fol punto, e in una

"Vista mirò ciò, che 'n fe il mondo aduna." THYER.

About him all the Sanctities of Heaven

1

60

Stood thick as stars, and from his fight receiv'd
Beatitude paft utterance; on his right
The radiant image of his glory sat,
His only Son; on earth he first beheld
Our two first parents, yet the only two
Of mankind in the happy garden plac'd,
Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love,
Uninterrupted joy, unrivall'd love,

Ver. 60. About him all the San&tities of Heaven

65

Stood thick as ftars,] The poet here confidered the prophet Daniel's defcription of The Ancient of Days, to whom "thousand thousands ministered, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him." Chap. vii. 10. See alfo Revelations, v. 11, vii. 11. The phrafe Sandities of Heaven might be fuggefted by Shakspeare, as the commentators have noted, K. Hen. IV. Pii. A. iv. S. ii.

"Between the grace, the fan&tities of heaven,
"And our dull workings." TODD.

Ver. 61.

and from his fight receiv'd

Beatitude paft utterance ;] Milton here alludes to the beatifick vifion, in which divines fuppofe the happiness of the faints to confift. THYER.

Sandys, in his Paraphrafe on Job, 1637, has a fimilar paffage :

"Againe when all the radiant Sonnes of Light

"Before his throne appear'd. whofe only fight

"Beatitude infus'd." TODD.

The radiant image of his glory fat,

His only Son;] According to St. Paul, Heb. i. 3. "His Son-the brightnefs of his glory, fat down on the right hand of the Majefty on high." Let the difcerning linguift compare the preceding defcription of God with that by Taffo, Gier. Lib. c. ix. ft. 55, 56, 57. HUME.

6

In blissful folitude; he then furvey'd

Hell and the gulf between, and Satan there 70 Coasting the wall of Heaven on this fide Night In the dun air fublime, and ready now

75

To stoop with wearied wings, and willing feet,
On the bare outside of this world, that feem'd
Firm land imbofom'd, without firmament,
Uncertain which, in ocean or in air.
Him God beholding from his profpect high,
Wherein past, prefent, future, he beholds,
Thus to his only Son foreseeing spake.

Only begotten Son, feest thou what rage so

Ver. 72. In the dun air] This is the aer bruno of the Italians, who almoft conftantly exprefs a gloomy, dusky air, in these terms. THYER.

Ver. 75. Firm land imbofom'd, without firmament, &c.] The univerfe appear'd to Satan to be a folid globe, encompaffed on all fides but uncertain whether with water or air, but without firmament, without any sphere or fixed fìars over it, as over the earth. The fphere, or fixed ftars, was itfelf comprehended in it, and made a part of it. NEWTON.

Ver. 77. Him God beholding from his profpect high,

Wherein past, prefent, future, he beholds,] Boethius, an author not unworthy of our poet's imitation, describing the Deity, ufes exactly the fame terms, De Conf. Philof. L. iv. "Qui cum ex alta providentia fpecula refpicit, quid cuique eveniat." Again, L. v. Metr. ii.

"Quæ fint, quæ fuerint, veniúntque,

"Uno mentis ceruit in ictu."

THYER.

Ver. 80. Only begotten Son, &c.] I will make one general obfervation, on this and all the fpeeches in the Pocm, put into the mouth of God the Father; which is, that nothing can be more unjuft than Pope's criticism on Milton, accufing him of

Transports our Adversary? whom no bounds
Prefcrib'd, no bars of Hell, nor all the chains
Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyfs
Wide interrupt, can hold; fo bent he feems
On defperate revenge, that shall redound
Upon his own rebellious head. And now,
Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his

way

85

Not far off Heaven, in the precincts of light,
Directly towards the new created world,
And man there plac'd, with purpose to affay 90
If him by force he can destroy, or, worse,
By fome falfe guile pervert; and fhall pervert;
For man will hearken to his glozing lies,
And easily tranfgrefs the fole command,
Sole pledge of his obedience: So will fall 95
He and his faithlefs progeny: Whose fault?
Whose but his own? Ingrate, he had of me
All he could have; I made him juft and right,

making God turn fchool-divine, unlefs he meant, by school-divinity, the doctrine of St. Paul, St. Peter, St. John, &c. For Milton has copied them with the greateft exactnefs; and, bating a word or two, (fully implied however in thofe writers,) has kept to their very expreffions. STILLING FLEET.

Ver. 93. his glozing lies,] The fame expreffion is applied to the Devil, B. ix. 549. "So gloz'd the Tempter." See note on Comus, v. 161. Thus alfo, in Sylvefter's Du Bartas, the Tempter's addrefs to Eve is called " glazing rhetorike." TODD.

Ver. 98.

I made him juft and right,] Ecclef. vii. 29. "God made man upright." GILLIES.