Both harp and voice; nor could the Muse defend Say, goddess, what ensued, when Raphaël, Charged not to touch the interdicted tree, 40 45 If they transgress, and slight that sole command, Of all tastes else to please their appetite, Though wandering. He, with his consorted Eve, Of things so high and strange; things, to their thought And war so near the peace of God and bliss, With such confusion: but the evil, soon What nearer might concern him; how this world Great things and full of wonder in our ears, Down from the empyrean, to forewarn Us timely of what might else have been our loss, Immortal thanks, and his admonishment Receive, with solemn purpose to observe Of what we are. But since thou hast vouchsafed Gently, for our instruction, to impart Things above earthly thought, which yet concern'd Deign to descend now lower, and relate What may no less perhaps avail us known; How first began this heaven which we behold In Chaos; and the work begun, how soon 90 96 95 To magnify his works, the more we know: And the great light of day 8 yet wants to run Much of his race though steep; suspense in heaven, Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears; 100 His generation, and the rising birth This also thy request, with caution ask'd, Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve Thee also happier, shall not be withheld Thy hearing; such commission from above I have received, to answer thy desire Of knowledge within bounds; beyond, abstain And the great light of day. 105 110 115 120 Mr. Thyer is of opinion that there is not a greater instance of our author's exquisite skill in the art of poetry than this and the following lines. There is nothing more really to be expressed than Adam's telling Raphael his desire to hear the continuance of his relation and yet the poet, by a series of strong and noble figures, has worked it up into half a score of as fine lines as any in the poem. Lord Shaftesbury has observed, that Milton's beauties generally depend upon solid thought, strong reasoning, noble passion, and a continued thread of moral doctrine; but in this place he has shown what an exalted fancy and mere force of poetry can do.-NEWTON. Lord Shaftesbury had not a very accurate idea of Milton's genius; which, if it had all the qualities here ascribed to it, was not less rich and gigantic in imagination and invention. h Bid his absence, till thy song End. The sun did stand still at the voice of Joshua.-NEWTON. -et euntem multa loquendo : Detinuit sermone diem. To ask; nor let thine own inventions i hope In measure what the mind may well contain ; Know then, that, after Lucifer from heaven At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought All like himself rebellious; by whose aid Of Deity supreme, us dispossessed, 125 130 135 140 He trusted to have seized, and into fraud Drew many, whom their place1 knows here no more; Though wide, and this high temple to frequent Not here; till by degrees of merit raised, i Thine own inventions. 145 150 155 So in Psalm cvi. 29: "Thus they provoked him to anger with their own inventions." -PEARCE. 3 The invisible King. As God is styled, 1 Tim. i. 17: "The invisible King," so this is the properest epithet that could have been employed here, when he is speaking of "" things not revealed, suppressed in night, to none communicable in earth or heaven," neither to men nor angels; as it is said of the day of judgment, Matt. xxiv. 36: "Of that day and hour knoweth no man: no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."-NEWTON. k Nourishment to wind. See St. Paul, 1 Cor. viii. 1: "Knowledge puffeth up."-TODD. 1 Whom their place. See Job vii. 10: "Neither shall his place know him any more."-NEWTON. They open to themselves at length the way Up hither, under long obedience tried; And earth be changed to heaven, and heaven to earth, So spake the Almighty, and to what he spake, When such was heard declared the Almighty's will; Great triumph and rejoicing was in heaven, Glory they sung to the Most High, good will To future men, and in their dwellings peace : Glory to him, whose just avenging ire 160 165 170 175 180 Had driven out the ungodly from his sight Of spirits malign, a better race to bring So sang the hierarchies: meanwhile the Son m My overshadowing Spirit. 185 190 195 200 See Luke i. 35: "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee."-NEWTON. Spontaneous, for within them spirit lived, n On heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore Far into Chaos, and the world unborn ; For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train Then stay'd the fervid wheels; and in his hand In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things: They view'd. n From the shore Here is a most magnificent picture, breathing all the powers of poetry. • Silence, ye troubled waves. 205 210 215 220 225 230 233 How much does the brevity of the command add to the sublimity and majesty of it! It is the same kind of beauty that Longinus admires in the Mosaic history of the creation: it is of the same strain with the same "Omnific Word's" calming the tempest in the Gospel, when he said to the raging sea, "Peace, be still." Mark iv. 39. And how elegantly has he turned the commanding words, silence and peace, making one the first and the other the last in the sentence, and thereby giving the greater force and emphasis to both!-NEWTON. P He took the golden compasses. See Prov. viii. 27: "When he prepared the heavens I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the deep."-RICHARDSON. q Thus God the heaven created. The reader will naturally remark how exactly Milton copies Moses in his account of the creation. The seventh book of Paradise Lost may be called a larger sort of paraphrase upon the first chapter of Genesis: Milton not only observes the same series and order, but preserves the very words as much as he can.-NEWTON. |