214

And furging waves, as mountains, to affault
Heav'n's highth, and with the center mix the pole. I
Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then th' omnific Word, your difcord end:
Nor stay'd, but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode

And furging waves,] We have already given fome inftances where we thought that and and in have been misprinted the one for the other: and I question whether in this place we should not read In Jurging waves as mountains; for it feems better to fay of the fea, Up from the bottom turn'd in furging waves, than Up from the bottom turn'd by furging waves.

215. and with the center mix

Far

is of the fame ftrain with the fame omnific Word's calming the tempeft in the Gofpel, when he faid to the raging fea, Peace, be fill, Mark IV. 39 And how elegantly has he turn'd the commanding words filence and peace, making one the firft and the other the laft in the sentence, and thereby giving the greater force and emphafis to both! And how nobly has he concluded the verfe with a fpondee or foot of two long fyllables, which is not a common measure in this place, but when it is used, it neceffarily occafions a flower pronunciation, and thereby fixes more the attention of the reader! It is a beauty of the fame kind as the fpondee in the fifth place in Greek or Latin verfes, of which there are fome memorable examples in Virgil, as when he speaks of low valleys, Georg. III. 276.

the pole] Fis certain that in Chaos was neither center nor pole; fo neither were there any mountains as in the preceding line; the Angel does not say there were: He tells Adam there was fuch confufion in Chaos, as if on earth the fea in mountainous waves fhould rife from its very bottom to affault Heaven, and mix the center of the globe with the extremities of it. The apteft illustration he could poffibly have thought of to have given Adam fome idea of the thing Richardfon. 216. Silence, ye troubled waves, or when he would defcribe the maand thou deep, peace,] How jefty of the Gods, Ecl. IV. 49. much does the brevity of the comCara Deûm foboles, magnum Jovis mand add to the fublimity and maincrementum : jefty of it! It is the fame kind of beauty that Longinus admires in the Mofaic hiftory of the creation. It

Saxa per et fcopulos et depreffas

convalles :

Æn. VIII. 679.

-Penatibus, et magnis Diis:

or

Far into Chaos, and the world unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice: him all his train
Follow'd in bright proceffion to behold

Ceation, and the wonders of his might.

Then stay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compaffes, prepar'd

220

225

In

er great caution and circumfpection, They round the Chaos, round the En. II. 68.

world unborn

Firft deign'd their golden compaffes.

to turn;

They thro' the deep chalk'd out
our ample road,
And broke the lawless empire of
the flood.

Kennet's Life of Dionyfius.
Richardfon.

The thought of the golden compaffes
is conceived altogether in Homer's
in this wonderful defcription. Ho-
fpirit, and is a very noble incident
mer, when he speaks of the Gods,
afcribes to them several arms and
inflruments with the fame greatnefs
of imagination. Let the reader only
perufe the defcription of Minerva's

gis or buckler in the fifth book, with her fpear which would overturn whole fquadrons, and her helmet that was fufficient to cover an army drawn out of a hundred cities. The golden compaffes in the above mention'd paffage appear a very natural inftrument in the hand of him, whom Plato fomewhere calls the divine geometrician. As poetry delights in clothing abftracted ideas in allegories and fenfible images, we find a magnificent defcription of the creation form'd after the fame man

ner

In God's eternal ftore, to circumfcribe

This universe, and all created things:

One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd
Round through the vast profundity obscure,

And said, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 210
This be thy juft circumference, O world.
Thus God the Heav'n created, thus the Earth,
Matter unform'd and void: Darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyfs: but on the watry calm

ner in one of the Prophets, wherein he describes the almighty architect as measuring the waters in the hollow of his hand, meting out the Heavens with his fpan, comprehending the duft of the earth in a meafure, weighing the mountains in fcales and the hills in a balance. Another of them defcribing the fupreme Being in this great work of creation reprefents him as laying the foundations of the earth, and ftretching a line upon it: and in another place as garnishing the Heavens, tretching out the north over the empty place, and hanging the earth upon nothing. This laft noble thought Milton has exprefs'd in the following verfe,

His

dife Loft may be called a larger fort of paraphrafe upon the first chapter of Genefis. Milton not only obferves the fame feries and order, but preferves the very words as much as he can, as we may fee in this and other inftances. In the beginning Ged created the Heaven and the Earth; And the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of Ged moved upon the face of the waters. Gen. I. 1, 2. The poet fays swatry calm, as the Meffiah had before calmed the deep, ver. 216. and says outfpread bis brooding wings inftead of moved, following the original rather than our tranflation. 239. then founded, then conAnd Earth felf balanc'd on her that Meffiah firft purg'd downward glob'd &c.] Milton had faid

Addison.

center hung. 232. Thus God the Heaven created,

&c] The reader will naturally remark how exactly Milton copies Mofes in his account of the creation. This seventh book of Para

the infernal dregs which were adverfe to life; and that then of things friendly to life he founded and conglob'd like to like, that is he caus'd them to affemble and affociate together: the reft, that is fuch things as

were

His brooding wings the Spi'rit of God outfpread, 235
And vital virtue' infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the reft to feveral place
Difparted, and between spun out the air,
And Earth felf-balanc'd on her center hung.
Let there be light, faid God, and forthwith light

240

Ethereal,

Lucret. V. 438..

241.-and between fpun out the air,
And Earth felf balanc'd on her
center bung,] From Ovid Met.
but
very much improv'd;
circumfufo pendebat in acre
tellus

I. 12.

Ponderibus librata fuis.

243. Let there be light, faid God,

were not of the fame nature and fit Cum paribus jungi res &c.
for compofing the earth, went off
to other places, perhaps to form the
planets and fix'd ftars. This feems
to be Milton's meaning. Pearce.
Here it will be of ufe to recur to the
account in III. 708. The earthy,
watry, aery, and fiery particles,
which before were blended promif-
cuously, were now combin'd and
fix'd as a foundation; for founded
does either fignify that from fundare,
or to melt from fundere; this latter
it cannot mean, 'twas already fluid.
Thus Pfal. LXXXIX. 11. As for
the world and the fulness thereof Thou
baft founded them. So Prov. III. 19.
The Lord by wifdom bath founded the
arth. The reft muft be fomething
different from the now elementary
bodies, and that (III. 716.) is de-
termin'd to be the ethereal quin-
teilence, of which the heavenly
luminous bodies were form'd.

Richardson. Diffugere inde loci partes capere, pare que

and forthwith light &c.] Gen. I. 3. And God faid, Let there be light; and there was light. This is the paffage that Longinus particularly admires; and no doubt its fublimity is greatly owing to its concifenefs; but our poet inlarges upon it, endevoring to give fome account how light was created the first day, when the fun was not formed till the fourth day. He fays that it was Spher'd in a radiant cloud, and fo journey'd round the earth in a cloudy tabernacle; and herein he is juftify'd by the authority of fome commen

tators ;

Ethereal, first of things, quinteffence pure

Sprung from the deep, and from her native east 245
To journey through the aery gloom began,
Spher'd in a radiant cloud, for yet the fun
Was not; fhe in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere

Divided: light the day, and darkness night

250

He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn:
Nor past uncelebrated, nor unfung

By the celeftial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;

tators; though others think this light
was the light of the fun, which
fhone as yet very imperfectly, and
did not appear in full luftre till the
fourth day. It is moft probable,
that by light (as it was produc'd the
first day) we must not understand
the darting of rays from a luminous
body, fuch as do now proceed from
the fun, but thofe particles of matter
which we call fire (whole properties
we know are light and beat) which
the Almighty produc'd, as a proper
inftrument for the preparation and
digestion of other matter. So Bishop
Patrick upon the text. However it
be, Milton's account is certainly very
poetical, tho' you may not allow
it to be the moft philofophical, and
is agreeable to the defcription before
quoted from Vida. See Mr. Thyer's
note upon ver. 211.

225 Birth

249. God faw the light was

good; &c.] What follows is little more than the words of Mofes verfify'd. And God faw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness: Milton adds how it was divided, by the hemifphere,

And light from darkness by the
hemifphere
Divided.

And God called the light day, and
darkness he called night; and the even-
ing and morning were the first day.
Gen. I. 4, 5.

253. Nor paft uncelebrated, &c.] The beauties of defcription lie fo very thick, that it is almost impoffible to enumerate them. The poet has employ'd on them the whole energy of our tongue. The several great fcenes of the creation rife up

to