? His brooding wings the Spirit of God outfpread, 235 Let there be light, said God, and forthwith light : Ethereal, were not of the same nature and fit Cum paribus jungi res &c. Lucret. V. 438.. 241.-and between spun out the air, I. 12, but very much improv'd; 243. Let there be light, faid God, and forthwith light &c.] Gen. I. 3. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. This is the passage that Longinus particularly admires; and no doubt its fublimity is greatly owing to its conciseness; 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 says 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 some commen tators; Ethereal, first of things, quinteffence pure Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good; And light from darkness by the hemisphere 1 250 He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn: By the celestial quires, when orient light tators; though others think this light was the light of the fun, which shone as yet very imperfectly, and did not appear in full lustre till the fourth day. It is most 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 those particles of matter which we call fire (whose 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 be the most philosophical, and is agreeable to the description before quoted from Vida. See Mr. Thyer's note upon ver. 211. it to 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 hemisphere, And light from darkness by the hemisphere Divided. And God called the light day, and darkness be called night; and the evening and morning were the first day. Gen. I. 4, 5. 253. Nor paft uncelebrated, &c.] The beauties of description 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 scenes of the creation rife up to Birth-day of Heav'n and Earth; with joy and shout And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd Amid the waters, and let it divide The waters from the waters: and God made Of this great round: partition firm and fure, to view one after another, in fuch 261 265 : The 261. Again, God said, &c.] When he makes God speak, he adheres closely to the words of Scripture. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters... Gen. I. 6. But when he says that with joy and shout God made the firmament he explains The hollow univer jal orb they fill d,] what is meant by the firmament. The Angels finging and shouting for The Hebrew word, which the Greeks joy at the creation of the world render by σερέωμα, and our tranffeems to be founded upon Job lators by firmament, fignifies expanXXXVIII. 4, 7. Where wast thou fion: it is render'd expansion in the when I laid the foundations of the margin of our bibles, and Milton earth; when the morning stars jang together, and all the fons of God bouted for joy? And with this joy and thout they fill'd the hollow univerfal orb, the great round (as it is call'd ver. 267.) of the universe, bellow as being concave and having No creatures to inhabit it. rightly explains it by the expanse of elemental air. 264. - liquid air,] Virg. Æn.VI. 202. liquidumque per aera. 267. - partition firm and fure,] For its certainty not folidity. St. Augustin upon Genefis. It is not call' d firmament as being a folid body, but 4 The waters underneath from those above but because it is a bound or term between the upper and nether waters; a partition firm and immoveable, not upon account of its station, but of its firmness and intranfgreffibility. Hume and Richardson, 268. The waters underneath from those above 270 275 The sembling water. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters. Pfal. CIV. 3. Praise bim ye Heavens of Heavens, and ye waters above the Heavens. Pfal. CXLVIII. 4. Το this sense our poet agrees, and thus infers, that as God built the earth, and founded it on waters (ftretched out the earth above the waters. Pfal. CXXXVI. 6. By the word of God the Heavens were of old, and the earth confifting out of the water and in the water. 2 Pet. III. 5.) so also he establish'd the whole frame of the Dividing:] They who understand the firmament to be the vast air, expanded and stretch'd out on all fides to the starry Heavens, esteem the waters above it to be those generated, in the middle region of heavenly orbs, in a calm crystallin the air, of vapors exhaled and drawn sea furrounding it, left the neighup thither from the steaming earth bourhood of the unruly Chaos thould and nether waters; which descend disturb it. But all search in works again in fuch vast showers and mighty so wonderful, so distant and undiffloods of rain, that not only rivers, cernable, as well as undemonftrable, but feas may be imaginable above, is quite confounded. Hume. 274. And Hraờn be nam'd the firmament:] So Gen. 1. 8. as appeared when the cataracts came down in a deluge, and the flood gates of Heaven were open'd. Gen. VII. 11. Others, and those many, by these And God called the firmament Heaven. waters above understand the crystal- But it may feem strange if the firlin Heaven (by Gaffendus made mament means the air and atmosphere, double) by our author better named that the air should be called Heaven: crystallin ocean, by its clearness re- but so it is frequently in the lan guage The earth was form'd, but in the womb as yet Of waters, embryon immature involv'd, Appear'd not: over all the face of earth Main ocean flow'd, not idle, but with warm Prolific humor soft'ning all her globe, Fermented the great mother to conceive, Satiate with genial moisture, when God said Be gather'd now ye waters under Heaven 280 Into Be gather'd now ye waters under Into one place, and let dry land appear.] This is again exactly copied from Moses; And God said, Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together into one place, and guage of the Hebrews and in the stile of Scripture. In this very chapter, ver. 20. it is said fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of Heaven. So in Pfal. CIV. 12. By them shall the fowls of the Heaven have their habitation, which fing among the branches. And Mat. let the dry land appear: and it was VI. 26. what we translate the fowls so. Gen. I. 9. And it was so is very of the air is in the original the fowls short in Moses; Milton inlarges upon of Heaven, τα σετεινά του κρανε. it, as the subject will admit some So again, Rev. XIX. 17. the fowls that fly in the midst of Heaven. And we read often in Scripture of the rain of Heaven, and the clouds of Heaven. The truth is there were three Heavens in the account of the Hebrews. Mention is made of the third Heaven 2 Cor. XII. 2. The first Heaven is the air, as we have shown, wherein the clouds move up by the mountains, they go down by and the birds fly; the second is the the valleys unto the place which thou starry Heaven, and the third Heaven haft founded for them, &c. We fupis the habitation of the Angels and pose that we need not defire the the feat of God's glory. Milton reader to remark the beautiful numis speaking here of the first Heaven, bers in the following verses of the as he mentions the others in other poem, how they seem to rife with places. fine strokes of poetry, and seems to have had his eye upon the CIVth Pfalm, which is likewise a divine hymn in praise of the creation, 6th and following verses. Thou coveredt the earth with the deep; the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they bafted away. They go the rifing mountains, and to fink again with the falling waters. 285. Im |