To whom thus Raphael answer'd heav'nly meek. Nor are thy lips ungraceful, Sire of men, Nor tongue ineloquent; for God on thee Abundantly his gifts hath alfo pour'd Inward and outward both, his image fair:

grace

220

Speaking or mute all comeliness and
Attends thee, and each word, each motion forms;
Nor less think we in Heav'n of thee on Earth

Than of our fellow fervant, and inquire

Gladly into the ways of God with Man:

225

For God we see hath honor'd thee, and fet
On Man his equal love: fay therefore on;

For

be fure, he must have had by hearfay or infpiration. Milton had very good reason to make the Angel abfent now, not only to vary his fpeaker, but because Adam could beft, or only, tell fome particulars Richardfon. not to be omitted.

231. the gates of Hell;] Hom. Iliad. XXIII. 71. wunas aïdac.

233. To fee that none thence issued

forth &c.] As Man was to be the principal work of God in this lower world, and (according to Milton's hypothefis) a creature to fupply the lofs of the fallen Angels, fo particular care is taken at his creation. The Angels on that day keep watch and guard at the gates of Hell, that none may iflue forth to interrupt the facred work, At the fame

For I that day was abfent, as befel,

Bound on a voyage uncouth and obfcure,

Far on excurfion tow'ard the gates of Hell;
Squar'd in full legion (fuch command we had)
To see that none thence issued forth a spy,
Or enemy, while God was in his work,
Left he incens'd at fuch eruption bold,
Destruction with creation might have mix'd.
Not that they durft without his leave attempt,
But us he fends upon his high behefts

For ftate, as Sovran King, and to inure

230

235

Our prompt obedience. Fast we found, fast shut 240

time that this was a very good reafon for the Angel's abfence, it is likewife doing honor to the Man with whom he was converfing.

240-Faft we found, faft fhut &c] There is no question but our poet drew the image in what follows from that in Virgil's fixth book, where Eneas and the Sibyl ftand before the adamantin gates, which are there defcribed as shut upon the place of torments, and liften to the groans, the clank of chains, and the noise of iron whips, that were heard in thofe regions of pain and forrow.

Addifon. The reader will not be difpleafed to fee the paffage, Æn. VI. 557. Hinc exaudiri gemitus, et fæva fo

nare

80

Heareafter, when they come to model Heaven
And calculate the ftars, how they will wield
The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive
To fave appearances, how gird the sphere

With centric and eccentric fcribled o'er,

Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb:

Already by thy reasoning this I guess,

85

Who art to lead thy ofspring, and supposest

That bodies bright and greater fhould not ferve The less not bright, nor Heav'n fuch journeys run, Earth fitting ftill, when she alone receives

The benefit: confider firft, that

great
Or bright infers not excellence: the earth
Though, in comparison of Heav'n, so small,
Nor glift'ring, may of folid good contain
More plenty than the fun that barren shines,

80. And calculate the ftars,] The fenfe is, And form a judgment of the stars by computing their motions, diftance, fituation, &c, as to calculate a nativity fignifies to form a judgment of the events attending it, by computing what planets, in what motions, prefided over that nativity. But Dr. Bentley takes calculating the flars here to mean counting their numbers. That might be one thing intended; but it is not all. To cal

90

Whofe virtue on itself works no effect,

95

But in the fruitful earth; there firft receiv'd
His beams, unactive elfe, their vigor find.
Yet not to earth are thofe bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee earth's habitant.

And for the Heav'n's wide circuit, let it fpeak 100
The Maker's high magnificence, who built
So fpacious, and his line ftretch'd out fo far;
That Man may know he dwells not in his own;
An edifice too large for him to fill,

Lodg'd in a small partition, and the reft
Ordain'd for uses to his Lord best known.
The swiftness of thofe circles attribúte,
Though numberless, to his omnipotence,
That to corporeal fubftances could add
Speed almost spiritual; me thou think'st not flow,

105

109

Who

and not with fwiftness, as Dr. Bentley conceiv'd. And the fenfe is (as Dr. Pearce expreffes it) that it is God's omnipotence which gives to the circles, though fo numberless, fuch a degree of fwiftnefs. Or if we join numberless in conftruction with fwiftness, it may be understood as in ver 38.

Speed, to defcribe whose swiftness number fails.

128. In

Who fince the morning hour fet out from Heaven
Where God refides, and ere mid-day arriv'd
In Eden, distance inexpreffible

115

By numbers that have name. But this I urge,
Admitting motion in the Heav'ns, to show
Invalid that which thee to doubt it mov'd;
Not that I fo affirm, though so it seem
To thee who hast thy dwelling here on earth.
God to remove his ways from human sense,
Plac'd Heav'n from Earth so far, that earthly fight,
If it presume, might err in things too high,
And no advantage gain. What if the fun
Be center to the world, and other stars
By his attractive virtue and their own
Incited, dance about him various rounds?

121

125

Their wand'ring course now high, now low, then hid,

128. In fix thou feeft, &c.] In the moon, and the five other wand'ring fires, as they are call'd V. 177. Their motions are evident; and what if the earth fhould be a feventh planet, and move three different motions though to thee infenfible? The three different motions which the Coans attribute to the earth are 'round her own axis, the

the fun, and the mo-
as it is call'd, whereby

Pro

the earth fo proceeds in her orbit, as that her axis is conftantly parallel to the axis of the world. Which elfe to feveral spheres thou muft afcribe, &c. You must either afcribe these motions to several spheres croffing and thwarting one another with crooked and indirect turnings and windings: Or you must attribute them to the earth, and fave the fun his labor and the primum mobile too, that _fwift nocturnal and diurnal rhomb. It was

obferved