Shalt in the sky appear, and from thee fend New 334. The world shall burn, &c.] New Heav'n and Earth, wherein The Heavens being on fire shall be the just shall dwell. disolved, and the elements shall melt Both Heav'n and Earth, wherein with fervent beat; nevertheless we, the just shall dwell. according to his promise, look for new Heavens, and a new Earth, where We may add too, that tho' St. Pe. in dwelleth righteousness, 2 Pet. III. ter says new Heavens and a necu Earth, yet St. John, Rev. XXI. 1. 12, 13 335. New Heav'n and Earth,] and Earth. And I saw a new Hea. makes use of the phrase of Heaven Dr. Bentley reads Heav'ns; for (he says) Heav'n is the seat of God, ven and a new Earth, for the firf Heav'ns are the visible ones, all not Heaven and the first Earth were beyond the fixed stars: but I find passed away. Milton almost always using the 337. See golden days, fruitful of known Jewish phrase of Heaven golden deeds,] and Earth to express the whole Toto surget gens aurea munda. creation by. See instances in VII. 62, 167, 232, 256,617. VIII. 15, Virg. Ecl. IV.9. Hume. 70. X. 638, 647. XI. 66, 901. 341. God small be all in all.) Ace Pearce. cording to 1 Cor. XV. 28. And The last verse cited by Dr. Pearce when all things shall be subdued unis almost the same as this we are to him, then shall the son alfo bimhere considering felf be fubje&t unto him, that put all ye Gods, New Heav'n and Earth, wherein the just shall dwell, And after all their tribulations long 336 See golden days, fruitful of golden deeds, With joy and love triumphing, and fair truth. Then thou thy regal scepter shalt lay by, For regal scepter then no more shall need, 340 God shall be all in all. But all Adore him, who to compass all this dies; Adore the Son, and honor him as me. No sooner had th’Almighty ceas'd, but all The multitude of Angels, with a shout 345 Loud things under him, that God may be this divine dialogue with the all in all. speeches of the Gods in Homer 341. But all ye Gods, and Virgil, he will find the ChriAdore him,] From Psal. XCVII. ftian poet to transcend the Hea7. Worship him, all ye Gods, that is then, as much as the religion of all ye Angels; and so it is translated the one surpasses that of the others. by the Seventy, and so it is cited Their deities talk and act like men, by St. Paul, Heb. I. 6. And let all but Milton's divine Persons are di the Angels of God worship him. vine Persons indeed, and talk in 343. Adore the Son, and honor the language of God, that is in him as me. ] That all men the language of Scripture. He is jould honor the Son, even as they so very fcrupulous and exact in this bonor the Father. John V. 23. particular, that perhaps there is not 344. No sooner had th Almighty a single expression, which may not ceas'd, &c.] The close of be justify'd by the authority of this divine colloquy, with the hymn holy Writ. We have taken notice of Angels that follows upon it, of several, where he seems to have are so wonderfully beautiful and copied the letter of Scripture, and poetical, that I mould not forbear the spirit of Scripture breathes in inserting the whole, if the bounds all the rest. of my paper would give me leave. 345. The multitude of Angels, &c.] Addison. The construction is this, All the If the reader pleases to compare multitude of Angels uttering joy witb Loud as from numbers without number, sweet 351 Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold; Immortal amarant, a flow'r which once In a shout loud as &c. Heav'n rung, lasting amarant, which he has finely &c. where the first words are put set near the tree of life. Amaranin the ablative cafe absolutely. tus flos, fymbolum eft immortaliPearce. tatis. Clem. Alexand. Hume. 351. down they caft 357 the fount of life, ana Their crowns] So they are repre-, river of bliss] The abunsented Rev. IV. 10. The four and dant happiness and immortal joys twenty elders fall down before him of Heaven are in Scripture gethat sat on the throne, and worship nerally expressd by the fountain him that liveth for ever and ever, of life and rivers of pleasure: So, and caft their crowns before the Thou shalt make them drink of the throne. river of thy pleasures, for with thee 353. Immortal amarant,) Ama- is the fountain of life, Psal. XXXVI. rant Afce9.16 Greek, for un- 8, 9. For the Lamb which is in the fading, that decayeth not; a fower midst of the throne shall feed them, of a purple velvet color, which and hall lead them unto living tho'gather’d, keeps its beauty, and fountains of waters, Rev. VII. 17. when all other fowers fade, reco. and Rev. XXII. 1. He showed me vers its lustre by being sprinkled a pure river of water of life. with a little water, as Pliny affirms, Hume. Lib. 21. C. II. Our author seems 359. Rolls o'er Elysian flow'rs to have taken this hint from 1 Pet. ber amber Aream;] Dr. BentI. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, ley reads Rolls" o'er relucent gems undefiled, and that fadeth not away, &c. because (he says) it is not well Quaegilor: and i Pet. V. 4. re conceiv'd that flow'rs grow at the shall receive a crown of glory that bottom of a river. But (as Dr. Pearce fadeth not away, duceaulmo : both replics) Milton's words don't necefrelating to the name of his ever- farily imply so much; the river In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, 355 To Heav'n remov’d, where first it grew, grows, Now might only sometimes roll over Ran nectar, visiting each plant, them, to water them. And yet and fed (says Dr. Pearce) I am rather in Flow'rs worthy of Paradise. clin'd to think, that the poet here And by over means through or among. as there they are flow'rs worthy So Mr. Jortin understands Rolls d'er of Paradise, so here they are worthy for rolls through or by; and observes of Elyfium, the region of the Bler. that Horace uses the verb præterire sed: and he makes use of the same in much the same manner, Od. IV. expression in his poem callid L'AL legro, et decrescentia ripas From golden slumber on a bed Flumina prætereunt, Of heap'd Elysian flow'rs. roll by and within their banks. But And then as to his calling it amber if we understand the passage as it Aream, it is only on account of its is express’d, there is no kind of ab- clearness and transparency, and furdity in it; for we frequently see not at all on account of its color, grass and weeds and flowers grow- that he compares it to amber. The ing under water : and we may clearness of amber was proverbial therefore suppose the finest flowers among the Ancients ; Callimachus to grow at the bottom of the river in his hymn to Ceres, ver. 29. has of bliss, or rather the river to roll ahexleivov Úswp; and in like manover them sometimes, to water ner Virgil says of a river, Georg. them. The author seems to in- III. 522. tend much the same thing that he Purior electro campum petit amnis. has expressed in IV. 240. 'where speaking of the brooks in Paradise 360. With these that never fade) he says they Dr. Bentley reads with this that VII. 3. Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright 364 Thee, never fades, that is amarant. But 364. Impurpled with celestial roses these is right, and refers to crowns mild.] A word very famispoken of in ver. 352. all the in- liar with Spenser from the Italian termediate verses being in a paren- imporporaro. Fairy Queen, B. 3. thefis. Milton alludes here to Cant. 7. St. 16. 1 Pet. V. 4. Ye shall receive a crown Oft from the forest wildings he of glory that fadeth not away. did bring, Pearce. Or perhaps these may more pro Whofe fides impurpled were with bably refer to Elysian flow'rs men. smiling red tion'd in the verse preceding. It Marino Ad. Cant. 4. St. 291. is more natural and easy, and agrees L'Hore spogliando de lor fregi i better with what follows, with their prati being thrown off in looję garlands; Tutto di rose imporporare il Cielo. which it is better to understand of flow'rs than of crowns, which are themselves garlands: but then there 372. Thee, Father, forft they fung must be no parenthesis, as there is &c.] This hymn seems to be comnone in Milton's own editions. posed somewhat in the spirit and 363..--- like a fea of jasper shone,] manner of the hymn to Hercules Jasper is a precious stone of fe in the 8th book of the Æneid; veral colors, but the green is most but is as much superior as the subesteem'd, and bears some fimilitude ject of the one transcends that of and resembl nce to the sea. the other, 377. Thron'd Thyer. |