Thee, Father, firft they fung Omnipotent, Immutable, Immortal, Infinite, Eternal King; thee Author of all being, Fountain of light, thyfelf invisible 375 Amidst the glorious brightness where thou fitst 377. Thron'd inacceffible, but when thou had ft] The word but here is the fame as except, unless; inacceffible but when thou had ft, that is then only acceffible, when thou fhad'ft &c. Perhaps Milton had in view what Ovid fays of Phoebus when his fon Phaeton came to him, Met. II. 39. -circum caput omne micantes Depofuit radios, propiufque accedere juffit. Pearce. 380. Dark with exceffive bright thy fkirts appear,] Milton has the fame thought of darkness occafion'd by glory, V. 599. Brightnefs bad made invifible. This alfo explains his meaning here; the excefs of brightnefs had the effect of darkness, invifibility. What an idea of glory! the skirts only not to be look'd on by the beings nearest to God, but when doubly 380 Approach or trebly fhaded by a cloud and both wings. What then is the full blaze! Richardfon. In like manner Taffo defcribing the Almighty in Heaven, Cant. 9. St. 57. Quivi ei cofi nel fuo fplendor s'involve, Che v'abbaglian la vifta anco i più degni. The fame thought in Spenfer's Hymn of heavenly Beauty, but more languidly exprefs'd, With the great glory of that wondrous light His throne is all incompaffed around, And hid in his own brightness from the fight Of all that look thereon &c. Thyer. 382. Approach Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes. In whofe confpicuous count'nance, without cloud Whom else no creature can behold; on thee 386 391 He Heav'n of Heav'ns and all the Pow'rs therein Back in Col. I. 15. the first-born of every creature or of all creation, waons xows; and Rev. III. 14. the beginning of the creation of God. 387. Whom elfe no creature can behold;] No creature can otherwife behold the Father but in and through the Son. No man hath feen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bofom of the Father, he hath declared him, John I. 18. But He that hath feen me, bath feen the Father, John XIV. 9. 398. Thee 399 Back from pursuit thy Pow'rs with loud acclame 405 For Man's offenfe. O unexampled love, 410 Love no where to be found lefs than Divine! Hail 398. Thee only extoll'd,] We muft not understand it thus, Thy Powers returning from purfuit extoll'd, &c. but Thy Powers extoll'd thee returning from purfuit, and thee only; for he was the fole victor, all the reft food filent eye-witnesses of his almighty acts, VI. 880. &c. So perfectly doth this hymn of the good Angels agree with the account given by Raphael in Book VI. and whenever mention is made of the good Angels joining in the purfuit, it is by the evil Angels, the reafon VOL. I. Hail Son of God, Saviour of Men, thy name Of this round world, whofe first convex divides 412. Hail Son of God,] So in the conclufion of the hymn to Hercules mention'd before. Æn. VIII. 301. Salve vera Jovis proles, decus ad 413. dite Divis. -the copious matter of my Song] Dr. Bentley reads here our fong; but why may not Milton take the liberty us'd in the ancient chorus, where fometimes the plural, and fometimes the fingular number is ufed? Or it may be faid that Milton speaks in his own perfon, or rather narrates than gives us the words as the words of the Angels. If we read it over, we fhall fee this plainly; Thee firft they fung, ver. 372. and again, Thee next they fang, ver. 383; and this accounts for what Dr. Bentley objects to ver. 381. that Seraphim are mention'd. Pearce. 415 420 Satan It is to be noted that the ending of this hymn is in imitation of the hymns of Homer and Callimachus, who always promise to return in future hymns. Richardfon. 418. Mean while upon the firm &c.] Satan's walk upon the outfide of the universe, which at a distance appeared to him of a globular form, but upon his nearer approach looked like an unbounded plain, is natural and noble: as his roaming upon the frontiers of the creation between that mass of matter, which was wrought into a world, and that shapeless unformed heap of materials, which ftill lay in Chaos and confufion, ftrikes the imagination with fomething aftonifhingly great and wild. Addifon. This fimile is very appofite and 431. As when a vultur &c.] lively, and correfponds exactly in all the particulars. Satan coming from Satan alighted walks: a globe far off It seem'd, now feems a boundless continent 425 Of Chaos bluft'ring round, inclement fky; from Hell to Earth in order to destroy mankind, but lighting first on the bare convex of this world's outermoft orb, a fea of land as the poet calls it, is very fitly compared to a vultur flying, in queft of his prey, tender lambs or kids new-yean'd, from the barren rocks to the more fruitful hills and ftreams of India, but lighting in his way on the plains of Sericana, which were in a manner a fea of land too, the country being fo Imooth and open that carriages were driven (as travelers report) with fails and wind. Imaus is a celebrated mountain in Afia; its name fignifies fnowy in the lanof the inhabitants according guage to Pliny, Lib. 6. cap. 21. incolarum lingua nivofum fignificante; and therefore it is faid here whofe Snowy ridge. It is the boundary to the east of the Weftern Tartars, Whofe who are called roving, as they live chiefly in tents, and remove from place to place for the convenience of pafturage, their herds of cattel and what they take in hunting being their principal fubfiftence. Ganges and Hydafpes are famous rivers of India; and Serica is a region betwixt China to the east and the mountain Imaus to the weft: and what our author here fays of the Chineses, he feems to have taken from Heylin's Cofmography, p. 867. where it is faid, "Agreeable unto the obfervation "of modern writers, the country "is fo plain and level, that they "have carts and coaches driven "with fails, as ordinarily as drawn " with horfes, in these parts." Our author fuppofes these carriages to be made of cane, to render the thing fomewhat more probable. It may be thought the lefs incredible, |