And furging waves, as mountains, to affault 244 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:91) Nor ftay'd, but on the wings of Cherubimet Uplifted, in paternal glory, rode, oblog dr door sh "214. And surging waves,] We have already given fome inftances where we thought that and and in have been mifprinted the one for the other and I queftion whether in this place we should not read In Surging waves as mountains; for it feems better to say 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 the pole Tis certain that in Chaos was neither center nor pole; fo neither were there any mountains as in the preceding line; the Angel does not fay 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 illuftration he could poflibly have thought of to have given Adam fome idea of the thing Richardfon. 216. Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep peace,] How much does the brevity of the command add to the fublimity and majefty of it! It is the fame kind of beauty that Longinus admires in the Mofaic hiftory of the creation. It T 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 ftill, Mark IV. 39 And how elegantly has he turn'd the commanding words filence and peace, making one the first and the other the laft in the fentence, 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. Saxa per et fcopulos et depreffas convalles : or when he would describe the ma- En. VIII. 679. Far into Chaos, and the world unborn; Creation, and the wonders of his might. Then ftay'd the fervid wheels, and in his hand 220 225 In or great caution and circumfpection, They round the Chaos, round the En. II. 68. giv'n me fire. Hark, peace. 224. the fervid wheels,] Horace's epithet, Od. I. I. 4. Metaque fervidis evitata rotis. Hume. 225. He took the golden compaffes,] Prov. VIII. 27. When he prepared the Heavens I was there; when he fet a compass upon the face of the deep. Dionyf. Perieg. ad finem. Αυτοί γαρ τα πρωτα θεμείλια Topraσano, τους θαλασης, world unborn Firft deign'd their golden compaffes to turn; They thro' the deep chalk'd out Kennet's Life of Dionyfius. Richardfon. The thought of the golden compaffes is conceived altogether in Homer's fpirit, and is a very noble incident in this wonderful defcription. Homer, when he speaks of the Gods, afcribes to them feveral arms and infiruments with the fame greatness 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 Ler In God's eternal ftore, to circumfcribe This univerfe, and all created things: One foot he center'd, and the other turn'd And faid, Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds, 230 ner in one of the Prophets, wherein he defcribes 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, ftretching out the north over the empty place, and hanging the earth upon nothing. This laft noble thought Milton has exprefs'd in the following verse, And Earth felf balanc'd on her center hung, Addison. 232. Thus God the Heaven created, &c] The reader will naturally remark how exactly Milton copies Mofes in his account of the creation. This feventh book of Para 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 God 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 God moved upon the face of the waters. Gen. I. 1, 2. The poet fays watry calm, as the Meffiah had before calmed the deep, ver. 216. and fays outfpread his brooding wings inftead of moved, following the original rather than our tranflation. - then founded, then conthat Mefiah firft purg'd downward glob'd &c.] Milton had faid 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 r His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread, 235 Adverfe to life then founded, then conglob'd Let there be light, faid God, and forthwith light Ethereal, Lucret. V. 438. 241.-and between fpun out the air, And Earth felf balanc'd on her center bung.] From Ovid Met. . 12. but very much improv'd; circumfufo pendebat in aere tellus Ponderibus librata fuis. 243. Let there be light, faid God, were not of the fame nature and fit Cum paribus jungi res &c. Richardson. Diffugere inde loci partes cœpere, parefque 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 pher'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 Sojourn'd the while. God faw the light was good; Divided: light the day, and darkness night 1 250 He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev❜n and morn; Nor past uncelebrated, nor unfung By the celeftial quires, when orient light 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 firft 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 (whofe properties we know are light and heat) which the Almighty produc'd, as a proper inftrument for the preparation and digeftion 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 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 firft day. Gen. I. 4, 5. 253. Nor paft uncelebrated, &c.] The beauties of defcription lie fo very thick, that it is almoft impoffible to enumerate them. The poet has employ'd on them the whole energy of our tongue. The feveral great scenes of the creation rife up to |