And hence the morning planet gilds her horns; First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, 379 His However it would have been more artificial, if the ftru&ure had been different. We know very well that there are parallel inftances even in Homer and Virgil; but tho' fome may think them beauties in Greek and Latin, we think them none in an English poem profeffedly written in blank verfe. In all fuch cafes we must say with Horace, De Arte Poet, 351. Verum ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis Offendar maculis, quas aut incuria fudit, Aut humana parum cavit natura. - 372. jocond to run His longitude through Heav'n's high road;] Dr. Bentley calls longitude here mere nonfenfe; and therefore reads His long carreer through &c. But we must not part with longitude fo eafily: it figniñes the fun's courfe from eaft to weft in a strait and direct line and we find Milton ufing the word after much the fame manner in III. 576. This Paffage alludes to Pfal. XIX. 5. where it is faid of the fun, that be rejoiceth as a giant to run his courfe. C Pearce. 373. the His longitude through Heav'n's high road; the gray Till night, then in the east her turn fhe fhines, 380 Revolv'd on Heav'n's great axle, and her reign +373 the gray iDawn, and the Pleiades before him danc'd Shedding fweet influence:] Thele are beautiful images, and very much refemble the famous picture of the morning by Guido, where the fun is reprefented in his chariot, with the Aurora flying before him fhedding flowers, and feven beautiful nymph-like figures dancing before and about his chariot, which are commonly taken for the Hours, but poffibly may be the Pleiades, as they are feven in number, and it is not eafy to affign a reason why the Hours fhould be fignified by that number particularly. The picture is on a cieling at Rome; but there are copies of it in England, and an excellent print by Jac. Frey. The Pleiades are feven ftars in the neck of the conftellation Taurus, which arifing about the time of the vernal equinox, are called by the Latins Vergilie Our poet therefore in faying that the Pleiades dane'd before the With fun at his creation, intimates very Cum primæ lucem pecudes hau- And when he farther adds shedding fweet influence, it is in allufion to Job XXXVIII. 31. Canft thou bind the fweet influences of Pleiades? 387. And God faid, &c.] This and eleven verfes following are almoft word for word from Genefis I. 20, 21, 22. And God faid, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of Heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after With thousand leffer lights dividual holds, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God bleffed them, faying, Be fruitful and multiphy, and fill the waters in the feas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. This is the general account of the fifth day's creation, and the poet afterwards branches it out into the several particulars. 388. Reptil with Spawn abundant, living foul: By reptil is meant creeping thing; and according to the marginal reading of our English verfion, Gen. I. 20. (which follows the LXX verfion here) creeping things are faid to have been created on this fifth day. Le Clerc too with the generality of interpreters renders the Hebrew word by reptil. To this Dr. Bentley objects that creeping things were created on the fixth day, according to the account given us both by Mofes and by Milton himself. But by reptil or creeping thing here Milton means all fuch 390 And creatures as move in the waters, (fee Le Clerc's note on Gen. I. 20.) and by creeping thing mention'd in the fixth day's creation he means creeping things of the earth; for fo both in Milton's account, ver. 452. and in Gen. I. 24. the words of the earth are to be join'd in conftruction to creeping thing. Hence the Doctor's objection is anfwer'd by faying that they were not the fame creeping things which Milton mentions in the two places. But let us hear how the Doctor propofes to mend the paffage, And God created the great whales, and each Soul living, each that crept, which plenteously And every bird of wing after his kind; 394 And faw that it was good, and blefs'd them, saying, Be fruitful, multiply, and in the feas And lakes and running ftreams the waters fill; And let the fowl be multiply'd on th' earth. Forthwith the founds and feas, each creek and bay. With fry innumerable fwarm, and fhoals 400. With fry innumerable fwarm, &c.] One would wonder how the poet could be fo concife in his description of the fix days works, as to comprehend them within the bounds of an episode, and at the fame time fo particular, as to give us a lively idea of them. This is ftill more remarkable in his account of the fifth and fixth days, in which he has drawn out to our view the whole animal creation from the reptil to the behemoth. As the lion and the leviathan are two of the nobleft productions in the world of living creatures, the reader will find a molt exquifite fpirit of poetry in the account which our author gives us of them. The fixth day concludes with the formation of Man, upon which the Angel takes occafion, as he did after the battel in Heaven, to remind Adam of his obedience, which was the principal defign of this his vifit. Addi fon. 400 Of in fculls that oft Bank the mid fea:] Shoals of fish fo vaft, that they appear like mighty banks in the midft of the fea. Sculls and foals are vaft multitudes of fish, of the Saxon Sceole, an affembly. Hume. Of fish that with their fins and fhining scales In jointed armour watch: on smooth the seal, Wal much refemble one another; and in the civil wars there was a regiment of horfe fo completely arm'd, that they were call'd Sir Arthur Haflerig's lobsters. Poffibly Milton might be thinking of them at this very time. 409. on Smooth the feal, And bended dolphins play:] The feal or fea-calf and the dolphin are obferved to fport on Smooth feas in calm weather. The dolphin is called bended, not that he really is fo more than any other fish, but only appears crooked, as he forms an arch by leaping out of the water and inftantly dropping into it again with his head foremost. Ovid therefore defcribes him tergo delphina recurvo. Faft. II. 113. and his fportive nature is alluded to by Virgil. Æn. V. 594 Delphinum fimiles; qui per maria And |