Yet not till the Creator from his work Th' addition of his empire, how it show'd 555 In profpect from his throne, how good, how fair, Answering his great idea. Up he rode Follow'd with acclamation and the found thing that he had made, and behold it was very good: And the evening and the morning were the fixth day. 551. Yet not till the Creator &c.] The poet represents the Meffiah returning into Heaven, and taking a furvey of his great work. There is fomething inexpreffibly fublime in this part of the poem, where the author describes that great period of time, filled with fo many glorious circumftances; when the Heavens and Earth were finish'd; when the Meffiah afcended up in triumph thro' the everlasting gates; when he looked down with pleasure upon his new creation; when every part of 560 Open, nature feem'd to rejoice in its exiftence; when the morning-ftars fang together, and all the fons of God fhouted for joy. Addison. 563. The planets in their fation liftning food,] The word ftation is ufed in a more peculiar fenfe than ufual. The fation of a planet is a term of art, when the planet appears neither to go backwards nor forwards, but to ftand ftill and keep the fame place in its orbit. And what is faid here of the ftars and planets is fomewhat in the fame noble ftrain, as the fong of Deborah, Judg. V. 20. the flars in their courfes fought against Sifera. 565. Open, Open, ye everlafting gates, they fung, let in 565 570 Open, ye Heav'ns, your living doors; Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest 575 580 Powder'd with stars. And now on earth the seventh 565.Open, ye everlafling gates,&c.] Pfal. XXIV. 7. Lift up your heads, Oye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlafting doors; and the king of glory fhall come in. This hymn was fung when the ark of God was carried up into the fanctuary on mount Sion, and is understood as a prophecy of our Saviour's afcenfion into Heaven; and therefore is fitly ap Evening plied by our author to the fame divine Perfon's afcending thither after he had created the world. 578.-as ftars to thee appear, &c.] The pavement of Heaven was as thick fet with ftars, as ftars appear in the galaxy or milky way, which is an affemblage of an infinite number of little ftars, feen diftinctly Evening arofe in Eden, for the fun Was fet, and twilight from the east, came on, 590 Hath Omniprefence) and the work ordain'd, with a telescope, but too faint and As refting on that day from all bis work,] The reafon affign'd by Mofes, and almoft in the very words. Gen. II. 2, 3. God refted on the feventh day from all his work 595 Choral which he created and made: and God bleed the feventh day and fanctify'd it, because that in it he had refted from all his work. 597. All founds on fret by firing or golden wire] On the fingerboard of a bafs-viol, for inftance, are divifions athwart, by which the found is regulated and varied. These divifions are called frets. Richardfon. 599.- of Choral or unifon: of incenfe clouds Fuming from golden cenfers hid the mount. 600 Creation and the fix days acts they fung, Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite Thy pow'r; what thought can measure thee or tongue Relate thee? greater now in thy return Than from the giant Angels; thee that day Thy thunders magnify'd; but to create Is greater than created to deftroy. Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound 599. of incenfe clouds Fuming from golden cenfers hid the mount.] The incenfe fuming from golden cenfers feems to be founded on Rev. VIII. 3, 4. And an Angel came and ftood at the altar, having a golden cenfer; and the fmoke of the incenfe afcended up before God out of the Angel's band. Milton had feen too their manner of incenfing in the churches abroad, and he feems to have approved fomething of it by transferring it to Heaven. And I have known fome very good protestants wish that we had retain'd the moderate but not the fuperftitious ufe of incenfe in our churches, as thinking it might contribute to the fweetnefs and falubrity of those places. 602. Great are thy works, Jehovah, &c.] Milton is gene 605 610 Thou rally truly orthodox. In this hymn the Angels intimate the unity of the Son with the Father, finging to both as one God, Jehovah. 605. Than from the giant Angels;] Dr. Bentley reads the rebel Angels, thinking that the word giant infinuates as if this was as fabulous as that of Jove. But the word infinuates no fuch thing; it is used not to exprefs the ftature and fize of the Angels, but that difpofition of mind, which is always afcribed to giants, viz. a proud, fierce, and afpiring temper. And this the Hebrew word Gibbor fignifies, which is render'd a Pearce. giant in Scripture. Dr. Pearce's conftruction of the word giant, as if it meant only fierce, proud, and afpiring, is in my opi Thou haft repell'd, while impiously they thought Thou useft, and from thence creat'ft more good. nion a little forc'd; nor yet do I think, that there is any reason to change it into rebel, as Dr. Bentley would have it. Milton, I doubt not, intended to allude to Hefiod's giant war, but I don't fee with Dr. Bentley, that therefore he muft infinuate that this relation is as fabulous as that. He probably defign'd by this expreffion to hint his opinion, that the fictions of the Greek poets owed their rife to forme uncertain clouded tradition of this real event, and their giants were, if they had understood the ftory right, his fall'n Angels. Thyer. 619. On the clear hyaline,] This word is exprefs'd from the Greek vn, and is immediately tranflated the glafly fea. For Milton, 615 620 Their when he ufes Greek words, fometimes gives the English with them, as in fpeaking of the rivers of Hell, II. 577. &c. and fo the galaxy he immediately tranflates that milky way. The glaffy fea is the fame as the cryftallin ocean, ver. 271. Kaz ενωπιον το θρόνο θαλασα υαλίνη, qμra xpusaxx. Rev. IV. 6. And before the throne was a fea of glass, like unto cryftal. 621. perhaps a world Of deftin'd habitation;] Milton was not willing to make the Angel affert pofitively that every star was a world defigned to be inhabited, and therefore adds perhaps, this notion of the plurality of worlds being not fo well establish'd in those days as in these. 624. Earth |