1 With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean brim, 140 In various ftile; for neither various stile Nor holy rapture wanted they to praise 145 Flow'd from their lips, in profe or numerous verfe, 151 To 145.-each morning duly paid 153. These are thy glerious works, God's works, and awaken that divine enthufiafin, which is fo natural to devotion. But if this calling upon the dead parts of nature is at all times a proper kind of worfhip, it was in a particular manner faitable to our first parents, who had the creation freth upon their minds, and had not feen the various difpenfations of Providence, nor confequently could be acquainted with thofe many topics of praife, which might afford matter to the devotions of their pofterity. Ineed not remark the beautiful spirit of poetry, which runs thro' this whole hymn, nor the holiness of that refolution with which it concludes. Aadifon. The To add more fweetnefs; and they thus began. These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, Almighty, thine this univerfal frame, Thus wondrous fair; thyfelf how wondrous then! Unfpeakable, who fitft above these Heavens To us invisible, or dimly feen In these thy loweft works; yet these declare The author has raised our expectation by commending the various file, and holy rapture, and prompt eloquence of our first parents; and indeed the hymn is truly divine, and will fully anfwer all that we expected. It is an imitation, or rather a fort of paraphrafe of the 148th Pfalm, and (of what is a paraphrafe upon that) the Canticle placed after Te Deum in the Liturgy, O all works of the Lord, bels ye the Lord, &c. which is the fong of the three children in the Аросгурһа. ye 155.-thyself how wondrous then!] Wild XIII. 3. 4, 5. With whoje beauty, if they being delighted, took them to Gods; let them know how much better the Lord of them is: for 156 160 On Earth join all ye Creatures to extol Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. 165 Faireft of ftars, laft in the train of night, If better thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn the throne of God, and ferve him day and night in his temple. But fill it was day without night, that is without fuch night as ours, for the darkness there is no more than grateful twilight. Night comes not there in darker veil. See ver. 645. of this book. and foul, 170 Acknow Lucifer, et cæli ftatione noviffimus exit. The stars were fled, for Lucifer had chas'd The ftars away, and fled himself at laft. Addifon. I don't know whether it is worth 165. Him firft, bim laft, him midft,] remarking that our author feems to Theccrit. Idyl. XVII 3. have committed a mistake. The pla- Acknowledge him thy greater, found his praise 172. Acknowledge him thy greater,] It is not an improbable reading which Dr. Bentley propofes Arknowledge him Creator, or as Mr. Thyer Acknowledge thy Creator: but I fuppofe the author made ufe of greater anfwering to great. Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and foul, Acknowledge him thy greater. So Ovid calls the fun the eye of the world, Mundi oculus, Met. IV. 228. And Pliny the foul, Nat. Hift. Lib. 1. c. 6. Hunc mundi effe totius animum. And the expreffion thy greater may be fitly parallel'd with thy fiercest IV. 927. and his greater in Paradife Regain'd I. 279. 173. In thy eternal courfe,] In thy continual courfe. Thus Virgil calls the fun, moon and ftars eternal fires, Æn. II. 154. Vos, aterni ignes; and the facred fire that was conftantly kept burning eternal fire, Æn. II. 297. · Air, Eternumque adytis effert penetralibus ignem: and ufes the adverb æternum in the fame manner for continually. Georg. II. 400. -glebaque verfis Eternum frangenda bidentibus. 175. Moon, that now meet'ft the orient fun, now fly'ft, &c.] The conftru&tionis, Thou Moon, that now meet'ft and now fly'ft the orient fun, together with the fix'd ftars, and ye five other wand'ring fires &c. He had before called upon the fun who governs the day, and now he invokes the moon, and the fix'd ftars, and the planets who govern the night, to praise their Maker. The moon fometimes meets and fometimes flies the fun, approaches to and recedes from him in her monthly courfe. With the fix'd ftars, fix'd in their orb that flies; they are fix'd in their orb, but their orb flies, that is moves round with the utmoft rapidity; for Adam is Air, and ye Elements, the eldest birth 180 ceaseless change And nourish all things; let your is made to speak according to ap. pearances, and he mentions in another place, VIII. 19 and 21. their rolling spaces incomprehenfible, and their jawift return diurnal. And ye five other wandring fires. Dr. Bentley reads four, Venus and the Sun and Moon being mention'd before, and only four more remaining, Mercury and Mars and Jupiter and Sa And we muft either fuppote Milton did not confider the morning far as the planet Venus; or he must be fuppofed to include the earth, to make up the other five, befides thofe he had menti n'd; and he calls it ellewhere VIII. 129. The planet earth; tho' this be not agreeable to the fyftem, according to which he is fpeaking at prefent. Wand'ring fires in oppofition to fix'd ftars. That move in myftic dance not without fong, alluding to the doctrin of the An |