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Held by thy voice, thy potent voice, he hears,
And longer will delay to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rising birth
Of nature from the unapparent deep:
Or if the star of evening and the moon

Haste to thy audience, night with her will bring
Silence, and sleep list'ning to thee will watch,
Or we can bid his absence, till thy song
End, and dismiss thee ere the morning shine.
Thus Adam his illustrious guest besought:
And thus the Godlike Angel answer'd mild.
This also thy request with caution ask'd
Obtain though to recount almighty works
What words or tongue of Seraph can suffice,
Or heart of man suffice to comprehend?

suspense in heaven
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice

he hears,

for after it is said he is held suspense in heaven by thy voice, to say he hears thy voice is poor and low indeed. He must hear it before he can be held by it. We have therefore followed the punctuation of Dr. Pearce; and the sense seems plain, as he has pointed these verses, Held by thy potent voice, he hears suspense in heaven, that is, he stops and hearkens, he stays and is attentive. The poets often feign the rivers to stop their course, and other inanimate parts of nature to hear the songs of Orpheus and the like, Virg. Ecl. viii. 4.

Et mutata suos requierunt flumina

cursus.

Nay charms and verses can

100

105

110

bring the moon down from hea

ven,

Carmina vel cœlo possunt deducere lunam: ver. 69.

and well therefore may Milton suppose the sun to delay, suspended in heaven, to hear the angel tell his generation, and especially since we read that the sun did stand still at the voice of Joshua.

103. unapparent deep :] Where nothing was to be seen according to Gen. i. 2. Darkness was upon the face of the deep. Hume.

110. And thus the Godlike angel answer'd mild.] The angel's encouraging our first parents in a modest pursuit after knowledge, with the causes which he assigns for the creation of the world, are very just and beautiful. Addison.

Yet what thou canst attain, which best may serve 115

To glorify the Maker, and infer

Thee also happier, shall not be withheld
Thy hearing, such commission from above
I have receiv'd, to answer thy desire

Of knowledge within bounds; beyond abstain
To ask, nor let thine own inventions hope
Things not reveal'd, which th' invisible King,
Only omniscient, hath suppress'd in night,
To none communicable in earth or heaven :
Enough is left besides to search and know.
But knowledge is as food, and needs no less
Her temp❜rance over appetite, to know
In measure what the mind may well contain ;
Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly', as nourishment to wind.

Know then, that after Lucifer from heaven (So call him, brighter once amidst the host Of angels, than that star the stars among)

116.

and infer Thee happier,] And by inference make thee happier.

121. nor let thine own inventions hope] Milton seems here to allude to Eccles. vii. 20. they have sought out many inventions; which commentators explain by reasonings. Pearce.

Thus they provoked him to anger with their own inventions, Psalm cvi. 29. The two following lines are almost a literal translation of these two in Horace, Od. iii. xxix.

Prudens futuri temporis exitum
Caliginosa nocte premit Deus.

122.

120

125

130

Thyer.

-th' invisible King,]

17.

As God is styled in Scripture
the invisible King, 1 Tim.
so this is the properest epithet
that could have been employed
here, when he is speaking of
things not revealed, suppressed in
night, to none communicable in
earth or heaven, neither to men
nor angels, as it is said of the
day of judgment, Matt. xxiv.
36. Of that day and hour know-
eth no man, no not the angels of

Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son return'd
Victorious with his saints, th' omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld

Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.
At least our envious foe hath fail'd, who thought
All like himself rebellious, by whose aid

135

140

This inaccessible high strength, the seat
Of deity supreme, us dispossess'd,

He trusted to have seiz'd, and into fraud

Drew many, whom their place knows here no more;
Yet far the greater part have kept, I see,

Their station, heav'n yet populous retains
Number sufficient to possess her realms

Though wide, and this high temple to frequent
With ministeries due and solemn rites:
But lest his heart exalt him in the harm
Already done, to have dispeopled heaven,
My damage fondly deem'd, I can repair

135. Into his place,] As the traitor Judas is said likewise to go to his own place, Acts i.

25.

143. and into fraud Drew many,]

Fraud in common acceptation means no more than deceit, but often signifies misfortune. Milton, who so constantly makes Latin or Greek of English, does it here, and extends the idea to the misery, the punishment consequent upon the deceit, as well as the deceit itself. So that Satan is said here, not only to have drawn many into fraud, not only that he

145

150

allur'd them, and with lies Drew after him the third part of heav'n's host,

as v. 709. but that he ruin'd as well as cheated them, i. 609.

Millions of spirits for his fault
amerc'd

Of heav'n, and from eternal splen-
dours flung
For his revolt.

Richardson.

144. -whom their place knows here no more;] A Scripture expression, Job vii. 10. neither shall his place know him any more. Psal. ciii. 16. and the place thereof shall know it no

more.

That detriment, if such it be to lose
Self-lost, and in a moment will create

Another world, out of one man a race
Of men innumerable, there to dwell,
Not here, till by degrees of merit rais'd

They open to themselves at length the way

Up hither, under long obedience tried,

155

And earth be chang'd to heav'n, and heav'n to earth, One kingdom, joy and union without end.

161

Mean while inhabit lax, ye pow'rs of heaven,

And thou my Word, begotten Son, by thee
This I perform, speak thou, and be it done:
My overshadowing Spi'rit and might with thee
I send along; ride forth, and bid the deep

154. and in a moment] Our author seems to favour the opinion of some divines, that God's creation was instantaneous, but the effects of it were made visible and appeared in six days in condescension to the capacities of angels; and is so related by Moses in condescension to the capacities of men.

160. And earth be chang'd to heav'n, and heav'n to earth,] Milton's meaning seems to have been this, that earth would be so happy in being inhabited by obedient creatures, that it would be changed to, i. e. resemble, heaven; and heaven by receiving those creatures would in this resemble earth, that it would be stocked with men for its inhabitants. Pearce.

Or thus in short, the angels frequently visiting earth, and

165

162. Mean while inhabit lax,] Dwell more at large, there being more room now than there was before the rebel angels were expelled, or than there will be after men are translated to heaven. If this be the meaning, we cannot much commend the beauty of the sentiment, as it intimates that the angels might be straitened for room in hea

ven.

165. My overshadowing Spirit] As God's Spirit is said to do, Luke i. 35. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: and we read Gen. i. 2. that the Spirit of God moved, or rather brooded, upon the face of the waters. The Spirit of God co-operated in the creation, and therefore is said to be sent along with the Son.

Within appointed bounds be heav'n and earth,
Boundless the deep, because I am who fill
Infinitude, nor vacuous, the space.
Though I uncircumscrib'd myself retire,
And put not forth my goodness which is free
To act or not, necessity and chance
Approach not me, and what I will is fate.

So spake th' Almighty, and to what he spake
His Word, the filial Godhead, gave effect.
Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion, but to human ears
Cannot without procéss of speech be told,
So told as earthly notion can receive.
Great triumph and rejoicing was in heaven,

When such was heard declar'd th' Almighty's will;
Glory they sung to the Most High, good will

168. Boundless the deep, &c.] The sense is, the deep is boundless, but the space contained in it is not vacuous and empty, because there is an infinitude

and I fill it. Though I, who am myself uncircumscribed, set bounds to my goodness, and do not exert it every where, yet neither necessity nor chance influence my actions, &c. Pearce. 173. and what I will is fate.] From Lucan, v. 91.

Deus magnusque potensque Sive canit fatum, seu quod jubet ipse canendo

Fit fatum.

Bentley.

Or from Statius, Theb. i. 212.

grave et immutabile sanctis Pondus adest verbis, et vocem fata sequuntur.

170

175

180

An expression borrowed from
Tasso. where Satan, mimicking
the Deity, says to his followers,
Sia destin ciò, ch' io voglio-
Gier. Lib. cant. iv. st. 17.

Or rather from Claudian, De
Rapt. Pros. ii. 306.

Sit fatum quodcunque voles.

Thyer.

182. Glory they sung to the Most High, &c.] The angels are very properly made to sing the same divine song to usher in the creation, that they did to usher in the second creation by Jesus Christ, Luke ii. 14. And we cannot but approve_Dr. Bentley's emendation, Glory they sung to God most high,

instead of to the Most High, as it improves the measure of the Jortin. verse, is more opposed to men

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