In God's eternal store, to circumscribe This universe, and all created things: 232. Thus God the heav'n created, &c.] The reader will naturally remark how exactly Milton copies Moses in his account of the creation. This seventh book of Paradise Lost may be called a larger sort of paraphrase upon the first chapter of Genesis. Milton not only observes the same series and order, but preserves the very words as much as he can, as we may see in this and other instances. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth; and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face 230 235 of the deep; and the Spirit of 239. -then founded, then conglob'd &c.] Milton had said that Messiah first purged downward the infernal dregs which were adverse to life; and that then of things friendly to life he founded and conglobed like to like, that is he caused them to assemble and associate together: the rest, that is, such things as were not of the same nature and fit for composing the earth, went off to other places, perhaps to form the planets and fixed stars. This seems to be Milton's meaning. Pearce. Like things to like, the rest to several place Let there be light, said God, and forthwith light Here it will be of use to recur to the account in iii. 708. The earthy, watery, airy, and fiery particles, which before were blended promiscuously, were now combined and fixed as a foundation; for founded does either signify that from fundare, or to melt from fundere; this latter it cannot mean, it was already fluid. Thus Psalm lxxxix. 11. As for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. So Prov. iii. 19. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth. The rest must be something different from the now elementary bodies, and that (iii. 716.) is determined to be the ethereal quintessence of which the heavenly luminous bodies were formed. Richardson. Diffugere inde loci partes cœpere, paresque Cum paribus jungi res &c. 240 This is the passage that Longinus particularly admires; and no doubt its sublimity is greatly owing to its conciseness; but our poet enlarges upon it, endeavouring to give some account how light was created the first day, when the sun was not formed till the fourth day. He says, that it was sphered in a radiant cloud, and so journeyed round the earth in a cloudy tabernacle; and herein he is justified by the authority of some commentators; though others think this light was the light of the sun, which shone as yet very imperfectly, and did not appear in full lustre till the fourth day. It is most probable, that by light (as it was produced the first day) we must not understand the darting of rays from a luminous body, such as do now proceed from the sun, but those particles of matter which we call fire, (whose properties we know are light and heat,) which the Almighty produced, as a proper instrument for the preparation and digestion of other matter. So Bp. Patrick upon the text. However it be, Milton's account is certainly very poetical, though you may not allow it to be the most philosophical, and is agreeable to the description before quoted from Vida. See Mr. Thyer's note upon ver. 211. Sprung from the deep, and from her native east Sojourn'd the while. God saw the light was good; He nam'd. Thus was the first day ev'n and morn: By the celestial quires, when orient light 247. Spher'd in a radiant cloud,] So Shakespeare, Troil. Cress. a. i. sc. 3. -The glorious planet Sol T. Warton. 245 250 255 evening and the morning were the first day. Gen. i. 4, 5. 253. Nor past uncelebrated, &c.] The beauties of description lie so very thick, that it is almost impossible to enumerate them. The poet has employed on them the whole energy of our tongue. The several great scenes of the creation rise up to view one after another, in such a manner, that the reader seems present at this wonderful work, and to assist among the quires of angels, who are the spectators of it. How glorious is the conclusion of the first day! Addison. 256. -with joy and shout The hollow universal orb they filled,] Job xxxviii. 4, 7. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? And with this joy and shout they great round (as it is called ver. filled the hollow universal orb, the 267.) of the universe. The hollow universal orb they fill'd, And touch'd their golden harps, and hymning prais'd God and his works, Creator him they sung, Both when first evening was, and when first morn. 260 Again, God said, Let there be firmament Amid the waters, and let it divide The waters from the waters: and God made In circuit to the uttermost convex Of this great round: partition firm and sure, 261. Again, God said, &c.] When he makes God speak, he adheres closely to the words of Scripture. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters, Gen. i. 6. But when he says that God made the firmament, he explains what is meant by the firmament. The Hebrew word, which the Greeks render by GTEgwua, and our translators by firmament, signifies expansion: it is rendered expansion in the margin of our Bibles, and Milton rightly explains it by the expanse of elemental air. 264. —liquid air,] Virg. Æn. vi. 202. liquidumque per aëra. 267. —partition firm and sure,] For its certainty not solidity. St. Augustin upon Genesis. It is not called firmament as being a solid body, but because it is a bound or term between the upper and nether waters; a partition firm and immoveable, not upon 265 firmness and intransgressibility. 268. The waters underneath They who understand the fir- Dividing for as earth, so he the world Of Chaos far remov'd, lest fierce extremes beams of his chambers in the 274. And Heav'n he named the firmament:] So Gen. i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. But it may seem strange if the firmament means the air and atmosphere, that the air should be called heaven: but so it is frequently in the language of the 270 275 του Hebrews and in the style of Scripture. In this very chapter, ver. 20. it is said, fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. So in Ps. civ. 12. By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches. And Matt. vi. 26, what we translate the fowls of the air is in the original the fowls of heaven, тa Tiruva spars. So again, Rev. xix. 17, the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven. And we read often in Scripture of the rain of heaven, and the clouds of heaven. The truth is, there were three heavens in the account of the Hebrews. Mention is made of the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2. The first heaven is the air, as we have shewn, wherein the clouds move and the birds fly; the second is the starry heaven, and the third heaven is the habitation of the angels and the seat of God's glory. Milton is speaking here of the first heaven, as he mentions the others in other places. |