And reverence thee their great progenitor. But this preeminence thou' hast lost, brought down God is as here, and will be found alike 350 360 Which that thou may'st believe, and be confirm'd 355 This hill;] The angel afterwards leads Adam to the highest mount of Paradise, and lays before him a whole hemisphere, as a proper stage for those visions which were to be represented on it. I have before observed how the plan of Milton's poem is in many particulars greater than that of the Iliad or Æneid. Ascend 365 poems, is entertained with a sight of all those who are to descend from him; but though that episode is justly admired as one of the noblest designs in the whole Eneid, every one must allow that this of Milton is of a much higher nature. Adam's vision is not confined to any particular tribe of mankind, but extends to the whole species. Addison. This hill; let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes) 370 Thou lead'st me', and to the hand of Heav'n submit, However chast❜ning, to the evil turn My obvious breast, arming to overcome By suffering, and earn rest from labour won, If so I may attain. So both ascend In the visions of God: It was a hill Of Paradise the highest, from whose top 375 Stretch'd out to th' amplest reach of prospect lay. 380 367. let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes) Here sleep below,] It may be asked, why Eve was not permitted to see this vision, as she had no less occasion than Adam thereby to learn true patience but Milton here only continues the same decorum which he had before observed, when he made Eve retire upon Raphael's beginning his conference with Adam, Book viii. Besides, the tenderness of the female mind could not be sup posed able to bear the shocking scenes which were going to be represented. Thyer. 367. Drenched with the dews of sleep. Compare Comus, 996. -drenches with Elysian dew. T. Warton. Quicquid erit, superanda omnis for tuna ferendo est. 377. In the visions of God:] A Scripture expression, Ezek. viii. 3. And the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem. And again, Ezek. xl. 2. In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain. And these may very properly be called the visions of God, not only for discovering things future, but likewise for the extensiveness of the prospect, such as no human eye could reach. For upon the highest mountain the eye can command only a small part of the hemisphere by reason of the roundness of the earth; but here a whole hemisphere lay stretched out to view at once like a plain. Not high'er that hill nor wider looking round, To shew him all earth's kingdoms and their glory. Of mightiest empire, from the destin❜d walls 381. Not high'er that hill &c.] That hill was not higher, whereon the devil set our Saviour (the second man, 1 Cor. xv. 47. the last Adam, ver. 45.) to show him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, Matth. iv. 8. The prospects are well compared together, and the first thought of the one might probably be taken from the other: and as the one makes part of the subject of Paradise Lost, so doth the other of Paradise Regained. 387. from the destin'd walls Of Cambalu, &c.] He first takes a view of Asia, and there of the northern parts, the destined walls, not yet in being, but designed to be, (which is to be understood of all the rest,) of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can, the principal city of Cathay, a province of Tartary, the ancient seat of the Chams, and Samarchand by Oxus, the chief city of Zagathaian Tartary, near the river Oxis, Temir's throne, the birth-place and royal residence of Tamerlane; and from the northern he passes to the eastern and southern parts of Asia, to Paquin or Pekin of Sinaan kings, the royal city of China, the country of the an 385 lemy, and thence to Agra and Lahor, two great cities in the empire of the great Mogul, down to the golden Chersonese, that is, Malacca, the most southern promontory of the East-Indies, so called on account of its riches, to distinguish it from the other Chersoneses or peninsulas, or where the Persian in Ecbatan sat, Ecbatana, formerly the capital city of Persia, or since in Hispahan, the capital city at present, or where the Russian Ksar, the Czar of Muscovy, in Moscow, the metropolis of all Russia, or the Sultan in Bizance, the Grand Signior in Constantinople, formerly Byzantium, Tur chestan-born, as the Turks came from Turchestan, a province of Tartary; he reckons these to Asia, as they are adjoining, and great part of their territories lie in Asia. He passes now into Africa; nor could his eye not ken th' empire of Negus, the Upper Ethiopia, or the land of the Abyssinians, subject to one sovereign, styled in their own language Negus or king, and by the Europeans Prestor John, to his utmost port Ercoco, or Erquico on the Red Sea, the north-east boundary of the Abyssinian empire, and the less ma Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can, on the sea coast, Mombaza, and Quiloa, and Melind, all near the line in Zanguebar, a great region of the lower Ethiopia, on the eastern or Indian sea, and subject to the Portuguese, and Sofala thought Ophir, another kingdom and city on the same sea, mistaken by Purchas and others for Ophir, whence Solomon brought gold, to the realm of Congo, a kingdom in the lower Ethiopia on the western shore, as the others were on the eastern, and Angola farthest south, another kingdom south of Congo; Or thence from Niger flood, the river Niger that divides Negroland into two parts, to Atlas mount, in the most western parts of Africa, the kingdoms of Almansor, the countries over which Almansor was king, namely, Fez, and Sus, Morocco, and Algiers, and Tremisen, all kingdoms in Barbary. After Africa he comes to Europe, On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway the world the less is said of Europe as it is so well known. In spirit perhaps he also saw, he could not see it otherwise, as America was on the opposite 390 395 side of the globe, rich Mexico in North America the seat of Montezume, who was subdued by the Spanish general Cortes, and Cusco in Peru in South America, the richer seat of Atabalipa, the last emperor, subdued by the Spanish general Pizarro, and yet unspoiled Guiana, another country of South America not then invaded and spoiled, whose great city, namely, Manhoa, Geryon's sons, the Spaniards from Geryon, an ancient king of Spain, call El Dorado or the golden city, on account of its richness and extent. And thus he surveys the four dif ferent parts of the world, but it must be confessed, more with an ostentation of learning, than with any additional beauty to the poem. But Mr. Thyer is of opinion, that such little sallies of the muse agreeably enough diversify the scene, and observes that Tasso, whose Godfrey is no very imperfect model of a regular epic poem, has in his fifteenth Canto employed thirty or forty stanzas together in a description of this sort, which had no necessary connection with his general plan. Turchestan-born; nor could his eye not ken 400 On Europe thence, and where Rome was to sway 405 Rich Mexico the seat of Montezume, 409. —and yet unspoil'd Guiana.] I suppose Milton alluded to the many frustrated voyages, which had been made in search of this golden country. This was the famous place that Sir Walter Raleigh was to have brought such treasures from. Thyer. 411. but to nobler sights Michael from Adam's eyes the film remov'd.] These which follow are nobler sights, being not only of cities and kingdoms, but of the principal actions of men to the final consummation of things. And to prepare Adam for these sights the angel removed the film from his eyes, as Pallas removed the mists from Diomedes' eyes, 410 The shape of each avenging deity. |