• In which of all these shining orbs hath man "His fixed seat, or fixed seat hath none, But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell; © That I may find him, and, with secret gaze, Or open admiration, him behold, 670 "Ou whom the great Creator hath bestowed Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces poured; 675 "The universal Maker we may praise; Who justly hath driven out his rebel foes *To deopost Holl; and, to repair that loss, "Created this now happy race of men "Tu serve him better; wise are all his ways!” 680 Mu apake the false dissembler unperceived; For moither mau nor angel can discern Hypocrisy (tho only evil that walks Tuvisible, except to God alone, My his permissive will, through Heaven and Earth: And out, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps 111 dou's gate, and to Simplicity 685 Hoagus her charge, while Goodness thinks no ill 690 "kice aged phy desire, which tends to know *The words of tiod, thereby to glority 695 "Pagroad Wasser, leads to no excess • wa chine eyes what some, perhaps, 700 " howing why the sharpest-sighted spirit in deletion to the great art with which at make tant de dades de dere moral sentiment, by throwing op de patys 4 x44 44d deadetu diegoci, & ANI–489. I * For wonderful indeed are all his works, 66 “Light stone, and arter fram tisorter spring "Still ending, still renewing, through mid Heaven, "Adam's abode; those lofty shades his bower: 730 "Thy way thou canst not miss,-me mine requires." 735 Thus said, he turned; and Satan, bowing low, (As to superior Spirits is wont in Heaven, 740 1 Her countenance triform,-namely, as seen in the new, full, and waning moon. The ancients gave this epithet, "Triform," to Diana, from her character, threefold as goddess of the moon, whence she was called Luna in Heaven: goddess of the chace, in which capacity she was known and worshipped as Diana on earth: and as goddess of the lower regions, under the name of Hecate or Proserpine. 2 Niphates, a mountain of Armenia, near the supposed site of Paradise. BOOK IV. THE ARGUMENT. SATAN, now in prospect of Eden, and nigh the place where he must now attempt the bold enterprise which he undertook alone against God and man, falls into many doubts with himself, and many passions, fear, envy, and despair; but at length confirms himself in evil, journeys on to Paradise, whose outward prospect and situation is described; overleaps the bounds; sits in the shape of a cormorant on the Tree of Life, as the highest in the garden, to look about him. The garden described; Satan's first sight of Adam and Eve; his wonder at their excellent form and happy state, but with resolution to work their fall; overhears their discourse; thence gathers that the Tree of Knowledge was forbidden them to eat of, under penalty of death; and thereon intends to found his temptation, by seducing them to transgress: then leaves them awhile to know further of their state by some other means. Meanwhile Uriel, descending on a sunbeam, warns Gabriel, who had in charge the gate of Paradise, that some evil spirit had escaped the deep, and passed at noon by his sphere in the shape of a good angel down to Paradise, discovered afterwards by his furious gestures on the mount. Gabriel promises to find him ere morning. Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest; their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel, drawing forth his bands of night-watch to walk the round of Paradise, appoints two strong angels to Adam's bower, lest the evil spirit should be there doing some harm to Adam or Eve sleeping; there they find him at the ear of Eve, tempting her in a dream, and bring him, though unwilling, to Gabriel; by whom questioned, he scornfully answers; prepares resistance; but, hindered by a sign from Heaven, flies out of Paradise. 1 O, FOR that warning voice, which he who saw 10 for that warning voice,-See Rev. xii. 2. 5 While time was, our first parents had been warned 10 15 His troubled thoughts, and from the bottom stir He brings, and round about him, nor from Hell By change of place: now conscience wakes despair 1 The accuser of mankind,-So he is represented, Rev. xii. 10. 2 The bitter memory of what he was, what is, &c.-Memory, in its ordinary sense, applies to the past; but here, by an extension of its meaning, it is used for reflection, or consideration of the present, and forecasting of the future. The Latin word memor, by a similar extension of meaning, is applied to the future as well as the past. 30 thou that with surpassing glory crowned,-This sublime speech,-of which it is the highest praise to say that it is super-eminently Miltonic,has been happily compared to the successive changes which take place in a "tempest in a dark night, when the thunder and lightning roar and flash, and then intermit, and then redouble again." BR. At the best, the wicked is like "the troubled sea;" but in this striking address to the Sun, we have set before us not only the restless sea, but the fitful working of the tempest that lashes it to fury. |