883 PARADISE LOST. HA BOOK III. AIL holy Light, ofspring of Heav'n first-born, May I express thee' unblam'd? fince God is light, Horace advifes a poet to confider thoroughly the nature and force of his genius. Milton feems to have known perfectly well, wherein his ftrength lay, and has therefore chosen a fubject entirely conformable to those talents, of which he was mafter. As his genius was wonderfully turned to the fublime, his fubject is the nobleft that could have entered into the thoughts of man. Every thing that is truly great and aftonishing has a place in it. The whole fyftem of the intellectual world, the Chaos and the Creation; Heaven, Earth, and Hell, enter into the conftitu, tion of his poem. Having in the firft and fecond books reprefented the infernal world with all its horrors, the thread of his fable naturally leads him into the oppofit regions of blifs and glory. Addifon. 1. Hail boly Light, &c.] Our author's addrefs to Light, and lamentation of his own blindnefs may perhaps be cenfur'd as an excreIcence or digreffion not agreeable to the rules of epic poetry; but yet this is fo charming a part of the poem, that the moft critical And reader, I imagin, cannot wish it were omitted. One is even pleased with a fault, if it be a fault, that is the occafion of fo many beauties, and acquaints us fo much with the circumstances and character of the author. 2. Or of th' eternal coeternal beam May I express thee' unblam'd?] Or may I without blame call thee, the coeternal beam of the eternal God? The Ancients were very cautious and curious by what names they addrefs'd their deities, and Milton in imitation of them queftions whether he fhould addrefs the Light as the first-born of Heaven, or as the coeternal beam of the eternal Father, or as a pure ethereal ftream whofe fountain is unknown: But as the fecond appellation feems to afcribe a proper eternity to Light, Milton very juftly doubts whether he might use that without blame. fince God is light, And-in unapproached light Delt From 1 John I. 5: God is light, and in him is no darkefs at all. And Tim. VI. 16. Who only bath immortality, dwelling And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, in the light, which no man can approach unto. 6. Bright effluence of bright effence increate.] What the Wisdom of Solomon fays of Wisdom, he applies to Light, VII. 25, 26. She is a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty, -She is the brightness of the everlasting light. 7. Or hear'ft thou rather] Or doft thou rather hear this addrefs, doft thou delight rather to be call'd, pure ethereal fream? An excellent Latinifm, as Dr. Bentley obferves, Hor. Sat. II. VI. 20. Matutine pater feu Jane libentius audis ? And we have an expreffion of the fame kind in Spenfer, Fairy Queen, B. 1. 5. St. 23. 5 10 Efcap'd 19. Where is the way where light dwelleth? 11. The rifing world of waters dark and deep,] For the world was only in a ftate of fluidity, when the light was created; as Mofes fays, The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters; and God faid Let there be light, and there was light, Gen. I. 2, 3. And this verse of Milton, The rifing world of waters dark and deep, is plainly formed upon this of Spenfer, Fairy Queen. B. 1. C. 1. St. 39. And through the world of waters wide and deep. 12. Won from the void and form lefs infinite.] Void muft not here be understood as emptiness, for Chaos is defcribed full of matter; but void, as deftitute of any form'd being, void as the earth was when firft created. What Mofes fays of that Escap'd the Stygian pool, though long detain'd I fung of Chaos and eternal Night, Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down that is here applied to Chaos, without form and void. A fhort but noble description of Chaos, which is faid to be infinite, as it extended underneath, as Heaven above, infinitely. Richardson. 16. Through utter and through middle darkness] Through Hell which is often call'd utter darkness, and through the great gulf between Hell and Heaven, the middle darkness. 17. With other notes than to th’Or phéan lyre &c.] Orpheus made a hymn to Night, which is ftill extant; he alfo wrote of the creation out of Chaos. See Apoll. Rhodius I. 493. Orpheus was infpir'd by his mother Calliope only, Milton by the heav'nly Muse; therefore he boasts he fung with other notes than Orpheus, tho' the fubjects were the fame. Richardfon. 19. Taught by the heav'nly Muse VOL. I. 20 Το &c.] He was not only taught by the Mufe to venture down, which indeed was not very hard and difficult, but also up to reafcend, tho hard and rare, which is manifeftly an allufion to Virgil, Æn. VI. 128. Sed revocare gradum, fuperafque Hoc opus, hic labor eft; pauci, But to return, and view the chear- In this the task, and mighty labor To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn; 25. So thick a drop ferene hath quench'd their orbs, Or dim fuffufion veild.] Drop ferene or Gutta ferena. It was formerly thought that that fort of blindness was an incurable extinction or quenching of fight by a tranfparent, watry, cold humor diftilling upon the optic nerve, tho' making very little change in the eye to appearance, if any; 'tis now known to be most commonly an obstruction in the capillary veffels of that nerve, and curable in fome cafes. A cataract for many ages, and till about thirty years ago, was thought to be a film externally growing over the eye, intercepting or veiling the fight, beginning with dimnefs, and fo increafing till vifion was totally obftructed: but the difeafe is in the cryftallin humor lying between the outmost coat of the eye and the pupilla. The dimnefs which is at the beginning is called a fuffufion; and when the fight is loft, 'tis a cataract; and cur'd by couching, which is with a needle paffing through the external coat and driving down the difeas'd cryftallin, the lofs of which is fomewhat fupply'd by the ufe of a large convex glafs. When Milton was first blind, he Ceafe I to wander,] Dr. Bentley would read Yet not for that &c. there being as he says no gradation in ceafing. Dr. Pearce prefers as coming nearer to the text, Yet not therefore, our poet and Fairfax frequently placing the tone on the last fyllable of therefore. But ! cannot fee the neceffity for an alteration; Yet not the more ceafe I to wander may be allow'd, if no: juflify'd by Et fi quid ceffare potes in Virgil, Ecl. VII. 10. We may underftand ceafe here in the fenfe of forbear; Yet not the more forbear I to wander: I do it as much as I did before I was blind. 29. Smit |