650

Stand ready at command, and are his eyes

That run through all the Heav'ns, or down to th’Earth Bear his swift errands over moist and dry,

O'er fea and land: him Satan thus accofts.

Uriel, for thou of those fev'n Spi'rits that stand
In fight of God's high throne, gloriously bright, 655
The first art wont his great authentic will
Interpreter through highest Heav'n to bring,
Where all his fons thy embaffy attend;
And here art likelieft by fupreme decree
Like honor to obtain, and as his eye
To vifit oft this new creation round;
Unfpeakable defire to fee, and know

All these his wondrous works, but chiefly Man,
His chief delight and favor, him for whom
All these his works fo wondrous he ordain'd,

650. and are his eyes &c.] An expreffion borrow'd from Zech. IV. 10. Thofe feven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth The Jews therefore believed there were Jeven principal Angels, who were the captains and leaders as it were of the heavenly hoft. See Tobit XII. 15. Rev. I. 4. V. 6. VIII. 2.

654. Uriel,] His name is derived from two Hebrew words

660

665 Hath

Hath brought me from the quires of Cherubim
Alone thus wand'ring. Brightest Seraph, tell

In which of all these shining orbs hath Man
His fixed feat, or fixed feat hath none,

But all these shining orbs his choice to dwell;

670

That I

Or open

may find him, and with secret gaze

admiration him behold,

On whom the great Creator hath bestow'd

Worlds, and on whom hath all these graces pour'd;

That both in him and all things, as is meet,

The universal Maker we may praise;

Who justly hath driv'n out his rebel foes
To deepest Hell, and to repair that loss
Created this new happy race of Men
To ferve him better: wife are all his ways.
So fpake the false diffembler unperceiv'd;

reads and favorite whom, and fays that Man his chief favor is not English. But, as Dr. Pearce replies, by favor furely may be meant the object of his favor; as by delight is plainly meant not his delight itfelf, but the object of his delight. And as Mr. Upton obferves, it is only using the abstract for the concrete. So Terence ufes fcelus for fceleftus, Andria, Act. V. Scelus

675

680

For neither Man nor Angel can difcern

Hypocrify, the only' evil that walks

Invisible, except to God alone,

684

By his permiffive will, through Heav'n and Earth:
And oft though wisdom wake, fufpicion fleeps
At wisdom's gate, and to fimplicity

Refigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill
Where no ill seems: Which now for once beguil'd
Uriel, though regent of the fun, and held

The sharpeft fighted Spirit of all in Heaven;
Who to the fraudulent impoftor foul
In his uprightness answer thus return'd.

Fair Angel, thy defire which tends to know
The works of God, thereby to glorify

great

The Work-Mafter, leads to no excefs
That reaches blame, but rather merits praife

690

695

The

fible to all but God, &c: But yet the evil Spirit did not pafs wholly undiscover'd, for though Uriel was not aware of him now, yet he found reafon to fufpect him afterwards from his furious geftures in the mount.

683. Hypocrify, &c.] What is faid here of hypocrify is cenfur'd as a digreffion, but it seems no more than is abfolutely neceffary; for otherwise it might be thought very strange, that the evil Spirit fhould pafs undiscover'd by the ArchAngel Uriel, the regent of the fun, 686. And oft though wisdom wake, and the fharpeft-fighted Spirit in &c.] He must be very critically Heaven, and therefore the poet fplenetic indeed, who will not parendevors to account for it by fay- don this little digreffional observaing, that hypocrify cannot be dif- tion. There is not in my opinion cern'd by Man or Angel, it is invi-nobler fentiment, or one more

poetically

The more it seems excess, that led thee hither
From thy empyreal manfion thus alone,

705

To witness with thine eyes what fome perhaps 700
Contented with report hear only' in Heaven:
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight;
But what created mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wifdom infinite
That brought them forth, but hid their causes deep?
I saw when at his word the formless mass,
This world's material mold, came to a heap:
Confufion heard his voice, and wild uproar
Stood rul'd, ftood vaft infinitude confin'd;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light fhone, and order from diforder sprung:

poetically exprefs'd, in the whole poem. What great art has the poet fhown in taking off the drynefs of a mere moral fentence by throwing it into the form of a fhort and beautiful allegory! _Thyer.

694. Fair Angel, &c.] In the anfwer which this Angel returns to the difguis'd evil Spirit, there is fuch a becoming majefty as is altogether fuitable to a fuperior being. The part of it, in which he reprefents himfelf as prefent at the cre.

710

Swift

Swift to their several quarters hafted then

The cumbrous elements, earth, flood, air, fire; 715
And this ethereal quinteffence of Heaven
Flew upward, fpirited with various forms,
That roll'd orbicular, and turn'd to ftars
Numberlefs, as thou feeft, and how they move;

Each had his place appointed, each his course;
The reft in circuit walls this universe.

720

Look downward on that globe, whose hither fide
With light from hence, though but reflected, fhines;
That place is Earth the feat of Man, that light
His day, which else as th' other hemisphere
Night would invade; but there the neighb'ring

moon

Tatas, which Tully renders in
Latin thus, Id ex inordinato in or-
dinem adduxit. Cicero de Univ.
So alfo Philo the Jew after his
mafter Plato, Επειδη γαρ την εσι-
αν ατακτον και συγκεχυμένην ου-
σαν εις τάξιν εξ αταξίας, και εκ
συγχύσεως εις διακείσιν ἀγὼν ὁ
nooμordans, nooμew neaтo. It
would be no fmall pleafure to the
curious reader to compare Uriel's
account of the creation with that
in Plato's Timæus. This inftance
plainly fhows that Milton had that
in his eye.
Thyer.

715. The cumbrous elements,] Even

725

(So

air and fire are fo in comparison of the ethereal quinteffence, celeftial fire, or pure fpirit. Richardson.

716. And this ethereal quintef

fence of Heaven] The four elements hafted to their quarters, but this fifth efence few upward. It fhould be this, as it is in Mil ton's own editions: and not the ethereal quintessence, as it is in Bentley's, Fenton's, and fome other editions. For the Angel who speaks is in the fun, and therefore fays this, as the fun was a part of this ethereal quinteffence. And this notion our author borrow'd

from