God and good Angels guard by special grace.
But now at last the sacred influence

Of light appears, and from the walls of Heaven
Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night

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1040

He at length pauses, and contemplates the new

1045 world.

A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire,
As from her outmost works, a broken foe,
With tumult less, and with less hostile din;
That Satan with less toil, and now with ease,
Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light,
And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds
Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn;
Or in the emptier waste, resembling air,
Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold
Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide
In circuit, undetermined square or round,
With opal towers and battlements adorned
Of living sapphire, once his native seat;
And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent World, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude close by the moon.
Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge,
Accursed, and in a cursèd hour, he hies.

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NOTES.

BOOK I.

The Verse. Perhaps the best illustration of Milton's meaning may be found in a comparison of a passage from Paradise Lost with Dryden's imitation of it in The Fall of Man. The lines are, P. L. 1: 315-325:

Princes, Potentates,

Warriors, the Flower of Heaven - once yours, now lost,

If such astonishment as this can seize

Eternal Spirits! Or have ye chosen this place

After the toil of battle to repose

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find

To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?

Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the Conqueror, who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With scattered arms and ensigns?

Dominions, Powers, ye chiefs of Heaven's bright host
(Of Heaven, once yours; but now in battle lost),
Wake from your slumber! Are your beds of down?
Sleep you so easy there? Or fear the frown

Of Him who threw you hence, and joys to see
Your abject state confess His victory?

One should especially note whether Dryden has here expressed anything 'otherwise, and for the most part worse,' than else he would have expressed it; whether Dryden's rime is 'trivial and of no true musical delight;' and whether Milton has, in addition to 'apt numbers,' and 'fit quantity of syllables,' 'the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another.'

Note the cæsuras of the successive Miltonic lines, then of those by Dryden.

What sort of readers did Milton expect and desire? See P. L. 7: 23-39.

1. For the beginning cf. Homer, Il. 1: 1-9: 'Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles, Peleus' son, the ruinous wrath that brought on the Achaians woes innumerable, and hurled down into Hades many strong souls of heroes, and gave their bodies to be a prey to dogs and all winged fowls; and so the counsel of Zeus wrought out its accomplishment from the day when first strife parted Atreides, king of men, and noble Achilles. Who then among the gods set the twain at strife and variance? Even the son of Leto and of Zeus; for he,' etc. Milton may also have had in mind Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered, Book I, stanza 2, which runs thus in Fairfax's translation:

O Heavenly Muse, that not with fading bays
Deckest thy brow by the Heliconian spring,
But sittest crowned with stars' immortal rays
In Heaven, where legions of bright angels sing;
Inspire life in my wit, my thoughts upraise,
My verse ennoble.

Why should the theme be announced at the beginning? Why, (a) according to ancient ideas, (b) according to modern ideas, should a muse or a goddess be invoked? What, if anything, would be

gained by abandoning the formula?

What is here effected by inversion?

Where in the Bible is this theme treated? Is there any distinction between Eden and Paradise?

2. Mortal. See P. L. 2: 653, 729, 813.

3. Cf. Rom. 5: 12.

4. Who is this 'greater Man'? See 1 Cor. 15: 21, 22, 45, 47. 4-5. Landor would omit these (and so vv. 14-16), 'as incumbrances, and deadeners of the harmony.' Is there any reason why they should be retained?

5. Restore. Why subjunctive? Blissful seat. Cf. P. L. 1: 467; 2: 347; 3: 527; Virgil, En. 6: 639, 'sedes beatas.'

6. Secret. What is the meaning of the Latin verb secernere ? Ovid has (Met. 11: 765) 'secretos montes colebat;' how should this be translated?

Top. Milton is here speaking of mountains and brooks. What reason might he have for introducing them? Cf. note on v. 15.

7. Oreb. For Horeb; see Exod. 3: 1; Deut. 4: 10-14. Sinai. See Exod. 19: 16-23.

8. Chosen seed. Deut. 10: 15; 1 Chron. 16: 13.

9. What verb is modified by in the beginning? Prove.

10. Define Chaos. Cf. P. L. 7: 210-242.

11. Siloa's brook. Isa. 8: 6. Pronounce Siloa.

12. Fast by. Define. Oracle of God; cf. 1 Kings 6: 16. 14. Middle. Define. Cf. v. 516.

14-16. Supposing the fact to be true,' says Landor, 'the mention of it is unnecessary and unpoetical. Little does it become Milton to run in debt with Ariosto for his

mountain in Phocis, with two peaks, sacred to Apollo and the Muses, at whose foot was the city of Delphi and the Castalian spring. Aonian mount is a figurative expression; what does it signify?

Pursues. A Latinism; so in Virgil, Georg. 3: 339-340, 'Quid pascua versu prosequar?'

16. Rhyme. Perhaps not to be confounded with rime. The latter is O E. rim, but this etymology was obscured by the Greek puμós, from which the rh seems to have come. Hence two senses, as well as two forms. See my edition of Sidney's Defense of Poesy, note on 56,7. Is it true that this theme had never been attempted before? 17. For the divine mission of the poet, see Sidney, Defense of Poesy, 58-626

18. Heart. 1 Cor. 3: 16.

19. Thou know'st. So Theocritus, Idyls 22: 116.

21. Dove-like. Luke 3: 22. Brooding. This is the meaning of the Hebrew word rendered moved in Gen. 1: 2. See P. L. 7: 235; Hymn on Nativity 68. Abyss. See P. L. 2: 910-916.

Landor would omit these lines; but

22-26. What . ... men. memorize, for they are famous.

24. Highth. Milton's spelling, and so better: OE. hiehthu. Argument. Theme.

25. Assert. Defend, champion; a Latinism.

26. See note on vv. 214-215. Ways of God. See Ps. 145: 17; Hos. 149; Rev. 15: 3.

27. Cf. I. 2: 484-487: 'Tell me now, ye Muses that dwell in the