BOOK XII. THE ARGUMENT. Michael in either hand leads Adam and Eve out of Paradise, the fiery sword waving behind them, and the cherubim taking their stations to guard the place. THE cherubim descended; on the ground 630 635 640 Began to parch that temp'rate clime; whereat NOTES ON PARADISE LOST. BOOK I. Line 6. heav'nly muse. By the heavenly muse we are not to understand the Holy Spirit, for he is separately invoked at line 17; still less are we to interpret this invocation as if it were a mere meaningless imitation of the ancient poets. Milton's meaning may be best learned by an examination of the following lines from the opening of the seventh book of Paradise Lost: "Descend from heav'n, Urania! (by that name Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, heav'nly born secret top. The top of Horeb may be called secret, because from its height it is often obscured by clouds; but more probably the word secret is to be here understood in its classical sense, viz. retired, apart, far from human habitation. 7. Of Oreb, or of Sinai. In Scripture the law is sometimes represented as having been given to Moses on Mount Sinai, sometimes on Mount Horeb. (See Exodus xix. 18; Deut. i. 10.) Milton therefore mentions both. According to the opinions of modern travellers, Horeb is the general name for the range of which Sinai is the most prominent summit. 8. That shepherd. Moses is of course referred to. The invocation of the muse who inspired Moses is peculiarly appropri I ate, as Milton was himself to celebrate the creation, the subject which Moses had been divinely inspired to record. 9. In the beginning. These words are to be connected with rose. 10. out of chaos. Milton does not say out of nothing for he did not hold the doctrine that all things were created out of nothing. (See Note on Book 11. 151.) Sion hill was one of the hills on which Jerusalem was built. 11. -Siloa's brook. This brook issues from the pool of Siloam, near mounts Sion and Moriah. It is in the immediate neighbourhood of the temple, and hence Milton speaks of it as flowing fast by (i. e. close by) the oracle of God. Modern travellers have discovered that the waters of the pool of Siloam are supplied by a subterranean channel from the rock beneath where the temple stood; so that it may be said, more emphatically than Milton supposed, that Siloa's brook flows fast by the oracle of God. 14. 15. no middle flight, i. e. with a high or elevated flight. Aonian mount. Aonia was the ancient name of Boeotia, one of the divisions of Greece: the Aonian mount is Mount Helicon, a favourite resort, according to the ancient poets, of the muses. By a flight above the Aonian mount, Milton means the celebration in poetry of subjects of a far more elevated character than those which had been sung by the poets, who pretended to derive their inspiration from the muses who frequented the Aonian mount. 16. -- -rhyme stands here for verse in general. 20, 21. Wast present, &c. Moses informs us in Genesis that the "Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters," where the word translated in our version moved might have been translated brooded,-which word Milton, who always studied the Scriptures in the original tongue, uses in line 21. Similarly, in describing the creation, he says, "on the wat❜ry calm His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread." VII. 235. Dove-like, alluding undoubtedly to Matthew iii. 16. 24, 25, 26. The meaning of these three lines seems to be, that to the full extent of this great subject I may assert the eternal Providence of God (i. e. that all things have been ever subject to his control), and show that God's dealings with men have been just. 27. In this and the following lines, by a series of questions and answers, Milton ingeniously introduces the main action of the poem. 28. 32. 36. tract, in its classical sense, for district, region. besides, i. e. except this one restraint. what time, another expression borrowed from the classics, and equivalent to " at the time at which." his pride. Milton follows Scripture in ascribing Satan's fall to his pride. 1 Tim. iii. 6. 41. If he, i. e. if Satan opposed the Most High. 44. Him. The emphatic word is here put first, in imitation of the rhetorical order adopted in the classic poets its position obviously adds very much to the emphasis of the sentence. 46. fall. 48. ruin is here used in its classical sense of a crash or adamantine, from a Greek word, signifies "which cannot be broken." 49. Who. The grammatical antecedent of who is him in line 44. 50. The description in this and the following lines brings out indirectly, rather than directly, the utter prostration which accompanied the overthrow of the rebel angels: they lay, Milton says, for nine days confounded, apparently not even venturing to raise their heads, in perfect silence (line 83), "grovelling and prostrate." 54. to more wrath. To suffer more wrath, to be more severely punished by God than he had been. 55. lost happiness and lasting pain. The words lost and lasting, beginning with the same letter and similar in sound, afford an example of the figure called by grammarians Alliteration, a figure frequently employed by Milton. 59. extends. angels' ken, that is, as far as the sight of angels 61. A dungeon, &c. The appearance of hell, according to Milton's idea of it, is more particularly described in the second book. It is there represented as an enormous dungeon "vaulted with fire," encompassed with walls, and with "thrice threefold gates;" its surface diversified with "rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens;" composed partly of a burning lake-"the fiery gulf" of line 52-fed by five streams of " torrent fire;" partly of solid land that "burn'd with solid fire;" and partly of a "frozen continent," to which, "at certain revolutions, all the damn'd" are brought to "feel by turns the bitter change of fierce extremes." 63. No light. Supply came, "but rather darkness visible (rendered visible by the flames) serv'd only," &c. 68. 69. 70. urges, in the classical sense of oppresses. sulphur. See Revelation xix. 20. prepar'd and ordain'd are probably borrowed by Milton from Matthew xxv. 41, and Isaiah xxx. 33. 74. As from the centre, &c. According to Milton, the earth and all things visible from it are enclosed in an enormous sphere, of which the earth or the sun (for the poet seems uncertain) is the centre: the distance referred to in the text, therefore, is thrice as great as from the centre of this sphere to the utmost (i. e. far remote) pole. 81. Beelzebub. Milton has scriptural authority for thus assigning such a high position to Beelzebub. Matthew xii. 24. 82. Satan. The word Satan is derived from a Hebrew word meaning enemy, hence the expression used by Milton in the previous line. At this point it may not be altogether unnecessary to refer briefly to an objection very commonly made against Paradise Lost. It has been said that Satan occupies too prominent a part-that he is in fact (as Dryden asserted) the hero of the poem; and it has been alleged that the poet, by the representation of Satan's character which he has given in the opening books, is tampering with our moral feelings, by attempting to enlist our sympathies on the side of the great Author of Evil. It is no doubt true that Satan is the most prominent actor in the first three books, and this may have led some to imagine that his part is equally prominent throughout. This, however, is not the case: in some of the books (e. g. XI. XII.) he never appears as an agent at all; and after the introduction of our first parents, any interest with which we may have regarded his proceedings is at once transferred to them: for it is Adam that is the true hero, and |