565 His flight precipitant, and winds with ease way into it, down right into the world's first region throws his flight precipitant, and afterwards winds his oblique way, turns and winds this way and that, if he might any where efpy the feat of Man; for though in v. 527, it is faid that the paffage was just over Paradise, yet it is evident that Satan did not know it, and therefore, as it was natural for him to do, winds about in fearch of it through the pure marble air. NEWTON. Ver. 564. Through the pure marble air] The first epithet pure determines the fenfe of the fecond, and fhews why the air is compared to marble; namely, for its clearnefs and whitenefs, without any regard to its hardness: And the word marmor, marble, is derived from a Greek word, pipe, that fignifies to shine and glifter. See alfo Shakspeare, Othello, A. iii, S. iii. "Now, by yon marble heaven." NEWTON. So Drummond, Poems, 1616, Part the firft., "Heaven looks like fmootheft marble." Sandys, in his Paraphrafe on the Pfalms, has the following compound, "the marble-arched skie." But compare Sophocles, Antigone, v. 618. ** Ibid. his oblique way] Perhaps with the accent on the first fyllable of oblique, as it frequently is in Drayton. Thus in Polyolbion, Song xvi. Then in his óblique courfe the lufty ftragling ftreet." TODD. Ver. 565. that shone Stars diftant,] They appeared, by their fhining, to be ftars. It is a Greek expreflion, as Plato in an epigram on his friend Stella, preferved by Diogenes Laertius: "You fhone, whilft living, a morning ftar; but, dead, you now fhine Hesperus among the fhades." RICHARDSON, Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales, 575 1 Ver. 569. Fortunate fields, and groves, &c.] This particular defcription of the Hefperian gardens is from the Elysian fields of Virgil: "locos lætos, et amena vireta "Fortunatorum nemorum, fedefque beatas." DUNSTER. Ver. 574. (but up or down, By center, or eccentrick, hard to tell, Or longitude,)] Thefe words, (as Dr. Pearce obferves) should be included in a parenthesis, and then the conftruction of the reft will be plain and eafy. Satan had now passed the fixed stars, and was directing his courfe towards the fun; but it is hard to tell (fays the poet) whether his courfe was up or down, that is north or fouth, for fo up and down fignifies in B. ix. 78, and B. x. 675; the north being uppermoft in our globes: Or whether it was center or eccentrick, towards the center, or from the center, it not being determined whether the fun is the center of the world or not; or whether it was by longitude, that is, in length eaft or weft; as appears from B. iv. 539, and B. vii. 373. NEWTON. t Ver. 580. In numbers] That is, in meafures. RICHARDSON, Thefe numbers mean " measures regulated by numbers," by the mufick attributed to the spheres or planetary fyftem. DUNSTER. Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering Turn fwift their various motions, or are turn'd Through his glaz'd optick tube yet never faw. 590 With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire; Ver. 585. though unfeen, Shoots invifible virtue even to the deep ;] The words though unfeen relate to penetration, and invifible is the epithet to virtue, which is a diftinct thing from the penetration beforementioned, and which might have been vifible, though the other was not fo. PEARCE. Ver. 590. Through his glaz'd optick tube] The spots in the fun are visible with a telescope: But aftronomer perhaps never faw, through his glaz'd optick tube, fuch a fpot as Satan now he was in the fun's orb. The poet mentions this glafs, the oftener, in honour of Galileo, whom he means here by the aftronomer. NEWTON. 1 Ver. 592. metal or stones]' In the first editions it is medal or ftone, and Mr. Richardfon juftifies it, as the repetition of the fame word immediately after is avoided: but for that very reafon it appears that this is an errour of the prefs, and that it ought to be read metal or ftone, as both metal and stone are repeated afterwards. NEWTON. If metal, part seem'd gold, part filver clear; 595 That ftone, or like to that which here below 600 Ver. 596. If stone, carbuncle moft or chryfolite,] See Greene's Neuer too late, 1616, part 2d, which opens thus: "No fooner did Phabus burnish the heauen with his brightnes, and, deckt in a glorious diademe of chrifolites, had mounted him on his coach, &c." And Shak fpeare defcribes the car of Phabus as compofed of carbuncles, in Ant. and Cleopatra, and in Cymbeline. TODD. Ver. 597. to the twelve that home] Ruby or topaz, to the twelve, that is, and all the rest, reckoning to the twelve, that fhone in Aaron's breaft-plate. The poet had particularly mentioned fome of the stones, and now he includes all the reft to the number twelve. Such a concife manner of fpeaking is not unusual with our author. Fenton reads, "Ruby or topaz, or the twelve that shone;" which cannot be faid after fome of the twelve have been already mentioned. NEWTON. Ver. 603. Virgil, Georg. iv. 444. unbound] Unbound is an allufion to "Verùm, ubi nulla fugam reperit pellacia, victus Ver. 60. In various fhapes &c.] Proteus, after he had turned himself into various amazing mutations, was fabled by the poets to return at last to his proper fhape, and to answer truly all queftions put to him: Therefore Milton tells us, that the chemifts drain their various matter, they work upon, through all its mu 610 Drain'd through a limbeck to his native form. 605 tations, till, purfued through all its latent labyrinths, it affume, Proteus-like, its firft fhape, and anfwer their expectations: A fimile well-fuited to their uncertain fearch. HUME. his native form.] Some edi ! Ver. 605. regions here] Milton fre Ver. 606. quently nfes the word here, not meaning thereby a place prefent to him when he is speaking, but that place only which he is then fpeaking of. PEARCE. Ver. 608. The arch-chemick fun,] The thought of making the fun the chief chemift, feems to be taken from Shakspeare's King John: To folemnize this day, the glorious fun "Turning, with fplendour of his precious eye,. .‛ y "The meager cloddy earth to glittering gold." NEWTON. Andrew Marvell, in his poem, Eyes and Tears, feems to have borrowed from his friend Milton: "So the all-feeing fun, each day, "Diftils the world with chemick ray." TODD. Ver. 616. as when his beams at noon |