the most distant regions, for the supply of wants which they had never before experienced." "The industry of the north was transplanted to the south."-(Dugald Stewart.) OBSERVATIONS. 1. "Such a state of society." Very vague and indefinite ; such should always refer to something positively stated before. 66 2. "A century illustrated;" means, a century rendered illustrious and famous:" this use of the word is frigid and unusual. 3. "The supply of wants," may mean, "the furnishing or producing of wants," or "the supply of those things which banish wants;" the latter is meant here. 4. "Industry transplanted," may mean that industry left one place, and took up its abode in another; or, by a figure, that the produce of industry, that is, commodities, was transferred from one region to another. A PRACTICAL ANALYSIS, CRITICAL AND GRAMMATICAL, OF THE FIRST BOOK OF MILTON'S PARADISE LOST; WITH AN "ORDO VERBORUM" OF THE DIFFICULT PASSAGES. [NOTE.-For the Analysis of the first twenty-six verses see Answers to Questions thereon in English Grammar, page 230.] 1. Or Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 6. Sing, heav'nly Muse, that, on the secret top Verse 2. "Forbidden tree, whose mortal taste brought." See Genesis, Chap. ii. verse 17; and compare Homer's Iliad 1. 2. ἡ μυρί' Αχαιοῖς ἄλγε ̓ ἔθηκε. 4. "With loss of Eden." Brought death, woe; as also (brought) loss of Eden. "With" is used not only to denote the coincidence of two events conjunctively, as here and in verse 37-but also the manner in which, as in verses 14 and 20, and the instrument, as in verse 82, with which an action is performed. "Till one greater man." Compare 1 Cor. xv. 21: “Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Milton was profoundly acquainted with Scripture; whence, as from an inexhaustible mine, he derived the great bulk of his illustrations. "On 6. " "Heav'nly Muse;" corresponding with Homer's Oca, Iliad i. 1; and Virgil's "Musa," Eneid i. 12. the secret top of Oreb, or of Sinai." "It is evident from several places of Scripture, that mount Horeb is either an adjoining mountain to mount Sinai, or that they are only two different heads or risings of one and the same 7. Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire 8. That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed, 9. In the beginning, how the heav'ns and earth 10. Rose out of chaos: or if Sion's hill 11. Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd 12. Fast by the oracle of God; I thence 13. Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, 14. That with no middle flight intends to soar mountain." (Wells' "Geography of the Old and New Testament.") The place where this inspiration was communicated is said to be Sinai, on the top of which Moses received the code of laws which he promulgated amongst the Jews. 8. "That Shepherd:" Moses, who, previously to his mission to the king of Egypt, had been engaged feeding the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. "First taught the;" an allusion to the account of creation, as given by Moses in the first chapter of the Pentateuch. 10. "Or if Sion's hill." Sion was a mountain in the north of Jerusalem, whereon stood the city of David, in which were the royal palace and the ark of the Lord in the midst of the tabernacle; from which latter circumstance the hill is frequently called in the Book of Psalms, "The holy hill of Sion." "Siloa's brook :" the same in which Christ ordered a blind man to wash. It lies in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and near it is thought to have stood the tower which fell upon eighteen persons, Luke xiii. 4. 12. "I thence invoke:" I invoke thy aid, issuing thence, from that place, Sinai, or mount Sion, to assist my song. 13 and 16. "Adventurous song:" Things unat tempted." This is not silly vapouring, but the deep-felt conviction of the Christian poet, who feels the dignity and difficulty of his subject-the atonement, on behalf of man, of Christ by the sacrifice of Himself as contrasted with the theme which employed Homer and Virgil, who heralded the praises of half-savage and selfish men. 14. "To soar above." This word is applied to express the effusions of the poetic fancy; probably because 15. Above th' Aonian mount, while it pursues 16. Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. 17. And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer, 18. Before all temples, th' upright heart and pure, 19. Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first 20. Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread, 21. Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss, 22. And mad'st it pregnant: what in me is dark, 23. Illumine; what is low, raise and support; 24. That to the height of this great argument 25. I may assert eternal Providence, 26. And justify the ways of God to men. 27. Say first, for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, 28. Nor the deep tract of hell; say first, what cause 29. Moved our grand parents, in that happy state, 30. Favour'd of heaven so highly, to fall off 31. From their Creator, and transgress His will the swan, consecrated to Apollo, the god of Music-because it was said to sing melodiously before its death-flies, it is said, very high. 15. "Aonian mount." Helicon, a mountain in Bœotia, sometimes called “Aonia,” was sacred to the Muses. 17. "And chiefly Thou, O Spirit." Milton, feeling the sublimity and dignity of his subject, is not content with simply invoking his muse, like the heathen poets, but invokes the assistance of the Holy Spirit. 19. "Thou knowest; Thou from the first was present." Compare Homer's Iliad ii. 485, Ὑμεῖς γὰρ θεαί ἐστε, πάρεστέ τε, ἴστε τε πάντα. 20. "With mighty wings outspread, dove-like," &c. &c. Evidently in allusion to the Spirit of God having moved on the face of the waters when chaos was reduced to order; and the manner, "like a dove," in which the Holy Ghost descended on Christ previously to His entrance on his public ministry. (See Genesis i. 2; and Matt. iii. 16.) 22. "What in me," &c. Illumine that which in me is dark, raise and support that which is low. 28. "Nor." Without a correlative, this particle must be taken in the intensive sense of "not even." (See Grammar on the Conjunction or, page 191.) 32. For one restraint, lords of the world besides ? 32. "Lords:" in apposition with "parents." 33 and 34. "Who first," &c. "The infernal Serpent." The transition is as sudden as it is highly poetical. The poet first asks the question, and then proceeds, without any notice, to answer it. Compare Homer's Iliad i. 8: Τίς τ ̓ ἄρ ̓ σφῶε θεῶν ἔριδι ξυνέηκε μάχεσθαι; And Virgil's Eneid i. 12—16: "Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine læso. 36. “What time," deceived the mother at that time at which his pride, &c. &c. 41. "And with ambitious aim." Observe the "and" here connects the two verbs, “trusted and raised,” in the imperfect tense; not "to have equalled and raised," which would produce the reading— "He trusted to have equalled the Most High, And trusted to have raised war in heaven with vain An absurdity! 44. Ordo: The Almighty Power hurl'd him headlong from the ethereal sky with hideous ruin; i. e., this ruin was the consequence of his being hurled; "headlong," evidently an adjective, agreeing with "him," expressive of the manner in which he fell Compare Virgil's Æneid, v. 173 : Segnemque Menoten In mare præcipitem puppi deturbat ab altâ." |