As one who in his journey bates at noon,
Though bent on speed; so here the Arch-Angel paused Betwixt the world destroyed and world restored,
If Adam aught perhaps might interpose;
Then, with transition sweet, new speech resumes.
Thus thou hast seen one world begin, and end;
And Man, as from a second stock, proceed.
Much thou hast yet to see; but I perceive Thy mortal sight to fail; objects divine Must needs impair and weary human sense:
Henceforth what is to come I will relate;
Thou therefore give due audience, and attend.
This second source of Men, while yet but few,
And while the dread of judgement past remains Fresh in their minds, fearing the Deity,
With some regard to what is just and right Shall lead their lives, and multiply apace;
Labouring the soil, and reaping plenteous crop,
Corn, wine, and oil; and, from the herd or flock,
Oft sacrificing bullock, lamb, or kid,
With large wine-offerings poured, and sacred feast,
Shall spend their days in joy unblamed; and dwell Long time in peace, by families and tribes,
Under paternal rule: till one shall rise Of proud ambitious heart; who, not content With fair equality, fraternal state,
Will arrogate dominion undeserved Over his brethren, and quite dispossess Concord and law of nature from the earth;
Hunting (and men not beasts shall be his game) With war, and hostile snare, such as refuse Subjection to his empire tyrannous:
A mighty hunter thence he shall be styled Before the Lord; as in despite of Heaven,
Or from Heaven, claiming second sovranty;
And from rebellion shall derive his name,
Though of rebellion others he accuse.
He with a crew, whom like ambition joins With him or under him to tyrannize,
Marching from Eden towards the west, shall find The plain, wherein a black bituminous gurge Boils out from under ground, the mouth of Hell:
Of brick, and of that stuff, they cast to build A city and tower, whose top may reach to Heaven;
And get themselves a name; lest, far dispersed In foreign lands, their memory be lost;
Regardless whether good or evil fame.
But God, who oft descends to visit men Unseen, and through their habitations walks To mark their doings, them beholding soon,
Comes down to see their city, ere the tower Obstruct Heaven-towers, and in derision sets Upon their tongues a various spirit, to rase Quite out their native language; and, instead,
To sow a jangling noise of words unknown:
Forthwith a hideous gabble rises loud,
Among the builders; each to other calls Not understood; till hoarse, and all in rage,
As mocked they storm: great laughter was in Heaven,
And looking down, to see the hubbub strange,
And hear the din: Thus was the building left Ridiculous, and the work Confusion named.
Whereto thus Adam, fatherly displeased.
O execrable son! so to aspire Above his brethren; to himself assuming Authority usurped, from God not given:
He gave us only over beast, fish, fowl,
Dominion absolute; that right we hold By his donation; but man over men He made not lord; such title to himself Reserving, human left from human free.
But this usurper his encroachment proud Stays not on Man; to God his tower intends Siege and defiance: Wretched man!what food Will he convey up thither, to sustain Himself and his rash army; where thin air Above the clouds will pine his entrails gross,
And famish him of breath, if not of bread?
To whom thus Michael. Justly thou abhorrest That son, who on the quiet state of men Such trouble brought, affecting to subdue Rational liberty; yet know withal,
Since thy original lapse, true liberty Is lost, which always with right reason dwells Twinned, and from her hath no dividual being:
Reason in man obscured, or not obeyed,
Immediately inordinate desires,
And upstart passions, catch the government From reason; and to servitude reduce Man, till then free. Therefore, since he permits Within himself unworthy powers to reign Over free reason,
God, in judgement just,
Subjects him from without to violent lords;
Who oft as undeservedly enthrall His outward freedom: Tyranny must be;
Though to the tyrant thereby no excuse.
Yet sometimes nations will decline so low From virtue, which is reason, that no wrong,
But justice, and some fatal curse annexed,
Deprives them of their outward liberty;
Their inward lost: Witness the irreverent son Of him who built the ark; who, for the shame Done to his father, heard this heavy curse,
Servant of servants, on his vicious race.
Thus will this latter, as the former world,
Still tend from bad to worse; till God at last,
Wearied with their iniquities, withdraw His presence from among them, and avert His holy eyes; resolving from thenceforth To leave them to their own polluted ways;
And one peculiar nation to select From all the rest, of whom to be invoked,
A nation from one faithful man to spring:
Him on this side Euphrates yet residing,
Bred up in idol-worship: O, that men (Canst thou believe?) should be so stupid grown,
While yet the patriarch lived, who 'scaped the flood,
As to forsake the living God, and fall To worship their own work in wood and stone For Gods! Yet him God the Most High vouchsafes To call by vision, from his father's house,
His kindred, and false Gods, into a land Which he will show him; and from him will raise A mighty nation; and upon him shower His benediction so, that in his seed All nations shall be blest: he straight obeys;
Not knowing to what land, yet firm believes:
I see him, but thou canst not, with what faith He leaves his Gods, his friends, and native soil,
Ur of Chaldaea, passing now the ford To Haran; after him a cumbrous train Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude;
Not wandering poor, but trusting all his wealth With God, who called him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains;
I see his tents Pitched about Sechem, and the neighbouring plain Of Moreh; there by promise he receives Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hameth northward to the Desart south; (Things by their names I call, though yet unnamed From Hermon east to the great western Sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder sea; each place behold In prospect, as I point them; on the shore Mount Carmel; here, the double-founted stream,
Jordan, true limit eastward; but his sons Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
This ponder, that all nations of the earth Shall in his seed be blessed: By that seed Is meant thy great Deliverer, who shall bruise The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon Plainlier shall be revealed. This patriarch blest,
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,
A son, and of his son a grand-child, leaves;
Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown:
The grandchild, with twelve sons increased, departs From Canaan to a land hereafter called Egypt, divided by the river Nile See where it flows, disgorging at seven mouths Into the sea.
To sojourn in that land He comes, invited by a younger son In time of dearth, a son whose worthy deeds Raise him to be the second in that realm Of Pharaoh.
There he dies, and leaves his race Growing into a nation, and now grown Suspected to a sequent king, who seeks To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves Inhospitably, and kills their infant males:
Till by two brethren (these two brethren call Moses and Aaron) sent from God to claim His people from enthralment, they return,
With glory and spoil, back to their promised land.
But first, the lawless tyrant, who denies To know their God, or message to regard,
Must be compelled by signs and judgements dire;
To blood unshed the rivers must be turned;
Frogs, lice, and flies, must all his palace fill With loathed intrusion, and fill all the land;
His cattle must of rot and murren die;
Botches and blains must all his flesh emboss,
And all his people; thunder mixed with hail,
Hail mixed with fire, must rend the Egyptians sky,
And wheel on the earth, devouring where it rolls;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
A darksome cloud of locusts swarming down Must eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;
Darkness must overshadow all his bounds,
Palpable darkness, and blot out three days;
Last, with one midnight stroke, all the first-born Of Egypt must lie dead. Thus with ten wounds The river-dragon tamed at length submits To let his sojourners depart, and oft Humbles his stubborn heart; but still, as ice More hardened after thaw; till, in his rage Pursuing whom he late dismissed, the sea Swallows him with his host; but them lets pass,
As on dry land, between two crystal walls;
Awed by the rod of Moses so to stand Divided, till his rescued gain their shore:
Such wondrous power God to his saint will lend,
Though present in his Angel; who shall go Before them in a cloud, and pillar of fire;
By day a cloud, by night a pillar of fire;
To guide them in their journey, and remove Behind them, while the obdurate king pursues:
All night he will pursue; but his approach Darkness defends between till morning watch;
Then through the fiery pillar, and the cloud,
God looking forth will trouble all his host,
And craze their chariot-wheels: when by command Moses once more his potent rod extends Over the sea; the sea his rod obeys;
On their embattled ranks the waves return,
And overwhelm their war: The race elect Safe toward Canaan from the shore advance Through the wild Desart, not the readiest way;
Lest, entering on the Canaanite alarmed,
War terrify them inexpert, and fear Return them back to Egypt, choosing rather Inglorious life with servitude; for life To noble and ignoble is more sweet Untrained in arms, where rashness leads not on.
This also shall they gain by their delay In the wide wilderness; there they shall found Their government, and their great senate choose Through the twelve tribes, to rule by laws ordained:
God from the mount of Sinai, whose gray top Shall tremble, he descending, will himself In thunder, lightning, and loud trumpets' sound,
Ordain them laws; part, such as appertain To civil justice; part, religious rites Of sacrifice; informing them, by types And shadows, of that destined Seed to bruise The Serpent, by what means he shall achieve Mankind's deliverance. But the voice of God To mortal ear is dreadful: They beseech That Moses might report to them his will,
And terrour cease; he grants what they besought,
Instructed that to God is no access Without Mediator, whose high office now Moses in figure bears; to introduce One greater, of whose day he shall foretel,
And all the Prophets in their age the times Of great Messiah shall sing. Thus, laws and rites Established, such delight hath God in Men Obedient to his will, that he vouchsafes Among them to set up his tabernacle;
The Holy One with mortal Men to dwell:
By his prescript a sanctuary is framed Of cedar, overlaid with gold; therein An ark, and in the ark his testimony,
The records of his covenant; over these A mercy-seat of gold, between the wings Of two bright Cherubim; before him burn Seven lamps as in a zodiack representing The heavenly fires; over the tent a cloud Shall rest by day, a fiery gleam by night;
Save when they journey, and at length they come,
Conducted by his Angel, to the land Promised to Abraham and his seed:—The rest Were long to tell; how many battles fought How many kings destroyed; and kingdoms won;
Or how the sun shall in mid Heaven stand still A day entire, and night's due course adjourn,
Man's voice commanding, 'Sun, in Gibeon stand, 'And thou moon in the vale of Aialon, 'Till Israel overcome! so call the third From Abraham, son of Isaac; and from him His whole descent, who thus shall Canaan win.
Here Adam interposed. O sent from Heaven,
Enlightener of my darkness, gracious things Thou hast revealed; those chiefly, which concern Just Abraham and his seed: now first I find Mine eyes true-opening, and my heart much eased;
Erewhile perplexed with thoughts, what would become Of me and all mankind: But now I see His day, in whom all nations shall be blest;
Favour unmerited by me, who sought Forbidden knowledge by forbidden means.
This yet I apprehend not, why to those Among whom God will deign to dwell on earth So many and so various laws are given;
So many laws argue so many sins Among them; how can God with such reside?
To whom thus Michael. Doubt not but that sin Will reign among them, as of thee begot;
And therefore was law given them, to evince Their natural pravity, by stirring up Sin against law to fight: that when they see Law can discover sin, but not remove,
Save by those shadowy expiations weak,
The blood of bulls and goats, they may conclude Some blood more precious must be paid for Man;
Just for unjust; that, in such righteousness To them by faith imputed, they may find Justification towards God, and peace Of conscience; which the law by ceremonies Cannot appease; nor Man the mortal part Perform; and, not performing, cannot live.
So law appears imperfect; and but given With purpose to resign them, in full time,
Up to a better covenant; disciplined From shadowy types to truth; from flesh to spirit;
From imposition of strict laws to free Acceptance of large grace; from servile fear To filial; works of law to works of faith.
And therefore shall not Moses, though of God Highly beloved, being but the minister Of law, his people into Canaan lead;
But Joshua, whom the Gentiles Jesus call,
His name and office bearing, who shall quell The adversary-Serpent, and bring back Through the world's wilderness long-wandered Man Safe to eternal Paradise of rest.
Mean while they, in their earthly Canaan placed,
Long time shall dwell and prosper, but when sins National interrupt their publick peace,
Provoking God to raise them enemies;
From whom as oft he saves them penitent By Judges first, then under Kings; of whom The second, both for piety renowned And puissant deeds, a promise shall receive Irrevocable, that his regal throne For ever shall endure; the like shall sing All Prophecy, that of the royal stock Of David (so I name this king) shall rise A Son, the Woman's seed to thee foretold,
Foretold to Abraham, as in whom shall trust All nations; and to kings foretold, of kings The last; for of his reign shall be no end.
But first, a long succession must ensue;
And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed,
The clouded ark of God, till then in tents Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine.
Such follow him, as shall be registered Part good, part bad; of bad the longer scroll;
Whose foul idolatries, and other faults Heaped to the popular sum, will so incense God, as to leave them, and expose their land,
Their city, his temple, and his holy ark,
With all his sacred things, a scorn and prey To that proud city, whose high walls thou sawest Left in confusion;
Babylon thence called.
There in captivity he lets them dwell The space of seventy years; then brings them back,
Remembering mercy, and his covenant sworn To David, stablished as the days of Heaven.
Returned from Babylon by leave of kings Their lords, whom God disposed, the house of God They first re-edify; and for a while In mean estate live moderate; till, grown In wealth and multitude, factious they grow;
But first among the priests dissention springs,
Men who attend the altar, and should most Endeavour peace: their strife pollution brings Upon the temple itself: at last they seise The scepter, and regard not David's sons;
Then lose it to a stranger, that the true Anointed King Messiah might be born Barred of his right; yet at his birth a star,
Unseen before in Heaven, proclaims him come;
And guides the eastern sages, who inquire His place, to offer incense, myrrh, and gold:
His place of birth a solemn Angel tells To simple shepherds, keeping watch by night;
They gladly thither haste, and by a quire Of squadroned Angels hear his carol sung.
A virgin is his mother, but his sire The power of the Most High: He shall ascend The throne hereditary, and bound his reign With Earth's wide bounds, his glory with the Heavens.
He ceased, discerning Adam with such joy Surcharged, as had like grief been dewed in tears,
Without the vent of words; which these he breathed.
O prophet of glad tidings, finisher Of utmost hope! now clear I understand What oft my steadiest thoughts have searched in vain;
Why our great Expectation should be called The seed of Woman: Virgin Mother, hail,
High in the love of Heaven; yet from my loins Thou shalt proceed, and from thy womb the Son Of God Most High: so God with Man unites!
Needs must the Serpent now his capital bruise Expect with mortal pain: Say where and when Their fight, what stroke shall bruise the victor's heel.
To whom thus Michael. Dream not of their fight,
As of a duel, or the local wounds Of head or heel: Not therefore joins the Son Manhood to Godhead, with more strength to foil Thy enemy; nor so is overcome Satan, whose fall from Heaven, a deadlier bruise,
Disabled, not to give thee thy death's wound:
Which he, who comes thy Saviour, shall recure,
Not by destroying Satan, but his works In thee, and in thy seed: Nor can this be,
But by fulfilling that which thou didst want,
Obedience to the law of God, imposed On penalty of death, and suffering death;
The penalty to thy transgression due,
And due to theirs which out of thine will grow:
So only can high Justice rest appaid.
The law of God exact he shall fulfil Both by obedience and by love, though love Alone fulfil the law; thy punishment He shall endure, by coming in the flesh To a reproachful life, and cursed death;
Proclaiming life to all who shall believe In his redemption; and that his obedience,
Imputed, becomes theirs by faith; his merits To save them, not their own, though legal, works.
For this he shall live hated, be blasphemed,
Seised on by force, judged, and to death condemned A shameful and accursed, nailed to the cross By his own nation; slain for bringing life:
But to the cross he nails thy enemies,
The law that is against thee, and the sins Of all mankind, with him there crucified,
Never to hurt them more who rightly trust In this his satisfaction; so he dies,
But soon revives;
Death over him no power Shall long usurp; ere the third dawning light Return, the stars of morn shall see him rise Out of his grave, fresh as the dawning light,
Thy ransom paid, which Man from death redeems,
His death for Man, as many as offered life Neglect not, and the benefit embrace By faith not void of works: This God-like act Annuls thy doom, the death thou shouldest have died,
In sin for ever lost from life; this act Shall bruise the head of Satan, crush his strength,
Defeating Sin and Death, his two main arms;
And fix far deeper in his head their stings Than temporal death shall bruise the victor's heel,
Or theirs whom he redeems; a death, like sleep,
A gentle wafting to immortal life.
Nor after resurrection shall he stay Longer on earth, than certain times to appear To his disciples, men who in his life Still followed him; to them shall leave in charge To teach all nations what of him they learned And his salvation; them who shall believe Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign Of washing them from guilt of sin to life Pure, and in mind prepared, if so befall,
For death, like that which the Redeemer died.
All nations they shall teach; for, from that day,
Not only to the sons of Abraham's loins Salvation shall be preached, but to the sons Of Abraham's faith wherever through the world;
So in his seed all nations shall be blest.
Then to the Heaven of Heavens he shall ascend With victory, triumphing through the air Over his foes and thine; there shall surprise The Serpent, prince of air, and drag in chains Through all his realm, and there confounded leave;
Then enter into glory, and resume His seat at God's right hand, exalted high Above all names in Heaven; and thence shall come,
When this world's dissolution shall be ripe,
With glory and power to judge both quick and dead;
To judge the unfaithful dead, but to reward His faithful, and receive them into bliss,
Whether in Heaven or Earth; for then the Earth Shall all be Paradise, far happier place Than this of Eden, and far happier days.
So spake the Arch-Angel Michael; then paused,
As at the world's great period; and our sire,
Replete with joy and wonder, thus replied.
O Goodness infinite,
Goodness immense!
That all this good of evil shall produce,
And evil turn to good; more wonderful Than that which by creation first brought forth Light out of darkness! Full of doubt I stand,
Whether I should repent me now of sin By me done, and occasioned; or rejoice Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring;
To God more glory, more good-will to Men From God, and over wrath grace shall abound.
But say, if our Deliverer up to Heaven Must re-ascend, what will betide the few His faithful, left among the unfaithful herd,
The enemies of truth? Who then shall guide His people, who defend? Will they not deal Worse with his followers than with him they dealt?
Be sure they will, said the Angel; but from Heaven He to his own a Comforter will send,
The promise of the Father, who shall dwell His Spirit within them; and the law of faith,
Working through love, upon their hearts shall write,
To guide them in all truth; and also arm With spiritual armour, able to resist Satan's assaults, and quench his fiery darts;
What man can do against them, not afraid,
Though to the death; against such cruelties With inward consolations recompensed,
And oft supported so as shall amaze Their proudest persecutors: For the Spirit,
Poured first on his Apostles, whom he sends To evangelize the nations, then on all Baptized, shall them with wonderous gifts endue To speak all tongues, and do all miracles,
As did their Lord before them. Thus they win Great numbers of each nation to receive With joy the tidings brought from Heaven: At length Their ministry performed, and race well run,
Their doctrine and their story written left,
They die; but in their room, as they forewarn,
Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves,
Who all the sacred mysteries of Heaven To their own vile advantages shall turn Of lucre and ambition; and the truth With superstitions and traditions taint,
Left only in those written records pure,
Though not but by the Spirit understood.
Then shall they seek to avail themselves of names,
Places, and titles, and with these to join Secular power; though feigning still to act By spiritual, to themselves appropriating The Spirit of God, promised alike and given To all believers; and, from that pretence,
Spiritual laws by carnal power shall force On every conscience; laws which none shall find Left them inrolled, or what the Spirit within Shall on the heart engrave. What will they then But force the Spirit of Grace itself, and bind His consort Liberty? what, but unbuild His living temples, built by faith to stand,
Their own faith, not another's? for, on earth,
Who against faith and conscience can be heard Infallible? yet many will presume:
Whence heavy persecution shall arise On all, who in the worship persevere Of spirit and truth; the rest, far greater part,
Will deem in outward rites and specious forms Religion satisfied;
Truth shall retire Bestuck with slanderous darts, and works of faith Rarely be found: So shall the world go on,
To good malignant, to bad men benign;
Under her own weight groaning; till the day Appear of respiration to the just,
And vengeance to the wicked, at return Of him so lately promised to thy aid,
The Woman's Seed; obscurely then foretold,
Now ampler known thy Saviour and thy Lord;
Last, in the clouds, from Heaven to be revealed In glory of the Father, to dissolve Satan with his perverted world; then raise From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined,
New Heavens, new Earth, ages of endless date,
Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love;
To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss.
He ended; and thus Adam last replied.
How soon hath thy prediction,
Seer blest,
Measured this transient world, the race of time,
Till time stand fixed! Beyond is all abyss,
Eternity, whose end no eye can reach.
Greatly-instructed I shall hence depart;
Greatly in peace of thought; and have my fill Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain;
Beyond which was my folly to aspire.
Henceforth I learn, that to obey is best,
And love with fear the only God; to walk As in his presence; ever to observe His providence; and on him sole depend,
Merciful over all his works, with good Still overcoming evil, and by small Accomplishing great things, by things deemed weak Subverting worldly strong, and worldly wise By simply meek: that suffering for truth's sake Is fortitude to highest victory,
And, to the faithful, death the gate of life;
Taught this by his example, whom I now Acknowledge my Redeemer ever blest.
To whom thus also the Angel last replied.
This having learned, thou hast attained the sum Of wisdom; hope no higher, though all the stars Thou knewest by name, and all the ethereal powers,
All secrets of the deep, all Nature's works,
Or works of God in Heaven, air, earth, or sea,
And all the riches of this world enjoyedst,
And all the rule, one empire; only add Deeds to thy knowledge answerable; add faith,
Add virtue, patience, temperance; add love,
By name to come called charity, the soul Of all the rest: then wilt thou not be loth To leave this Paradise, but shalt possess A Paradise within thee, happier far.— Let us descend now therefore from this top Of speculation; for the hour precise Exacts our parting hence; and see!the guards,
By me encamped on yonder hill, expect Their motion; at whose front a flaming sword,
In signal of remove, waves fiercely round:
We may no longer stay: go, waken Eve;
Her also I with gentle dreams have calmed Portending good, and all her spirits composed To meek submission: thou, at season fit,
Let her with thee partake what thou hast heard;
Chiefly what may concern her faith to know,
The great deliverance by her seed to come (For by the Woman's seed) on all mankind:
That ye may live, which will be many days,
Both in one faith unanimous, though sad,
With cause, for evils past; yet much more cheered With meditation on the happy end.
He ended, and they both descend the hill;
Descended,
Adam to the bower, where Eve Lay sleeping, ran before; but found her waked;
And thus with words not sad she him received.
Whence thou returnest, and whither wentest,
I know;
For God is also in sleep; and dreams advise,
Which he hath sent propitious, some great good Presaging, since with sorrow and heart's distress Wearied I fell asleep: But now lead on;
In me is no delay; with thee to go,
Is to stay here; without thee here to stay,
Is to go hence unwilling; thou to me Art all things under $Heaven, all places thou,
Who for my wilful crime art banished hence.
This further consolation yet secure I carry hence; though all by me is lost,
Such favour I unworthy am vouchsafed,
By me the Promised Seed shall all restore.
So spake our mother Eve; and Adam heard Well pleased, but answered not: For now, too nigh The Arch-Angel stood; and, from the other hill To their fixed station, all in bright array The Cherubim descended; on the ground Gliding meteorous, as evening-mist Risen from a river o'er the marish glides,
And gathers ground fast at the labourer's heel Homeward returning. High in front advanced,
The brandished sword of God before them blazed,
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Libyan air adust,
Began to parch that temperate clime; whereat In either hand the hastening Angel caught Our lingering parents, and to the eastern gate Led them direct, and down the cliff as fast To the subjected plain; then disappeared.
They, looking back, all the eastern side beheld Of Paradise, so late their happy seat,
Waved over by that flaming brand; the gate With dreadful faces thronged, and fiery arms:
Some natural tears they dropt, but wiped them soon;
The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide:
They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.
HE
ND'(line 11:
Henceforth what is to come...):
Milton, after having represented in vision the history of mankind to the first great period of nature, dispatches the remaining part of it in narration.
He has devised a very handsome reason for the Angel's proceeding with Adam after this manner; though doubtless the true reason was the difficulty which the poet would have found to have shadowed out so mixed and complicated a story in visible objects. --Addison. (line 16:
With some regard to what is just and right...):
This answers to the silver age of the poets, the Paradisiacal state is the golden one.
That of iron begins soon, ver. 24. --Richardson.(line 24: ---- till one shall rise...&c.):
It is generally agreed that the first governments in the world were patriarchal, "by families and tribes," and that Nimrod was the first who laid the foundations of kingly government among mankind.
Our author therefore (who was no friend to kingly government at the best) represents him in a very bad light as a most wicked and insolent tyrant, but he has great authorities, both Jewish and Christian, to justify him for so doing.
The Scripture says of Nimrod,
Genesis X.9. that "he was a mighty hunter before the Lord:" And this our author understands in the worst sense, of hunting men not beasts ---- "and men not beasts shall be his game." But several commentators understand it in the same manner, and the Scripture applies the word to hunting of men by persecution, oppression, and tyranny.
Jer.
VI. 16.
Lamentation IV.18.
Ezekiel
II. 18,20.
And so the Jerusalem Targum here expounds it of "a sinful hunting of the sons of men." The phrase "before the Lord" seems to be perfectly indifferent in itself, and made use of only by way of exaggeration: but in this place the greatest number of interpreters take it in a bad sense, in the same manner as when it is said of the men of Sodom that they were "sinners before the Lord," Genesis
II. 13. as also of Er the eldest son of Judah that he was "wicked in the sight of the Lord," Genesis
II. 7. &c. (line 36:
And from rebellion shall derive his name,...):
For the name of Nimrod, tho' more favorable etymologies are given, yet commonly is derived from the Hebrew word "marad" which signifies to "rebel"; and this probably was the principal occasion of those injurious reports which have prevailed in the world concerning him.(line 40:
Marching from Eden towards the west,...&c.):
Genesis XI. 2. &c. "And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar ---- And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter." &c. ...
The Hebrew "chemar" which we translate "slime" is what the Greeks call "asphaltus" and the Latins "bitumen", a kind of pitch; and that it abounded very much in the plain near Babylon, that it swam upon the waters, that there was a cave and fountain continually emitting it, and that this famous tower at this time, and the no less famous walls of Babylon afterwards were built with this kind of cement, is confirm'd by the testimony of several profane authors.
This "black bituminous gurge," this pitchy pool the poet calls "the mouth of Hell," not strictly speaking, but by the same sort of figure by which the ancient poets call Taenarus or Avernus the jaws and gate of Hell.(line 62: ---- and the work Confusion nam'd...):
For "Babel" in Hebrew signifies "Confusion". 'Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth.' Genesis XI. 9.
As the poet represents this confusion among the builders as an object of ridicule, so he makes use of some ridiculous words, such as are not very usual in poetry, to highten that ridicule, as "jangling noise, hideous gabble, strange hubbub."(line 101: --- Witness th' irreverent son / Of him who built the ark,...&c.):
Witness Cham, the father of Canaan, and shameful son of Noah, who for the reproach done to his father, "by discovering his nakedness," heard this heavy curse pronounced by him on his wicked posterity the Canaanites; "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall be he unto his brethren," Genesis IX. 22,25. --Hume.(line 115:
Bred up in idol-worship;...):
We read in Joshua
IV. 2. "Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served other Gods." Now as Terah Abraham's father was an idolater,
I think we may be certain that Abraham was bred up in the religion of his father, though he renounc'd it afterwards, and in all probability converted his father likewise, for Terah removed with Abraham to Haran, and there died.
See Genesis XI. 31,32. (line 117:
While yet the patriarch liv'd, who scap'd the flood,...):
It appears from the computations given by Moses,
Genesis XI. that Terah the father of Abraham was born 222 years after the flood, but "Noah lived after the flood 350 years." Genesis IX. 28. and we have proved from Joshua, that Terah and the ancestors of Abraham "served other Gods;" and from the Jewish traditions we learn farther that Terah, and Nachor his father, and Serug his grandfather were statuaries and carvers of idols: and therefore idolatry was set up in the world, "while yet the patriarch liv'd, who scap'd the flood."[Noah died at 950 years old; after whom each generation decreased in age, until within a few generations the lifespan was lowered to what it is now.](line 128:
I see him, but thou canst not,...&c.):
As the principal design of this episode was to give Adam an idea of the holy Person who was to reinstate human nature in that happiness and perfection from which it had fallen, the poet confines himself to the line of Abraham, from whence the Messiah was to descend.
The Angel is described as seeing the patriarch actually traveling towards "the land of promise," which gives a particular liveliness to this part of the narration. --Addison.
Our poet, sensible that this long historical description might grow irksome, has varied the manner of representing it as much as possible, beginning first with supposing Adam to have a prospect of it before his eyes, next by making the Angel the relator of it, and lastly by uniting the two former methods, and making Michael see it as in vision, and give a rapturous inliven'd account of it to Adam. This gives great ease to the languishing attention of the reader. --Thyer.(line 135: ---------- I see his tents / Pitch'd about Sechem,...):
Genesis
II. 6. Sichem, or Sechem, or Sychar (for it had all these names) was a town of the province of Samaria. (line 139:
From Hamath northward ...&c.):
As so much is said of the promis'd land, the poet very properly gives us the bounds of it.
Hamath was a city of Syria, and "the entering into Hamath," so frequently mention'd in Scripture, is the narrow pass leading from the land of Canaan to Syria, through the valley which lies between Libanus and Antilibanus.
This is set down as the northern boundary of the land:
Numbers
IV. 7, 8. "To the desert south," the desert of Arabia, or "the wilderness of Zin" as it is call'd,
Numbers
IV. 3. "Your south-quarter shall be from the wilderness of Zin.
From Hermon east," a mountain beyond Jordan, on the north-east, "to the great western sea," the Mediterranean. "On the shore of mount Carmel," a mountain famous in Scripture upon the coast of the Mediterranean. "Here the double-founted stream Jordan,..." As it is commonly said to arise from two sources at the foot of mount Libanus, the one called Jor, and the other Dan, as Thamisis from the Thame and Isis; "And ye shall point out your east-border from Hazarenan", a village at the fountain of Jordan.
The name of Canaan, tho' sometimes it includes the whole land possessed by the twelve tribes, yet peculiarly belongs to no more than the country westward of the river Jordan; and the Jews themselves make a distinction between the land promis'd to their fathers, and the lands of Sihon and Og which were to the eastward of the river. ...
And the land on this side Jordan was esteemed more holy than the land on the other.
The one was barely called the "land of your possession," the other the "land of the possession of the Lord," Joshua
II. 19.
This river was the "true limit eastward, but his sons" were to extend themselves farther, "shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills." This Senir or Shenir is the same as Mount Hermon, mention'd as the eastern border before, ver. 141.(line 188:
Palpable darkness,...): "Darkness that may be felt," says our translation.
In the vulgar Latin it is "tam densae ut palpari queant," from whence our author seems to have fetch'd the word "palpable". (line 193-4: ----------- as ice / More harden'd after thaw,...):
For ice warmed gently into a thaw, is made more receptive of those saline and nitrous particles, which fill the freezing air, and insinuating themselves into the water already weakened, are the cause of a harder concretion.
Isicles freeze, as they drop, into a wonderful hardness. --Hume.(line 210:
And craze their chariot wheels....):
Bruise or break them in pieces. "Craze" from the French "ecraser" to bruise or break. --Richardson.(line 216: --- not the readiest way,...):
For Exodus
II. 17, 18. "It came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near." That was the nearest way from Egypt to Canaan, and was a journey of not above three days, as Philo says; others say of ten. But certainly it was no great way, for the sons of Jacob went it often to and fro.[The fact that it took Moses and the Israelites a total of 40 years travel is astonishing.](line 255:
Seven lamps as in a zodiac representing....):
That the seven lamps signified the seven planets, and that therefore the lamps stood slopewise, as it were to express the obliquity of the zodiac, is the gloss of Josephus, from whom probably our author borrow'd it.
Josephus Antiq.
Lib. 3.c. 6 & 7. &c. .........,[It should be mentioned, the Moon was considered at this time to be a planet, with rivers and possibly inhabited by another human race (it was anyone's guess); and that Neptune and Uranus were too far distant to have been discovered, not to mention Pluto.
Galileo had recently just invented the telescope.](line 283:
So many laws argue so many sins....):
This scruple of our first father, and the reply of the Angel are grounded upon St.
Paul's Epistles, and particularly those to the Romans,
Galatians and Hebrews, as the reader, who is at all conversant with these sacred writings, will easily perceive.(line 307:
And therefore shall not Moses,...&c.):
Moses died in mount Nebo, in the land of Moab, from whence he had the prospect of the promis'd land, but not the honor of leading the Israelites in to possess it, which was reserved for Joshua.
Deuteronomy
IV.
Josh.
I. --Hume.(line 311:
His name and office bearing...):
Joshua was in many things a 'type' of Jesus; and the names are the same,
Joshua according to the Hebrew, and Jesus in Greek.
The Seventy always render Joshua by Jesus, and there are two passages in the New Testament where Jesus is used for Joshua, once by St.
Stephen,
Acts
II. 45. ... and again by St.
Paul,
Hebrews IV.8. ...
And the name Joshua or Jesus signifies a Saviour. ["type" here is a theological term, meaning basically, 'metaphorically'.
The sacrifice of the lamb is a 'type' of Jesus crucifixion, because He died to cleanse our sins, as lambs had to cleanse the sins of those in the old testament.](line 355: --- their strife pollution brings...):
For it was chiefly through the contests between Jason and Menelaus, high-priests of the Jews, that the temple was polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes.
See 2 Maccabees V.
At last they seise the scepter,....: Ariostobulus, eldest son of Hyrcanus, high-priest of the Jews, was the first who assumed the title of king after the Babylonish captivity;
B.
C. 107. "And regard not David's sons", none of that family having had the government since Zerubbabel. "Then lose it to a stranger," to Herod, who was an Idumean, in whose reign Christ was born.(line 394-5: ---------- his works / In thee and in thy seed...):
I John
II. 8. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil."(line 400:
And due to theirs which out of thine will grow...):
Punishment is due to men's actual transgressions, tho' the original depravity, the transgression of Adam, was the root of them. --Richardson. (line 415:
But to the cross he nails thy enemies,...):
The enemies of Adam were the "law that was against him" and the "sins of all mankind" as springing originally from him, and therefore in some sense chargeable upon him.
The author in this passage alludes to Colossians II. 14.(line 475-6: -------- or rejoice / Much more, that much more good thereof shall spring,...):
He seems to have remember'd that rant of one of the Fathers. "O felix culpa, quae talem ac tantum meruit habere redemptorem!" O happy fault, which deserved to have such and so great a redeemer!
As in what follows, "To God more glory," &c. he alludes to the heavenly hymn, "Glory To God In The Highest," &c. (line 487:
The promise of the Father,...):
Luke
IV. 49.(line 490:
To guide them in all truth,...):
John
VI. 13. (line 490-1: ------ and also arm / With spiritual armour, able to resist...):
Alluding to Ephesians VI. 11. &c. "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil----"(line 507: --- but in their room, as they forewarn,...):
So St.
Paul had forewarn'd the elders of the church at Miletus, to which the author here alluds,
Acts XX. 29. ...
Not long after the Apostle foretold, hirelings like wolves came in by herds. &c.(line 522: --- laws which none shall find...&c.):
Laws neither agreeable to reveal'd or natural religion, neither to be found in holy Scripture, or written on their hearts by the Spirit of God, according to that divine promise,
Jeremiah
XI. 33. (line 526:
His consort liberty?...): "For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty," 2 Corinthians
II. 17.(line 527:
His living temples,......):
Christians are call'd the "Temples of God," I Corinthians
II. 16,17. and VI. 19.(line 532:
On all who in the worship persevere...):
He alludes to John IV. 23. "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."(line 540: --- the day of respiration....):
This is what the Scripture calls "the times of refreshing,..." Acts
II. 19.(line 546: --------- to dissolve / Satan with his perverted world,...):
An expression of the same import, as when the light is said to "dissolve" the darkness, "Extulit os sacrum coelo, tenebrasque resolvit"~Virgil,
En.
II. 591.
Our author probably borrow'd the phrase from Scripture, 2 Peter
II. 11,12. (line 549:
New Heav'ns, new Earth,....):
The very words of St.
Peter, 2 Peter
II. 13. "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new Heavens and a new Earth, wherein dwelleth righteouness." This notion, of the Heavens and Earth being renew'd after the conflagration, and made the habitation of Angels and just men made perfect, was very pleasing to our author, ... and must be to every one of a fine and exalted imagination; and Milton has inlarged upon it in several parts of his works, and particularly in this poem,
II. 333. &c.
X. 638. XI. 65, 900.
II. 462.(line 588: ------- from this top / Of speculation;....):
From this visionary highth, from this hill of prophecy and prediction. "Speculation", a watching on a tower or high place, thence a discovery, therefore applied to the prophets in the sacred page, who are called "seers" and "watchmen", 'speculatores' of 'specula' Latin, a watch-tower; "Son of man,
I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel." Ezekiel,
II. 17. more exactly described, chapter
II. 3-7. --Hume.(line 616:
Is to stay here;....&c.):
She is now come to that temper of mind, as to think it Paradise, wherever her husband is, as the Angel had taught her before,
XI. 290. ...
So that the author makes Woman's Paradise to be in company with her husband, but Man's to be in himself, ver. 587. "A Paradise within thee, happier far."(line 629:
Gliding meteorous,....):
Heliodorus in his Ethiopics acquaints us, that the motion of the gods differs from that of mortals, as the former do not stir their feet, nor proceed step by step, but slide o'er the surface of the earth by an uniform swimming of the whole body.
The reader may observe with how poetical description Milton has attributed the same kind of motion to the Angels who were to take possession of Paradise. --Addison.(line 630: ----------- marish ... ):
An old word for "marsh", of the French "marais," and of the Latin "mariscus," rushes commonly growing there.
The word occurs in 1 Maccabees IX. 42. ...
We meet with it too in Shakespear,
I Henry VI.
Act I. as Mr.
Pope and Mr.
Warburton rightly read the passage, "Our ile be made a marish of salt tears." (line 643:
Wav'd over by that flaming brand,.....):
A flaming sword. "Brando" in Italian too signifies a sword.
And the reason of this denomination Junius derives from hence, because men fought with burnt stakes and firebrands, before arms were invented.
The number of Books in "Paradise Lost" is equal to those of the "Æneid".
Our author in his first edition had divided his poem into ten books, but afterwards broke the seventh and the tenth of them into two different books, by the help of some small additions.
This second division was made with great judgement, as any one may see, who will be at the pains of examining it.
It was not done for the sake of such a chimerical beauty as that of resembling Virgil in this particular, but for the more just and regular disposition of this great work. --Addison.
And thus we have finish'd our collections and remarks on this divine poem.
The reader probably may have observed that these two last books fall short of the sublimity and majesty of the rest : and so likewise do the two last books of the Iliad, and for the same reason, because the subject is a different kind from that of the foregoing ones.
The subject of these two last books of the Paradise Lost is history rather than poetry.
However we may still discover the same great genius, and there are intermix'd as many ornaments and graces of poetry, as the nature of the subject, and the author's fidelity and strict attachment to the truth of Scripture history, and the reduction of so many and such various events into so narrow a compass, would admit.'~ Thomas Newton,
Paradise Lost, 2nd edition, 1750.
