More fafe I fing with mortal voice, unchang'd
To hoarfe or mute, though fallen on evil days, 25
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues;
In darkness, and with dangers compass'd round,
And folitude; yet not alone, while thou
Vifit'ft my flumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the eaft: still govern thou my fong,

Urania, and fit audience find, though few.

"If ever, Lord, the pureft of my foule

"In facred rage were rapt above the pole."

30

And Urania, the heavenly Mufe, thus addreffes Du Bartas, in Sylvefter's tranflation, p. 526.

“I am Vrania, then aloud said she,

"Who human kind above the poles transport."

Ver. 25.

DUNSTER.

though fallen on evil days,

On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues;] The repetition and turn of the words is very beautiful. A lively picture this, in a few lines, of the poet's wretched condition. Though he was blind, in darkness; and with dangers compass'd round, and folitude, obnoxious to the government, and having a world of enemies among the royal party, and therefore obliged to live very much in privacy and alone; he was not become hoarse or mute. And what strength of mind was it, that could not only support him under the weight of these misfortunes, but enable him to foar to fuch heights, as no human genius ever reached before?

NEWTON.

Ver. 29. Vifit'ft my slumbers nightly,] The poet might here remember the nightly vifions of Beatrice to Dante, Purgatorio, C. xxx. 133. And fee alfo P. L. B. ix. 22. And Mr. Warton's note on Eleg. v. ver. 6. TODD.

Ver. 31.

and fit audience find, though few.] He had Horace in mind, Sat. i. x. 73.

neque te ut miretur turba, labores, "Contentus paucis lectoribus." NEWTON.

But drive far off the barbarous diffonance
Of Bacchus and his revellers, the race

Of that wild rout that tore the Thracian bard
In Rhodope, where woods and rocks had ears 35
To rapture, till the favage clamour drown'd
Both harp and voice; nor could the Mufe defend
Her fon. So fail not thou, who thee implores:

Ver. 32. But drive far off &c.] In imitation of the heathen divines, who used to utter their verses only to the pure. Thus, in Fragm. Orpheo adfcript.

Φθέγξομαι οἷς θέμις ἐςι, θύρας δ' επίθεσθε βεβήλοις

Пão. CALLANDER.

Ver. 33. Of Bacchus and his revellers,] It is not improbable, that the poet intended this as an oblique satire upon the diffolutenefs of Charles the Second and bis Court; from whom he seems to apprehend the fate of Orpheus, who, though he is faid to have charmed woods and rocks with his divine songs, was torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women of Rhodope, a mountain of Thrace; nor could the Mufe Calliope, his mother, defend him.-So fail not thou, who thee implores: Nor was his with ineffectual; for the Government fuffered him to live and die unmolested. NEWTON.

It is the more probable that he intended here to designate Charles the fecond and his Court, as elsewhere he seems not to have fcrupled to characterise them in very broad expreffions. See P. L. B. i. 497, &c. Par. Reg. B. ii. 183, &c. TODD.

Ver. 35. where woods and rocks had ears &c.] As in Horace, "auritas quercus," Od. i. i. 11. But fee the defcription of Jubal's lute, in Sylvefter's Du Bart. 1621, p. 231.

"the melodious lute,

"That makes woods harken, and the windes be mute."

Ver. 38.

TODD.

So fail not thou, who thee implores :] The ellipfis here is like that of the word illa in Virgil, where he fays, Ecl, ii. 23.

For thou art heavenly, the an empty dream.

Say, Goddess, what ensued when Raphaël, 40 The affable Arch-Angel, had forewarn'd

Adam, by dire example, to beware
Apoftafy, by what befel in Heaven

To those apoftates; left the like befall
In Paradise to Adam or his race,

Charg'd not to touch the interdicted tree,

45

If they tranfgrefs, and flight that fole command,
So easily obey'd amid the choice

Of all taftes else to please their appetite,
Though wandering. He, with his conforted Eve,
The ftory heard attentive, and was fill'd
With admiration and deep muse, to hear

51

Of things fo high and ftrange; things, to their thought

So unimaginable, as hate in Heaven,

And war so near the peace of God in bliss, 55
With fuch confufion: but the evil, foon
Driven back, redounded as a flood on those
From whom it fprung; impoffible to mix
With bleffedness. Whence Adam foon repeal'd

"Canto quæ folitus, fi quando armenta vocaret."

Ver: 50.

LORD MONBODDO.

conforted] Conforted

from confort, "Cum conforte tori," as Ovid fays, Met. i. 319.

Ver. 59.

Whence Adam foon repeal'd

NEWTON.

The doubts] Dr. Bentley would read dispell'd; but, if an alteration were neceffary, I should rather read repell'd. But in the fame fenfe as a law is faid to be repeal'd, when an end is put

The doubts that in his heart arofe: and now 60
Led on, yet finlers, with defire to know
What nearer might concern him, how this world
Of Heaven and Earth confpicuous first began;
When, and whereof created; for what,caufe;
What within Eden, or without, was done : 65
Before his memory; as one whose drouth
Yet fcarce allay'd ftill eyes the current ftream,
Whofe liquid murmur heard new thirft excites,
Proceeded thus to ask his heavenly guest.

Great things, and full of wonder in our ears, 70 Far differing from this world, thou haft reveal'd, Divine interpreter! by favour fent

Down from the empyréan, to forewarn

Us timely of what might elfe have been our lofs, Unknown, which human knowledge could not reach:

For which to the infinitely Good we owe
Immortal thanks, and his admonishment...
Receive, with folemn purpose to obferve
Immutably his fovran will, the end...

Of what we are. But fince thou haft vouchfaf'd
Gently, for our inftruction, to impart

75

81

to all the force and effect of it; fo, when doubts are at an end, they may be faid to be repeal'd. PEARCE.

Ver. 69. Proceeded thus &c.] The conftruction is, " And, led on with defire to know &c., proceeded thus to afk his heavenly gueft." NEWTON.

Ver. 72. Divine interpreter ! So Mercury is called in Virgil, "Interpres divóm," n. iv. 378. NEWTON.

Things above earthly thought, which yet con

cern'd

85

Our knowing, as to highest wisdom feem'd,
Deign to defcend now lower, and relate
What may no less perhaps avail us known,
How first began this Heaven which we behold'
Distant fo high, with moving fires adorn'd C
Innumerable; and this which yields or fills
All space, the ambient air wide interfus'd
Embracing round this florid Earth; what cause
Mov'd the Creator, in his holy reft
Through all eternity, so late to build

Ver. 83. Our knowing,] This is a peculiar idiom of the English tongue for us to know. STILLINGFLEET.

Ver. 88.

and this which yields &c.] Yields fpace to all bodies, and again fills up the deferted fpace fo as to be fubfer vient to motion.

Ver. 89.

RICHARDSON.

-the ambient air wide interfus'd] Ambient interfus'd denotes the air not only furrounding the earth, but flowing into, and fpun out between, all bodies; and is a fuller and finer notation of its liquid and fpiritual texture, leaving no vacuum in nature, than that of Ovid, Met. i, 12.

"Nec circumfufo pendebat in aëre tellus." HUMEDAD › Ver."'92. fo late to build It is a queftion that has been often afked, Why God did not create the world fooner? But the fame queftion might be afked, if the world had been created at any time; for ftill there were infinite ages before that time. And that can never be a juft exception against this time, which holds equally against all time. It must be refolved into the good will and pleasure of Almighty God: But there is a further reafon, according to Milton's hypothefis; which is, that God, after the expelling of Satan and his Angels out of Heaven, declared his pleasure to fupply, their place, by creating another world, and other creatures to dwell therein. NEWTON.