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Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of chaos: or if Sion hill

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook, that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it
pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for thou know'st; thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss,
And madest it pregnant: what in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great argument

6. Secret top. There is some doubt in what sense Milton here uses the word secret. As the top of Sinai, when God gave his laws to Moses, was covered with clouds" and "thick smoke," it was secrit at that time in a peculiar sense. But, as Newton observes, Miiton might have a further meaning in the epithet secret; for as he often uses words in their pure Latin sense. he may have used this in the sense of secretus, that is, set apart, separate for while Moses talked with God on the mount in private, the people were forbidden to approach, and afterwards even to ascend it, upon pain of

death.

7. Of Oreb, or of Sinai. The mountain from which the law was given is called Horeb in Deut. i. 6; iv. 10, 15; v. 2; xviii. 16; but in other places in the Pentateuch it is called Sinai. These names are now applied to two opposite summits of an isolated, oblong, and central mountain in the midst of a confused group of grand and rugged mountain-heights at the southern extremity of the peninsula, at the head of the Red Sea. Horeb is the steep. awful cliff, frowning over the plain Rahab, where the people of Israel were doubtless assembled. This plain, says Dr. Robinson, is about two miles long, and from one-third to twothirds of a mile wide. "Our conviction was strengthened that here was the spot where the Lord 'descended in fire,' and proclaimed the law. Here lay the plain where the whole congregation might be assembled; here was the mount that, rising perpendicularly in frowning maje tv, could be approached, if not for bidden; and here the mountain-brow, where alone the lightnings and the thick clond would be visible." At the southern extremity of this central ridge, which

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is about three miles long, is Mount Sinai proper, now called by the monks Jebel Musa, or Moses' Mount. But, though it has this traditionary name, its character and topography do not apply so well to the description given in Exodus as do those of the northern summit. Horeb. The name Sinai, however, is sometimes applied to the whole ridge, and hence Milton's phrase "of Horeb or of Sinai."

15. Above the Amian mount. In Bootia, anciently called Aonia, was Mount Helicon, so famed in antiquity as the seat of Apollo and the Muses, and sung by poets of every age. Milton, therefore, means to say that he intends to "soar above" other poets, who have sung of mere earthly scenes and interests.

16. Rhyme, from the Latin rythmus, (Gr. pupos.) here means verse. "Blank verse is apt to be loose, thin, and more full of words than thought: the blank verse of Milton is compressed, closewoven, and weighty in matter."-SIR E. BRYDGES.

17. And chiefly Thou, O Spirit. In the beginning of his second book of "The Reason of Church Government," speaking of his design of writing a poem in the English language, he says, "It was not to be obtained by the invocation of Dame Memory and her Siren daughters, but by devout prayer to that eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and serdɛ out his Seraphim with the hallow'd fire of his Altar to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases." See Pickering's edition, London, 1851, vol. iii. p. 149, or "Compendium of English Literature," p. 265.

24. That to the highth of this great argu ment. "The highth of the argument is precisely what distinguishes this poem

I may assert eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

Say first, for heaven hides nothing from thy view,
Nor the deep tract of hell; say first, what cause
Moved our grand Parents in that happy state,
Favour'd of heaven so highly, to fall off
From their Creator, and transgress his will
For one restraint, lords of the world besides?
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
The infernal serpent: he it was, whose guile,
Stirr'd up with envy and revenge, deceived
The mother of mankind, what time his pride
Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host
Of rebel angels; by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in glory above his peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the Most High,
If he opposed; and with ambitious aim
Against the throne and monarchy of God,
Raised impious war in heaven and battel proud,
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurl'd headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire,
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.

Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquish'd, rolling in the fiery gulf,
Confounded though immortal: but his doom
Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain

Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes,
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mix'd with obdurate pride and stedfast hate.
At once, as far as angels ken, he views

The dismal situation waste and wild:

A dungeon horrible on all sides round,

As one great furnace, flamed; yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell; hope never comes,
That comes to all; but torture without end

of Milton from all others. In other
works of imagination, the difficulty lies
in giving sufficient elevation to the sub-
jeet: here it lies in raising the imagina-
tion up to the grandeur of the subject,
in adequate conception of its mightiness,
and in finding language of such majesty
as will not degrade it. A genius less
gigantic and less holy than Milton's
would have shrunk from the attempt.
Milton not only does not lower, but he

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illumines the bright, and enlarges the great: he expands his wings, and sails with supreme dominion' up to the heavens, parts the clouds. and communes with angels and unembodied spirits."-SIR E. BRYDGES.

40. He trusted, &c. Isa. xiv. 13.

63. Darkness visible. Not absolute darkness. for that is invisible; but gloom, which shows that there are objects, though they cannot be distinctly seen.

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed:
Such place eternal justice had prepared
For those rebellious; here their prison ordain'd
In utter darkness; and their portion set
As far removed from God and light of heaven,
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.
O, how unlike the place from whence they fell!
There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelm'd
With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire,
He soon discerns; and welt'ring by his side,
One next himself in power, and next in crime,
Long after known in Palestine, and nam'd
Beelzebub: to whom the arch-enemy,

And thence in heav'n call'd Satan, with bold words
Breaking the horrid silence, thus began:-

If thou beest he-But, O, how fallen! how changed

From him, who in the happy realms of light,

Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads, though bright! If he, whom mutual league,
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope

And hazard in the glorious enterprize,

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Join'd with me once, now misery hath join'd

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In equal ruin: into what pit thou seest,

From what highth fallen: so much the stronger prov'd

He with his thunder; and till then who knew
The force of those dire arms? yet not for those,
Nor what the potent Victor in his

rage

Can else inflict, do I repent, or change,

Though changed in outward lustre, that fix'd mind
And high disdain from sense of injured merit,
That with the Mightiest raised me to contend,
And to the fierce contention brought along
Innumerable force of spirits arm'd,

That durst dislike his reign; and, me preferring,
His utmost power with adverse power opposed
In dubious battel on the plains of heaven,

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And shook his throne. What though the field be lost? 105
All is not lost; the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to submit or yield,
And what is else not to be overcome;

74. Utmost pole; that is, the pole of the universe. Homer (11. viii. 16) makes the seat of Hell as far beneath the deepest pit of earth, as the heaven is above the earth. Virgil (Æn. vi. 578) makes it twice as far, and Milton thrice as far: as if these three great poets had stretched their utmost genius, and vied with each other, who should extend his idea of the depth of Hell farthest. But Milton's whole description of Hell as much exceeds theirs as in this single

circumstance of the depth of it."-NEWTON.

77. Tempestuous fire. Ps. xi. 6.

82. Called Satan. The word Satan in Hebrew signifies an enemy: hence he is eminently the enemy, that is, of God and man.

109. And what is else not to be overtome. Pickering's edition, following Milton's own copy, reads this line with a note of interrogation. Though one or two commentators prefer this, I agree decidedly with Drs. Pearce and Newton

That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me: to bow and sue for grace
With suppliant knee, and deify his power,
Who from the terrour of this arm so late
Doubted his empire; that were low indeed;
That were an ignominy and shame beneath
This downfall; since, by fate, the strength of gods
And this empyreal substance cannot fail;
Since, through experience of this great event,
In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced,
We may with more successful hope resolve
To wage by force or guile eternal war,
Irreconcileable to our grand Foe,

Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy
Sole reigning holds the tyranny of heaven.

So spake the apostate angel, though in pain,
Vaunting aloud, but rack'd with deep despair:
And him thus answer'd soon his bold compeer:-
O prince, O chief of many throned powers,
That led th' embattell'd seraphim to war
Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds
Fearless, endanger'd heaven's perpetual King;
And put to proof his high supremacy,
Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate:
Too well I see and rue the dire event,
That with sad overthrow and foul defeat
Hath lost us heaven, and all this mighty host
In horrible destruction laid thus low;
As far as gods and heavenly essences
Can perish: for the mind and spirit remains
Invincible, and vigour soon returns;

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Though all our glory extinct, and happy state
Here swallow'd up in endless misery.

But what if he our Conquerour, whom I now

Of force believe almighty, since no less

Than such could have o'erpower'd such force as ours—

145

Have left us this our spirit and strength entire,
Strongly to suffer and support our pains,

That we may so suffice his vengeful ire;
Or do him mightier service, as his thralls
By right of war, whate'er his business be,
Here in the heart of hell to work in fire,
Or do his errands in the gloomy deep:

in preferring the semicolon, or, what is still better, the colon. Satan tells Beelzebub what "is not lost," and then says, and if there be any thing else besides the particulars mentioned which is not to be overcome, THAT is not lost; and then he adds, that that glory, namely, to cherish and preserve the unconquerable will, the study of revenge, and any thing else which cannot be overcome, God shall never extort from him.

130

117. Empyreal substance, that is, fiery substance. He maketh his Angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Ps. civ. 4.

131. Perpetual, not eternal, for then he could not have boasted of endangering his kingdom: but, for detraction, he calls God only perpetual King, that is, king from time immemorial, or without interruption.-NEWTON.

What can it then avail, though yet we feel

Strength undiminish'd, or eternal being,

To undergo eternal punishment?

Whereto with speedy words the Arch-fiend replied:

Fallen cherub, to be weak is miserable,

Doing or suffering: but of this be sure,

To do aught good never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight;
As being the contrary to his high will,
Whom we resist. If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labour must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil:
Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb
His inmost counsels from their destined aim.
But see! the angry Victor hath recall'd
His ministers of vengeance and pursuit
Back to the gates of heaven: the sulphurous hail,
Shot after us in storm, o'erblown hath laid
The fiery surge, that from the precipice
Of heaven received us falling; and the thunder,
Wing'd with red lightning and impetuous rage,
Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now
To bellow through the vast and boundless deep.
Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn
Or satiate fury yield it from our foe.
Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild,
The seat of desolation, void of light,

Save what the glimmering of these livid flames
Casts pale and dreadful? Thither let us tend
From off the tossing of these fiery waves;
There rest, if any rest can harbour there;
And, reassembling our afflicted powers,
Consult how we may henceforth most offend
Our enemy; our own loss how repair;
How overcome this dire calamity;
What reinforcement we may gain from hope;
If not, what resolution from despair.

Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate,
With head uplift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides
Prone on the flood, extended long and large,
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge

As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warr'd on Jove,
Briareos, or Typhon, whom the den

By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works

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199. Briareos and Tiphoeus were two | Milton here means the whale, though in famed giants of antiquity. By Leviathan | Job it answers to the crocodile.

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