from the subject, in which the poet very ingeniously mixes up a defence of his own opinions with expressions that raise in our minds high anticipations as to the character of what is to follow.

148.pronounc'd, i. e. spoken aloud; unmeditated, i. e. unpremeditated, not prepared before hand.

150. -num'rous verse, i. e. musical verse; verse being distinguished from prose by this, that the lines in verse contain each a fixed number of syllables.

151. More tuneable, i. e. their devotions were either pronounced or sung so sweetly that they needed no accompaniment of any musical instrument to give them additional sweet

ness.

153. These, i. e. these works which we see around us. Adam and Eve, it must be remembered, were in the open air beholding all the beauties of a sunrise in Paradise.

159.- beyond thought, i. e. beyond what we can think, above the limits of our comprehension: power is governed by declare, not by beyond.

162. day without night; for, according to Milton's description, there is in heaven no night properly so called: thus, v. 644,

"the face of brightest heav'n had chang'd

To grateful twilight (for night comes not there
In darker veil)."

166. Fairest of stars! Hesperus, the evening star. The description, however, applies more appropriately to Lucifer, the morning star. Both functions are performed by the same planet, Venus.

173. thou climb'st. The expressions in this and the next line are borrowed from the apparent course of the sun. Rising on the horizon, it seems to climb up to its meridian altitude (high noon), from which it again falls to its setting-place in the

west.

175. Moon! that now meet'st, &c.; alluding to the motion of the moon, which at one time approaches the sun, at another retires from that luminary.

176. With the fix'd stars, that is, "O Moon! along with the fixed stars, and ye five other wandering fires, resound his praise!"

-fix'd in their orb that flies. The fixed stars, according to the opinions of old astronomers, were luminous bodies fixed in the vast concave of heaven; and this concave-their orb-was supposed to revolve round the earth in twenty-four hours, so that the sky presented the fixed stars to us every evening.

177. — five other wand'ring fires. The five planets are here meant, that being the number known in Milton's time: these were, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. There is some little difficulty in the passage, owing to the planet Venus having been already referred to as the "fairest of stars," but the interpretation given seems on the whole satisfactory. The word wand'ring is here used partly as descriptive of the motion of the planets, as contradistinguished from the fixed stars mentioned in the previous line, and partly because it is a translation of the word planets, which means wandering bodies.

178. mystic dance. The motions of the planets in the heavens bear a sort of resemblance to the intricate movements of a dance, hence that word is here applied to their motions. By mystic, Milton understands, some deep meaning involved in their motions which our minds are unable to fathom. Not without song,-an allusion to what has been so often celebrated by the poets, the music of the spheres. Thus, in a well-known passage, Shakspeare says,

"There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim."

The same idea is also beautifully expressed in Addison's celebrated hymn-" The spacious firmament on high."

181. quaternion, a body of four. This term is here used in accordance with the ancient opinion, which modern chemistry has exploded, that there were four elements. The meaning of the passage is, that the four elements, by mingling constantly with each other, in various forms and proportions, keep all things in existence.

185. now. They were offering up their devotions at sunrise, the period when "mists and exhalations" are to be seen ascending from "hills or steaming lakes."

187. -fleecy, resembling wool,—a term admirably descriptive of the appearance of a mist.

190. showers. Milton, it will be observed, did not hold

the (perhaps fanciful) opinion, that there was no rain before the fall. 195.

ye that warble, i. e. rivers. The word is suggested by the musical sound, the "melodious murmurs," of flowing

streams.

206.

only good, good alone, nothing but what is good. 287. Have gather'd, &c., i. e. "If the night have gathered or concealed anything that is evil." Allusion is here made to the dream which had disturbed Eve during the night.

Line 192.

BOOK IX.

when as are to be considered one word; sacred light, so called because the morning is, or ought to be, devoted to religious duties. Perhaps also Milton applied this epithet because Scripture says that "God is light;" and light therefore may well be styled sacred. So in the beginning of Book III. he says:

"Hail, Holy Light! offspring of heav'n first born!
Or of the Eternal coeternal beam,

May I express thee unblam'd? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee."

III. 1-5.

196. his nostrils fill,-alluding to such expressions as

Genesis viii. 21.

199.

·wanting voice. If we suppose the poet to refer here to birds, then voice must be understood to mean speech, articulation. The passage, however, ought to be applied to the creatures mentioned previously-the plants, which, though without voice, are constantly sending up silent praise to God.

201.

203.

a garden.

--ply, perform, accomplish.

-gard'ning, so wide,-acting as gardeners in so large

209. Luxurious by restraint. Eve says that the only effect of their pruning the herbs and flowers was to make them grow more luxuriantly.

212. Tending to wild, running wild as if uncultivated.

214.

thou, supply go: do thou go where choice leads thee.

215. where most needs, i. e. where there is most need of your labours: needs is here used impersonally.

216. The woodbine, better known as the honeysuckle, a creep

ing plant.

217. 218. - spring of roses, bed of roses; so called either in imitation of the ancient poets, who frequently put spring for the productions of spring, or because the roses were growing in luxuriant abundance, rising from the earth as waters gush from a spring.

clasping ivy, so called from its manner of growth.

220. For, while, &c. Arrange thus: "For, while we choose our task all day in this manner (viz.) so near each other, what wonder if (when we are) so near, looks and smiles intervene, or (some) new object draw on," &c. Intervene, pass between us; casual, accidental, not previously intended.

223. 224.

intermits, interrupts.

- brought to little, amounting to little. Eve wishes to go to a little distance from Adam, because, while they work so near, their labours are frequently interrupted, and produce little effect.

229.

237.

- motion'd, proposed.

between, in the midst of our work.

238. Food of the mind, in apposition with talk, which is the "food of the mind."

240. To brute denied. Adam means that smiles are denied to brutes, not reason; for Adam told the angel that God had said to him of the brutes,

244. 245.

"They also know,

"And reason not contemptibly."—VIII. 374.

-paths and bowers are governed by will keep.

as wide as we need walk, i. e. that Adam and Eve would keep clear by their labours a path as wide as they required for walking in.

247. -perhaps, i. e. if it so happen that much conversation satiate thee, if Eve was tired with too much conversation. 249. best society, as affording man opportunity for communing with his own mind, for reflection and meditation. Milton often praises the virtues of solitude (see his Comus). 250. Arrange the line thus: "And retirement, even though short, urges sweet return;" urges, incites, prompts to.

253. What hath been warn'd, i. e. the warning which has been given to us.

261. Whether. Milton, in imitation of the ancients, usually suppresses the clause which should follow this conjunction. The full construction would be: "Whether Satan's first design is to withdraw. . . . or to disturb, I do not know." This last clause is not here inserted, nor does Milton usually insert it. 262. - feälty, loyalty, submission.

265. Or this, or worse. His design is either this, or something

worse. 272.

austere, grave, dignified. Eve was not quite satisfied with Adam's answer, which seemed to imply doubt of her fidelity to God.

all earth's lord! See Genesis i. 28.

273. 276. the parting angel, from Raphael as he was preparing to depart. Eve was not present at the last part of the conversation between Raphael and Adam, but she had overheard the angel's last words. The angel had warned Adam that he had an enemy who envied him, and was plotting to seduce him from his obedience; but he advised him not to listen to his temptations, and specially exhorted him "to warn his weaker," i. e. Eve.

279. Arrange thus: "But I expected not to hear that thou shouldst doubt my firmness to God or thee for this reason, because we have a foe who may tempt it." The word therefore, though emphatic from its position in the order in which Milton arranges the sentence, is grammatically unnecessary.

284. - not receive, not feel. As our first parents were not "capable of pain," Eve says that Satan's violence could not affect them at all.

285.

-fraud. Emphasis is to be laid on fraud as opposed to violence in line 282. Which plain, &c., arrange thus: "Which (fear of Satan's fraud) plainly infers that you have an equal fear that my firm faith and love can be shaken or seduced by his fraud."

288. Thoughts, &c. The grammar of this sentence is very perplexed; it may be simplified, however, by the following paraphrase: "Thoughts, which being misthought of her so dear to thee, how found they," &c. According to this arrangement, misthought is a participle, which is the nominative abso