Since Uriel, regent of the fun, defcried

60

His entrance, and forewarn'd the Cherubim That kept their watch; thence full of anguish driven,

The space of feven continued nights he rode
With darkness; thrice the equinoctial line

and from walking up and down in it." And in Sylvefter's Du Bart. 1621, p. 896, the paffage is thus verfified:

"I come, faid he, from walking in and out,

"And compassing the earthlie ball about." TODD.

Ver. 63. The space of feven continued nights he rode

With darkness; &c.] It was about noon that Satan came to the earth, and, having been discovered by Uriel, he was driven out of Paradife the fame night, as we read in book the fourth. From that time he was a whole week in continual darkness for fear of another difcovery. Thrice the equinoctial line he circled, he travelled on with the night three times round the equator; be was three days moving round from eaft to weft as the fun does, but always on the oppofite fide of the globe in darkness. Four times cross'd the car of night from pole to pole; did not move directly on with the night as before, but croffed over from the northern to the southern, and from the fouthern to the northern pole. Traverfing each colure. As the equinoctial line or equator is a great circle encompaffing the earth from eaft to weft and from weft to eaft again: fo the colures are two great circles, interfecting each other at right angles in the poles of the world, and encompaffing the earth from north to fouth, and from fouth to north again: and therefore, as Satan was moving from pole to pole, at the fame time the car of night was moving fromeaft to weft, if he would keep ftill in the fhade of night as he desired, he could not move in a straight line, but must move obliquely, and thereby cross the two colures. We have expreffed ourfelves as plainly as we can for the fake of those readers, who are not acquainted with thefe aftronomical terms; and the fact in thort is, that Satan was three days compaffing the earth from eaft to west, and four days from north to fouth, but still kept

He circled; four times crofs'd the car of night 65
From pole to pole, travérfing each colure;
On the eighth return'd; and, on the coaft averfe
From entrance or Cherubick watch, by stealth
Found unfufpected way. There was a place,
Now not, though fin, not time, first wrought the
change,

Where Tigris, at the foot of Paradise,
Into a gulf shot under ground, till part
Rose up a fountain by the tree of life:
In with the river funk, and with it rose
Satan, involv'd in rifing mift; then fought

70

75

Where to lie hid; fea he had fearch'd, and land, From Eden over Pontus and the pool

always in the shade of night; and, after a whole week's peregrination in this manner, on the eighth night returned by stealth into Paradife. NEWTON.

Ver. 65.

Petrarch expreffes it:

the car of night] As

"Notte 'l carro ftellato in giro mena."

See alfo Mr. Warton's note In Quint. Nov. v. 70. TODD.

Αὔρῃ ὀπωρινῇ ἐναλίγκιος, ἠΰτ' ὀμίχλη. STILLINGFLEET.

Ver. 77. From Eden over Pontus, &c.] As we had before an aftronomical, fo here we have a geographical, account of Satan's peregrinations. He fearch'd both fea and land, northward from Eden over Pontus, Pontus Euxinus, the Euxine Sea, now the Black Sea, above Conftantinople, and the pool Mæotis, Palus Mæotis above the Black Sea, up beyond the river Ob, Ob or Oby,

Mæotis, up beyond the river Ob; Downward as far antarctick; and in length, Weft from Orontes to the ocean barr'd

80

At Darien; thence to the land where flows
Ganges and Indus: Thus the orb he roam'd
With narrow search; and with inspection deep
Confider'd every creature, which of all
Moft opportune might serve his wiles; and found
The Serpent fubtlest beast of all the field.

86

a great river of Mufcovy near the northern pole. Downward as far antarctick, as far fouthward; the northern hemisphere being elevated on our globes, the north is called up and the fouth downwards; antarctick fouth the contrary to arctic north from

the Bear, the moft confpicuous conftellation near the north pole; but no particular place is mentioned near the fouth pole, there being all fea or land unknown. And in length, as north is up and fouth is down, fo in length is east or weft; west from Orontes, a river of Syria, weftward of Eden, running into the Mediterranean, to the ocean barr'd at Darien, the isthmus of Darien in the Weft-Indies, a neck of land that joins North and South America together, and hinders the ocean as it were with a bar from flowing between them; and the metaphor of the ocean barr'd is an allufion to Job xxxviii. 10, “and set bars to the fea.” Thence to the land where flows Ganges and Indus, thence to the Eaft-Indies: Thus the orb he roam'd. NEWTON.

Ver. 86. The Serpent fubtleft beaft &c.] So Mofes, Gen. iii. 1. "Now the ferpent was more fubtle than any beast of the field:" The fubtlety of the ferpent is commended likewife by Ariftotle and other Naturalifts: And therefore he was the fitter inftrument for Satan, because (as Milton fays agreeably with the doctrine of the best Divines) any fleights in him might be thought to proceed from his native wit and subtlety; but, observed in other creatures, might the easier beget a fufpicion of a diabolical power acting within them, beyond their natural fenfe. NEWTON.

Him after long debate, irresolute

90

Of thoughts revolv'd, his final fentence chofe
Fit veffel, fitteft imp of fraud, in whom
To enter, and his dark fuggeftions hide
From sharpest fight: for, in the wily fnake
Whatever fleights, none would fufpicious mark,
As from his wit and native fubtlety
Proceeding; which, in other beafts obferv'd,
Doubt might beget of diabolick power
Active within, beyond the sense of brute.
Thus he refolv'd, but first from inward grief
His burfting paffion into plaints thus pour'd.

95

O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferr'd More justly, feat worthier of Gods, as built 100

Ver. 89. - fittest imp of fraud,] Fittest stock to graft his devilish fraud upon, fays Hume. The word indeed is derived from the Welth imp, a fhoot. And thus Chaucer, Monke's Prol. v. 68. "Of feble trees there comith wretched impes.” Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, confiders the word in Milton as meaning a fubaltern devil; probably in allufion to the vulgar expreffion, "The devil and his imps;" which Mr. Dunfter traces to Wood's Conflict of Confcience, 1581, in which Satan thus concludes his fpeech:

"I will therefore myne impes send out

Ver. 99.

from hell their shapes to fhow." TonD.

If not preferr'd

More justly, &c.] I reckon this panegyrick upon the Earth among the lefs perfect parts of the poem. The begin ning is extravagant, and what follows is not confiftent with what the author had faid before, in his defcription of Satan's paffage among the stars and planets, which are faid then to appear to him as other worlds inhabited. See B. iii. 566. The imagination, that all the heavenly bodies were created for the fake of the

With fecond thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God, after better, worse would build?
Terrestrial Heaven,danc'd round byother Heavens
That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as feems, 105
In thee concentring all their precious beams
Of facred influence! As God in Heaven
Is center, yet extends to all; fo thou,
Centring, receiv'ft from all thofe orbs: in thee,
Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears

Earth, was natural to human ignorance; and human vanity might find its account in it: but neither of these could influence Satan. HEYLIN.

As it is common with people to undervalue what they have forfeited and loft by their folly and wickedness, and to overvalue any good that they hope to attain; fo Satan is here made to question whether Earth be not preferable to Heaven: but this is spoken of Earth in its primitive and original beauty before the Fall. As Mr. Thyer obferves, Spenfer has the very fame thought upon a like occafion; for, defcribing the gardens furrounding the temple of Venus, he says, Faery Qu. v. x. 23.

"That if the happy fouls which do poffefs
"The Elyfian fields, and live in lafting bliss,
"Should happen this with living eye to fee,
"They foon would loath their leffer happiness."

But Satan concludes that Earth must be beft, becaufe it was created laft;

"For what God, after better, worfe would build ?”

A fophiftical argument worthy of Satan, and for the fame reafon Man would be better than Angels. But Satan was willing to infinuate imperfection in God, as if he had mended his hand by Creation, and as if all the works of God were not perfect in their kinds, and in their degrees, and for the ends for which they were intended. NEWTON.