The several glories of the heavens make their appearance on the fourth day :— 1 First in his east the glorious lamp was seen, His longitude through heaven's high road; the grey His mirror, with full face borrowing her light 5 ΙΟ 15 20 One would wonder how the poet could be so concise in his description of the six days' works as to comprehend them within the bounds of an episode, and at the same time so particular as to give us a lively idea of them. This is still more remarkable in his account of the fifth and sixth days,2 in which he has drawn out to our view the whole animal creation, from the reptile to the behemoth. As the lion and the leviathan are two of the 25 noblest productions in the world of living creatures, the reader will find a most exquisite spirit of poetry in the account which our author gives us of them. The sixth day concludes with the formation of man, upon which the angel takes occasion, as he did after the battle 30 in heaven, to remind Adam of his obedience, which was the principal design of this his visit. 3 The poet afterwards represents the Messiah returning 1 7. 370-384. 2 First edition, ' day' (Arber). 3 First edition, 'this.' into heaven, and taking a survey of his great work. There is something inexpressibly sublime in this part of the poem, where the author describes that great period of time, filled with so many glorious circumstances: 5 when the heavens and earth were finished; when the Messiah ascended up in triumph through the everlasting gates; when he looked down with pleasure upon his new creation; when every part of Nature seemed to rejoice in its existence; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy : — 10 15 20 25 30 1 So even and morn accomplished the sixth Day; Resounded (thou rememberest, for thou heard'st) I cannot conclude this book upon the Creation without mentioning a poem which has lately appeared under that title. The work was undertaken with so good an intention, and is executed with so great a mastery, that it deserves to be looked upon as one of the most useful 35 and noble productions in our English verse. The 1 7. 550-568. reader cannot but be pleased to find the depths of philosophy enlivened with all the charms of poetry, and to see so great a strength of reason amidst so beautiful a redundancy of the imagination. The author has shown us that design in all the works of Nature which necessa- 5 rily leads us to the knowledge of its first cause. In short, he has illustrated, by numberless and incontestable instances, that divine wisdom which the son of Sirach has so nobly ascribed to the Supreme Being in his formation of the world, when he tells us that 'He created her, and 10 saw her, and numbered her, and poured her out upon all His works.' 5 ΙΟ 15 THE 14.1 BOOK VIII. Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius alta, - OVID, Met. 2. 76–78. A creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet, and then was man designed; For empire formed, and fit to rule the rest.— Dryden. HE accounts which Raphael gives of the battle of angels, and the creation of the world, have in them those qualifications which the critics judge requisite to an episode. They are nearly related to the principal action, and have a just connection with the fable. The Eighth Book opens with a beautiful description of the impression which this discourse of the archangel made on our first parents.2 Adam afterwards by a very natural curiosity inquires concerning the motions of those celestial bodies which make the most glorious appearance among the six days' works. The poet here, with a great deal of art, represents Eve as withdrawing from this part of their conversation to amusements more suitable to her He well knew that the episode in this book, which is filled with Adam's account of his passion and esteem for Eve, would have been improper for her hearing, and has therefore devised very just and beautiful reasons for her retiring : sex. 1 Spectator, No. 345, April 5, 1712. 2 First edition, 'parent.' 1 So spake our Sire, and by his countenance seemed And grace that won who saw to wish her stay, Of what was high. Such pleasure she reserved, Her husband the relater she preferred Before the Angel, and of him to ask 5 ΤΟ 15 Chose rather; he, she knew, would intermix With conjugal caresses: from his lip Not words alone pleased her. Oh, when meet now 20 The angel's returning a doubtful answer to Adam's inquiries was not only proper for the moral reason which the poet assigns, but because it would have been highly absurd to have given the sanction of an archangel to any particular system of philosophy. The chief points in the 25 Ptolemaic and Copernican hypothesis are described with great conciseness and perspicuity, and at the same time dressed in very pleasing and poetical images. 30 Adam, to detain the angel, enters afterwards upon his own history, and relates to him the circumstances in which he found himself upon his creation; as also his conversation with his Maker, and his first meeting with Eve. There is no part of the poem more apt to raise the attention of the reader than this discourse of our great ancestor, as nothing can be more surprising and delightful to us 35 than to hear the sentiments that arose in the first man, 1 8. 39-58. |