Loud as from numbers without number, sweet In a fout loud as &c. Heav’n rung, lasting amarant, which he has finely &c. where the first words are put in set near the tree of life. Amaranthe ablative case absolutely. tus flos, fymbolum eft immortali Pearce. tatis. Clem. Alexand. Hume. 351. down they caf? 357. - the fount of life, and Their crowns] So they are repre river of bliss] The abunsented Rev. IV. 10. The four and dant happiness and immortal joys wenty elders fall down before him of Heaven are in Scripture gethat sat on the throne, and worship nerally express d by the fountain him thai liveth for ever and ever, of life and rivers of pleasure : So, and caft their crowns before the Thou shalt make them drink of the throne, river of thy pleasures, for with the 353. Immortal amarant,] Ama- is the fountain of life, Pfal. XXXVI. rant Aucparla. Greek, for un 8, 9. For the Lamb which is in the fading, that decayeth not; a fiower midst of the throne shall feed them, of a purple velvet color, which and ball lead them unto living tho'gather'd, keeps its beauty, and fountains of waters, Rev. VII. 17. when all other flowers fade, reco and Rev. XXII. 1. He showed me vers its luttre by being sprinkled a pure river of water of life. with a little water, as Pliny affirms, Hume. Lib. 21. c. U. Our author seems 359. Polls o’er Flyfan flow'rs her to have taken this hint from 1 Pet. amber fiream ;] Dr. Bentley I. 4. To an inheritance incorruptible, reads Rolls o’er relucent gems &c. undefild, and that fadith not away, because (he says) it is not well con442cm:1::: and i Pet. V. 4. Pe ceiv'd that flow'rs grow at the botPall receive a crown of glory that tom of a river. But (as Dr. Pearce adith not aruar, apucat a low : both replies) Milton's words don't necelrelating to the name of his ever- farily imply lo much; the river In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, 355 To Heav'n remov'd, where first it grew, grow's, Now might only sometimes roll over Ran neêtır, visiting each plant, Flow'rs worthy of Paradise, legro, et deerescentia ripas From golden sumber on a bed Flumina prætereunt, Of heap'd Elysian flow'rs. roll by and within their banks. But And then as to his calling it amber if we understand the paffage as it is stream, it is only on account of its express'd, there is no kind of ab- clearness and transparency, and surdity in it; for we frequently fee not at all on account of its color, grass and weeds and flowers grow- that he compares it to amber. The ing under water: and we may clearness of amber was proverbial therefore suppose the finest fowers among the Ancients ; Callimachus to grow at the bottom of the river in his hymn to Ceres, ver. 29. has of bliss , or rather the river to roll artxipivou idwp; and in like manover them sometimes, to water, ner Virgil says of a river, Georg. them. The author seems to in- III. 522. tend much the same thing that he has express’d in IV. 240. where Purior electro campiin petit amnis. speaking of the brooks in Paradise 360. With these that nevir fade] he says they Dr. Bentley reads with this that P3 Now in loose garlands thick thrown off, the bright Pavement, that like a sea of jasper shone, Impurpled with celestial roses smild. 364 Then crown'd again, their golden harps they took, Harps ever tun'd, that glittering by their side Like quivers hung, and with preamble sweet Of charming, fymphony they introduce Their sacred song, and waken raptures high; No voice exempt, no voice but well could join 370 Melodious part, such concord is in Heaven. Thee, never fades, that is amarant. But liar with Spenser from the Italian Oft from the forest wildings he did bring, that fadeth not away. Pearce. Whose fides impurpled were with smiling red 291. L'Ho.e spogliando de lor fregi i better with what follows, with their prati being thrown off' in loose garlands, Tutto di rose imporporare il Cielo. which it is better to undertland of Thyer. flow'rs than of crowns, which are 372. Thee, Father, first they sung themselves garlands; but then there &c.] This hymn seems to be commust be no parenthesis, as there is posed somewhat in the spirit and none in Milton's own editions. manner of the hymn to Hercules 363. like a sea of jupper jkone,] in the 8th book of the Æneid; Jalper is a precious Itone of fe- but is as much superior as the subveral colors, but the green is most ject of the one transcends that of esteem'd, and bears soine fimilitude the other. and resemblance to the color of the 377. Thron'dinaccessible, but when fea. thou jhad'] The word but 364. Impurpled with celefial roles here is the same as except, unless ; Jail'd.] A word very fami- inaccesible, but when thou shad's, that Thee, Father, first they sung Omnipotent, 375 380 Yet dazle Heav'n, that brightest Seraphim Approach St. 57 that is then only accessible, when to be look'd on by the beings thou shad'It &c. Perhaps Milton nearest to God, but when doubly had in view what Ovid says of or trebly shaded by a cloud and Phæbus when his fon Phaeton both wings. What then is the full came to him, Met. II. 39. blaze! Ricbardfon. In like manner Taslo describing -circum caput omne micantes the Almighty in Heaven, Cant. 9. Deposuit radios, propiusque accedere juffit. Pearce. Quivi ei cosi nel suo splendor s'inI rather conclude that these ideas volve. were fuggested by the 33d chapter Che vi abbaglian la vida anco of Exodus, ver. 18. and the follow più degni. ing passage which ends thus, Thou full lee my back parts, but my face The same thought in Spenser's jhall not be seen. Greenwood. Hymn of Heavenly Beauty, but 380. Dark with excelsive bright more languidly express’d, thy skirts afpear, ] Milton has With the great glory of that wonthe same thought of darkness oc drous light casion’d by glory, V. 599. Bright His throne is all incompassed aness bad made invisible. This also round, explains his meaning here; the ex And hid in his own brightness from cess of brightness had the effect of the fight darkness, invisibility. What an Of all that look thereon &c. idea of glory! the skirts only not Ibyer. 382. Approach P4 Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes, 386 Back II. 22. 382. Approach not, ] So Ovid Met. în Col. I. 15. the firft born of every creature or of all creation, waong Confiftitque procul, neque enim xl1csws; and Rev III. 14. tbe bepropiora ferebat ginning of the creation of God. Lumina. 387. Whom else no creature can but eyes. behold; ] No creature can So they are represented in Jaiah's otherwise behold the Father but in vision of the throne of God: and through the Son. No man hath above it ftcod the Seraphims ; each Jeen God at any time; the only begotone hed six wings; with twain he ten Son which is in the bojom of the cover'd his face, &c. Ifa. VI. 2. Father, he hath diclared him, John I. 18. But He that hath jeen me, -- of all creation fir,] So hath jeen the Father, John XIV.9. 383. . 398. Thee |