Aristotle (died B.C. 322), called "the Peripatetic" from his habit of walking up and down in the Lyceum when teaching; "and the sect Epicurean," founded by Epicurus (died B.C. 270); "and the Stoic severe," or followers of Zeno (died B.C. 264). All these schools did derive themselves from the teaching of Socrates; who was the real father of the whole Greek philosophic movement. 286, 287. "or, think I know them not, not therefore,” etc. The meaning is "or, should you think I know them not, not therefore,” etc. I have pointed so as to bring out this meaning. 291–308. But these are false," etc. In this passage we have a less sympathetic appreciation by Milton of the worth of the various systems of Greek speculation than was to be expected; but what he has in view is their shortcoming of the higher wisdom offered by Christianity. The "first and wisest" is Socrates (see preceding note, lines 275, 276). "The next," who "fell to fabling and smooth conceits," is Plato,—of whose spirit Milton himself had far more than this estimate would suggest. The "third sort" are the Sceptics, or followers of Pyrrho. The "others," who placed happiness in virtue joined with wealth and long life, are perhaps the Aristotelians. The "he" is Epicurus,-not worth naming again in full. It is notable that the Stoics are described most at length: perhaps, as Thyer suggested, on account of their superior ethical claims. 302, 303. "all possessing, equal to God, oft shames not to prefer." This passage is read variously and pointed variously in different editions. I keep the original pointing, which gives the sense clearly enough as follows:- -"The Stoic, who, dwelling on his ideal of a virtuous man, wise, perfect in himself, and possessing all equal to God, is often not ashamed to prefer him to God," etc. 316, 317. “usual names, Fortune and Fate." Such terms were frequent with the Stoics. an empty cloud." In 320, 321. "her false resemblance allusion, as Newton noted, to the story of Ixion, who, thinking to meet Juno, met a cloud substituted for her by Jupiter. many books.. (Newton.) are wearisome." Eccles. xii. 12. 324. "A spirit and judgment," etc. A remarkably anomalous line, consisting of twelve or even thirteen syllables. 329. "worth a sponge": i.e. deserving to be sponged out or obliterated from the memory. But perhaps rather "sponge" is here used typically for any worthless object that one would throw away, as if one were to say "not worth more than an old sponge." Mr. Jerram favours this interpretation as more consistent with the preceding phrase "toys and trifles," and cites a story to the effect that Augustus "amused himself at the Saturnalia by throwing sponges and other worthless things among the crowd." 330. "As children gathering pebbles on the shore." In the original edition and in the second pebbles is spelt pibles. All know the story of Sir Isaac Newton's saying about himself that he was but as a child playing on the sea-shore and amusing himself with pebble after pebble, and shell after shell, while the great ocean of truth stretched unfathomable away from him. Had Newton read Milton's line, or was it a coincidence? 334, 335. "All our Law and Story strewed with hymns": e.g. as Mr. Jerram notes, "the Song of Lamech (Gen. iv. 23), the Blessing of Jacob (Gen. xlix.), of Moses (Deut. xxxii.), the Song of Deborah (Judges v.), the Prayer of Hezekiah (Isaiah xxxii.) and many more." 336, 337. "in Babylon that pleased," etc. Ps. cxxxvii. (Newton.) 338. "rather Greece from us," etc. It was a favourite speculation of the old theologians,―never tenable, and now given up,-that whatever was true or good amongst other ancient nations had been derived from the Hebrews. Warburton notes that this speculation was supported with vast erudition by Bochart, and carried to an extravagant and even ridiculous length by Huetius and Gale." 341. "personating": representing. In 346-350. "unworthy to compare with Sion's songs," etc. Milton's Reason of Church Government there is a similar passage, where, after speaking of "those magnific odes and hymns" of the Greek poets which he admired for some things, though thinking them "in their matter most and end faulty," he refers to "those frequent songs throughout the Law and Prophets" as "beyond all these, not in their divine argument alone, but in the very critical art of composition." 351. "Unless where," etc. The connexion is with line 346, 'unworthy to compare . unless where," etc. 353-356. "as those the top of eloquence": i.e. as those who were the top, etc. 354. "statists": statesmen. The word had formerly this sense. Todd quotes Shakespeare, Cymb. II. 4, "Statist though I am none. 362. "makes a nation happy, and keeps it so." A recollection of Horace, Epist. I. vi. 47, "facere et servare beatum." (Richardson.) 380. "fulness of time." Gal. iv. 4. Gal. iv. 4. (Newton.) 382. "contrary" on the contrary. 383-385. "by what the stars voluminous," etc. The meaning is, "by what I can read or spell out in the aspects of the starry heavens, whether the volumes (ie. books) of the stars collectively, or single characters (individual planets) met in conjunction." 387. "Attends thee." So in the original; not "attend," as in most editions. The line is conspicuous, whether purposely or not, for its hissing effect, arising from the frequency of s in it. So, indeed, the three lines 386-388. 391, 392. as without end, without beginning": i.e. as without end, so without beginning. 392, 393. "no date prefixed directs me,” etc. An image derived from the Prayer-book; the Rubric or red-letter Calendar prefixed to which gives the dates of the festival-days. 399. "unsubstantial both": i.e. nothing in themselves, but only effects of the absence of light. 409, 410. "either tropic": i.e. both north and south; "both ends of heaven": both east and west.—In the description of the storm which here begins and which extends to line 419, Newton, Richardson, and Dunster have traced shreds from similar descriptions in the Eneid and other poems. Milton wrote, I believe, with no idea of such patchwork. 411. "abortive": as not conducing to production. 414. "their stony caves." In the old mythology the winds were supposed to be kept in caves by the God Eolus. 415. "the four hinges of the world." The four cardinal points; from cardo, a hinge. Warburton and 419-425. "Ill wast thou shrouded then,” etc. Jortin suggested that in this passage Milton may have remembered the legend of the Temptation of St. Anthony in the Desert, or even pictures he had seen on that subject. Calton believed that he took hints from a description of Christ's Temptation in Eusebius, De Dem. Evan.-Dunster quotes from Tasso (Ger. Lib. XVI. 67) his description of the demons gathered round Armida in a storm :— 66 Quanto gira il palagio udresti irati translated by Fairfax thus : : "You might have heard how through the palace wide Some spirits howled, some barked, some hissed, some cried." 420. "only": alone. 427. "amice": robe; properly a priest's vestment fastened round the neck and covering the shoulders: from the Latin amictus, a garment. Dunster quotes the word from Spenser; and in Richardson's Dict. there is this quotation from Tyndall: "The amice on the head is the kercheve that Christ was blyndfolded with, when the souldieurs buffeted him and mocked hym." 429. "chased the clouds." A translation, as Thyer observed, of Virgil's collectasque fugat nubes, in his similar description of the laying of a storm. (Æn. I. 143.) 434-438. "the birds gratulate the sweet return of morn." In a Latin oratorical exercise of Milton, during his days of Cambridge studentship, on the odd subject of the respective merits of Day and Night ("Utrum Dies an Nox præstantior sit"), there are passages of description similar to some in this place. Thus, "How pleasant and desirable Day is to the race of living things what need is there to expound to you, when the very birds themselves cannot conceal their joy, but, leaving their little nests, as soon as it has dawned, either soothe all things by their sweetest song of concert from the tops of trees, or, balancing themselves upward, fly as near as they can to the sun, eager to congratulate the returning light?" 449. "in wonted shape." In his usual shape, no longer disguised. 454. "flaws." See Par. Lost, X. 698 and note.-Mr. Ross annotates here:-"That it is derived from the Latin flatus is a mistake. It is from the same Teutonic root as flag and flake, and denotes a break, or crack, or sudden blast. The Swedish phrase for a 'flaw of wind' is a vind-flaga." 455. "pillared frame of Heaven." Job xxvi. 11. (Thyer.) Compare Comus, 597 et seq. 457-459. "Are to the main as inconsiderable," etc.: i.e. “are as inconsiderable to the physical universe, or sum-total of things, called the macrocosm, as a sneeze is to man's individual body, which is sometimes called the microcosm, or little universe." Satan has just said that, during the storm of the preceding night, he was himself far off, away at such a distance in the physical universe that he could hear the roar going on without being in it. 467-475. "Did I not tell thee time and means." Dunster notes, "Here is something to be understood after Did I not tell thee? The thing told we may suppose to be what Satan had before said, Book III. 351:— 66 6 'Thy kingdom, though foretold Endeavour, as thy father David did, There is certainly, as Dunster says, a sense of a deficiency of some words in the passage as it stands; for, though the syntax is complete if we connect line 467 with line 473, and read "Did I not tell thee ... thou shalt be what thou art ordained," etc., the meaning so resulting is not perfect. This gives interest to a note of Mr. Browne's on the passage. "There is," says Mr. Browne, "a copy of this Poem [the First Edition of Par. Reg.] in the King's Library [British Museum] carefully corrected throughout, apparently at the date of publication, in accordance with the printed directions [¿.e. according to the printed list of Errata]. At this place, in the same handwriting, occurs the following alteration, for which those directions give no authority : "Did I not tell thee, soon thou shalt have cause To wish thou never hadst rejected thus All to the push of Fate? Pursue thy way,' etc." 478-480. "What I foretold thee," etc. et seq. 500. "virgin-born": said sarcastically. 502. See ante, line 374 "have heard." So in the original, but altered into "had" in most editions. 511. "flocked." So in the original, but changed into "flock" in many editions. 517. "which": i.e. "which phrase." 519. "stands": continues, endures. 533, 534. a rock of adamant": i.e. of diamond. The word also meant steel; but it originally meant simply "unsubduable " (from a priv., daμáw, I subdue), and was transferred by metaphor to these substances. 534. as a centre, firm": from the notion of the necessary stability of the centre of any sphere. Dunster quotes a similar expression from Chaucer's Squire's Tale: "Of his couráge, as any centre, stable."-In all the modern editions there is a semicolon after "firm"; but there is no point at all in the original edition. Nor is it necessary; for, instead of reading "both wise and good to the utmost of mere man," we may construe "firm, as a rock of adamant and as a centre, to the utmost of a mere man who is both wise and good." 542. "hippogrif": in allusion to Ariosto's Hippogrif, or winged horse, in the Orlando Furioso. 549. "the highest pinnacle." Matt. iv. 5, and Luke iv. 9. In Matthew this incident of the Temptation occurs in the middle; in Luke it comes last. Milton follows Luke. The word πτερύγιον, which in both places is rendered "pinnacle" in our version, meant |