Et puer ille fuum tenet, et puer ille, decorem, Phoebe, tuufque, et, Cypri, tuus; nec ditior olim Terra datum fceleri celavit montibus aurum Confcia, vel fub aquis gemmas. Sic denique in ævum Ibit cunctarum feries juftiffima rerum ; Donec flamma orbem populabitur ultima, late De Idea Platonica quemadmodum Ariftoteles ICITE, facrorum præfides nemorum deæ, Memoria mater, quæque in immenfo procul 65 63. Hyacinth the favourite boy of Phoebus, Adonis of Venus. Both, like Narciffus, converted into flowers. 64. Terra datum fceleri celavit montibus aurum Confcia, vel fub aquis gemmas.-] See EL. v. 77. And COMUS, V. 718. -In her own loins She hutcht th' all-worshipt ore, &c. Again, ibid. 732. -And th' unfought diamonds Would so imblaze the forehead of the deep, &c. This poem is replete with fanciful and ingenious allufions. It has also a vigour of expreffion, a dignity of fentiment, and elevation of thought, rarely found in very young writers. + I find this poem inferted at full length, as a fpecimen of unintelligible metaphyfics, in a scarce little book, of universal burlefque, much in the manner of Tom Brown, feemingly published about the year 1715, and intitled "An Effay towards the THEO RY of the INTELLIGIBLE WORLD intuitively confidered. Defigned for fortynine Parts, &c. by GABRIEL JOHN. Enriched "with a faithfull account of his ideal voyage, and illuftrated with 44 poems by feveral hands; as likewise with other strange things, "" not 5 Antro recumbis otiofa Eternitas, "not infufferably clever, nor furiously to the purpose. 10 15 Printed in See p. 17. 3. This is a fublime perfonification of Eternity. And there is great reach of imagination in one of the conceptions which follows, that the original archetype of Man may be a huge giant, stalking in fome remote unknown region of the earth, and lifting his head fo high as to be dreaded by the gods, &c. v. 21. Sive in remota forte terrarum plaga Incedit ingens HOMINIS ARCHETYPUS gigas, Atlante major portiore fiderum, &c. 11. Haud ille Palladis gemellus innubæ, &c.] " This aboriginal "Man, the twin-brother of the virgin Pallas, does not remain in "the brain of Jupiter where he was generated; but, although partaking of Man's common nature, ftill exifts fomewhere by him"self, in a state of fingleness and abstraction, and in a determinate "place. Whether among the stars, &c." 13. Quamlibet ejus natura fit communior," that is, communis. 15. "Et (res mira!) certo, &c." 17. In another place, he makes the ninefold. 18. That part of the moon's orb nearest the earth. 19: See Virgil, N. vi. 713. Obliviofas torpet ad Lethes aquas: Ter magnus Hermes, ut fit arcani fciens, Animæ, quibus altera fato Corpora debentur, Lethæi ad fluminis undam, 20 25 30 35 But this is Plato's philofophy, PHED. col. I. 25. Tirefias of Thebes. 27.Pleiones nepos.] Mercury. Ovid, EPIST. HEROID. xv. 62. Atlantis magni PLEIONESQUE NEPOŠ. And METAM. ii. 743. "Atlantis PLEIONESQUE NEPOS." See alfo, FAST. B. v. 83. 663. 29. Non bunc facerdos novit Affyrius.-] Sanchoniathan, the eldest of the profane hiftorians. His existence is doubted by Dodwell, and other writers. 33. Ter magnus Hermes.] Hermes Trismegiftus, an Egyptian philofopher, who lived foon after Mofes. See IL. PENS. V. 88. “With THRICE-GREAT Hermes, &c.” 35. At tu perenne, &c.] You, Plato, who expelled the poets from your republic, must now bid them return, &c. See Plato's TIMEUS and PROTAGORAS. Plato and his followers communicated their notions by emblems, fables, fymbols, parables, allego (Hæc monftra fi tu primus induxti fcholis) N Ad Patrem. UNC mea Pierios cupiam per pectora fontes Volvere laxatum gemino de vertice rivum; 5 ries, and a variety of myftical reprefentations. Our author characterises Plato, PARAD. REG. B. iv. 295. The next to FABLING fell and smooth coONCEITS. 36. -Induxti.-] The edition of 1673, has induxit. And iis for Diis, v. 23. I have reformed the punctuation of both the elder editions. According to Aubrey's manufcript Life of Milton, Milton's father, although a scrivener, was not apprenticed to that trade; he fays he was bred a scholar and of Christ Church Oxford, and that he took to trade in confequence of being difinherited. Milton was therefore writing to his father in a language which he understood. Aubrey adds, that he was very ingenious, and delighted in mufic, in which he instructed his son John: that he died about 1647, and was interred in Cripplegate church, from his house in Barbican. MS. ASHм. ut fupr. See Note on v. 66. below. Quæ Quas mihi femoto fomni peperere fub antro, 15 Et nemoris laureta facri Parnaffides umbræ. Nec tu vatis opus divinum despice carmen, Quo nihil æthereos ortus, et femina cœli, Nil magis humanam commendat origine mentem, Sancta Prometheæ retinens veftigia flammæ. Carmen amant fuperi, tremebundaque Tartara car men Ima ciere valet, divofque ligare profundos, i 16. Read Parneffid. See Note on v. 22. V. 106. Tremebundaqua Tartara carmen Ima ciere valet, divofque ligare profundos, 20 25 Et triplici duro Manes adamante coercet.] As in IL PENS. Such Notes as warbled to the ftring Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, And made Hell grant what love did feek. And below, of Orpheus, v. 54. Where fee the Note. COMPULIT IN LACRYMAS. 25. Phoebades.-] The priesteffes of Apollo's temple at Delphi, who always delivered their oracles in verfe. Our author here recollected the IoN of Euripides. To Phemonoe, one of the most celebrated of these poetical ladies, the Greeks were indebted for hexameters. Others found it more commodious to fing in the fpecious obfcurity of the Pindaric measure. Homer is faid to have borrowed many lines from the refponfes of the priestess Daphne, daughter of Tirefias. It was fufpected, that perfons of distinguished abilities in poetry were fecretly placed near the oracular tripod, who immediately cloathed the answer in a metrical form, which was almost as foon conveyed to the priestess in waiting. PHOEBAS is a word in Ovid. And Caffandra, a prophetefs, is called PHOEBAS, AMOR. ii. viii. 12. And TRIST. ii. 400. See our author, above, EL. vi. 73. Aurea |