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From the fun's axle; they with labor pufh'd
Oblique the centric globe: Some fay the fun
Was bid turn reins from th' equinoctial road
Like diftant breadth to Taurus with the feven
Atlantic Sifters, and the Spartan Twins
Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain
By Leo and the Virgin and the Scales,
As deep as Capricorn, to bring in change
Of seasons to each clime; elfe had the spring
Perpetual fmil'd on earth with vernant flowers,

centric as being the center of the world, according to the Ptolemaic fyftem, which our author ufually follows. Some fay again this change was occafion'd by altering the courfe of the fun, the fun was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road in which he had moved before, like diftant breadth in both hemifpheres, to Taurus with the feven Atlantic Sifters, the conftellation Taurus with the feven stars in his neck, the Pleiades daughters of Atlas, and the Spartan twins, the fign Gemini, Caftor and Pollux, twin-brothers, and fons of Tyndarus king of Sparta, up to the Tropic Crab, the tropic of Cancer, the fun's fartheft ftage northwards; thence down amain, Dr. Bentley reads as much, as much on one fide of the equator as the other, but if any alteration were neceflary it is eafier to read thence down again, by Leo and the Virgin, the fign Virgo, and the Scales, the conftellation Libra,

670 E

675

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Equal

as deep as Capricorn, the tropic of Capricorn, which is the fun's farthe progrefs fouthwards. This motion of the fun in the ecliptic occafions the variety of feafons, elle bad the Spring perpetual smil'd on earth with vernant flowers, if the fun had continued to move in the equator. It is likewife Dr. Burnet's affertion, that the primitive earth enjoy'd a per petual spring, and for the fame re fon of the fun's moving in the equ tor. But though this notion of perpetual fpring may be very pleafing in poetry, yet it is very falfe in pa lofophy; and this pofition of the earth fo far from being the belt is one of the worst it could have, a Dr. Keill hath prov'd excellently well in the fourth chapter of his Examination of Dr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth.

673. to Taurus] Dr. Bentley reads through Taurus, through t and Gemini, up to Cancer. And

Mr.

E

Equal in days and nights, except to those
Beyond the polar circles; to them day
Had unbenighted fhone, while the low fun
To recompenfe his distance, in their sight
Had rounded ftill th' horizon, and not known
Or east or weft, which had forbid the fnow
From cold Eftotiland, and fouth as far
Beneath Magellan. At that tafted fruit
The fun, as from Thyéftean banquet, turn'd
His courfe intended; elfe how had the world

Mr. Pope approves this emendation, and it feems probable, through Taurus and By Leo afterwards anfwering to each other.

68a

685

In

Thyeftes and Atreus brethren hated each other outrageoufly; the first in fpite lay with the wife of Atreus, but he having gotten his brother's 686.-Eftotiland,] A great tract children in his power pretended a of land in the north of America, defire of reconciliation, and invited towards the Arctic Circle and Hud- him to a banquet. Thyeftes, that fon's Bay; as Magellan is a country he might fee his children, diffembling in fouth America, which together his augmented malice, came; the with its ftraits took their name of feaft being over, his brother let him Ferdinandus Magellanus a Portu- know he had been entertain'd with guese, who in the year 1520 first difcover'd them. Hume. 687. At that tafted fruit The fun, as from Thye flean banquet turn'd &c.] Dr. Bentley fays that Thyeftean for Thyeftéan is intolerable: but I have fhown that Milton ufed Æ'gean for Ægéan, in my note on I. 745. and fo our poet in his Samfon Agonifies, ver. 133. ufes Chaby bean for Chalybean. Inftances of fuch a poetical liberty may be found in the best ancient poets as well as

in the modern ones.

Pearce.

the flesh of his fons, and their blood
mix'd with the wine, and fhow'd
him the fad proof of what he had
told him, their heads and hands
which he had referved for that pur-
pofe. At this the fun is faid to have
turn'd away, as Milton here fays he
did when the more dreadful banquet
was made on the fruit of the for-
bidden tree. Richardson.
We may farther obferve that it is
called the Thyeftean banquet, though
made not by him, but only for him:
and Euripides in like manner calls

Inhabited, though finless, more than now,

690

Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat?
Thefe changes in the Heav'ns, though flow, produc'd
Like change on fea and land, fideral blast,
Vapor, and mift, and exhalation hot,
Corrupt and peftilent: Now from the north 695
Of Norumbega, and the Samoed fhore,
Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice
And fnow and hail and stormy gust and flaw,
Boreas and Cæcias and. Argeftes loud

And Thrafcias rend the woods and feas upturn; 700

it derva Oves8. Oreft. 1010. and Horace cana Thyefte. De Art. Poet. 91. and Mr. Pope would read here Thyeftes'.

696. Of Norumbega, and the Samoed fhore,] Norumbega a pro vince of the northern America. Samoieda, a province in the north-east of Mufcovy, upon the frozen fea. Hume. 697. arm'd with ice &c.] So Claudian de Rapt. Prof. I. 69.

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ceu turbine rauco Cum gravis armatur Boreas, glacieque nivali &c. Richardson. 698.- and flormy guft and flaw,] Guft and flaw feem to be words much of the fame import, only flaw is the ftronger, derived (as Junius fays) from the Greek paw to break. Shakespear ufes both words in his Venus and Adonis, Like a red morn that ever yet betoken'd

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699. Boreas] The north wind north-eaft. Thrafcias blowing from Cacias the north-west. Argefes the Thrace, northward of Greece. Nat the fouth wind. Afer or Africus, the fouthwest from Africa; Notufque ruunt creberque proces Africus. Virg. En. 1.8; From Serraliona or Lion Mountains; a range of mountains fo call'd be caufe of the perpetual forms there the fouth-west of Africa, within a roaring like a lion. Thefe are to few leagues of Cape Verd, the western point. Eurus and Zephyr the caft and weft, call'd alfo Let and Ponent winds (rifing and fetting the one blowing from whence the Sirocco ventus Syrus, the fouth ea fun rifes, the other whence it fett. and Libecchio ventus Lybicus,

the

fouth

With adverse blaft upturns them from the fouth
Notus and Afer black with thundrous clouds
From Serraliona; thwart of these as fierce.
Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds

Eurus and Zephyr with their lateral noise,
Sirocco, and Libecchio. Thus began
Outrage from lifeless things; but Discord first
Daughter of Sin, among th' irrational,

Death introduc'd through fierce antipathy:

705

709

Beast now with beaft 'gan war, and fowl with fowl, And fish with fish; to graze the herb all leaving,

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And perhaps two or three inftances at most in Milton are something fimilar to paffages in Mafenius: whether accidentally or defignedly is a question: but furely it is great abfurdity to charge Milton therefore with borrowing the fubftance of 2000 lines from him.

711.- to graze the herb all leaving, &c.] The word all here makes ftrange sense of this paffage, fince according to common conftruc

Devour'd each other; nor stood much in awe Of Man, but fled him, or with count'nance grim Glar'd on him paffing. These were from without The growing miferies, which Adam faw Already' in part, though hid in gloomiest shade,

tion it implies that beafts, fowl, and fish, all graz'd before the fall, and immediately after it began all to prey upon each other, neither of which could poffibly be Milton's meaning. How to restore the true reading I don't pretend to determin, but the following lines feem to confine the devouring to the beafts, and might not therefore the word thofe be fubftituted in the place of all? Thyer. Whether Milton's notion was right or not is another queftion, but certainly it was his notion that beaft, fowl, and fife grazed the herb before the fall. Of the beafts there can be no doubt; and the fowl have the green herb given them for meat as well as the beafts. Gen. I. 30. And to every beaft of the earth, and to every fowl of the air I have given every green herb for meat. And the goofe particularly is by the poet who has beft imitated Milton called clofePhilips's Cyder. B. 1.

grazer.

On the barren heath The fhepherd tends his flock, that daily crop Their verdant dinner from the moffy turf Sufficient; after them the cackling goofe, Clofe grazer, finds wherewith to eafe her want.

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But all here is not all and every one in particular, but only all in general Fowl prey upon fowl, and fifh upon fifh, as much as beaft upon beat Beaft, fowl, and fish, all the three kinds, tho' not all of the three kinds, devour each other.

712. — nor flood much in avt Of Man, but fled him,] Dr. Bentley reads but bunn'd him: becaufe (he fays) if they fled him, it was a fign of fear, of more than awe. Tre, and for that very reason fled is right here, because nothing more thos our not standing much in awe of Man than our fearing him. At is a refpect or reverence paid to one whom we love, and love excludes fear. Pearce.

714.-Thefe were from without &c.] The tranfition to Adam here is very eafy and natural, and cannot fail of pleafing the reader. We have fee great alterations produced in nature,

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