Stood to entertain her guest from Heaven ;) no veil 385 Altered her cheek. On whom the angel “ Hail !” Long after to blest Mary, second Eve : "Hail, mother of mankind! whose fruitful womb Our author: " Heavenly stranger! please to taste To whom the angel : "Therefore what he gives 405 (Whose praise be ever sung !) to Man, in part Spiritual, may of purest spirits be found No ingrateful food and food alike those pure 384. Virtue proof.-Strong in virtue; the other compounds, such as fireproof, waterproof, mean proof against. 393. Her-Table is used as of the Fem. Gend. Supply the Pred. had. 394. Though spring, &c, i.e., though in reality there was here no difference between spring and autumn. 396. No fear lest dinner cool.-Low and trivial. 399. Unmeasured out.-We cannot put the negative prefix un to Verbs compounded with Prepositions, unless Verb and Prep. are inseparable. We can say unforgiven, uninformed, unoverthrown, unuprooted, unoverlooked, but not unbuilt up, unbroken in, unlooked over. The expression unmeasured out must therefore be put down as a poetical license. In v. 351, (without) is a similar deviation from the correct mode of forming the negative. 402. Spiritual is to be contracted into two syllables. 403. The object to gives is left out, (see 1. 259). What is to be supplied? If the word food, or it, then Adam has already anticipated the whole of Raphael's subsequent information. 405. Or purest spirits, means here by purest spirits. Intelligential substances require, As doth your rational; and both contain 410 Within them every lower faculty Of sense, whereby they hear, see, smell, touch, taste, And corporeal to incorporeal turn. For know, whatever was created needs 415 To be sustained and fed of elements : The grosser feeds the purer; earth the sea; Whence, in her visage round, those spots, unpurged 420 Vapours, not yet into her substance turned. Nor doth the Moon no nourishment exhale 425 In humid exhalations, and at even Sups with the Ocean. Though in Heaven the trees Yield nectar; though from off the boughs each morn As may compare with Heaven; and to taste) 408. Intelligence and reason are here respectively the higher and lower faculty, contrary to their use lower down, 485 and 487, and contrary to our present practice, as established since Kant. 412. Tasting-The Part. Pres. stands for the Part. Past, having tasted. 412. To concoct is the same as to digest. 415. The following passage is strongly objected to by every sensible critic and commentator. "Our author," says Bentley, "should have taken great care, what notions, what points of philosophy he put into the mouth of an archangel." Nobody, of course, will find fault with Milton for errors in natural philosophy. Homer is full of them. His notions of geography and astronomy a child may now smile at. But he never inculcates them theoretically as a professor from his chair. 421. The double negative for the affirmative is a Latinism. Compare v. 548, Nor know I not, &c. 431. Faried.-See note on v. 184. 435 The angel, nor in mist,]—the common gloss Of theologians ;]—but with keen despatch Of real hunger, and concoctive heat To transubstantiate ;] what redounds, | transpires Through spirits with ease ;] nor wonder,] if, by fire 440 Of sooty coal, the empiric alchemist Can turn, or holds it possible to turn, 445 With pleasant liquors crowned. [O innocence Then had the sons of God excuse to have been Thus when with meats and drinks they had sufficed, In Adam, not to let the occasion pass, Given him by this great conference, to know 455 Of things above this world, and of their being Who dwell in Heaven, whose excellence he saw 435. Gloss, interpretation. "The common gloss of theologians" is not in Apposition, but it is an ellipse, which requires the addition of which is. 437. The logical order is, heat concoctive to transubstantiate, i.e., with a veritable digestive power. 438. The process of real eating and digestion upon which the poet so emphatically insists, suggests, of course, the process of secretion as equally natural. This conclusion, however, is rejected by the statement, that "what redounds transpires." 440. Empiric.-Experimental. 441. Or holds it possible to turn.-By this reservation Milton saves his reputation for soundness in philosophy, but he much weakens the stringency of his argument; for if the transformation of metals is only a fancy of the alchemist, it will not prove nor even illustrate the chemical change of material food in spiritual beings. 445. Crowned.-A classical expression, borrowed by the Latin poets from Homer, the more noticeable, as we fail to see its appropriateness; for a liquid is not suitable for a crown. Such is the force of imitation, that it is pleased with and repeats words which it does not understand. It is true, that now the expression, "to crown cups," has been invested with the specific meaning "to fill them brimful." 447. To have been.-See note on 1. 40. 449. Jealousy. ... the injured lover's hell. The qualification injured is not essential. Othello was not injured, but only fancied himself to be so. Transcend his own so far; whose radiant forms- [“ Inhabitant with God!] now know I well Thy favour, in this honour done to Man ;| Under whose lowly roof thou hast vouchsafed To enter, and these earthly fruits to taste; 465 Food not of angels, yet accepted so, | As that more willingly thou couldst not seem At Heaven's high feasts to have fed; | yet what compare !"] ["O Adam !] one Almighty is, from whom Proportioned to each kind. So, from the root 458. Divine effulgence.-In Apposition to radiant forms. 464. Between and and these, the whole of the preceding line must be repeated. 470. And up to him return.—A pseudo adjective clause. If it were a proper adjective clause, the Relat. Pron. should be used, not the personal; it should be whom, not him. 471. Created all, i.e., all being created good. Nominative Absolute. 472. Such, i.e., good. 477. Each in their spheres.-The singular each, and the plural their, jar against each other. 478. Till body up to spirit work.—“ Our author should have considered things better; for by attributing his own false notions in philosophy to an archangel, he has really lessened the character which he intended to raise. He is as much mistaken here in his metaphysics as he was before in his physics." -DR. NEWTON. See note on v. 415. 480. Lighter, scil. than the root. To vital spirits aspire, to animal, 485 To intellectual; give both life and sense, Is oftest yours, the latter most is ours; To proper substance. Time may come,| when men 500 Here, or in Heavenly Paradises, dwell,] and retain, Unalterably firm, his love entire,] Whose progeny you are. Meanwhile, enjoy Your fill] what happiness this happy state 505 Can comprehend, incapable of more. To whom the patriarch of mankind replied: Well hast thou taught the way that might direct 510 From centre to circumference; whereon, In contemplation of created things, By steps we may ascend to God. But say, What meant that caution joined, If ye be found 515 To him, or possibly his love desert, Who formed us from the dust, and placed us here, 485. Intellectual -See note on v. 408. 487. Her being.-Her essence. 488. Discourse.-Logic, the process of arriving at truth by a mental effort. 491. The order is:-Wonder not then if I refuse not what God saw good for you, but convert it as you do to proper substance. 504. Your fill.-Adverbially used. |