Mark what radiant state she spreads,
In circle round her shining throne,
Shooting her beams like silver threads;
This, this is she alone,'

Sitting like a Goddess bright,
In the centre of her light.

Might she the wise Latona be,

Or the tow'red Cybele,

Mother of a hundred Gods;

Juno dares not give her odds;

15

20

Who had thought this clime had held

A deity so unparallel'd?

25

[As they come forward, the Genius of the wood appears, and turning toward them, speaks.]

GENIUS.

STAY gentle swains, for though in this disguise,
I see bright honour sparkle through your eyes;
Of famous Arcady ye are, and sprung

Of that renowned flood, so often sung,
Divine Alpheus, who by secret sluice

30

18. Sitting like &c.] It was through your eyes;] Dr. Symat first,

Seated like a goddess bright, &c. 23. Juno dares not &c.] The Manuscript had at first,

Ceres dares not give her odds;

Who would have thought this clime
had held &c.

23. give her odds;] Too lightly expressed for the occasion. Hurd.

27. I see bright honour sparkle

mons, Life of Milton, p. 98. refers to Shakespeare, All's well that ends well,

The honour, Sir, which flames in your fair eyes.

E.

30. Divine Alpheus, &c.] A famous river of Arcadia, that sinking under ground passeth through the sea without mixing his stream with the salt waters,

Stole under seas to meet his Arethuse;

And

ye, the breathing roses of the wood,
Fair silver-buskin'd nymphs as great and good,
I know this quest of yours, and free intent
Was all in honour and devotion meant
To the great mistress of yon princely shrine,
Whom with low reverence I adore as mine,
And with all helpful service will comply
To further this night's glad solemnity;
And lead ye where ye may more near behold
What shallow-searching Fame has left untold;
Which I full oft amidst these shades alone
Have sat to wonder at, and gaze upon:
For know by lot from Jove I am the Power
Of this fair wood, and live in oaken bower,
To nurse the saplings tall, and curl the grove
With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings wove.

and riseth at last with the fountain Arethuse near Syracuse in Sicily. Virg. Æn. iii. 694.

-Alpheum fama est huc Elidis amnem,

35

40

45

44.-I am the Power] It was

at first,

-I have the power.

46. and curl the grove] So

Occultas egisse vias subter mare, qui Drayton, Polyolb. s. vii. vol. ii.

p. 789. "Banks crown'd with "curled groves." And so in several other places; and in a line which Jonson perhaps remembered, ibid. s. xxxiii. vol. iii. p. 1111.

Where Sherwood her curl'd front into the cold doth shove.

Jonson also and Browne apply the same epithet frequently to the woods or the tops of trees. Compare note on P. R. ii. 289. T. Warton.

47. With ringlets quaint,] It was at first, In ringlets quaint.

50

And all my plants I save from nightly ill
Of noisome winds, and blasting vapours chill:
And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,
And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue,
Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites,
Or hurtful worm with canker'd venom bites.
When evening gray doth rise, I fetch my round,
Over the mount, and all this hallow'd ground,
And early ere the odorous breath of morn
Awakes the slumb'ring leaves, or tassell'd horn
Shakes the high thicket, haste I all about,
Number my ranks, and visit every sprout

55

With puissant words, and murmurs made to bless; 60

But else in deep of night, when drowsiness
Hath lock'd up mortal sense, then listen s
To the celestial Sirens' harmony,
That sit upon the nine infolded spheres,

62. Hath lock'd up mortal sense,] He had written at first Hath chain'd mortality.

64. the nine infolded spheres,] According to the doctrine of the ancients, as it is explained by Cicero. Somnium Scipionis 4. Novem tibi orbibus, vel potius globis, connexa sunt omnia: and then he enumerates them in this order, heaven or the sphere of the stars, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, and the Earth. And in the next chapter he speaks of the music of the spheres. Quid? hic, inquam, quis est, qui complet aures meas tantus et tam dulcis sonus? and describes it, and accounts for mankind's not hearing it. Hic vero tantus est totius mundi incitatissima conversione sonitus, ut eum aures hominum capere non possint: sicut intueri solem adversum nequitis, ejusque radiis acies vestra sensusque vincitur. See also Macrobius In Somn. Scip. lib. ii. cap. 4. Ergo universi mundani corporis sphæræ novem sunt, &c.

64. This is Plato's system. Fate, or Necessity, holds a spindle of adamant: and, with her three daughters, Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos, who handle the vital web wound about the spindle, she conducts or turns the heavenly bodies. Nine Muses, or Syrens, sit on the summit of the spheres; which, in their revolutions produce the most ravishing musical harmony. To this har

mony, the three daughters of Necessity perpetually sing in correspondent tones. In the mean time, the adamantine spindle, which is placed in the lap or on the knees of Necessity, and on which the fate of men and gods is wound, is also revolved. This music of the spheres, proceeding from the rapid motion of the heavens, is so loud, various, and sweet, as to exceed all aptitude or proportion of the human ear, and therefore is not heard by men. Moreover, this spherical music consists of eight unisonous melodies: the ninth is a concentration of all the rest, or a diapason of all those eight melodies; which diapason, or concentus, the nine Sirens sing or address to the supreme Being. This last circumstance, while it justifies a doubtful reading, illustrates or rather explains a passage in these lines, At a solemn Music, v. 6.

That undisturbed song of pure con

cent,

Aye sung before the sapphire-colour'd throne,

To Him that sits thereon.

Milton, full of these Platonic ideas, has here a reference to this consummate or concentual Song of the ninth sphere, which is undisturbed and pure, that is, unallayed and perfect. The Platonism is here, however, in some degree christianized.

These notions are to be found in the tenth book of Plato's Re

And sing to those that hold the vital sheers,
And turn the adamantine spindle round,
On which the fate of gods and men is wound.
Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie,
To lull the daughters of Necessity,
And keep unsteady Nature to her law,

And the low world in measur'd motion draw
After the heav'nly tune, which none can hear

65

70

nos hanc minime audiamus har"moniam, sane in causa videtur

esse, furacis Promethei auda"cia, quæ tot mala hominibus "invexit, et simul hanc felicita"tem nobis abstulit, qua nec

unquam frui licebit, dum sce"leribus cooperti belluinis, cu"piditatibus obrutescimus.-At "si pura, si nivea gestaremus "pectora-tum quidem suavis"sima illa stellarum circum"euntium musica personarent "aures nostræ et opplerentur." Prose Works, vol. ii. 588. See Observat. on Spenser's F. Q. ii. 32. On the same principle, the airy music which the waking poet hears in Il Penseroso, was sent only" by some spirit to And in "mortals good." v. 153. his Prose Works, he mentions those "celestial songs to others "inapprehensible, but not to those "who were not defiled with