Sun with Taurus rides,
Pour forth their populous youth about the hive
In clusters; they among fresh dews and flowers
Fly to and fro, or on the smoothed plank
The suburb of their straw-built citadel
New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer
Their state affairs.--i. 768-75.

The Sun is in the constellation Taurus in April, when the warmth of his
rays begins to impart new life and activity to the insect world after
their long winter's sleep.

In his description of the repast partaken by the Angel Raphael with Adam
and Eve in Paradise, Milton writes:--

Raised of grassy turf
Their table was, and mossy seats had round,
And on her ample square, from side to side,
All Autumn piled, though Spring and Autumn here
Danced hand in hand.--v. 391-95.

In describing Beelzebub when about to address the Stygian Council, he
says:--

His look
Drew audience and attention still as night
Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake.--ii. 307-309.

The failing vision from which Milton suffered in his declining years was
succeeded by total blindness. This sad affliction he alludes to in the
following lines:--

Thus with the year
Seasons return; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose.--iii. 40-43.

We are able to perceive how much Milton was impressed with the beautiful
seasons, and the varying aspects of the year which accompany them, and
how his poetic imagination luxuriated in the changing variety of nature
observable in earth and sky that from day to day afforded him exquisite
delight; and, although his poem was written when blindness had overtaken
him, yet those glad remembrances remained as fresh in his memory as when
in his youth he roamed among the flowery meadows, the vocal woodlands,
and the winding lanes of Buckinghamshire.

The idea expressed by Milton that the primitive earth enjoyed a
perpetual spring, though pleasing to the imagination, and well adapted
for poetic description, is not sustained by any astronomical testimony.
Indeed, the position of the Earth, with her axis at right angles to her
orbit, is one which may be regarded as being ill adapted for the support
and maintenance of life on her surface, just as her present position is
the best that can be imagined for fulfilling thi