ledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet, praise Him in thy sphere
While day arises, that sweet hour of prime.
Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul,
Acknowledge Him thy greater; sound his praise
In thy eternal course, both when thou climb'st,
And when high noon hast gained, and when thou fall'st.
Moon, that now meet'st the orient Sun, now fliest
With the fixed stars, fixed in their orb that flies;
And ye five other wandering Fires, that move
In mystic dance, not without song, resound
His praise, who out of darkness called up Light.--v. 166-79.

Milton's conception of celestial distances, and of the vast regions of
interstellar space, is finely described in the following lines:--

Down thither prone in flight
He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky
Sails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing
Now on the polar winds; then with quick fan
Winnows the buxom air, till, within soar
Of towering eagles.--v. 266-71.

As in their morning, so in their evening devotions, our first parents
never fail to introduce a reference to the celestial orbs as indicating
the power and goodness of the Creator, made manifest in the beauty and
greatness of His works--

Thus, at their shady lodge arrived, both stood,
Both turned, and under open sky adored
The God that made both Sky, Air, Earth and Heaven
Which they beheld; the Moon's resplendent globe,
And starry pole.--iv. 720-24.

The numerous extracts contained in this volume impress upon one's mind
how largely astronomy enters into the composition of 'Paradise Lost,'
and of how much assistance the knowledge of this science was to Milton
in the elaboration of his poem. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine how
such a work could have been written except by a poet who possessed a
proficient and comprehensive knowledge of astronomy. The chief
characteristic of Milton's poetry is its sublimity, which is the natural
outcome of the magnificence of his conceptions and of his own pure
imaginative genius. Among all the fields of literature, science, and
philosophy explored by him, he found none more congenial to his tastes,
or that afforded his imagination more freedom for its loftiest flights,
than the sublimest of sciences--astronomy. Whether we admire most the
accuracy of his astronomical knowledge, or the wonderful creations of
his poetic