Addison's well-known lines:
"The spacious firmament on high,
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And _spangled_ heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim."
Comp. also _Lyc._ 170, "with _new-spangled_ ore." 'Sheen' is here used
as a noun, as in line 893; also in _Hymn Nat._ 145, "throned in
celestial _sheen_": _Epitaph on M. of W._ 73, "clad in radiant _sheen_."
The word occurs in Spenser as an adjective also: comp. "her dainty corse
so fair and _sheen_," _F. Q._ ii. 1. 10. In the line "By fountain clear
or spangled starlight _sheen_" (_M. N. D._ ii. l. 29) it is doubtful
whether the word is a noun or an adjective. Milton uses the adjective
_sheeny_ (_Death of Fair Infant_, 48).
1004. ~Celestial Cupid~. The ordinary view of Cupid is given in the
note to line 445; here he is the lover of Psyche (the human soul) to
whom he is united after she has been purified by a life of trial and
misfortune. The myth of Cupid and Psyche is as follows: Cupid was in
love with Psyche, but warned her that she must not seek to know who he
was. Yielding to curiosity, however, she drew near to him with a lamp
while he was asleep. A drop of the hot oil falling on him, he awoke, and
fled from her. She now wandered from place to place, persecuted by
Venus; but after great sorrow, during which she was secretly supported
by Cupid, she became immortal and was united to him for ever. In this
story Psyche represents the human soul (Gk. +psyche+), which is
disciplined and purified by earthly misfortune and so fitted for the
enjoyment of true happiness in heaven. Further, in Milton's Allegory it
is only the soul so purified that is capable of knowing true love: in
his _Apology for Smectymnuus_ he calls it that Love "whose charming cup
is only virtue," and whose "first and chiefest office ... begins and
ends in the soul, producing those happy twins of her divine generation,
Knowledge and Virtue." To this high and mystical love Milton again
alludes in _Epitaphium Damonis_:
"In other part, the expansive vault above,
And there too, even there the god of love;
With quiver armed he mounts, his torch displays
A vivid light, his gem-tipt arrows blaze,
Around his bright and fiery eyes he rolls,
Nor aims at vulgar minds or little souls,
Nor deigns one look below, but aiming high
Sends every arrow to the lofty sky;
Hence forms divine, and minds immortal, learn
The power of Cupid, and en
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