is is an apostrophe to the nine spheres (_see former note_),
which were believed by the ancients to send forth in their revolutions a
grand harmony, too loud for mortals to hear. But no music of the lower
region can make up full harmony without the bass of heaven's organ. The
_music of the spheres_ was to Milton the embodiment of the theory of the
universe. He uses the symbol often.

[116] _Consort_ is the right word scientifically. It means the _fitting
together_ of sounds according to their nature. _Concert_, however, is not
wrong. It is even more poetic than _consort_, for it means a _striving
together_, which is the idea of all peace: the strife is _together_, and
not of one against the other. All harmony is an ordered, a divine strife.
In the contest of music, every tone restrains its foot and bows its head
to the rest in holy dance.

[117] _Symphony_ is here used for _chorus_, and quite correctly; for
_symphony_ is a _voicing together_. To this symphony of the angels the
spheres and the heavenly organ are the accompaniment.

[118] Die of the music.

[119] Not merely _swings_, but _lashes about_.

[120] Full of folds or coils.

[121] The legend concerning this cessation of the oracles associates it
with the Crucifixion. Milton in _The Nativity_ represents it as the
consequence of the very presence of the infant Saviour. War and lying are
banished together.

[122] The _genius_ is the local god, the god of the place as a place.

[123] The _Lars_ were the protecting spirits of the ancestors of the
family; the _Lemures_ were evil spirits, spectres, or bad ghosts. But the
notions were somewhat indefinite.

[124] _Flamen_ was the word used for _priest_ when the Romans spoke of
the priest of any particular divinity. Hence the _peculiar power_ in the
last line of the stanza.

[125] Jupiter Ammon, worshipped in Libya, in the north of Africa, under
the form of a goat. "He draws in his horn."

[126] The Syrian Adonis.

[127] Frightful, horrible, as, _a grisly bear_.

[128] Isis, Orus, Anubis, and Osiris, all Egyptian divinities--the last
worshipped in the form of a bull.

[129] No rain falls in Egypt.

[130] Last-born: the star in the east.

[131] Bright-armoured.

[132] Ready for what service may arise.

[133] The _with_ we should now omit, for when we use it we mean the
opposite of what is meant here.

[134] It is the light of the soul going out from the eyes, as certainly
as the light of the world