Was swiftly borne, on bright and radiant wing,

Subject to Heaven's decree, and evermore

Have done their Maker's will.

This passage, to our taste, is even finer than the corresponding passage in Milton:

Darkness profound

Covered the Abyss; but on the watery calm

His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infused and vital warmth,
Throughout the fluid mass.

"Let there be Light!" said God; and forthwith Light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure,

Sprung from the Deep, and from her native East

To journey through the aery gloom began,

Sphered in a radiant cloud-for yet the Sun
Was not; she in a cloudy tabernacle

Sojourned the while. God saw the Light was good;
And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided Light the Day, and Darkness Night,
He named. Thus was the first Day even and morn.

The description of the sublime work of the second Day of Creation, when the Firmament was upraised, is of especial interest as proving, by direct comparison of corresponding passages, the identity of the astronomical views of the two poets. Cædmon tells

us,

Pale, heavenly Light,
Succeeding Earth's first Darkness, ushered in
The second Day. Then bade the Almighty King,
Forth from the bosom of the ocean flood,

Rise the bright framework of the glistening stars.
On every side the waters backward rolled,
And instantly, obeying God's command,
The mighty concave o'er the Earth rose high
A solid Firmament; and the dark waves
Beneath the lofty vault of Heaven were reft
From those above, that all might dwell secure
Beneath God's wide, far-stretching canopy.

In this, and also in the following extract from Milton, the term "Heaven" is used to designate the Sphere of the Fixed Stars or Firmament, and not the Empyrean.

Again God said, "Let there be firmament
Amid the waters, and let it divide

The waters from the waters!" and God made
The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure,
Transparent, elemental air, diffused

In circuit to the uttermost convex

Of this great round-partition firm and sure,
The waters underneath from those above
Dividing; for as Earth, so he the World
Built on circumfluous waters calm, in wide
Crystalline ocean, and the loud misrule

Of Chaos far removed, lest fierce extremes
Contiguous might distemper the whole frame:
And Heaven he named the Firmament. So Even
And Morning chorus sang the second Day.

This passage, which is one of eminent note in the study of Paradise Lost, leaves little room for doubt