human
Can you write me a poem about tycho brahe, kepler and copernicus?
assistant
Sure, here's a poem about tycho brahe, kepler and copernicus:
  _These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair: Thyself how wondrous then!
All rights reserved
A Portion of the Moon's Surface                              "
Many able and cultured writers have delighted to expatiate on the
illustration of these that this volume is devoted.
horoscope, or destiny, could be foretold; and that by making
occurrence of solar eclipses and the appearances of comets.
observational purposes.
eclipses, and divided the day into twenty-four hours.
Among the famous astronomers who lived about this period we find
fifteenth century.
Not caring to remain among his relatives, Tycho Brahé returned to
indicated the single minutes of a degree; he made many valuable
reconciliation.
The island of Huen is situated about six miles from the coast of
Tycho was no longer able to bear the expense of maintaining his
attachments, his strong hatreds, and his love of splendour, are
_variation_. He determined with greater exactness astronomical
refractions from an altitude of 45° downwards to the horizon, and
investigation of the laws relating to planetary motion.
We now arrive at the name of KEPLER, one of the very greatest of
astronomers, and a man of remarkable genius, who was the first to
As an acknowledgment of the Emperor's great kindness, the two
vocations. Kepler's library at Linz was sealed up by order of the
The 'Rudolphine Tables' were published at Ulm in 1627. They were
commenced by Tycho Brahé, and completed by Kepler, who made his
logarithmic and other tables for the purpose of facilitating
He describes himself as 'troublesome and choleric in politics and
Some of his works contain passages, written in a jocular strain,
indicative of a bright and cheerful temperament. The following
This he explained in his next great discovery by proving that an
proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.'
Copernicus's own work, 'De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium.'
subjects which he promised not to mention again.
associated with the writings of antiquity.
Galileo's sarcasm, and the bitterness which he imparted into his
controversies, were more the cause of his misfortunes than his
The phases of Venus and Mars, the triple form of Saturn, and the
Foremost among astronomers of less conspicuous eminence who made
discoveries when observing the planet Saturn.
observation, Galileo perceived that the lateral bodies gradually
'Annulo cingitur, tenui plano, nusquam cohaerente, ad eclipticam
inclinatio.'
The true form of the ring is circular, but by us it is seen
In 1671 he became Director of the Royal Observatory at Paris, and
investigated some irregularities of the Moon's motion. Cassini
discovered the belts of Jupiter, and also the Zodiacal Light, and
'Uranienburg,' the site of Tycho Brahé's observatory, he made the
distance between the Earth and Jupiter, when the latter is in
Roemer resided for many years at the observatory in the city of
Though it was not until towards the close of the century that the
Having received his early education at Toxteth, Horrox afterwards
At the University he devoted himself to the study of classics,
scientific character.
Totidem nobis animaeque manusque.
The Rudolphine Tables, which were the astronomical calculations
continued his observations for some time, he wrote to his friend
Crabtree, and informed him that he had perceived many interesting
phenomenon would have been unperceived, and no history of the
permitting me conveniently to use a larger size. I divided the
sufficiently confirmed, lest by too much self-confidence I might
endanger the observation. Anxiously intent, therefore, on the
" 3·50 the apparent sunset. |
sufficiently correct.
effectually that I could scarcely have wished for a more extended
abbreviating the methods of astronomical calculation.
astronomy for national purposes.
Since its erection, the observatory has been presided over by a
Although over one hundred years had elapsed since the death of
discoveries.
The cloudy luminosity of the Milky Way had been resolved into a
Beyond the confines of our solar system, little was known of the
magnitude and extent of the sidereal universe which occupies the
infinitude of space by which we are surrounded. The stars were
For example, in 'L'Allegro' there are the following lines:--
Right against the eastern gate
Where the great Sun begins his state,
Robed in flames and amber light,
The clouds in thousand liveries dight;
To behold the wandering Moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heaven's wide pathless way,
And oft as if her head she bowed,
Stooping through a fleecy cloud.
According to the Ptolemaic system, the Earth was regarded as the
immovable centre of the universe, and surrounding it were ten
The separate motions of the spheres, revolving with different
Beyond this last sphere there was believed to exist a boundless,
Ring out ye crystal spheres,
phenomena, as compared with the Ptolemaic.
On his return to England from the Continent, Milton took up his
astronomy was called 'De Sphæra Mundi,' a work written by Joannes
The selection of astronomy as one of the subjects in which Milton
acquaintance with this science.
The Eternal, to prevent such horrid fray,
Hung forth in Heaven his golden scales, yet seen
Betwixt Astrea and the Scorpion sign,
Wherein all things created first he weighed,
The pendulous round Earth with balanced air
In counterpoise, now ponders all events,
Battles and realms. In these he put two weights,
The sequel each of parting and of fight:
The latter quick up flew, and kicked the beam.--iv. 996-1004.
When with fierce winds Orion armed
Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves o'erthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry.--i. 305-7.
Notwithstanding this, he selected the Ptolemaic cosmology as the
Underneath the universe there existed a vast region of similar
The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave.--ii. 911.
As far removed from God and light of Heaven
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole.--i. 73-74.
They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed,
And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs
The trepidation talked, and that first moved.--iii. 481-83.
doctrines associated with each.
We may, with good reason, regard the views expressed by Adam as
When I behold this goodly frame, this World,
Of Heaven and Earth consisting, and compute
Their magnitudes--this Earth, a spot, a grain,
An atom, with the Firmament compared
And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehensible (for such
Their distance argues, and their swift return
Diurnal) merely to officiate light
Round this opacous Earth, this punctual spot,
One day and night, in all her vast survey
Useless besides--reasoning, I oft admire,
How Nature, wise and frugal could commit
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
So many nobler bodies to create,
Greater so manifold, to this one use,
For aught appears, and on their Orbs impose
Such restless revolution day by day
Repeated, while the sedentary Earth,
That better might with far less compass move,
Served by more noble than herself, attains
Her end without least motion, and receives,
As tribute, such a sumless journey brought
Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light;
Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails.--viii. 15-38.
calculation by numbers.
To ask or search I blame thee not; for Heaven
Is as the Book of God before thee set,
Wherein to read his wondrous works, and learn
His seasons, hours, or days, or months, or years.
This to attain, whether Heaven move or Earth,
Imports not, if thou reckon right; the rest
Did wisely to conceal, and not divulge
His secrets, to be scanned by them who ought
Rather admire. Or, if they list to try
Conjecture, he his fabric of the Heavens
Hath left to their disputes, perhaps to move
His laughter at their quaint opinions wide
Hereafter, when they come to model Heaven,
And calculate the stars; how they will wield
The mighty frame; how build, unbuild, contrive
To save appearances; how gird the Sphere
With Centric and Eccentric scribbled o'er
Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb.--viii. 66-84.
Continuing his reply, the Angel says:--
Already by thy reasoning this I guess,
Who art to lead thy offspring, and supposest
That bodies bright and greater should not serve
The less not bright, nor Heaven such journies run,
Earth sitting still, when she alone receives
The benefit. Consider, first, that great
Or bright infers not excellence. The Earth,
Though, in comparison of Heaven, so small,
Nor glistering, may of solid good contain
More plenty than the Sun that barren shines,
Whose virtue on itself works no effect,
But in the fruitful Earth; there first received,
His beams, inactive else, their vigour find,
Yet not to Earth are those bright luminaries
Officious, but to thee, Earth's habitant.
And, for the Heaven's wide circuit, let it speak
The Maker's high magnificence, who built
So spacious, and his line stretched out so far,
That Man may know he dwells not in his own--
An edifice too large for him to fill,
Lodged in a small partition; and the rest
Ordained for uses to his Lord best known,
The swiftness of those Circles attribute,
Though numberless, to his Omnipotence,
That to corporeal substances could add
Speed almost spiritual. Me thou think'st not slow,
Who since the morning-hour set out from Heaven
Where God resides, and ere midday arrived
In Eden--distance inexpressible
By numbers that have name. But this I urge,
Admitting motion in the Heavens, to show
Invalid that which thee to doubt it moved;
Not that I so affirm, though so it seem
To thee who hast thy dwelling here on Earth.
God, to remove his ways from human sense,
Placed Heaven from Earth so far, that earthly sight,
If it presume, might err in things too high,
material bodies 'could add speed almost spiritual.'
Be centre to the World, and other stars
By his attractive virtue and their own
Incited, dance about him various rounds?
Their wandering course, now high, now low, then hid,
Progressive, retrograde, or standing still,
In six thou seest; and what if, seventh to these
The planet Earth, so steadfast though she seem,
Insensibly three different motions move?
Which else to several spheres thou must ascribe,
Moved contrary with thwart obliquities,
Or save the Sun his labour, and that swift
Nocturnal and diurnal rhomb supposed
Invisible else above all stars, the wheel
Of day and night; which needs not thy belief,
If Earth, industrious of herself, fetch day
Travelling east, and with her part averse
From the Sun's beam meet night, her other part
Still luminous by his ray. What if that light,
Sent from her through the wide transpicuous air,
To the terrestrial Moon be as a star,
Enlightening her by day, as she by night
This Earth--reciprocal, if land be there,
Fields and inhabitants? Her spots thou seest
As clouds, and clouds may rain, and rain produce
Fruits in her softened soil, for some to eat
Allotted there; and other Suns, perhaps,
With their attendant Moons, thou wilt descry,
Communicating male and female light--
Which two great sexes animate the World,
Stored in each orb perhaps with some that live.
For such vast room in Nature unpossessed
By living soul, desert and desolate,
Only to shine, yet scarce to contribute
Each orb a glimpse of light, conveyed so far
Down to this habitable, which returns
Light back to them, is obvious to dispute.--viii. 122-58.
The Copernican theory, which is less complicated and more easily
Milton alludes to this theory in the following lines:--
They, as they move
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp
Turn swift their various motions, or are turned
Newton afterwards embraced this law in his great principle of
Milton describes the position of the planets in the sky as--
Now high, now low, then hid;
and their motions--
Progressive, retrograde, or standing still.
In his allusion to the Copernican system the 'planet' 'Earth' is
intelligent life.
... and other suns, perhaps,
With their attendant moons, thou wilt descry
Communicating male and female light.--viii. 148-50.
Milton in these lines refers to Jupiter and Saturn, and their
distinguished, and possessing different properties.
But whether thus these things, or whether not,
Whether the Sun, predominant in Heaven,
Rise on the Earth, or Earth rise on the Sun;
He from the east his flaming round begin,
Or she from west her silent course advance
With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle, whilst she paces even,
And bears thee soft with the smooth air along--
Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid.--viii. 159-67.
That from his lordly eye keep distance due.--iii. 578,
Thee I revisit safe,
And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou
Revisitest not these eyes, that roll in vain
To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn;
So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs,
difficult of execution; but it must be so divulged as not to be
The announcement of Galileo's discovery of the four satellites of
satisfaction, as it declared that Jupiter with his four moons
Smaismrmilme poeta leumi bvne nugttaviras.
This, when deciphered, formed the sentence:--
Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi.
I have observed that the remotest planet is triple.
The elucidation of this inexplicable phenomenon was reserved for
Christian Huygens, who, with an improved telescope of his own
Haec immatura a me jam frustra leguntur oy.
This, when rendered correctly, reads:--
Cynthiae figuras aemulatur mater amorum.
Venus rivals the appearances of the Moon.
The phases of Venus were one of the most interesting of Galileo's
Hither, as to their fountain, other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light,
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns.--vii. 364-66.
In the year 1610, on directing his telescope to the Sun, Galileo
The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening, from the top of Fesolé,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.--i. 286-91.
As when by night the glass
Of Galileo, less assured, observes
Imagined lands and regions in the Moon.--v. 261-63.
There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Astronomer in the Sun's lucent orb
Through his glazed optic tube yet never saw.--iii. 588-90.
Down from the ecliptic, sped with hoped success,
Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel,
Nor staid till on Niphates top he lights.--iii. 740-42.
Aquarius the Water-bearer
December 21, we have the winter solstice and the shortest days.
Thus was this place,
A happy rural seat of various view:
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm;
Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Hung amiable--Hesperian fables true,
If true here only--and of delicious taste.
Betwixt them lawns, or level downs, and flocks
Grazing the tender herb, were interposed,
Or palmy hillock; or the flowery lap
Of some irriguous valley spread her store,
Flowers of all hue, and without thorn the rose.
Another side, umbrageous grots and caves
Of cool recess, o'er which the mantling vine
Lays forth her purple grape, and gently creeps
Luxuriant; meanwhile murmuring waters fall
Down the slope hill dispersed, or in a lake
That to the fringèd bank with myrtle crowned
Her crystal mirror holds, unite their streams.
The birds their quire apply; airs, vernal airs,
Breathing the smell of field and grove, attune
The trembling leaves, while universal Pan,
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance,
Had first his precept so to move, so shine,
As might affect the Earth with cold and heat
Scarce tolerable, and from the north to call
Decrepit winter, from the south to bring
Solstitial summer's heat. To the blanc Moon
Her office they prescribed; to the other five
Their planetary motions and aspects,
In sextile, square, and trine, and opposite,
Of noxious efficacy, and when to join
In synod unbenign; and taught the fixed
Their influence malignant when to shower--
Which of them rising with the Sun or falling,
Should prove tempestuous. To the winds they set
Their corners, when with bluster to confound
Sea, air, and shore; the thunder when to roll
With terror through the dark aerial hall.--x. 651-67.
Some say he bid his Angels turn askance
The poles of Earth twice ten degrees and more
From the Sun's axle; they with labour pushed
Oblique the centric globe: some say the Sun
Was bid turn reins from the equinoctial road
Like distant breadth--to Taurus with the seven
Up to the Tropic Crab; thence down amain
As deep as Capricorn; to bring in change
Of seasons to each clime. Else had the spring
Perpetual smiled on Earth with vernant flowers.--x. 668-79.
As, when from mountain-tops the dusky clouds
Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread
Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element
Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow or shower,
If chance the radiant Sun, with farewell sweet,
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.--ii. 488-95.
to the heart inspires
As bees
In springtime when the 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 smoothèd plank
The suburb of their straw-built citadel
New rubbed with balm, expatiate and confer
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
His look
Drew audience and attention still as night
Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake.--ii. 307-309.
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.
The idea expressed by Milton that the primitive earth enjoyed a
Milton was not only familiar with 'the face of the sky,' as it is
The space of seven continued nights he rode
With darkness--thrice the equinoctial line
He circled, four times crossed the car of night
From pole to pole, traversing each colure.--ix. 63-66.
Aristarchus of Samos believed the stars were golden studs, that
illumined the crystal dome of heaven; but modern research has
We are indebted to Sir William Herschel, more than to any other
subjects. He became proficient in Italian and Greek, studied
reputation as a great astronomer.
previously conjecture and surmise, now became precise knowledge
structural configuration of the heavens, and the inclusion of all
astronomers from an early period until the middle of the present
century.
distances of other heavenly bodies.
The stars have no diurnal parallax, because, owing to their great
astronomical instruments, to exhibit the minutest measureable
displacement of two or three of the nearest stars.'--Proctor.
circumference of the Earth's orbit were unsuccessful. Copernicus
One of the principal causes which baffled astronomers in their
The star selected by Bessel is a binary known as 61 Cygni, the
announced his determination of the parallax of 61 Cygni.
The parallax of 61 Cygni assigns to the star a distance of forty
follows:--Sirius, eight years; Procyon, twelve; Altair, sixteen;
attendants are surrounded in utter loneliness may be partially
To an observer of the nocturnal sky the stars appear to be very
Scintillation or twinkling of the stars is a property which
brilliancy and magnitude.
telescope presented the appearance of being double.
Binary stars consist of two suns which revolve round their common
In 1767, the Rev. John Michell wrote: 'It is highly probable in
revolution, and are controlled by the law of gravitation.
Consequently, neither star can approach or recede from this point
revolution in eighty-eight years.
corresponding parts of their orbits, and be in apastron and at
brilliancy of its neighbour.
'whose burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues and death.'
Epsilon Boötis, known also as Mirac, and called by Admiral Smyth
sea-green.
luxuriating in."'
It is among double stars that the richest and most varied colours
perturbations will present one of the most intricate problems in
attraction--
Mystical dance, which yonder starry sphere
Of planets and of fixed in all her wheels
Resembles nearest; mazes intricate,
Eccentric, intervolved, yet regular
Then most, when most irregular they seem;
And in their motions harmony divine
So smooths her charming tones that God's own ear
Should those suns be differently coloured, each emitting its own
One of the most remarkable of variable stars is called Mira 'the
Several theories have been suggested in order to account for the
appearance. Upwards of 500 clusters are known to astronomers, the
appearance into separate stars.
proportions.
There are three conspicuous clusters in the northern sky that are
The cluster Praesepe in Cancer is visible on a clear night to the
As a result of more recent investigations this number has been
thousand.'
magnificence of the starry heavens, and to the omnipotence of the
GALAXIES.--These consist of vast aggregations of stars which form
Nebulæ present every variety of form. Some are annular, elliptic,
dimensions, and how bewildering to our conception is the profound
neither, according to Dr. Huggins, is its spectrum gaseous, a
PLANETARY NEBULÆ.--These have been so named on account of the
well-defined nuclei.
extraordinary objects in the heavens.
irresolvable star clusters.
self-luminous substance diffused over vast regions of space, he
supposed changes which were observed in some nebulæ. The nebular
and in the ascending scale
Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose.--iv. 354-55.
nocturnal aspect of the star-lit sky. Though ancient philosophers
system.
And sowed with stars the Heavens thick as a field.--vii. 358.
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds.--iii. 564-65.
her reign
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand stars, that then appeared
Milton describes the number of the fallen angels as
an host
Innumerable as the stars of night.--v. 744-45,
Numberless as thou seest, and how they move;
Each had his place appointed, each his course;
The rest in circuit walls this universe.--iii. 719-21.
Though Milton was doubtless familiar with the leading orbs of the
brighter once amidst the host
Of angels than that star the stars among.--vii. 132-33.
importance to astronomers--
the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas
First Aries, glorious in his golden wool,
Looks back and wonders at the mighty Bull.
sidereal heavens. Milton's astronomical knowledge, we find, was
These outbursts, bending over like the jets from a fountain, and
irregular stellate halo, with the black globe of the Moon in its
Sometimes towards Heaven and the full-blazing Sun,
Which now sat high in his meridian tower.--iv. 29-30.
He then addresses him thus:--
O thou that with surpassing glory crowned,
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the god
Of this new World--at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminished heads--to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere.--iv. 32-39.
On another occasion:--
The golden Sun in splendour likest Heaven
To re-salute the world with sacred light,
Leucothea waked, and with fresh dews embalmed
Soon as they forth were come to open sight
Of day-spring, and the Sun--who, scarce up-risen,
With wheels yet hovering o'er the ocean-brim,
Shot parallel to the Earth his dewy ray,
Discovering in wide landskip all the east
or some renowned metropolis
With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned,
Which now the rising Sun gilds with his beams.--iii. 549-51.
while now the mounted Sun
Shot down direct his fervid rays, to warm
for scarce the Sun
Hath finished half his journey, and scarce begins
His other half in the great zone of Heaven.--v. 558-60.
To sit and taste, till this meridian heat
Be over, and the Sun more cool decline.--v. 369-70.
And the great Light of Day yet wants to run
Much of his race, though steep. Suspense in Heaven,
Held by thy voice, thy potent voice he hears,
And longer will delay, to hear thee tell
His generation, and the rising birth
Of Nature from the unapparent deep.--vii. 98-103.
Meanwhile in utmost longitude, where Heaven
With Earth and Ocean meets, the setting Sun
Slowly descended, and with right aspect
Against the eastern gate of Paradise
the Sun now fallen
Beneath the Azores; whether the Prime Orb,
Incredible how swift, had thither rolled
Diurnal, or this less volubil Earth,
By shorter flight to the east, had left him there
Arraying with reflected purple and gold
The clouds that on his western throne attend.--iv. 591-97.
the parting Sun
Beyond the Earth's green Cape and verdant Isles
Hesperian sets, my signal to depart.--viii. 630-32.
Now was the Sun in western cadence low
From noon, and gentle airs due at their hour
To fan the Earth now waked, and usher in
Declined, was hasting now with prone career
To the Ocean Isles, and in the ascending scale
Of Heaven the stars that usher evening rose.--iv. 352-55.
two broad suns their shields
as when the Sun new-risen
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the Moon
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
This passage affords us an example of the sublimity of Milton's
diminished. _Elliptic inequality_, _parallactic inequality_, the
The characteristic features of the Moon's surface are the crater
desolation.
till the Moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.--iv. 606-609.
now reigns
Full-orbed the Moon, and with more pleasing light,
Shadowy sets off the face of things.--v. 41-43.
or faëry elves,
Whose midnight revels, by a forest side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth
Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when called
In secret, riding through the air she comes,
Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance
With Lapland witches, while the labouring Moon
his ponderous shield
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast. The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon.--i. 284-87.
but there the neighbouring Moon
(So call that opposite fair star) her aid
Timely interposes, and her monthly round
Still ending, still renewing, through mid-Heaven
With borrowed light her countenance triform
Hence fills and empties, to enlighten the Earth,
And in her pale dominion checks the night.--iii. 726-32.
So on he fares, and to the border comes
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,
Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green,
As with a rural mound, the champain head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denied; and overhead upgrew
Insuperable highth of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm,
A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend,
Shade above shade, a woody theatre
Of stateliest view. Yet higher than their tops
The verdurous wall of Paradise up-sprung;
Which to our general sire gave prospect large
Into his nether empire neighbouring round.
And higher than that wall, a circling row
Of goodliest trees, loaden with fairest fruit,
Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
Appeared, with gay enamelled colours mixed;
On which the Sun more glad impressed his beams
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,
When God hath showered the Earth: so lovely seemed
That landskip. And of pure now purer air
Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires
Vernal delight and joy, able to drive
All sadness but despair. Now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Beneath him, with new wonder, now he views,
To all delight of human sense exposed,
In narrow room Nature's whole wealth; yea, more!--
A Heaven on Earth: for blissful Paradise
Of God the garden was, by Him in the east
Of Eden planted, Eden stretched her line
From Auran eastward to the royal towers
Of great Seleucia, built by Grecian kings,
Or where the sons of Eden long before
Dwelt in Telassar. In this pleasant soil
His far more pleasant garden God ordained.
Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;
And all amid them stood the Tree of Life,
High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit
Of vegetable gold; and next to life,
Our death, the Tree of Knowledge, grew fast by--
Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill.
Southward through Eden went a river large,
Nor changed his course, but through the shaggy hill
Passed underneath ingulfed; for God had thrown
That mountain, as his garden mould, high raised
Upon the rapid current, which, through veins
Of porous earth with kindly thirst up-drawn,
Rose a fresh fountain, and with many a rill
Watered the garden; thence united fell
Down the steep glade, and met the nether flood,
Which from his darksome passage now appears,
And now, divided into four main streams,
Runs diverse, wandering many a famous realm
And country whereof here needs no account;
But rather to tell how, if Art could tell
How, from that sapphire fount the crisped brooks,
Boiling on orient-pearl and sands of gold,
With mazy error under pendent shades
Ran nectar, visiting each plant, and fed
Flowers worthy of Paradise, which not nice Art
In beds and curious knots, but Nature boon
Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain,
Both where the morning Sun first warmly smote
The open field, and where the unpierced shade
O Earth, how like to Heaven, if not preferred
More justly, seat worthier of gods, as built
With second thoughts, reforming what was old!
For what God, after better, worse would build?
Terrestrial Heaven, danced round by other Heavens,
That shine, yet bear their bright officious lamps,
Light above light, for thee alone, as seems,
In thee concentring all their precious beams
Of sacred influence! As God in Heaven
Is centre, yet extends to all, so thou
Centring receiv'st from all those orbs; in thee,
Not in themselves, all their known virtue appears,
Productive in herb, plant, and nobler birth
Of creatures animate with gradual life
Of growth, sense, reason, all summed up in Man,
With what delight I could have walked thee round,
If I could joy in aught--sweet interchange
Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains,
Now land, now sea, and shores with forest crowned,
brighter or obscurer portions, but can seldom or never rest fully
Fairest of Stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn,
Sure pledge 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.--v. 166-70.
In these lines the poet alludes to Venus as the morning star.
His countenance, as the Morning Star that guides
Haste to thy audience, Night with her will bring
Silence, and Sleep listening to thee will watch.--vii. 104-106.
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns.--vii. 366.
The Sun was sunk and after him the Star
Of Hesperus, whose office is to bring
Twilight upon the Earth, short arbiter
and bid haste the Evening Star
On his hill top to light the bridal lamp.--viii. 519-20.
translated them to the sky.
Canst thou bind the delightful teemings of Cheemah?
Or the contractions of Chesil canst thou open?
Canst thou draw forth Mazzaroth in his season
Or Ayeesh and his sons canst thou guide?
He writes: 'In this very early description of the cardinal
There is a time when forty days they lie,
And forty nights, conceal'd from human eye;
But in the course of the revolving year,
When the swain sharps the scythe, again appear.
Quae septem dici, sex tamen esse solent.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all the horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through heaven's high road; the grey
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danced,
The other allusion to the Pleiades is in Book X., line 673, where
The Galaxy or Milky Way is the great luminous zone encircling the
traversed by light in less than 13,000 years.
sweeping the telescope over fields where the stars can be seen in
unnoticed by the general observer, the spot in the sword-hand of
So sung
The glorious train ascending: He through Heaven,
That opened wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way--
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear
Seen in the Galaxy, that Milky Way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
The word comet is derived from the Greek {komê}, signifying
astronomer Halley was the first to predict the return of a comet.
On the other side,
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified, and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
High in front advanced,
The brandished sword of God before them blazed,
Fierce as a comet; which with torrid heat,
And vapour as the Lybian air adust
Began to parch that temperate clime.--xii. 632-36.
from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,
A summer's day; and with the setting sun
Dropt from the zenith like a falling star,
Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even
On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fired
Impress the air, and shows the mariner
From what point of his compass to beware
Oft shalt thou see ere brooding storms arise,
Star after star glide headlong down the skies.
The standard borne by the Cherub Azazel is described as having--
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind.--i. 537.
illustration and embellishment of his poem.
hemisphere embraced Chaos--a dark, fathomless abyss in which the
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,
With hideous ruin and combustion, down
To bottomless perdition; there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire.--i. 44-48.
Nine days they fell; confounded Chaos roared,
And felt tenfold confusion in their fall
Through his wild Anarchy; so huge a rout
Encumbered him with ruin. Hell at last,
Yawning, received them whole, and on them closed.--vi. 871-75.
reclaimed from Chaos, and with the embryo elements of matter--
His dark materials to create new worlds.--ii. 916.
On his great expedition now appeared,
Girt with omnipotence, with radiance crowned
Of majesty divine: sapience and love
Immense; and all his Father in Him shone.
About his chariot numberless were poured
And Virtues, winged Spirits, and chariots winged
From the armoury of God, where stand of old
Myriads, between two brazen mountains lodged
Against a solemn day, harnessed at hand,
Celestial equipage; and now came forth
Spontaneous, for within them Spirit lived,
Attendant on their Lord. Heaven opened wide
Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound!
On golden hinges moving, to let forth
The King of Glory, in his powerful Word
And Spirit, coming to create new worlds.
On Heavenly ground they stood, and from the shore
They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains to assault
Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole.
'Silence, ye troubled Waves, and thou Deep, peace!'
Said then the omnific Word: 'your discord end!'
Nor stayed; but on the wings of Cherubim
Uplifted, in paternal glory rode
Far into Chaos, and the World unborn;
For Chaos heard his voice. Him all his train
Followed in bright procession, to behold
Creation, and the wonders of his might.
Then stayed the fervid wheels, and in his hand
He took the golden compasses, prepared
In God's eternal store, to circumscribe
This Universe, and all created things.
One foot he centred, and the other turned
Round through the vast profundity obscure;
And said, 'Thus far extend, thus far thy bounds;
This be thy just circumference, O World!'
Thus God the Heaven created, thus the Earth,
Matter unformed and void. 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; but downward purged
The black, tartareous, cold, infernal dregs,
Adverse to life; then founded, then conglobed
Like things to like; the rest to several place
Disparted, and between spun out the Air;
And Earth self balanced on her centre hung.--vii. 192-242.
'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 aëry 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:
Nor passed uncelebrated, nor unsung
By the celestial quires, when orient light
Exhaling first from darkness they beheld;
Birthday of Heaven and Earth; with joy and shout
The hollow universal orb they filled,
And touched their golden harps, and hymning praised
God and his works: Creator Him they sung,
Both when first evening was, and when first morn.--vii. 243-60.
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
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 sung the second day.--vii. 261-275.
Again the Almighty spake: 'Let there be Lights
High in the expanse of Heaven, to divide
The day from night; and let them be for signs,
For seasons, and for days, and circling years;
And let them be for lights, as I ordain
Their office in the firmament of Heaven,
To give light on the Earth!' and it was so.
And God made two great Lights, great for their use
To Man, the greater to have rule by day,
The less by night, altern; and made the Stars,
And set them in the firmament of Heaven
To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day
In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide. God saw,
Surveying his great work, that it was good:
For, of celestial bodies, first, the Sun,
A mighty sphere He framed, unlightsome first,
Though of ethereal mould; then formed the Moon
Globose, and every magnitude of Stars,
And sowed with stars the Heaven thick as a field.
Of light by far the greater part he took,
Transplanted from her cloudy shrine, and placed
In the Sun's orb, made porous to receive
And drink the liquid light; firm to retain
Her gathered beams, great palace now of Light.
Hither, as to their fountain, other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light,
And hence the morning planet gilds her horns;
By tincture or reflection they augment
Their small peculiar, though, from human sight
So far remote, with diminution seen.
First in his east the glorious lamp was seen,
Regent of day, and all the horizon round
Invested with bright rays, jocund to run
His longitude through Heaven's high road; the grey
Dawn, and the Pleiades before him danced,
Shedding sweet influence. Less bright the Moon,
But opposite in levelled west was set
His mirror, with full face borrowing her light
From him; for other light she needed none
In that aspect, and still that distance keeps
Till night; then in the east her turn she shines,
Revolved on Heaven's great axle, and her reign
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds,
With thousand thousand stars that then appeared
Spangling the hemisphere. Then first adorned
With their bright luminaries, that set and rose,
Glad evening and glad morn crowned the fourth day.--vii. 339-86.
The first creation was Light, and Milton, according to Scriptural
Hail, holy Light! offspring of Heaven first-born!
Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam,
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity--dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate!
Or hear'st thou rather, pure Ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the Sun,
Before the Heavens thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle, didst invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless Infinite.--iii. 1-12.
I saw when, at his word the formless mass,
This World's material mould, came to a heap:
Confusion heard his voice, and wild Uproar
Stood ruled, stood vast Infinitude confined;
Till at his second bidding darkness fled,
Light shone, and order from disorder sprung.
Swift to their several quarters hasted then
The cumbrous elements, Earth, Flood, Air, Fire;
And this ethereal quintessence of Heaven
Flew upward, spirited with various forms,
That rolled orbicular, and turned to stars
Numberless, as thou seest, and how they move;
Each had his place appointed, each his course;
The rest in circuit walls this Universe.--iii. 708-21.
Here finished He, and all that He had made
Viewed, and behold! all was entirely good.
So even and morn accomplished the sixth day:
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up returned,
Up to the Heaven of Heavens, His high abode,
Thence to behold this new created World,
The addition of his empire, how it showed
In prospect from His throne, how good, how fair,
Answering his great idea. Up He rode,
Followed with acclamation, and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned
Angelic harmonies: The Earth, the Air
Resounded (thou remember'st, for thou heard'st)
The Heavens and all the constellations rung,
The planets in their stations listening stood,
While the bright pomp ascended jubilant.
'Open ye everlasting gates!' they sung;
'Open ye Heavens! your living doors; let in
The great Creator, from his work returned
Magnificent, his six days' work, a World;
Open, and henceforth oft; for God will deign
To visit oft the dwellings of just men,
Delighted; and with frequent intercourse
Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of supernal grace.' So sung
The glorious train ascending: He through Heaven,
That opened wide her blazing portals, led
To God's eternal house direct the way--
A broad and ample road, whose dust is gold,
And pavement stars, as stars to thee appear
Seen in the Galaxy, that Milky Way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Far off the empyreal Heaven, extended wide
In circuit, undetermined square or round,
With opal towers and battlements adorned
Of living sapphire, once his native seat,
And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain,
This pendent World, in bigness as a star
Of smallest magnitude close by the Moon.--ii. 1047-53.
Far distant he descries,
Ascending by degrees magnificent
Up to the wall of Heaven, a structure high;
At top whereof, but far more rich, appeared
The work as of a kingly palace gate,
With frontispiece of diamond and gold
Embellished; thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone, inimitable on Earth
By model, or by shading pencil drawn.
The stairs were such as whereon Jacob saw
Angels ascending and descending, bands
Of Guardians bright, when he from Esau fled
To Padan Aram, in the field of Luz
Dreaming by night under the open sky,
Sometimes this mysterious structure was drawn up to Heaven and
Such wonder seized, though after Heaven seen,
The Spirit malign, but much more envy seized,
At sight of all this World beheld so fair,
Round he surveys (and well might, where he stood
So high above the circling canopy
Of night's extended shade) from eastern point
Of Libra to the fleecy star that bears
Andromeda far off Atlantic seas
Beyond the horizon; then from pole to pole
He views in breadth, and without longer pause,
Down right into the World's first region throws
His flight precipitant, and winds with ease
Through the pure marble air his oblique way
Amongst innumerable stars, that shone
Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds,
Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles,
Like those Hesperian Gardens famed of old,
Fortunate fields, and groves, and flowery vales;
Thrice happy isles! But who dwelt happy there
He staid not to inquire: above them all
The golden Sun, in splendour likest Heaven
Allured his eye: thither his course he bends
Through the calm firmament, (but up or down
By centre or eccentric hard to tell
Or longitude) where the great luminary,
Aloof the vulgar constellations thick,
That from his lordly eye keep distance due,
Dispenses light from far. They, as they move
Their starry dance in numbers that compute
Days, months, and years, towards his all-cheering lamp
Turn swift their various motions, or are turned
By his magnetic beam, that gently warms
The Universe, and to each inward part
With gentle penetration, though unseen,
Shoots invisible virtue even to the Deep;
So wondrously was set his station bright.--iii. 552-87.
another Heaven
From Heaven-gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline the glassy sea.--vii. 617-19.
He beholds it in all its dimensions, from pole to pole, and
There lands the Fiend, a spot like which perhaps
Astronomer in the Sun's lucent orb
Through his glazed optic tube, yet never saw.
The place he found beyond expression bright,
Compared with aught on Earth, metal or stone;
Not all parts like, but all alike informed
With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire;
If metal, part seemed gold, part silver clear;
If stone, carbuncle most or chrysolite,
Ruby or topaz, to the twelve that shone
In Aaron's breastplate, and a stone besides,
Imagined rather oft than elsewhere seen;
That stone, or like to that, which here below
Philosophers in vain so long have sought,
In vain, though by their powerful art they bind
Volatile Hermes, and call up unbound
In various shapes old Proteus from the sea,
Drained through a limbec to his native form.
What wonder then if fields and regions here
Breathe forth elixir pure, and rivers run
Potable gold, when, with one virtuous touch,
The arch-chemic Sun, so far from us remote,
Produces, with terrestrial humour mixed,
Here in the dark so many precious things
Of colour glorious, and effect so rare?
Here matter new to gaze the Devil met
Undazzled; far and wide his eye commands;
For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade,
But all sunshine, as when his beams at noon
Culminate from the equator, as they now
Shot upward still direct, whence no way round
Shadow from body opaque can fall; and the air,
Nowhere so clear sharpened his visual ray
To objects distant far, whereby he soon
Saw within here a glorious Angel stand.--iii. 588-622.
Look downward on that Globe, whose hither side
With light from hence, though but reflected, shines,
That place is Earth, the seat of Man; that light
His day, which else, as the other hemisphere,
Night would invade; but there neighbouring Moon
(So call that opposite fair star) her aid
Timely interposes, and her monthly round
Still ending, still renewing, through mid-Heaven,
With borrowed light her countenance triform
Hence fills and empties, to enlighten the Earth,
And in her pale dominion checks the night.--iii. 722-32.
Descend from Heaven, Urania, by that name
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing!
The meaning, not the name, I call; for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st; but heavenly-born,
Before the hills appeared or fountain flowed,
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song. Up led by thee,
Into the Heaven of Heavens I have presumed,
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air,
Thy tempering. With like safety guided down,
Return me to my native element;
Lest, from this flying steed unreined, (as once
Belerophon, though from a lower clime)
Dismounted, on the Aleian field I fall,
Erroneous there to wander, and forlorn.
Half yet remains unsung, but narrower bound
Within the visible diurnal sphere.
Standing on Earth, not rapt above the pole,
More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchanged
To hoarse or mute, though fallen on evil days,
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues,
In darkness, and with dangers compassed round,
And solitude; yet not alone, while thou
Visit'st my slumbers nightly, or when morn
Purples the east. Still govern thou my song,
Urania, and fit audience find though few.--vii. 1-32.
Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale.
She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleased. Now glowed the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light,
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.--iv. 598-609.
Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds: pleasant the Sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glistering with dew; fragrant the fertile Earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful Evening mild; then silent Night,
With this her solemn bird, and this fair Moon,
And these the gems of Heaven, her starry train:
But neither breath of Morn, when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising Sun
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glistering with dew; nor fragrance after showers;
Nor grateful Evening mild; nor silent Night,
With this her solemn bird; nor walk by Moon,
Or glittering star-light, without thee is sweet.
But wherefore all night long shine these? for whom
This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes?--iv. 641-58.
Daughter of God and Man, accomplished Eve,
These have their course to finish round the Earth
By morrow evening, and from land to land
In order, though to nations yet unborn,
Ministering light prepared, they set and rise;
Lest total Darkness should by night regain
Her old possession, and extinguish life
In Nature and all things; which these soft fires
Not only enlighten, but with kindly heat
Of various influence foment and warm,
Temper or nourish, or in part shed down
Their stellar virtue on all kinds that grow
On Earth, made hereby apter to receive
Perfection from the Sun's more potent ray.
These, then, though unbeheld in deep of night,
Shine not in vain; nor think, though men were none,
That Heaven would want spectators, God want praise:
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the Earth
Unseen, both when we wake, and when we sleep:
All these with ceaseless praise his works behold
Both day and night. How often from the steep
Of echoing hill or thicket, have we heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air,
Sole, or responsive each to other's note
Singing their Great Creator! Oft in bands
While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk,
With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds
In full harmonic number joined, their songs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to Heaven.--iv. 660-88.
Fairest of Stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn,
Sure pledge 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.
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
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,
description. The picturesque conception of ten revolving spheres,
subject-matter worthy of his gifted intellect.
For wonderful indeed are all his works,
Pleasant to know, and worthiest to be all
Had in remembrance always with delight!
But what created mind can comprehend
Their number, or the wisdom infinite
It is very pleasant, as Milton says, to
sit and rightly spell
Of every star that heaven doth show.
 Chambers's _Handbook of Astronomy_.
 Brewster's _Martyrs of Science_.
 A fresco by the late Mr. Ford Maddox-Brown, depicting Crabtree
 William Crabtree died on August 1, 1644, aged 34 years.
 The constellation Virgo.
 Miss Clerke's _System of the Stars_.
 Miss Clerke's _System of the Stars_.
 Miss Clerke's _System of the Stars_.
'and other suns perhaps
With their attendant moons, thou wilt descry,'
 See diagram, chap. iii. p. 96.