New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-09-06

coveres In hanging his universe to the floor
of Heaven by golden chan he merely enlarged
the thought embodied in the Dream Of Scpio."
But why he. with mind capable, more than
almost any other known to history. of conceiv-
ing the infinite and of finding expression Of his
thought, should have deemed an opaque outer
shell for the universe a necessity in his epic is
really one Of the puzzles of literature. 1t is
only to be inferred that without it he would
have had to give up his Jacobs Ladder and the
Internal bridge laid across Chaos by Sin and
Death. as well as the graphic picture of Satan
wandering on what seemed n globe far off, but
now,
bOundless continent
Dark waste. and wild. under the frown of
Night
Starless. exposed and notwithstanding storms
OF Chaos clustering round.
Without it, moreover, he would have had no
place for that Paradise of Fools Oh which he be-
slowed almost the only humorous satirical
passage in his poem. 1t is curious fact that
in the description of this Limbo of Vanity. with
all its absurdities. is to he found the most ex-
plicit account which Milton anywhere gives Of
the imaginary spheres Of the ola astronomy.
Everywhere else he leaves the controversy be-
tween Ptolemy and Corernicus as open as he
can in view of his own poetical limitations
But in telling of all the fools and foes that
were in times long after Satans advent to
gather on the outer crust of the universe he
thrusts in the crystalline sphere and the pri-
mum mobile and all the rest of the forgotten
rubbish as if he wished to make fun OF these.
too. 1t is done in three lines. hut it is very
pressve. If Milton did not intend here to give
his real opinions by indlrect.on, it would ne
hard to lind a place where he has tried that
familiar device of the practsed writer. few
lines further on where Satan is seen looking
down at the stars within the globe, and where
the narrative must be taken seriously, there Is
no thought of the spheres. The consultations
swing in the vast cavity. all in sight from
eastern point of Libra to the feecy star that
bears Andromeda beyond the western horiz m.
What seem like stars in the distance found
by Satan as he passes them in his swift obque
descent, to be worlds. He sees at least the
poet says. in accordance with scientific thought,
before the time of Newton, that the planets are
turned by the magnetic beams of the sun. in
the whole passage there is nothing to show hut
that Ptolemy has been left where he belongs in
the Limbo Of Vanity.
On the other hand. in illusions and frag-
ments of description Milton phrases that
belong to the Old astronomy. He is lot unique
IN TINS. III Is easier even AT the pres '1t utN, W
express many astronomical facts in the old-fash-
toned terms than it is to give them in their oX-
act scientific form. The observer can :peak
from his own point Of view more promptly than
he can If he has to study his words and adapt
them to mathematical realities. DR.. Orchard gives
a curious instance of this when he apologies for
describing the earth with the other planets men
toned by Milton by saying that it is not a celes-
f;oI Lol, I,,,t ,be Mars no.
would find the earth just celestial az Jupiter
or the sun Sirius. These things considered.
it may seem that DR.. Orchard has erred in con-
ceding that Millions cosmology is Ptolemic For
of literature and tradition and science to which
the old astronomy was stranger. II 1t were
not for that spherical shell in which the uni
verse is incosed might say that Millions
cosmology was his own and that he had eXer-
csed more than mere poetical skill In steer
ing his way between opinions that were in his
time uncertain. He could not go far from Script
ure or tradition founded Scripture without
alternating his readers. He could not dismiss
Ptoemy hastily men of old-fashioned learn
ing would have sneered at him. He could not go
too far from the new science without mourning
his own censure and that Of progressive scholars.
He contented himself with demonstrating that in
scientific knowledge he was abreast Of his time;
while beyond that. as poet. he anticipated the
grander science of later age.