Transcriber’s Note

Minor punctuation and hyphenation inconsistencies have been corrected.

The following minor typographical errors have been corrected:
p75: “establish” changed to “established”
p99: “Firmanent” changed to “Firmament”
p111: “they thoughts” changed to “thy thoughts”
p120: “suen” changed to “seuen”
p134: “consequenc” changed to “consequence”
p146: “geographieal” changed to “geographical”
p167: “Lyrae” changed to “Lyræ” for consistency
p286: Removed redundant word “degrees” following the degree symbol

The spelling “Bernices” for “Berenices” has been retained throughout.

Ditto marks in the table on page 66 have been replaced with words.

THE ASTRONOMY
OF
MILTON’S ‘PARADISE LOST’

THE ASTRONOMY
OF
MILTON’S ‘PARADISE LOST’

BY
THOMAS N. ORCHARD, M.D.
MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ASTRONOMICAL ASSOCIATION

These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair: Thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable.

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY
1896
All rights reserved

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
[I.][A Short Historical Sketch of Astronomy][1]
[II.][Astronomy in the Seventeenth Century][45]
[III.][Milton’s Astronomical Knowledge][81]
[IV.][Milton and Galileo][113]
[V.][The Seasons][140]
[VI.][The Starry Heavens][152]
[VII.][The Starry Heavens][200]
[VIII.][Description of Celestial Objects Mentioned in ‘Paradise Lost’][244]
[IX.][Milton’s Imaginative and Descriptive Astronomy][306]


ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES

[A Typical Sun-spot][Frontispiece]
[Venus on the Sun’s Disc]To face page [66]
[Cluster in Hercules]”[218]
[Great Nebula in Orion]”[230]
[A Portion of the Moon’s Surface]”[268]

IN TEXT

FIG. PAGE
[1.][The Ptolemaic System of the Universe][86]
[2.][Milton’s Division of Universal Space][96]
[3.][A Binary Star System—70 Ophiuchi][184]
[4.][The Orbits of the Components of γ Virginis][189]
[5.][Apparent Orbit of the Companion of Sirius][190]
[6.][A Sun-spot Magnified][247]
[7.][The Corona during the Eclipse of May 1883][254]
[8.][A Portion of the Milky Way][289]