An Introduction to the Prose and Poetical Works of John Milton / Comprising All the Autobiographic Passages in His Works, the More Explicit Presentations of His Ideas of True Liberty.

by John Milton

[62]. above my reach: above the reach of my capacity to know.

[63]. Suffices: it is sufficient (to know).

[67]. O loss of sight: Milton here speaks virtually in propria persona.

[70]. Light the prime work of God.—Gen. i. 3; 'offspring of Heaven first born.'—P. L., iii. 1.

[75, 76]. exposed to daily fraud: Milton here, no doubt, drew from his own experiences as a father.

[77]. still: ever, always.

[82]. all: any; 'without all doubt.'—Henry VIII., IV. i. 113; without all remedy.'—Macbeth, III. ii. 11.

[87]. silent: invisible; the epithet which pertains to one sense, that of hearing, is transferred to another, that of sight. Lat. luna silens.

[89]. Hid in her vacant interlunar cave: the moon is poetically represented as hid in a cave, and giving no light (vacant), between her disappearance and return, in the sky.

[91, 92]. if it be true that light is in the soul: the soul proceeding from God, and partaking of the 'Bright effluence of bright essence increate.'—P. L., iii. 6.