as to Milton's conception of the relative positions of the "Earth," built "on circumfluous waters"; and the "World," floating" in wide Crystalline ocean," i. e., the Crystalline Sphere.

And what a contrast there is between the AngloSaxon poet's simple distant strain

Pale, heavenly Light,

and the grand apostrophe to Light, which like the low "thundering of organs," along a fretted roof, falls on the ear as the blind bard strikes the opening verse of the Third Book of his great epic.

Hail, holy Light, offspring of Heaven first-born!
Or of the Eternal coeternal 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 !

It is impossible to read such a passage as this, without a thrill of intense sympathy for one who, when he framed these lines, could distinguish light from darkness-but nothing more.

Both Cædmon and Milton, when describing the formation of Eve, adopt the second of the two distinct narratives of Creation * contained in the Hebrew cosmogony. It will be remembered, that in the first of the two, (so-called), Mosaic accounts of creation, the Hebrew chronicler does not enter into any particulars of the formation of Man, but simply states, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." But in the second narrative, we have the fuller account of the moulding of Man out of the dust of the Earth, and, as an apparent afterthought, the unique creation of the Woman from the side of Adam.

Then to the Guardian of the skies it seemed
Unfitting that the first-born of Mankind,
The trusted Keeper of the new-formed World,
Should longer dwell alone in Paradise.
To primal Man, God's well-beloved son,
Was given a helpmate by his Sovereign Lord
As aid and comfort in his mortal life;

For as he softly slept, the Almighty took

A rib from Adam's side, nor caused him pain,
Since from the wound there flowed no drop of blood,
And therewith fashioned He a woman fair,

*The first account is given in the first chapter of Genesis and the first three verses of the second chapter, which in the Anglican version, have been most absurdly divided from their context; the second account begins at the fourth verse of the second chapter and continues to the end of the chapter.

As he softly slept, the Almighty took

A rib from Adam's side,

And therewith fashioned He a woman fair.