312 Albert S. Cook, 



where they are not. Why should he not invoke the stars, as, in Deut. 

 4. 26 ; 30. 19, heaven and earth are called to witness ? Cf. Shake- 

 speare, Haml. 1. 5. 92. 



In the Bible, on which Milton is dependent for the term, it now 

 designates angels, and now stars. Thus in 1 Kings 22. 19, angels 

 are meant : ' I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host 

 of heaven standing by Him, on his right hand and on his left.' In 

 Deut. 4. 19, on the other hand, the reference is to stars : ' Lest 

 thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, 

 and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, should- 

 est be driven to worship them, and serve them.' See also Neh. 

 9. 6. 



The analogy between the two rests partly upon the fact that 

 both angels and stars are conceived as occupying heaven, the 

 dwelling-place of God; that the movements and relative positions 

 of the stars seem characterized by the order and regularity that 

 one associates with the idea of a splendid army ; and perhaps that 

 meteors, conceived of as ' falling stars,' seem like messengers 

 from alDOve, descending upon some divine errand. 



An ilkistration or two will make this clearer. In the following- 

 verse (Isa. 40. 26 ; cf. Ps. 147. 4), the stars are referred to as if they 

 were marshaled like soldiers : ' Lift up your eyes on high, and 

 behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host 

 by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his 

 might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.^ Cf. Ecclus. 

 43. 10 : 'At the commandment of the Holy One they will stand in 

 their order, and never faint in their watches.' Similarly Shelley, 

 in a canceled passage of the Adonais, speaks of ' the armies of the 

 golden stars ' ; and Spenser refers to their ranks [Epith. 286—9). 

 To him the evening star is a golden lamp of love. 



That all the host of heaven in rankes doost lead. 



In the following lines iP.L. 4. 555—7) the flight of an angel is 

 likened to the descent of a shooting star : 



Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even 

 On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star 

 In autumn thwarts the night. 



So Com. 80 : 



Swift as the sparkle of a glancing star 

 I shoot from heaven. 



Cf. Fletcher, Christ's Victory. 



