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The Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (11); With Bibliographical and Critical Notes
The Writings of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow With Bibliographical and Critical Notes - 11 Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Volume: 11 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1886 Original Publisher: Riverside Press Subjects: Literary Collections / American / General Literary Criticism / General Literary Criticism / American / General Literary Criticism / American / African American Literary Criticism / Women Authors Notes: Th... more »is is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: NOTES CANTO I. 1. Dante's theory of the universe is the old one, which made the earth a stationary central point, around which all the heavenly bodies revolved ; a theory that, according to Milton, Par. Lost, VIII. 15, astonished even Adam in Paradise : -- When I behold this goodly frame, this world, Of heaven and earth consisting, and compute Their magnitudea: this earth, a spot, a gram. An atom, with the firmament compared And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll Spaces incomprehensible (for such Their distance argues, and their swift return Diurnal), merely to officiate light Round this opacons earth, this punctual spot, One day and night; in all their vast survey Useless besides; reasoning I oft admire, How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit Such disproportions, with superfluous hand So many nobler bodies to create, Greater so manifold, to this one use, For aught appears, and on their orbs impose Such restless revolution day by day Repeated ; while the sedentary earth, That better might with far less compass move, Served by more noble than herself, attains Her end without least motion, and receives, As tribute, such a sumless journey brought Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light, -- Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails. The reply that Raphael makes to " our general ancestor " may be addressed to...« less