[Footnote 4: P. 151. _Of her who loved a mortal—and so died._}—Sappho.]
[Footnote 5: P. 152. _And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnamed._
This flower is much noticed by Leuwenhoek and Tournefort. The bee,
feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated.]
[Footnote 6: P. 153. _And Clytia pondering between many a sun._
Clytia—The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ a better-known term,
the turnsol—which turns continually towards the sun, covers itself,
like Peru, the country from which it comes, with dewy clouds which cool
and refresh its flowers during the most violent heat of the day.—_B. de
St. Pierre._]
[Footnote 7: P. 153. _And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth._
There is cultivated in the king’s garden at Paris, a species of
serpentine aloes without prickles, whose large and beautiful flower
exhales a strong odour of the vanilla, during the time of its
expansion, which is very short. It does not blow till towards the month
of July—you then perceive it gradually open its petals—expand them—fade
and die.—_St. Pierre._]
[Footnote 8: P. 153. _And Valisnerian lotus thither flown._
There is found, in the Rhone, a beautiful lily of the Valisnerian
kind. Its stem will stretch to the length of three or four feet—thus
preserving its head above water in the swellings of the river.]
[Footnote 9: P. 153. _And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!_}—The
Hyacinth.]
[Footnote 10: P. 154.
_And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever;
With Indian Cupid down the holy river._
It is a fiction of the Indians, that Cupid was first seen floating in
one of these down the river Ganges—and that he still loves the cradle
of his childhood.]
[Footnote 11: P. 154. _To bear the Goddess’ song, in odours, up to
heaven._
And golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the
saints.—_Rev. St. John._]
[Footnote 12: P. 155. _A model of their own._
The Humanitarians held that God was to be understood as having really a
human form.—_Vide_ _Clarke’s Sermons_, vol. i. page 26, fol. edit.
The drift of Milton’s argument leads him to employ language which
would appear, at first sight, to verge upon their doctrine; but it
will be seen immediately, that he guards himself against the charge of
having adopted one of the most ignorant errors of the dark ages of the
Church.—_Dr. Sumner’s Notes on Milton’s Christian Doctrine._
This opinion, in spite of many testimonies to the contrary, could never
have been very general. Andeus, a Syrian of Mesopotamia, was condemned
for the opinion, as heretical. He lived in the beginning of the fourth
century. His disciples were called Anthropomorphites.—_Vide Du Pin._