“Descend from Heaven, Urania—by that name If rightly Thou art called—whose voice divine Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, Above the flight of Pegasean wing! The meaning, not the name, I call: for Thou Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top Of old Olympus dwell’st; but, heavenly born, Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed, Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse;— Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased With thy celestial song.” She is now named—_Urania_. (The former title given her—“_Heavenly Muse_”—is equivalent.) But because one of the Nine Muses was named Urania, he distinguishes— “The _meaning_, not _the name_, I call.” She is described as conversing before the creation of this Universe, and playing with her Sister Wisdom, in the presence of God, who listens, pleased, to her song. In this bold and tender twofold Impersonation, I seem to understand this. _Wisdom_ is the Thought of God respectively to the connection of Causes and Effects in his Creation, or to the Laws which constitute and uphold its Order: considered as Useful. This Thought is boldly separated from God, and impersonated as One Sister. _Urania_ is the Thought of God, relatively to the Order and Harmony of his Works:—considered as Beautiful. When God sees that his Creation upon each day is “good,” (which expression Milton is careful to repeat upon each day,) we must understand that he regards it in _both_ respects. The Invocation is, therefore, placed with a perfect propriety at the beginning of the Book which is occupied in describing the Creation. For the meaning here attributed to Urania _playing_ with Wisdom before the pleased Father, compare the passage where the dance of the Angels has been compared to the motions of the stars, and the Speaker, the Archangel Raphael, adds: “And in their motions harmony divine So smooths her charming tones, that God’s own ear Listens delighted.” Where the audible harmony of the spheres and the song of Urania seem to be as nearly as possible one and the same thing—namely, Music—which is The Beautiful in one of its kinds, used, with extremely profound and bold imagination, for expressing The Beautiful in all its kinds. Who is it that, in presence of the Everlasting Throne, converses with her sister, Eternal Wisdom; plays with her—singing, the while, so that the awful Ear of Omnipotence bends from the Throne, listening and pleased?