Note 1021 — INDEX TO THE NOTES.

sphery chime, i.e. the music of the spheres. “To climb higher than the sphery chime” means to ascend beyond the spheres into the empyrean or true heaven—the abode of God and the purest Spirits. Milton therefore implies that by virtue alone can we come into God’s presence. See note on “the starry quire,” line 112. ‘Chime’ is strictly ‘harmony,’ as in “silver chime,” Hymn Nat. 128: the word is cognate with cymbal.