With shows instead, mere fhows of feeming pure,
And banish'd from man's life his happiest life,
Simplicity and fpotless innocence!

So pafs'd they naked on, nor fhunn'd the fight
Of God or Angel, for they thought no ill :
So hand in hand they pafs'd, the loveliest pair
That ever fince in love's embraces met;
Adam the goodlieft man of men fince born
His fons, the fairest of her daughters Eve.

rapere occupat.

314. honor dishonorable,] He alludes to 1 Cor. XII. 23. And those members of the body which we think to be lefs honorable, upon these we befcw more abundant honor. But the honor paid to thofe parts is really a dishonor, a token of our fall, and an indication of our guilt. Innocent nature made no fuch diftinction. Sin-bred, how have ye troubled &c. Should we not read,

Sin-bred, how have you troubledfor what is he fpeaking to befides Shame?

323. Adam the goodlieft man of men &c.] Thefe two lines are cenfur'd by Mr. Addison, and

320

Under

are totally rejected by Dr. Bentley, as implying that Adam was one of his fons, and Eve one of her daughters but this manner of expreffion is borrow'd from the Greek lan

guage, in which we find fometimes the fuperlative degree used inftead of the comparative. The meaning therefore is, that Adam was a goodlier man than any of his fons, and Eve fairer than her daughters. So Achilles is faid to have been ωκυμορώτατο αλλων Iliad.I. 505. that is more fhort-liv'd than others. So Nireus is faid to have been the handfomeft of the other Grecians, Iliad. II. 673.

ός καλλις Θ ανηρ ύπο Ιλιον ήλθε,

Των αλλων Δαναων.

And the fame manner of fpeaking has pafs'd from the Greeks to the Latins. So a freed woman is call'd in Horace, Sat. I. I. 100. fortiffima Tyndaridarum, not that she was one

Under a tuft of shade that on a green

Stood whifp'ring soft, by a fresh fountain fide
They fat them down; and after no more toil
Of their sweet gard'ning labor than fuffic'd
To recommend cool Zephyr, and made case
More easy, wholsome thirst and appetite
More grateful, to their fupper fruits they fell,
Nectarin fruits which the compliant boughs
Yielded them, fide-long as they fat recline
On the foft downy bank damask'd with flowers:
The favory pulp they chew, and in the rind
Still as they thirsted scoop the brimming stream;
Nor gentle purpose, nor indearing fmiles

of the Tyndaridæ, but more brave than any of them. And as Dr. Pearce obferves, fo Diana is faid by one of the poets to have been comitum pulcherrima, not one of her own companions, but more handfome than any of them. And I believe a man would not be corrected for writing falfe English, who fhould fay the most learned of all others instead of more learned than all others.

337. Nor gentle purpose, &c.] This alfo from Spenfer, Fairy Queen, B. 3. Cant. 8. St. 14.

He 'gan make gentle purpose to his dame.

325

339

335

Wanted, nor youthful dalliance as befeems
Fair couple, link'd in happy nuptial league,
Alone as they. About them frifking play'd

340

All beasts of th' earth, fince wild, and of all chase
In wood or wilderness, foreft or den;

Sporting the lion ramp'd, and in his paw
Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards,
Gambol'd before them; th' unwieldy elephant 345
To make them mirth us'd all his might, and wreath'd
His lithe probofcis; close the serpent sly
Infinuating, wove with Gordian twine
His breaded train, and of his fatal guile
Gave proof unheeded; others on the grafs

350

Couch'd,

dy could unty, but Alexander cut it with his fword. His breaded train, his plaited twisted tail. And of his fatal guile gave proof unheeded; That intricate form into which he put himself was a fort of fymbol or type of his fraud, tho' not then regarded. Hume and Richardfon. We may obferve that the poet is larger in the defcription of the ferpent, than of any of the other animals, and very judiciously, as he is afterwards made the inftrument of fo much mischief; and at the fame time an intimation is given of his fatal guile, to prepare the reader for what follows.

355

Couch'd, and now fill'd with pafture gazing fat,
Or bedward ruminating; for the fun
Declin'd was hafting now with prone carreer
To th' ocean iles, and in th'afcending scale
Of Heav'n the stars that usher evening rose:
When Satan still in gaze, as firft he stood,
Scarce thus at length fail'd speech recover'd fad.
-O Hell! what do mine eyes with grief behold!
Into our room of blifs thus high advanc'd
Creatures of other mold, earth-born perhaps,

Such a reft upon the firft fyllable of the verse is not very common, but is very beautiful when it is fo accommodated to the fenfe. The learned reader may obferve a beauty of the like kind in these verfes of Homer, Iliad. I. 51.

Αυταρ έπειτ' αυτοισι βελΘ εχεxtx$; £91F;

Βαλλ' αι δε πυραι νεκυων και οντο θαμειαι.

and Iliad. V. 146.

Τον δ' ετερον ξίφεϊ μεγαλῳ κληδε παρ' ώμου

Πληξη

and again, ver. 156.

360

Not

· Πατερι δε γουν και κυδια λυγες

Λειπ'.

and in feveral other places.

And the English reader may see fimilar inftances in our English Homer. Pope's Homer, B. 16. ver. 445.

Chariots on chariots roll; the clashing spokes

Shock; while the madding steeds break fhort their yokes. And in the Temple of Fame, ver. 85.

Amphion there the loud creating
lyre

Strikes, and behold a fudden
Thebes afpire!

And it is obfervable that this pause

Not Spirits, yet to heav'nly Spirits bright
Little inferior; whom my thoughts pursue
With wonder, and could love, fo lively shines
In them divine refemblance, and fuch grace
The hand that form'd them on their shape hath pour'd.
Ah gentle pair, ye little think how nigh

366 Your change approaches, when all these delights Will vanish and deliver ye to woe,

More woe, the more your tafte is now of joy;
Happy, but for fo happy ill fecur'd

is ufually made upon the verb, to mark the action more ftrongly to the reader.

352. Or bedward ruminating:] Chewing the cud before they go to rest. Hume.

354. To th' ocean iles,] The ilands in the western ocean; for that the fun fet in the fea, and rofe out of it again, was an ancient poetic notion, and is become part of the phrafeology of poetry. And in th' afcending fcale of Heav'n, The balance of Heaven or Libra is one of the twelve figns, and when the fun is in that fign, as he is at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal, as if weigh'd in a balance:

Libra diei fomnique pares ubi fecerit horas:

Virg. Georg. I. 208.

370 Long

and from hence our author seems to have borrow'd his metaphor of the fcales of Heaven, weighing night and day, the one afcending as the other finks.

357. Scarce thus at length fail'd

peech recover'd fad.] Tho' Satan came in queft of Adam and Eve, yet he is ftruck with fuch aftonishment at the fight of them, that it is a long time before he can recover his speech, and break forth into this foliloquy and at the fame time this dumb admiration of Satan gives the poet the better opportunity of inlarging his def:ription of them. This is very beautiful.

362. Little inferior; ] For this there is the authority of Scripture. Thou haft made him a littler lower than the Angels, Pfal. VIII. 5. Heb. II. 7. Dd4 389. Vet