With shows instead, mere fhows of feeming pure, So pafs'd they naked on, nor fhunn'd the fight 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 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 340 All beasts of th' earth, fince wild, and of all chase Sporting the lion ramp'd, and in his paw 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, 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 Strikes, and behold a fudden And it is obfervable that this pause Not Spirits, yet to heav'nly Spirits bright 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; 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. 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