To whom thus Eve yet finless. Of the fruit Of each tree in the garden we may eat, 660 But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat [bold She scarce had faid, though brief, when now more The Tempter, but with show of zeal and love 665. To Man, and indignation at his wrong, New part puts on, and as to paffion mov'd, Thefe having not the law, are a law 670 Florish'd, tation, has refpect to fome previous difcourfe, which could in all probability be no other than what our poet has pitch'd upon. Hume. gar 659. not eat,] Gen. III. 1. Yea, is exactly the answer of Eve in GeOf the fruit &c] This bath God faid, Ye shall not eat of nefis III. 2, 3. put into verfe. We every tree of the garden? In which our author has follow'd the Chaldee may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the Paraphrafe interpreting the Hebrew particle, Indeed. Is it true that God tree which is in the midst of the has forbid you to eat of the fruits den, God hath faid, Ye shall not eat of Paradife? as if he had forbidden of it, neither shall ye touch it, left ye die. And it fhows great art and judgthem to taste, not of one, but of all ment in our author, in knowing lo the trees; another of Satan's fly inwell when to adhere to the words finuations. The Hebrew particle, Yea or Indeed, plainly fhows that the fhort and fummary account that Mofes gives of the Serpent's temp of Scripture, and when to amplify M 3 675 Florish'd, fince mute, to fome great cause addrefs'd O facred, wife, and wisdom-giving Plant, 673. Stood in himself collected,] This beautiful and nervous expreffion, which Milton has ufed in feveral places, was, I fancy, adopted from the Italian in fe raccolto. I don't remember to have met with it in any English writer before his time. Thyer. 673. Stood in himself collected, while each part, Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue,] Dr. Bentley fays that this paffage has not Milton's character nor turn. Motion, he thinks, fhould have each before it as well as part and act: and he asks, What is each part and each act, before he had spoke a word? He therefore would have it Stood in himself collected whole, while each 680 Of But act is right, and is explain'd by Milton himself in ver. 668. to be what an orator puts himself into, before he begins to speak ; in act Rais'd, as of fome great matter to begin. But I cannot fo eafily answer the Doctor's objection to motion's being deftitute of each; nor do I underftand how any part of the orator, confider'd by itfelf and merely as a part, could win audience. I fufpect therefore that an s in the copy. was miftaken for a comma, and that Milton gave it, while each part's Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue. It was the graceful motion of each Motion, each air won audience ere part of him, and not the parts themfelves, that won audience and atten the tongue. Of highest agents, deem'd however wife. Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die: 685 To knowledge; by the threatner? look on me, For fuch a petty trefpafs, and not praise tion. If it should be objected, that Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue. In bimfelf collected whole, a manner of expreffion not unlike that in Horace, Sat. II. VII. 86. in feipfo totus teres atque rotundus. 675. Sometimes in highth began, as no delay Rather Of preface brooking through his zeal of right:] Thus Cicero in his firft oration against Catiline— Quoufque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia noftra? &c. Thyer. 685. 686. How should ye? by the fruit? look on me, So the paffage fhould evidently be pointed. It was printed very wrong in Milton's own editions thus: How fhould ye? by the fruit? it gives you life To knowledge? By the threatner, look on me. M 4 702. Your 700, Rather your dauntlefs virtue, whom the pain That ye 702. Your fear itself of death re moves the fear.] Juftice is infeparable from the very being and effence of God, fo that could he be unjuft, he would be no longer God, and then neither to be obey'd nor feared; fo that the fear of death, which does imply injustice in God, deftroys itself. becaufe God can as well ceafe to be, as to be juft. Satanic fyllogifm. Hume. A 705. 705 710 In he knows that in the day &c.] Gen. III. 5. For God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be open'd; and ye shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil. So that where the author comments and inlarges upon Scripture, he ftill preferves as much as may be the very words of Scripture. 710. That ye shall be as Gods, &c.] These Internal Man, is but proportion meet; 714 Human, to put on Gods; death to be wifh'd, 720 The Gods are first, and that advantage use 725 Im 53. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 727. What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree Impart against his will if all be bis] Dr. Bentley lays that Milton had faid Gods in all the argument before, and therefore defign'd here, What |