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
Thereof, nor fhall ye touch it, left ye die.

[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,
Fluctuates disturb'd, yet comely and in act
Rais'd, as of fome great matter to begin.
As when of old fome orator renown'd
In Athens or free Rome, where eloquence

Thefe having not the law, are a law
unto themselves. Richardfon.
656. Indeed? hath God then faid
that of the fruit
Of all thefe garden trees ye shall

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
and inlarge upon them, as he does
in Satan's reply to Eve.
673. Steed

M 3

675

Florish'd, fince mute, to fome great cause addrefs'd
Stood in himself collected, while each part,
Motion, each act won audience ere the tongue,
Sometimes in highth began, as no delay
Of preface brooking through his zeal of right;
So standing, moving, or to highth up grown,
The Tempter all impaffion'd thus began.

O facred, wife, and wisdom-giving Plant,
Mother of science, now I feel thy power
Within me clear, not only to difcern
Things in their causes, but to trace the ways

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.
Queen of this univerfe, do not believe

Those rigid threats of death; ye shall not die: 685
How should ye? by the fruit? it gives you life.

To knowledge; by the threatner? look on me,
Me who have touch'd and tafted, yet both live,
And life more perfect have attain'd than fate
Meant me, by vent'ring higher than my lot. 690
Shall that be fhut to Man, which to the Beaft
Is open? or will God incenfe his ire

For fuch a petty trefpafs, and not praise

tion. If it should be objected, that
it is not usual with good poets to
leave the genitive cafe thus at the
end of a verse, and put the nomi-
native into the following one; I
allow that, tho' it is not very ufual,
it is fometimes done, and Milton
yet
himself does it in V. 273.
in the fun's
Bright temple, &c. Pearce.
Or fuppofe we should read with lefs
alteration than Dr. Bentley proposes,
Stood in himself collected whole,
while each

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.
III. 4. And the ferpent faid unto the
ye fhall not die:] Gen.
woman, Ye shall not furely die. And
it is very artfully contriv'd by our
author to make the Serpent give an
inftance in himself.

686. How should ye? by the fruit?
it gives you life
To knowledge; by the threatner?

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
Of death denounc'd, whatever thing death be, 695
Deterr'd not from achieving what might lead
To happier life, knowledge of good and evil;
Of good, how juft? of evil, if what is evil
Be real, why not known, fince easier shunn'd?
God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just;
Not juft, not God; not fear'd then, nor obey'd:
Your fear itself of death removes the fear.
Why then was this forbid? Why but to awe,
Why but to keep ye low and ignorant,
His worshippers; he knows that in the day
Ye eat thereof, your eyes that seem so clear,
Yet are but dim, fhall perfectly be then
Open'd and clear'd, and ye fhall be as Gods,
Knowing both good and evil as they know.
fhall be as Gods, fince I as Man,

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;
I of brute human, ye of human Gods.
So ye fhall die perhaps, by putting off

714

Human, to put on Gods; death to be wifh'd,
Though threaten'd, which no worse than this can bring.
And what are Gods that Man may not become
As they, participating God-like food?

720

The Gods are first, and that advantage use
On our belief, that all from them proceeds;
I question it, for this fair earth I see,
Warm'd by the fun, producing every kind,
Them nothing: if they all things, who inclos'd
Knowledge of good and evil in this tree,
That whofo eats thereof, forthwith attains
Wisdom without their leave? and wherein lies
Th' offense, that Man fhould thus attain to know?
What can your knowledge hurt him, or this tree

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