The glory of that glory, who now become
Accurs'd of bleffed, hide me from the face
Of God, whom to behold was then my highth
Of happiness! yet well, if here would end
The misery; I deferv'd it, and would bear
My own defervings; but this will not ferve;
All that I eat or drink, or fhall beget,

Is propagated curfe. O voice once heard
Delightfully, Increafe and multiply,

725

730

Now death to hear! for what can I increase

Or multiply, but curfes on my head?

Who of all ages to fucceed, but feeling
The evil on him brought by me, will curfe
My head? Ill fare our ancestor impure,

This whole fpeech is full of the like emotion, and varied with all those sentiments which we may fuppofe natural to a mind fo broken and disturb'd. I muft not omit that generous concern which our firft father fhows in it for his pofterity, and which is so proper to affect the reader. Who can afterwards behold the father of mankind extended upon the earth, uttering his midnight complaints, bewailing his exiftence, and wishing for death, without fympathizing with him in his diftrefs?

Addifon. 728. All that I eat or drink, or fball beget,

735 For

Is propagated curfe.] Meat and drink propagate it by prolonging life, and children by carrying it on to pofterity. The thought is borrow'd and improv'd from Grotius. Adamus Exul. A& V.

Quod comedo, poto, gigno, diris fubjacet.

740. On me as on their natural center light

Heary, though in their place,] Dr. Bentley has really made fome very juft objections to feveral lines here together. He finds fault with Adam's not keeping up a due decorum, and in that heavy ferioufnefs and anxiety

leaving

For this we may thank Adam; but his thanks
Shall be the execration; fo befides

Mine own that bide upon me, all from me
Shall with a fierce reflux on me redound,

On me as on their natural center light
Heavy, though in their place. O fleeting joys
Of Paradise, dear bought with lafting woes!
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mold me Man, did I folicit thee

740

From darkness to promote me, or here place 745
In this delicious garden? as my will
Concurr'd not to my bei'ng, it were but right
And equal to reduce me to my duft,
Defirous to refign and render back

leaving his true topics, and catching at trifles, quirks, jingles, and other fuch prettineffes. He cenfures him, as Mr. Addison had done before, for ufing fuch low phrases, as For this we may thank Adam; and then for foaring fo high inter nubes et inania; refluxes and natural centers; heavy, though in their place. Adam, it feems, was already a Peripatetic in his notions: he fuppofes here, that elementary bodies do not gravitate in their natural places; not air in air, not water in water from which he fetches a pretty lamentation, That contrary to the course of nature, his affictions

will weigh heavy on him, though they

All

be in their proper place. Is not he
forely afflicted (fays the Doctor) that
talks at this rate? And yet the worst
of it is, this notion is falfe, and long
fince exploded by the modern phi-
lofophy: water weighs in water, as
much as it does out of it. And
therefore the Doctor is for lopping
off with a bold hand ten lines to-
gether: and we heartily with indeed
that no fuch paffages had been ad-
mitted into any part of the poem,
and efpecially into fo fine a speech
as this before us, and all that we can
fay for them is,
Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus.
758. Thou

All I receiv'd, unable to perform

750

755

Thy terms too hard, by which I was to hold
The good I fought not. To the loss of that,
Sufficient penalty, why haft thou added
The fenfe of endless woes? inexplicable
Thy justice seems; yet to say truth, too late
I thus conteft; then should have been refus'd
Those terms whatever, when they were propos'd:
Thou didst accept them; wilt thou' enjoy the good,
Then cavil the conditions? and though God
Made thee without thy leave, what if thy Son 760
Prove difobedient, and reprov'd, retort,
Wherefore didst thou beget me? I fought it not:
Wouldst thou admit for his contempt of thee
That proud excufe? yet him not thy election,

But natural neceffity begot.

765

God made thee' of choice his own, and of his own To ferve him; thy reward was of his grace,

758. Thou didst &c.] The change of perfons, fometimes fpeaking of himfelf in the first and fometimes to himself in the fecond, is very remarkable in this fpeech, as well as the change of paffions. And in like manner he speaks fometimes of God and fometimes to God.

773. Fix'd on this day?] For God

Thy

had faid In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt furely die, Gen II. 17. But it may be question'd whether it was now this day; for the night of this day is mention'd before in ver. 342 and the fun's rifing is taken notice of in ver. 329: but Milton is not always very exact in marking the time; he neglects thofe

Thy punishment then justly' is at his will.
Be' it fo, for I fubmit; his doom is fair,
That duft I am, and fhall to duft return:
O welcome hour whenever! why delays
His hand to execute what his decree
Fix'd on this day? why do I overlive,

770

Why am I mock'd with death, and lengthen'd out To deathless pain? how gladly would I meet 775 Mortality my fentence, and be earth

Infenfible, how glad would lay me down

As in my mother's lap? there I fhould rest
And fleep fecure; his dreadful voice no more
Would thunder in my ears, no fear of worse 780
To me and to my ofspring would torment me
With cruel expectation. Yet one doubt

Pursues me ftill, left all I cannot die,

Left that pure breath of life, the fpi'rit of Man
Which God infpir'd, cannot together perish

785 With

With this corporeal clod; then in the

grave,

Or in fome other difmal place, who knows
But I fhall die a living death? O thought
Horrid, if true! yet why? it was but breath

Of life that finn'd; what dies but what had life 790
And fin? the body properly hath neither.

All of me then shall die: let this appease
The doubt, fince human reach no further knows.

For though the Lord of all be infinite,

Is his wrath alfo? be it, Man is not so,

But mortal doom'd. How can he exercise

795

Wrath without end on Man whom death must end?

Hefternis vitiis animum quoque præ-
gravat unà,
Atque affigit humo divinæ particu-
lam auræ.

789.

it was but breath Of life that finn'd;] Adam is here endevoring to prove to himself that the breath of life (the Spirit of Man which God infpir'd into him ver. 784.) was to die with his body; and his argument here and in what follows runs thus Nothing but breath of life finn'd; nothing, but what had life and fin, dies; the body properly has neither of thefe, and therefore he concludes that the breath of life (or fpirit of Man within him) was to die; and that all of him was to die, because the body he knew was mortal. Pearce.