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Stood vifible, among these pines his voice

I heard, here with him at this fountain talk'd:
So many grateful altars I would rear

Of graffy turf, and pile up every ftone

Of luftre from the brook, in memory,

Or monument to ages, and thereon

325

Offer sweet smelling gums and fruits and flowers:
In yonder nether world where shall I seek
His bright appearances, or foot-ftep trace?
For though I fled him

66

angry, yet recall'd

Sprouted up into eternal rofes to crown "his martyrdom." Of Prelatical Epifcopacy, p. 34. Vol. 1. Edit. 1738. And both paffages very much refemble the following in Pliny's Panegyric to Trajan. XV. Veniet ergo tempus, quo pofteri vifere, vifendum tradere minoribus fuis geftient, quis fudores tuos hauferit campus, quæ refectiones tuas arbores, quæ fomnum faxa prætexerint, quod denique tectum magnus hofpes impleveris, &c.

325.

in memory, Or monument to ages,] Dr. Bentley asks what difference there is between memorial and monument, that or muft feparate them. I think that by in memory Adam means for a memorial to himself, for marks by which he might remember the places of God's appearance: but because his fons (who had not feen God appearing there) could not be faid to remember them; he therefore changes his expreffion and fays Or in monument

330

To

to ages, that is, to warn, teach and inftruct them that God formerly appear'd there to me. The Doctor, not perceiving this sense of the paffage, would read

from the brooks in memory, A monument to ages. Pearce. 332. Gladly behold though but his utmoft skirts

Of glory,] He alludes to Exod. XXXIII. 22, 23. And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth bythou shalt fee my back parts, but face shall not be feen: As in what follows he had Statius in memory. Thebaid. XII. 817.

my

and far off bis fteps adore. Sed longe fequere, et veftigia femper adora.

337.—and every kind that lives,] The conftruction is, his omniprefence fills every kind that lives: Which, if true, fays Dr. Bentley, was not the author's intention. But how it can be proved that it was not the au

thor's

To life prolong'd and promis'd race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory, and far off his steps adore.

To whom thus Michael with regard benign. Adam, thou know'ft Heav'n his, and all the Earth, Not this rock only'; his omnipresence fills

Land, fea, and air, and every kind that lives,
Fomented by his virtual pow'r and warm'd:
All th' earth he gave thee to poffefs and rule,
No defpicable gift; furmife not then

thor's intention, when his words fo clearly exprefs it, I am at a lofs to apprehend: And if the Doctor could really question the truth of the af fertion it must be faid that the poet had nobler and more worthy conceptions of God's omniprefence than the Divine; for in him we live, and move, and have our being, A&ts XVII. 28. Another poet has inlarged upon the fame fentiment, with great fublimity of thought, and as great force of language. Effay on Man, I. 259, &c.

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,

Whole body Nature is, and God

the foul;

That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame,

Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame,

Warms in the fun, refreshes in the

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336

349 His

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and

His prefence to these narrow bounds confin'd

Of Paradife or Eden: this had been

Perhaps thy capital feat, from whence had spread
All generations, and had hither come

From all the ends of th' earth, to celebrate
And reverence thee their great progenitor.

345

But this præeminence thou' hast loft, brought down
To dwell on even ground now with thy fons:
Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain

God is as here, and will be found alike
Prefent, and of his prefence many a fign

Still following thee, ftill compafling thee round
With goodness and paternal love, his face
Exprefs, and of his steps the track divine.

350

Which that thou may'ft believe, and be confirm'd
Ere thou from hence depart, know I am fent
To fhow thee what shall come in future days.

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356

To

poem is in many particulars greater than that of the Iliad or Æneid. Virgil's hero, in the last of these of all thofe who are to defcend from poems, is entertained with a fight him; but though that episode is juftly admired as one of the noblest defigns in the whole Æneid, every one mult allow that this of Milton is of a much higher nature. fion is not confin'd to any particular Adam's vi

To thee and to thy ofspring; good with bad
Expect to hear, fupernal grace contending

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Thy mortal paffage when it comes. Afcend
This hill; let Eve (for I have drench'd her eyes)
Here fleep below, while thou to forefight wak'ft;
As once thou fleptft, while fhe to life was form'd.
To whom thus Adam gratefully reply'd.
Afcend, I follow thee, fafe Guide, the path
Thou lead'ft me', and to the hand of Heav'n fubmit,
However chaft'ning, to the evil turn

My obvious breaft, arming to overcome

tribe of mankind, but extends to the
whole fpecies. Addifon.
367.-let Eve (for I have drench'd
ber eyes)

Here fleep beloru,] It may be asked why Eve was not permitted to fee this vifion, as fhe had no lefs occafion than Adam thereby to learn true patience: but Milton here only continues the fame decorum which he had before obferved, when he made

370

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By fuffering, and earn reft from labor won, 375
If fo I may attain. So both afcend

In the vifions of God: It was a hill
Of Paradise the higheft, from whose top
The hemifphere of earth in clearest ken
Stretch'd out to th' ampleft reach of profpect lay. 380
Not high'er that hill nor wider looking round,

377. In the vifions of God:] A Scripture expreffion. Ezek. VIII. 3. And the Spirit lift me up between the Earth and the Heaven, and brought me in the vifions of God to Jerufalem. And again, Ezek. XL. 2. In the vifions of God brought he me into the land of Ifrael, and fet me upon a very bigh mountain. And these may very properly be call'd the vifions of God not only for difcovering things future, but likewise for the extenfivenefs of the profpect, fuch as no human eye could reach. For upon the highest mountain the eye can command only a small part of the hemifphere by reafon of the roundnefs of the earth: but here a whole hemifphere lay ftretch'd out to view at once like a plain.

381. Not higher that hill &c.] That hill was not higher, whereon the Devil fet our Saviour (the fecond man 1 Cor. XV. 47. the laft Adam ver. 45.) to show him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. Matth. IV. 8. The profpects are well compared together, and the firft thought of the one might probably be taken from the other: and as the one makes part of the fubject

Whereon

of Paradife Loft, fo doth the other of Paradife Regain'd.

387. - from the deftin'd walls Of Cambalu, &c.] He first takes a view of Afia, and there of the northern parts, the deftin'd walls not yet in being but defign'd to be (which is to be underflood of all the reft) of Cambalu, feat of Cathaian Can, the principal City of Cathay, a province of Tartary, the ancient feat of the Chams, and Samarchand by Oxus, the chief city of Zagathaian Tartary near the river Oxus, Temir's throne, the birth-place and royal refidence of Tamerlane; and from the northern he paffes to the eastern and fouthern parts of Afia, to Paquin or Pekin of Sincan kings, the royal city of China. the country of the ancient Sinæ mention'd by Ptolomy, and thence to Agra and Labor two great cities in the empire of the great Mogul, down to the golden Cherfonefe, that is Malacca the moft fouthern promontory of the Eaft Indies, fo called on account of its riches to diftinguish it from the other Cherfonefes or peninfula's, or where the Perfian in Ecbatan fat, Ecbatana formerly the capital

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