Not wand'ring poor, but trufting all his wealth-
With God, who call'd him, in a land unknown.
Canaan he now attains; I fee his tents
Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighb'ring plain
Of Moreh; there by promife he receives
Gift to his progeny of all that land,
From Hamath northward to the desert fouth,

135. I fee his tents Pitch'd about Sechem, and the neighbring plain Of Moreh; ] Gen. XII. 6. And Abram paffed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. Sichem or Sechem or Sychar (for it had all these names) was a town of the province of Samaria. there by promife he receives &c. as it follows immediately in Genefis XII. 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and faid, Unto thy feed will I give this land: So

135

(Things

exactly does the poet copy the facred hiftorian.

139. From Hamath northward &c.] As fo much is faid of the promis'd land, the poet very properly gives us the bounds of it. Hamath into Hamath, fo frequently menwas a city of Syria, and the entring tion'd in Scripture, is the narrow pafs leading from the land of Caaan to Syria, through the valley which lies between Libanus and Antilibanus. This is fet down as the northern boundary of the land; Numb. XXXIV. 7, 8. To the defert fouth, the defert of Arabia, or the wilderness of Zin as it is call'd Numb. XXXIV. 3. Your fouthquarter fhall be from the wilderness of Zin. From Hermon caft, a mountain beyond Jordan, on the northeast, to the great western fea, the. Mediterranean. Numb. XXXIV. 6. And as for the western border, you hall even have the great fea for a border: this fhall be your weft-border. On the shore mount Carmel, a mountain famous in Scripture upon the coaft of the Mediterranean. Here the double founted fream ForCc 3

141

(Things by their names I call, though yet unnam❜d)
From Hermon east to the great western sea;
Mount Hermon, yonder sea, each place behold
In profpect, as I point them; on the shore
Mount Carmel; here the double-founted stream
Jordan, true limit eastward; but his fons
Shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of hills.
This ponder, that all nations of the earth
Shall in his feed be bleffed; by that feed

dan, as it is commonly faid to arife from two fources at the foot of mount Libanus, the one called for, and the other Dan, as Thamifis from the Thame and Ifis; true limit eastward according to Numb. XXXIV. 10, 12. And ye shall point out your east-border from Hazar enan, a village at the fountain of Jordan, and the border fhall go down to Jordan &c. For the name of Canaan, tho' fometimes it includes the whole land poffeffed by the twelve tribes, yet peculiarly belongs to no more than the country weftward of the river Jordan: and the Jews themselves make a diftinction between the land promis'd to their fathers, and the lands of Sihon and Og which were to the eastward of the river. Mofes plainly does the fame in this expreffion, Deut. II. 29. Until I fhall pass over Jordan, into the land which the Lord our God giveth us.

145

Is

And the land on this fide Jordan was efteemed more holy than the land on the other. The one was barely called the land of your poffeffion, the other the land of the poffeffion of the Lord, Joshua XXII. 19. See Univerfal History, Vol. 1. p. 566, 567. This river was the true limit eastward, but his fons were to extend themselves farther, shall dwell to Senir, that long ridge of bills. This Senir or Shenir is the fame as mount Hermon, mention'd as the eaftern border before ver. 141. as appears from Deut. III. 9. Which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Shenir. And a more exact account of the boundaries of the promis'd land we shall hardly find in any proseauthor, than our poet has given us here in verfe.

140. Things by their names I call, though yet unnam'd] As Vir

Is meant thy great deliverer, who shall bruise
The Serpent's head; whereof to thee anon
Plainlier shall be reveal'd. This patriarch bleft,
Whom faithful Abraham due time shall call,
A son, and of his fon a grand-child leaves,
Like him in faith, in wisdom, and renown;
The grand-child with twelve fons increas'd departs
From Canaan, to a land hereafter call'd
Egypt, divided by the river Nile;

150

156

gil's vifion in the fixth Æneid probably gave Milton the hint of this whole episode, this line is a tranflation of that verfe, wherein Anchifes mentions the names of places, which they were to bear hereafter, ver. 776.

Hæc tum nomina erunt, nunc funt fine nomine terræ. Addifon.

Grotius has likewife imitated the
fame paffage in his Adamus Exul,
A& II. and Milton had feen Gro-
tius as well as Virgil, and has ex-
prefs'd the fame thing fhorter and
better,

Things by their names I call,
though yet unnam'd.
Innominata quæque nominibus
fuis,
Libet vocare propriis vocabulis.

147. This ponder,] As if he had faid, I mention other things for

See

your information, but this you fhould particularly remember, and meditate upon.

152. Whom faithful Abraham due

time fhall call,] Dr. Bentley obferves that every where else Milton makes but two fyllables of Abraham; and therefore to do the fame here, he reads future instead of due. But I believe that Milton intended to make the name Abraham here confift of three fyllables, in allufion to God's adding a fyllable to it, as we find in Gen. XVII. 5. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name Pearce. shall be Abraham.

Abram fignifies a great father, but Abraham is of larger extent, and fignifies a father of many nations.

155.—with twelve fons increas'd] A Latinifm; as Plaut. Trucul. II. 6. 34. Cumque es aucta liberis. See alfo Tacit. Agric. c. 6. Richardfon. 158. See

Cc4

See where it flows, difgorging at fev'n mouths

Into the fea: to fojourn in that land

He comes invited by a younger fon

In time of dearth, a fon whofe worthy deeds
Raife him to be the fecond in that realm
Of Pharaoh: there he dies, and leaves his race
Growing into a nation, and now grown
Sufpected to a fequent King, who seeks

160

165

To stop their overgrowth, as inmate guests
Too numerous; whence of guests he makes them slaves
Inhofpitably', and kills their infant males;

Till by two brethren (those two brethren call
Mofes and Aaron) fent from God to clame
His people from inthralment, they return
With glory' and spoil back to their promis'd land.

170

But first the lawless tyrant, who denies

180

To know their God, or meffage to regard,
Must be compell'd by figns and judgments dire; 175
To blood unfhed the rivers must be turn'd;
Frogs, lice, and flies must all his palace fill
With loath'd intrufion, and fill all the land;
His cattel muft of rot and murren die;
Botches and blains must all his flesh imboss,
And all his people; thunder mix'd with hail,
Hail mix'd with fire muft rend th' Egyptian sky,
And wheel on th' earth, devouring where it rolls ;
What it devours not, herb, or fruit, or grain,
A darkfome cloud of locufts fwarming down.
Muft eat, and on the ground leave nothing green;
Darkness muft overshadow all his bounds,

185