Can he make deathlefs death? that were to make

Strange contradiction, which to God himself

Impoffible is held, as argument

Of weakness, not of pow'r. Will he draw out,
For anger's fake, finite to infinite

In punish'd Man, to fatisfy his rigor
Satisfy'd never? that were to extend

His fentence beyond duft and nature's law,
By which all causes elfe according ftill

To the reception of their matter act,

Not to th' extent of their own sphere. But fay
That death be not one stroke, as I fuppos'd,

beyond what he thought imply'd in the words, thou shalt to duft return. See alfo ver. 748, 1085. where Adam fpeaks of being reduc'd to duft, as the final end of him. Pearce.

806. By which all caufes elfe &c.] All other agents act in proportion to the reception or capacity of the subject matter, and not to the utmoft extent of their own power. An allufion to another axiom of the schools: Omne efficiens agit fecundum vires recipientis, non fuas. But this is not fo bad as what Mr. Pope has objected to our author,

Milton's frong pinion now not

Heav'n can bound,
Now ferpent-like, in profe he sweeps
the ground;
VOL. II.

800

805

Be

In quibbles Angel and Arch-Angel join,

And God the Father turns a Schooldivine.

But it should be confider'd that this fort of divinity was much more in fashion in Milton's days; and no wonder that he was a little oftentatious of fhowing his reading in this, as well as in all other branches of learning. And for his creeping in profe, which Mr. Dryden has likewife objected to our author in the preface to his Juvenal, we are fatiffied that he is thought to do fo the more only because of his writing in blank verfe: And if those two poets themselves (excellent as they are) were ftript and divested of their rime, it would appear in feveral

T

places

Bereaving fenfe, but endless mifery

From this day onward, which I feel begun
Both in me, and without me, and fo laft

810

Pofterity stands curs'd: Fair patrimony

That I must leave ye, Sons; O were I able
To wafte it all myfelf, and leave ye none!

So difinherited how would ye blefs

820

Me now your curfe! Ah, why fhould all mankind
For one man's fault thus guiltless be condemn'd,

If guiltless? But from me what can proceed,

But all corrupt, both mind and will deprav'd, 825
Not to do only, but to will the fame

With me? how can they then acquitted ftand
In fight of God? Him after all difputes

Forc'd I abfolve: all my evafions vain,

And reasonings, though through mazes, lead me ftill

But to my own conviction: first and laft

On me, me only, as the fource and spring

Of all corruption, all the blame lights due;

831

835

So might the wrath. Fond wish! couldst thou support
That burden heavier than the earth to bear,
Than all the world much heavier, though divided
With that bad Woman? Thus what thou defir'ft

And what thou fear'ft, alike destroys all hope
Of refuge, and concludes thee miserable
Beyond all paft example and futúre,

To Satan only like both crime and doom.

840

845

O Conscience, into what abyfs of fears
And horrors haft thou driv'n me; out of which
I find no way, from deep to deeper plung'd!
Thus Adam to himself lamented loud
Through the still night, not now, as ere Man fell,
Wholesome and cool, and mild, but with black air
Accompanied, with damps and dreadful gloom,
Which to his evil confcience represented

is not only heavier than the earth to bear, it is heavier than all the world, nay it is much heavier.

All

But not by art or skill, of things futúre

Can the plain troth revealed be and told.

There is no occafion then to read, fome have propos'd,

Beyond all past example', and fu

ture too,

or as others,

840. Beyond all past example and future,] As Adam is here fpeaking in great agonies of mind, he aggravates his own mifery, and as concludes it to be greater and worse than that of the fallen Angels or all future men, as having in himself alone the source of mifery for all his pofterity, whereas both Angels and Men had only their own to bear. Satan was only like him, as being the ring-leader, and this added very much to his remorfe as we read in I. 605. The accent upon the word future is indeed very uncommon, but it is the Latin accent, and there is a like inftance in Fairfax's Taffo, Cant. 17. St. 88.

Beyond all paft example, and all future.

846. Through the ftill night,] We can hardly fuppofe this to be the night immediately after the fall; for that night Satan overheard Adam and Eve difcourfing together, ver. 341.

return'd

By

All things with double terror: on the ground 850
Outstretch'd he lay, on the cold ground, and oft
Curs'd his creation, death as oft accus'd
Of tardy execution, fince denounc'd

The day of his offenfe. Why comes not death,
Said he, with one thrice acceptable stroke
To end me? shall truth fail to keep her word,
Juftice divine not haften to be just ?

But death comes not at call, juftice divine

Mends not her flowest pace for pray'rs or cries.

855

O woods, O fountains, hillocs, dales and bowers, 860 With other echo late I taught your fhades

By night, and lift'ning where the

haplefs pair

Sat in their fad difcourfe, and various plaint, Thence gather'd his own doom; and the next morning, while the fun in Aries rofe, ver. 329. he met Sin and Death in their way to earth; they difcourfe together, and it was after Sin and Death were arriv'd in Paradife, that the Almighty made that speech from ver. 616. to ver. 641. and after that the Angels are order'd to make the changes in nature: fo that this, we conceive, must be fome other night than that immediately after the fall.

To

Ω θανατε, θανατε, πως αει και λεμεν Θ

Ουτω κατ' ήμαρ, ου δυνη μολείν

pœna

859. ber floreft pace] Pede claudo. Hor. Od. III. II. 32. The most beautiful paffages commonly want the feweft notes: and for the beauties of this passage, we are fure, the reader must not only perceive them, but muit really feel them, if he has any feeling at all. Nothing in all the ancient tragedies is more moving and pathetic.

860. O woods, O fountains, billocs, dales and bowers, With other echo late I taught your fhades To answer, and refound far other Song] Alluding to this part of Adam's morning hymn, V. zo2. T 3 Witness