Had ended now their orisons, and found IX. 739. Out Sat in their fad discourse, and various plaint, Thence gather'd his own doom, which underfood Not inftant, but of future time, with joy And tidings fraught, to Hell he now return'd. In his return to Hell he meets Sin and Death in the morning, ver. 329. - while the fun in Aries rofe. After Sin and Death had arriv'd in Mean while the hour of noon drew Paradife, the Angels are commanded on, and wak'd An eager appetite Adam eats likewife; they play, they fleep, they wake; and Adam reproaches Eve with her defire of wandring this unhappy morn, IX. 1136. In the cool of the evening the Meffiah comes down to judge them, X. 92. Now was the fun in western cadence low From noon, and gentle airs due at their hour To fan the earth now wak'd, and ufher in The evening cool; when he from wrath more cool Came the mild judge and interceffor both To fentence Man.- to make feveral alterations in the Heavens and elements: and Adam is reprefented as lamenting aloud to himself, ver. 846. Through the ftill night, not now, as Wholfome and cool, and mild, but Adam is afterwards made to talk Since this day's death denounc'd, if ought I fee, Will prove no fudden, but a flowpac'd evil. and in another place as if it was some Satan fled from his prefence, but re- day after the fall, ver. 1048. turn'd by night, ver. 341. return'd By night, and lift'ning where the hapless pair Immediate diffolution, which we - we expected Out of despair, joy, but with fear yet link'd; Which thus to Eve his welcome words renew'd. 140 Eve, eafily may faith admit, that all The good which we enjoy, from Heav'n descends; But that from us ought should ascend to Heaven So prevalent as to concern the mind Of God high-blest, or to incline his will, 145 Hard to belief may feem; yet this will prayer And having felt the cold damps of the night before, he is confidering how they may provide themselves with fome better warmth and fire before another night comes, ver. 1069. ere this diurnal kar Leave cold the night. That other night we must now fuppose to be paft, fince the morning here appears again To refalute the world with facred light: So that according to the best calculation we can make, this is the eleventh day of the poem, we mean of that part of it which is tranfacted within the fphere of day. Mr. Addifon reckons only ten days to the action of the poem, that is he fuppofes that our first parents were expell'd out of Paradife the very next day after the fall; and indeed at first For fince I fought By fight it appears fo: But then we cannot fee with what propriety several things are faid, which we have here quoted; and particularly of the fun's rifing in Aries, when Satan met Sin and Death at the brink of Chaos; and if it was ftill the night after the fall, how could Adam fay, as he is reprefented saying, which bids us feek Some better fhroud, fome better warmth to cherish Our limbs benumm'd, ere this diurnal far Leave cold the night. But indeed the author is not very exact in the computation of time, and perhaps he affected fome obfcurity in this particular, and did not choose to define, as the Scripture itself has not defin'd, how foon after the fall it was that our firft parents were driven out of Paradise. 141. Eve, By pray'r th' offended Deity to' appease, Kneel'd and before him humbled all my heart, 150 Methought I faw him placable and mild, Bending his ear; perfuafion in me grew That I was heard with favor; peace return'd His promise, that thy feed shall bruise our foe; 155 Affures me that the bitterness of death Is paft, and we shall live. Whence hail to thee, "How folemn is the paufe at the 66 " and the cæfure upon the monofyllable us that follows immedi"ately, 157. Affures me that the bitterness of death Is paft,] Adam is made to talk in the language of Agag, 1 Sam. XV. 32. And Agag faid, Surely the bitterrefs of death is paft. 159. Eve Eve rightly call'd, mother of all mankind, 160 Man is to live, and all things live for Man. To whom thus Eve with fad demeanour meek. Ill worthy I fuch title should belong To me tranfgreffor, who for thee ordain'd A help, became thy fnare; to me reproach 165 Rather belongs, distrust and all dispraise: But infinite in pardon was my Judge, That I who first brought death on all, am grac'd The fource of life; next favorable thou, Who highly thus to' intitle me vouchsaf'st, 170 the heav'nly harness'd team Begins his golden progress in the east. 181. So fpake, &c.] The conference of Adam and Eve is full of moving fentiments. Upon their going abroad after the melancholy Far other name deferving. But the field Her rofy progress fmiling; let us forth, I never from thy fide henceforth to stray, 175 Where'er our day's work lies, though now injoin'd So fpake, fo wifh'd much-humbled Eve, but fate Subfcrib'd not; Nature firft gave figns, imprefs'd night which they had paffed together, they discover the lion and the eagle purfuing each of them their prey towards the eaftern gate of Paradife. There is a double beauty in this incident, not only as it prefents great and juft omens, which are always agreeable in poetry, but as it expreffes that enmity which was now produced in the animal creation. The poet to fhow the like changes in nature, as well as to grace his fable with a noble prodigy, reprefents the fun in an eclipfe. This particular incident has likewise a fine effect upon the imagination of the reader, in regard to what follows; for at the fame time that the fun is under an eclipse, a bright cloud descends in the western quarter of the Heavens, filled with an hot of An On gels, and more luminous than the fun itfelf. The whole theatre of nature is darken'd, that this glorious machine may appear in all its luftre and magnificence. Addifon. 182. Subfcrib'd not ;] That is, af fented not, agreed not to it. Subfcribere, to underwrite, thence to agree to. So the word is fometimes uled in Latin: and Milton often uses words according to the Latin idiom, So Ovid, Trift. Lib. I. El. II, Dii maris et cæli (quid enim nifi vota fuperfunt?) Solvere quaffatæ parcite membra ratis : Neve precor magni fubfcribite Cæ- And Phædrus, Fab. III. X. 57. And |