Wondrous in length and corpulence, involv'd
Their snaky folds, and added wings. First crept

The parsimonious emmet, provident

Of future, in small room large heart inclos'd,
Pattern of just equality perhaps

Hereafter, joined in her popular tribes

Of commonalty: swarming next appear'd

The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

gathers her food in the harvest : "which evidently shews us, "that they who think the na"tion undone without a king, "though they look grave or haughty, have not so much "true spirit and understanding " in them as a pismire: neither are these diligent creatures "hence concluded to live in "lawless anarchy, or that com

485

490

"amples to imprudent and un"governed men, of a frugal " and self-governing democracy " or commonwealth; safer and "more thriving in the joint "providence and counsel of

many industrious equals, than "under the single domination " of one imperious lord." See his Ready and easy way to establish a free commonwealth, p. 591. Edit. 1738. He adds perhaps hereafter, as he had no hopes of it at that time. He commends the ants or emmets for living in a republic, as the bees are said to do under a monarchy; and therefore Mr. Pope says, Essay on Man, iii. 186.

The ants' republic, and the realm of bees.

490. The female bee, that feeds her husband drone

Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells]

Dr. Bentley would throw out part of these verses. The drone (says he) is not the bee's husband; and that bees are all females, seems an idle and idiotical notion, against the course and rule of nature. But (however that be) both those opi

Deliciously, and builds her waxen cells
With honey stor'd: the rest are numberless,
And thou their natures know'st, and gav'st them names,

Needless to thee repeated; nor unknown

The serpent subtlest beast of all the field,
Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes

495

And hairy mane terrific, though to thee
Not noxious, but obedient at thy call.

500

Now heav'n in all her glory shone, and roll'd Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand First wheel'd their course; earth in her rich attire Consummate lovely smil'd; air, water, earth, By fowl, fish, beast, was flown, was swum, was walk'd Frequent; and of the sixth day yet remain'd; There wanted yet the master work, the end

maintained by Mr. Charles Butler in the fourth chapter of his curious treatise upon bees, entitled The Feminine Monarchie, printed in 1634. and it seems to have been the prevailing doctrine in Milton's days. Pearce. There has been lately published in French a natural history of bees, Histoire naturelle des abeilles, &c. Paris 1744. wherein the curious author has collected all that Swammerdam and others have written upon the subject. He says that in a hive there is commonly one queen, and perhaps a thousand males called drones, and near twenty thousand working bees of no sex that can be distinguished. The queen or mother bee is longer than the rest, and will produce one year with an

505

Of all yet done; a creature who not prone
And brute as other creatures, but indued
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing, and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Descends, thither with heart and voice and eyes

Directed in devotion, to adore

510

And worship God supreme, who made him chief 515
Of all his works: therefore th' omnipotent
Eternal Father (for where is not he
Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake.

Let us make now man in our image, man

Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius altæ

closely to Scripture in his account of the formation of man, as well as of the other creatures. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the Os homini sublime dedit; cœlumque fowl of the air, and over the cattle,

Deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in
cætera posset.-
-Finxit in effigiem moderantûm
cuncta Deorum.
Pronaque cum spectent animalia
cætera terram,

tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere
vultus.

A creature of a more exalted kind
Was wanting yet, and then was man

design'd:

Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast,

For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest.

- Thus while the mute creation
Their sight, and to their earthly mo-
ther tend,
Man looks aloft, and with erected

and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth, Gen. i. 26, 27, 28. I have set down the passage at length, that the reader may compare the

520

In our similitude, and let them rule
Over the fish and fowl of sea and air,
Beast of the field, and over all the earth,

And every creeping thing that creeps the ground.
This said, he form'd thee, Adam, thee, O man,

Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breath'd
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God

Express, and thou becam'st a living soul.
Male he created thee, but thy consort

525

Female for race; then bless'd mankind, and said, 530

Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth,

Subdue it, and throughout dominion hold

Over fish of the sea, and fowl of th' air,

And every living thing that moves on th' earth.

Wherever thus created, for no place

535

Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know'st,
He brought thee into this delicious grove,
This garden, planted with the trees of God,

together. There are scarce any
alterations, but what were re-
quisite for the verse, or were oc-
casioned by the change of the
person, as the angel is speaking
to Adam. And what additions
are made, are plainly of the
same original, as the reader may
see by comparing both together.
And the Lord God formed man
out of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living
soul, Gen. ii. 7.

535. Wherever thus created,
&c.] The sacred text says that
the Lord God planted a garden

eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed, Gen. ii. 8. And afterwards ver. 15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it. This seems to imply that man was created in some other place, and was afterwards brought into the garden of Eden; and therefore Milton says,

Wherever thus created, for no place Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know'st,

Delectable both to behold and taste;

And freely all their pleasant fruit for food
Gave thee; all sorts are here that all th' earth yields

540

Variety without end; but of the tree,

Which tasted works knowledge of good and evil, Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thou diest ;

545

Death is the penalty impos'd, beware,
And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin
Surprise thee, and her black attendant Death.
Here finish'd he, and all that he had made.
View'd, and behold all was entirely good;
So ev'n and morn accomplish'd the sixth day:
Yet not till the Creator from his work
Desisting, though unwearied, up return'd,
Up to the heav'n of heav'ns his high abode,
Thence to behold this new created world
Th' addition of his empire, how it shew'd

550

555

548. Here finish'd he, and all Messiah returning into heaven,

that he had made

View'd,]

The pause is very remarkable, and admirably expresses the Creator surveying and contem plating his work,

-and behold all was entirely good;

So ev'n and morn accomplish'd the sixth day :

He finishes the account of the creation, in the same manner as Moses, Gen. i. 31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good: and the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

551. Yet not till the 'Creator &c.] The poet represents the

and taking a survey of his great work. There is something inexpressibly sublime in this part of the poem, where the author describes that great period of time, filled with so many glorious circumstances; when the heavens and earth were finished; when the Messiah ascended up in triumph through the everlasting gates; when he looked down with pleasure upon his new creation; when every part of nature seemed to rejoice in its existence; when the morning-stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Addison.