His midnight search, where soonest he might find
The serpent: him fast sleeping soon he found
In labyrinth of many a round self-roll'd,

His head the midst, well stor'd with subtle wiles:

Not yet in horrid shade or dismal den,
Nor nocent yet, but on the grassy herb
Fearless unfear'd he slept; in at his mouth
The devil enter'd, and his brutal sense,
In heart or head, possessing soon inspir'd
With act intelligential; but his sleep

Disturb'd not, waiting close th' approach of morn.
Now when as sacred light began to dawn
In Eden on the humid flow'rs, that breath'd

186. Nor nocent yet,] Thus it is in the second and in the subsequent editions; in the first edition it is Not nocent yet. 186.- -the grassy herb] So we have in Virgil, Ecl. v. 26. graminis herbam.

192. Now when as sacred light &c.] The author gives us a description of the morning, which is wonderfully suitable to a divine poem, and peculiar to that first season of nature: he represents the earth, before it was cursed, as a great altar, breathing out its incense from all parts, and sending up a pleasant savour to the nostrils of its Creator; to which he adds a noble idea of Adam and Eve, as offering their morning worship, and filling up the universal consort of praise and adoration. Addison.

This is the morning of the ninth day, as far as we can reckon the time in this poem, a

185

190

great part of the action lying out of the sphere of day. The first day we reckon that wherein Satan came to the earth; the space of seven days after that he was coasting round the earth; he comes into Paradise again by night, and this is the beginning of the ninth day, and the last of man's innocence and happiness. And the morning often is called sacred by the poets, because that time is usually allotted to sacrifice and devotion, as Eustathius says in his remarks upon Ho

mer.

193. In Eden on the humid
flow'rs that breath'd
Their morning incense, when

all things that breathe,] Here Milton gives to the English word breathe, which is generally used in a more confined sense, the extensive signification of the Latin spirare, imitating perhaps Spenser, Faery Queen, b. i. cant. iv. st. 38.

Their morning incense, when all things that breathe,
From th' earth's great altar send up silent praise
To the Creator, and his nostrils fill

With grateful smell, forth came the human pair,
And join'd their vocal worship to the quire
Of creatures wanting voice; that done, partake
The season, prime for sweetest sents and airs:
Then commune how that day they best may ply
Their growing work; for much their work outgrew
The hands dispatch of two gard'ning so wide,
And Eve first to her husband thus began.

With pleasance of the breathing fields yfed.

Thyer.

197. With grateful smell,] This is in the style of the eastern poetry. So it is said, Gen. viii. 21. The Lord smelled

a sweel savour.

199. -that done,] Our author always supposes Adam and Eve to employ their first and their last hours in devotion. And they are only would-bewits, who do not believe and worship a God. The greatest geniuses in all ages, from Homer to Milton, appear plainly by their writings to have been men of piety and religion.

And

200. The season, prime for sweelest sents and airs:] Sents, so Milton spells it, doubtless from the Latin sentiendo. so Skinner spells it, and this is the true way of spelling it. I presume, it was first spelt with a e scent, to distinguish it from the participle sent missus; but

195

200

tinguish the one from the other. And in like manner situation was formerly very absurdly spelt with a c scituation: but in this and all other instances. the etymology best regulates the spelling. And as Milton thus commends the morning,

The season, prime for sweetest sents

and airs;

so he was himself an early riser. See what he says of himself in his Apology for Smectymnuus, p. 109. vol. i. edit. 1738. "My morning haunts are where they should be, at home, not sleeping, or concocting the "surfeits of an irregular feast, "but up and stirring, in winter "often ere the sound of any "bell awake men to labour, or "to devotion; in summer as "oft with the bird that first

rouses, or not much tardier, "to read good authors, or cause "them to be read, till the at"tention be weary, or memory

Adam, well may we labour still to dress
This garden, still to tend plant, herb, and flower,
Our pleasant task enjoin'd, but till more hands
Aid us, the work under our labour grows,

205

210

Luxurious by restraint; what we by day
Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,
One night or two with wanton growth derides
Tending to wild. Thou therefore now advise,
Or bear what to my mind first thoughts present;
Let us divide our labours, thou where choice
Leads thee, or where most needs, whether to wind 215
The woodbine round this arbour, or direct
The clasping ivy where to climb, while I
In yonder spring of roses intermix'd
With myrtle, find what to redress till noon:
For while so near each other thus all day
Our task we choose, what wonder if so near
Looks intervene and smiles, or object new
Casual discourse draw on, which intermits
Our day's work brought to little, though begun
Early, and th' hour of supper comes unearn❜d.
To whom mild answer Adam thus return'd.

213. Or bear what to my mind] So the second edition has it; in the first it is Or hear. Either will do, and we find sometimes the one and sometimes the other in the following editions.

226. To whom mild answer Adam thus return'd.] The dispute which follows between our two first parents is represented with great art it proceeds from a difference of judgment, not of

220

225

passion, and is managed with reason, not with heat: it is such a dispute as we may suppose might have happened in Paradise, had man continued happy and innocent. There is a great delicacy in the moralities which are interspersed in Adam's discourse, and which the most ordinary reader cannot but take notice of. That force of love, which the father of mankind so

Sole Eve, associate sole, to me beyond

Compare above all living creatures dear,

230

Well hast thou motion'd, well thy thoughts employ'd
How we might best fulfil the work which here
God hath assign'd us, nor of me shalt pass
Unprais'd; for nothing lovelier can be found
In woman, than to study household good,
And good works in her husband to promote.
Yet not so strictly hath our Lord impos'd
Labour, as to debar us when we need
Refreshment, whether food, or talk between,

finely describes in the eighth
book, shows itself here in many
fine instances: as in those fond
regards he cast towards Eve at
her parting from him, ver. 397.

Her long with ardent look his eye
pursued
Delighted, &c.

in his impatience and amuse-
ment during her absence, ver.
838.

-Adam the while,

Waiting desirous her return, had

wove

Of choicest flow'rs a garland &c. but particularly in that passionate speech, where seeing her irrecoverably lost, he resolves to perish with her rather than to live without her, ver. 904.

some cursed fraud

Of enemy hath beguil'd thee &c. The beginning of this speech, and the preparation to it, are animated with the same spirit as the conclusion which I have here quoted. Addison.

227. Sole Eve, associate sole,]

235

account of her being the mother of all living, Gen. iii. 20. the epithet sole is as properly applied to Eve as to associate. Pearce. 227. beyond-Compare]

I think we took notice before, that Milton sometimes uses the substantive for an adjective, and an adjective for a substantive. And here we may observe, that sometimes he makes a verb of a noun, and again a noun of a verb. A noun of a verb as here, beyond compare, and vi. 549.

Instant without disturb they took

alarm.

And a verb of a noun, as in vii. 412.

Tempest the ocean.

And in like manner he makes the adjective a verb, as in vi. 440.

-to better us, and worse our foes;

and again the verb an adjective, as in viii. 576.

Made so adorn.

Several other instances in each

Food of the mind, or this sweet intercourse

Of looks and smiles, for smiles from reason flow,
To brute denied, and are of love the food,

Love not the lowest end of human life.

For not to irksome toil, but to delight

240

He made us, and delight to reason join'd.

These paths and bow'rs doubt not but our joint hands
Will keep from wilderness with ease, as wide

As we need walk, till younger hands ere long
Assist us but if much converse perhaps
Thee satiate, to short absence I could yield:
For solitude sometimes is best society,
And short retirement urges sweet return.
But other doubt possesses me, lest harm
Befall thee sever'd from me; for thou know'st
What hath been warn'd us, what malicious foe
Envying our happiness, and of his own
Despairing, seeks to work us woe and shame
By sly assault; and somewhere nigh at hand
Watches, no doubt, with greedy hope to find
His wish and best advantage, us asunder,

239.smiles from reason flow,] Smiling is so great an indication of reason, that some philosophers have altered the definition of man from animal rationale to risibile, affirming man to be the only creature endowed with the power of laughter. Hume.

244. These paths and bow'rs] So it is in the first and best editions, and not The paths and bow'rs, as both Dr. Bentley and Mr. Fenton have by mistake printed it.

245

250

255

249. is best society,] As Scipio said, Never less alone than when alone. Nunquam minus solus quam cum solus.

250. And short retirement urges sweet return.] Retirement, though but short, makes the return sweet: the word urges is to be referred to retirement only, and not to the epithet, which Adam seems to annex to it, only because he could not bear to think of a long one. Pearce.