Not to defer; hunger and thirst at once,
Pow'rful persuaders, quicken'd at the scent
Of that alluring fruit, urg'd me so keen.
About the mossy trunk I wound me soon,

For high from ground the branches would require 590
Thy utmost reach or Adam's: round the tree
All other beasts that saw, with like desire
Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.
Amid the tree now got, where plenty hung
Tempting so nigh, to pluck and eat my fill

I spar'd not, for such pleasure till that hour
At feed or fountain never had I found.
Sated at length, ere long I might perceive
Strange alteration in me, to degree

Of reason in my inward pow'rs, and speech
Wanted not long, though to this shape retain'd.
Thenceforth to speculations high or deep

I turn'd my thoughts, and with capacious mind
Consider'd all things visible in heaven,
Or earth, or middle, all things fair and good;

601. shape retain'd.] Bentley would have it restrained. But the word of exactest propriety is retained. For retained signifies the being kept within such and such bounds in a natural state; restrained to be kept within them in an unnatural; but the serpent's being confined to his own shape, was being in his natural state. Warburton.

605. or middle,] In the air, the element placed between, and, as our author says, spun out between, heaven and earth, vii. 241. Hume.

595

600

605

605. all things fuir and good;

But all that fair and good in thy divine Semblance, and in thy beauty's heav'nly ray United 1 beheld ;] This is very like what Adam had said before to the angel, viii. 471.

-so lovely fair,

That what seem'd fair in all the
world, seem'd now
Mean, or in her summ'd up, in her
contain'd

And in her looks.

But all that fair and good in thy divine
Semblance, and in thy beauty's heav'nly ray
United I beheld; no fair to thine

Equivalent or second, which compell'd

Me thus, though importune perhaps, to come
And gaze, and worship thee of right declar'd
Sovran of creatures, universal dame.

So talk'd the spirited sly Snake; and Eve
Yet more amaz❜d unwary thus replied.
Serpent, thy overpraising leaves in doubt

The virtue of that fruit, in thee first prov'd:
But

say, where grows the tree, from hence how far?
For many are the trees of God that grow
In Paradise, and various, yet unknown
To us, in such abundance lies our choice,
As leaves a greater store of fruit untouch'd,
Still hanging incorruptible, till men
Grow up to their provision, and more hands
Help to disburden nature of her birth.

And it is really wonderful, that the poet could express things so much alike so differently, and yet both so well. The numbers too, as well as the sentiments, are equally admirable in both places.

609. Equivalent or second,] Nec viget quicquam simile aut secundum. Hor. od. i. xii. 18. 612. -universal dame.] The word dame conveys a low idea at present: but formerly it was an appellation of respect and honour, and signified mistress or lady, and was probably

610

615

620

Univer

and the Latin domina.
sal dame, Domina universi.

613. So talk'd &c.] Milton has shewn more art and ability in taking off the common objections to the Mosaic history of the temptation by the addition of some circumstances of his own invention, than in any other theologic part of his poem. Warburton.

618. trees of God] A Scripture phrase, as in Psal. civ. 16.

624. birth.] In Milton's own editions this word is spelt bearth in this place, but as in all

To whom the wily Adder, blithe and glad.
Empress, the way is ready, and not long,
Beyond a row of myrtles, on a flat,
Fast by a fountain, one small thicket past
Of blowing myrrh and balm; if thou accept
My conduct, I can bring thee thither soon.
Lead then, said Eve. He leading swiftly roll'd
In tangles, and made intricate seem straight,
To mischief swift. Hope elevates, and joy
Brightens his crest; as when a wand'ring fire,
Compact of unctuous vapour, which the night
Condenses, and the cold environs round,

625

630

635

in my notes on the first book. There is one, however, in this part of the poem, which I shall here quote, as it is not only very beautiful, but the closest of any in the whole poem; I mean that where the serpent is described as rolling forward in all his pride, animated by the evil spirit, and conducting Eve to her destruction, while Adam was at too great a distance from her to give her his assistance. These several particulars are all of them wrought into the following similitude.

-Hope elevates, and joy Brightens his crest; as when a wand'ring fire, &c. Addison.

And there is not perhaps any more philosophic account of the ignis fatuus, than what is contained in these lines. Philosophy and poetry are here mixed together.

Kindled through agitation to a flame,
Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
Misleads th' amazed night-wand'rer from his way
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool,
There swallow'd up and lost, from succour far,
So glister'd the dire snake, and into fraud
Led Eve our credulous mother, to the tree
Of prohibition, root of all our woe;

640

Which when she saw, thus to her guide she spake.
Serpent, we might have spar'd our coming hither,
Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to' excess,
The credit of whose virtue rest with thee,
Wondrous indeed, if cause of such effects.
But of this tree we may not taste nor touch;
God so commanded, and left that command
Sole daughter of his voice; the rest, we live

Of prohibition,]

E.

645

650

648. Fruitless to me, though fruit be here to excess,] Besides the jingle, the same word is used in a literal and metaphorical sense, as in Bion, Idyl. i. 16, 17.

Αγριον αγριον ἑλκος έχει κατα μηρον
Αδωνις,

Μείζον δ ̓ ἡ Κυθέρεια φέρει ποτι καρδιαν
έλκος.

And not unlike is that in Virgil, Æn. vii. 295.

Num capti potuere capi?—

653. Solè daughter of his voice ;] Another Hebraism. Bath Kol, The daughter of a voice, is a noted phrase among

An Hebraism for the prohibited the Jews, and they understand

Law to ourselves, our reason is our law.

To whom the Tempter guilefully replied.
Indeed? hath God then said that of the fruit
Of all these garden trees ye shall not eat,
Yet lords declar'd of all in earth or air?

To whom thus Eve yet sinless. Of the fruit
Of each tree in the garden we may eat,
But of the fruit of this fair tree amidst
The garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat
Thereof, nor shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

this command is called the sole
daughter, as it is the only com-
mand that we read of, that was
given to our first parents in
Paradise. Thus Adam says, iv.

426.

-for well thou know'st God hath pronounc'd it death to taste that tree,

The only sign of our obedience left

&c.

-Then let us not think hard One easy prohibition.

653. the rest, we live Law to ourselves,] The rest, as for what remains, in all things else. A Grecism, and common in Latin. So Virgil, Æn. iii, 594. cætera Graius. We live law to ourselves. Rom. ii. 14. These having not the law, are a law unto themselves. Richard

son.

656. Indeed? hath God then

said that of the fruit Of all these garden trees ye shall not eat,] Gen. iii. 1. Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? In which our author has followed the Chaldee paraphrase interpreting the He

655

660

brew particle, Indeed. Is it true that God has forbid you to eat of the fruits of Paradise? as if he had forbidden them to taste, not of one, but of all the trees; another of Satan's sly insinuations. The Hebrew particle, Yea or Indeed, plainly shews that the short and summary account that Moses gives of the Serpent's temptation, has respect to some previous discourse, which could in all probability be no other than what our poet has pitched upon. Hume.

659. -Of the fruit &c.] This is exactly the answer of Eve in Genesis iii. 2, 3. put into verse. We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And it shews great art and judgment in our author, in knowing so well when to adhere to the words of Scripture, and when to amplify and enlarge upon them, as he does in Satan's reply to Eve.