To me inferiour, infinite descents

Beneath what other creatures are to thee?
He ceased; I lowly answer'd: To attain
The highth and depth of thy eternal ways t
All human thoughts come short, Supreme of things!
Thou in thyself art perfect, and in thee

Is no deficience found: not so is man,

But in degree; the cause of his desire

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By conversation with his like to help,

Or solace his defects. No need that thou

Shouldst propagate, already Infinite;

And through all numbers absolute, though One:
But man by number is to manifest
His single imperfection, and beget
Like of his like, his image multiplied,
In unity defective; which requires
Collateral love, and dearest amity.
Thou in thy secresy, although alone,

Best with thyself accompanied, seek'st not
Social communication; yet, so pleased,

Canst raise thy creature to what highth thou wilt
of union or communion, deified:
I, by conversing, cannot these erect

From prone; nor in their ways complacence find.
Thus I embolden'd spake, and freedom used
Permissive, and acceptance found: which gain'd
This answer from the gracious Voice Divine :
Thus far to try thee, Adam, I was pleased;
And find thee knowing, not of beasts alone,
Which thou hast rightly named, but of thyself;
Expressing well the spirit within thee free",
My image, not imparted to the brute;
Whose fellowship therefore, unmeet for thee,
Good reason was thou freely shouldst dislike;
And be so minded still: I, ere thou spakest',

t Thy eternal ways.

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See Rom. xi. 33 :-" O, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"—Hus.

Spirit within thee free.

Milton is, upon all occasions, a strenuous advocate for the freedom of the human mind, against the narrow and rigid notions of the Calvinists of that age; and here, in the same spirit, supposes the very image of God, in which man was made, to consist in this liberty. The sentiment is very grand; and this sense of the words is, in my opinion, full as probable as any of those many which the commentators have put upon them; inasmuch as no property of the soul of man distinguishes him better from the brutes, or assimilates him more to his Creator. This notion, though uncommon, is not peculiar to Milton; for I find Clarius, in his remark upon this passage of Scripture, referring to St. Basil the great, for the same interpretation. See Clarius amongst the Critici Sacri.— THYER.

I, ere thou spakest.

As we read Gen. ii. 18. And then, ver. 19 and 20, God brings the beasts and birds

Knew it not good for man to be alone;
And no such company as then thou saw'st
Intended thee; for trial only brought,

To see how thou couldst judge of fit and meet:
What next I bring shall please thee, be assured,
Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self,
Thy wish exactly to thy heart's desire.

He ended, or I heard no more; for now
My earthly by his heavenly overpower'd",

Which it had long stood under, strain'd to the highth
In that celestial colloquy sublime,

As with an object that excels the sense,

Dazzled and spent, sunk down; and sought repair

Of sleep, which instantly fell on me, call'd

By nature as in aid, and closed mine eyes.
Mine eyes he closed, but open left the cell
Of fancy, my internal sight; by which,
Abstract as in a trance, methought I saw,
Though sleeping, where I lay, and saw the shape
Still glorious before whom awake I stood;
Who stooping, open'd my left side, and took
From thence a rib, with cordial spirits warm,

And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound,
But suddenly with flesh fill'd up and heal'd:

The rib he form'd and fashion'd with his hands;

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before Adam, and Adam gives them names; "but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him;" as if Adam had now discovered it himself likewise and from this little bint our author has raised this dialogue between Adam and his Maker. And then follows, both in Moses and in Milton, the account of the formation of Eve, and institution of marriage.-NEWTON.

By his heavenly overpower'd.

The Scripture says only, that "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam," Gen. ii. 21; and our author endeavours to give some account how it was effected. Adam was overpowered by conversing with so superior a Being, his faculties having been all strained and exerted to the highth; and now he sunk down quite dazzled and spent, and sought repair of sleep, which instantly fell on him, and closed his eyes. "Mine eyes he closed," says he again, turning the words, and making Sleep a person, as the ancient poets often do,-NEWTON.

of fancy.

* Open left the cell

Balaam, before he prophesies the happiness of Israel, thus describes himself in the vision which communicated to him the divine word :-" The man, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into. a trance, but having his eyes open,' Numb. xxiv. 4. On the latter part of which verse the gloss of the commentators Vatablus and Fagius is," dormitans, et tamen habens oculos mentis apertos." This frequent recollection in Milton, not only of every applicable Scripture passage, but of every material comment on them, shows the wonderful extent of his reading, and power of his memory." -DUNSTER.

y Abstract as in a trance.

"The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam," Gen. ii. 21. The word that we translate a deep sleep, the Greek interpreters render by trance or ecstasy, in which person is abstract, is withdrawn as it were from himself, and still sees things, though his senses are all locked up. So that Adam sees his wife, as he did Paradise, first in

the

vision.-NEWTON.

Under his forming hands a creature grew,

Man-like, but different sex; 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

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And in her looks; which from that time infused
Sweetness into my heart unfelt before,
And into all things from her air inspired
The spirit of love and amorous delight.
She disappear'd, and left me dark: I waked
To find her, or for ever to deplore
Her loss, and other pleasures all abjure:
When out of hope, behold her, not far off,
Such as I saw her in my dream, adorn'd
With what all earth or heaven could bestow
To make her amiable; on she came,
Led by her heavenly Makera, though unseen,
And guided by his voice; nor uninform'd
Of nuptial sanctity, and marriage rites:
Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,
In every gesture dignity and love.

I, overjoy'd, could not forbear aloud :

This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfill'd
Thy words, Creator bounteous and benign,
Giver of all things fair! but fairest this
Of all thy gifts! nor enviest. I now see
Bone of my bone", flesh of my flesh, myself
Before me: Woman is her name; of man
Extracted for this cause he shall forego
Father and mother, and to his wife adhere;
And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul.

She heard me thus; and though divinely brought,

Yet innocence, and virgin modesty,

Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth,
That would be woo'd, and not unsought be won,

Not obvious, not obtrusive, but, retired,

The more desirable; or, to say all,

She disappear'd, and left me dark.

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She that was my light vanished, and left me dark and comfortless: for light is in almost all languages a metaphor for joy and comfort, and darkness for the contrary. As Dr. Pearce observes, it is something of the same way of thinking that Milton uses in his sonnet on his deceased wife after having described her as appearing to him, he says,

She fled, and day brought back my night.-NEWTON.

Led by her heavenly Maker.

For the Scripture says,-" The Lord God brought her unto the man," Gen. ii. 22. And Milton, still alluding to this text, says afterwards that she was "divinely brought," v. 500.-NEWTON.

b Bone of my bone.

That Adam, waking from his deep sleep, should, in words so express and prophetic, own and claim his companion, gave rise to that opinion, that he was not only asleep, but entranced too; by which he saw all that was done to him, and understood the mystery of it, God informing his understanding in his ecstasy.-HUME.

I led her blushing like the morn: all heaven,
And happy constellations, on that hour
Shed their selectest influence; the earth
Gave sign of gratulation, and each hill;
Joyous the birds; fresh gales and gentle airs
Whisper'd it to the woods, and from their wings
Flung rose, flung odours from the spicy shrub,
Disporting, till the amorous bird of night
Sung spousal, and bid haste the evening-star
On his hill tope, to light the bridal lamp.

Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought

My story to the sum of earthly bliss,
Which I enjoy; and must confess to find

In all things else delight indeed, but such

As, used or not, works in the mind no change,

Nor vehement desire; these delicacies

I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers,
Walks, and the melody of birds: but here

e With obsequious majesty approved.

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How exactly does Milton preserve the same character of Eve in all places where he speaks of her! This "obsequious majesty" is the very same with the "coy submission, modest pride," in the fourth book; and both not unlike what Spenser has in his Epithalamion:'

Behold how goodly my faire love does ly,

In proud humility.-THYER.

Gave sign of gratulation.

This is a copy from Homer, Il. xiv. 347 :

d The earth

Τοῖσι δ ̓ ὑπὸ Χθὼν δια φύεν νεοθηλέα ποίην, κ. τ. λ.

In

but Milton has greatly improved this, as he improves everything, in the imitation. all his copies of the beautiful passages of other authors he studiously varies and disguises them, the better to give himself the air of an original, and to make, by his additions and improvements, what he borrowed the more fairly his own; the only regular way of acquiring a property in thoughts taken from other writers, if we may believe Horace, whose 1 laws in poetry are of undoubted authority, De Art. Poet.' v. 13], &c. Milton, indeed, in what be borrows from Scripture, observes the contrary rule; and generally adheres minutely, or rather religiously, to the very words, as much as possible, of the original.— NEWTON.

On his hill top.

e The evening star

The evening star is said to light the bridal lamp, as it was the signal among the ancients to light their lamps and torches, in order to conduct the bride home to the bridegroom. Catullus" Vesper adest, juvenes consurgite," &c. "On his hill top ;" for when this star appeared eastward in the morning, it was said to rise on Mount Ida, Virg. Æn. ii. 801: when it appeared westward in the evening, it was said to be seen on Mount Eta, Virg. Ecl. viii. 30. Milton therefore writes in classical language: he does not mention any mountain by name, but says only "the evening star on his hill top," as appearing above the hills.-NEWTON.

Far otherwise, transported I behold,
Transported touch; here passion first I felt,
Commotion strange! in all enjoyments else
Superior and unmoved; here only weak
Against the charm of beauty's powerful glance.
Or nature fail'd in me, and left some part
Not proof enough such object to sustain ;
Or, from my side subducting, took perhaps
More than enough; at least on her bestow'd
Too much of ornament, in outward show
Elaborate, of inward less exact.

For well I understand in the prime end
Of nature her the inferiour, in the mind
And inward faculties, which most excel:
In outward also her resembling less

His image who made both, and less expressing
The character of that dominion given
O'er other creatures: yet, when I approach
Her loveliness, so absolute she seems,
And in herself complete, so well to know
Her own, that what she wills to do or say,
Seems wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best :
All higher knowledge in her presence falls
Degraded; wisdom in discourse with her
Loses discountenanced, and like folly shows;
Authority and reason on her wait,
As one intended first, not after made
Occasionally; and, to consummate all,
Greatness of mind, and nobleness, their seat
Build in her loveliest, and create an awe
About her, as a guard angelic placed.

To whom the angel with contracted brow :
Accuse not nature; she hath done her part,
Do thou but thine; and be not diffident
Of wisdom; she deserts thee not, if thou

Dismiss not her, when most thou need'st her nigh,
By attributing overmuch to things

Less excellent, as thou thyself perceivest.

For, what admirest thou, what transports thec so?
An outside; fair, no doubt, and worthy well
Thy cherishing', thy honouring, and thy love;
Not thy subjection: weigh with her thyself;
Then value oft-times nothing profits more

Thy cherishing &c.

And worthy well

He makes use of these three words, agreeably to Scripture:-" So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it," Ephes. v. 28, 29. "Giving honour unto the wife," 1 Pet. iii. 7.-NEWTON.