To find this but a dream! Thus Eve her night Best image of myself and dearer half, Into her private cell when nature rests. 95 100 105 Oft in her absence mimic fancy wakes Wild works produces oft, and most in dreams, 110 115 94. —and thus Adam] Adam conformable to his superior character for wisdom instructs and comforts Eve upon this occasion. Addison. 117. Evil into the mind of God or Man] God here must signify angel, as it frequently does in this poem. For God cannot be May come and go, so unapprov'd, and leave No spot or blame behind: Which gives me hope Be not dishearten'd then, nor cloud those looks, 120 125 So cheer'd he his fair spouse, and she was cheer❜d, But silently a gentle tear let fall From either eye, and wip'd them with her hair; So all was clear'd, and to the field they haste. tempted with evil, as St. James Deigns none to ease thy load and again ver. 70. -yet able to make Gods of Men. 127. their choicest bosom'd smells.] Hoarded, locked up as in a treasury of choice things. So in the Ode on the Passion, 53. -unbosom all their echoes mild. VOL. I. Compare Comus, 368. 130 135 Soon as they forth were come to open sight Their Maker, in fit strains pronounc'd or sung 140 145 Flow'd from their lips, in prose or numerous verse, 150 To add more sweetness; and they thus began. and Eve is represented as said by them (at one and the same time) from under the roof, and in the open sight of the sun: which is a contradiction. The sense plainly requires that the comma should be as we have placed it; and the construction is, But first they lowly bowed adoring, ver. 144. as soon as they were come forth from under the roof of the arbour. Pearce. 145. —each morning duly paid In various style ;] As it is very well known that our author was no friend to set forms of prayer, it is no wonder that he ascribes extemporary effusions to our first parents; but even while he attributes strains unmeditated to them, he himself imitates the Psalmist. 153. These are thy glorious works, &c.] The morning hymn is written in imitation of one of those Psalms, where in the overflowings of gratitude aud praise the Psalmist calls not only upon the angels, but upon the most conspicuous parts of the inanimate creation, to join with him in extolling their common Maker. Invocations of this nature fill the mind with glorious ideas of God's works, and awaken that divine enthusiasm, which is so natural to devotion. But if this calling upon the dead parts of nature is at all times a proper kind of worship, it was in a particular manner suitable to our first parents, who had the creation fresh upon their minds, and had not seen the various Almighty, thine this universal frame, Thus wondrous fair; thyself how wondrous then! 155 Unspeakable, who sitt'st above these heavens To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works; yet these declare dispensations of Providence, nor consequently could be acquainted with those many topics of praise, which might afford matter to the devotions of their posterity. I need not remark the beautiful spirit of poetry, which runs through this whole hymn, nor the holiness of that resolution with which it concludes. Addison. The author has raised our expectation by commending the various style, and holy rapture, and prompt eloquence of our first parents; and indeed the hymn is truly divine, and will fully answer all that we expected. It is an imitation, or rather a sort of paraphrase of the hundred and forty-eighth Psalm, and (of what is a paraphrase upon that) the Canticle placed after Te Deum in the Liturgy, O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, &c. which is the Song of the Three Children in the Apocrypha. 155. thyself how wondrous then!] Wisd. xiii. 3, 4, 5. With whose beauty, if they being delighted, took them to be gods; let them know how much better the 160 Lord of them is: for the first Author of beauty hath created them. But if they were astonished at their power and virtue, let them understand by them how much mightier he is that made them. For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures, proportionably the Maker of them is seen. 160. Speak ye who best can tell, &c.] He is unspeakable,, ver. 156. no creature can speak worthily of him as he is; but speak ye who are best able, ye angels, ye in heaven; on earth join all ye creatures, &c. 162. -day without night,] According to Milton there was grateful vicissitude like day and night in heaven, vi. 8. and we presume that he took the notion from Scripture, Rev. vii. 15. They are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. But still it was day without night, that is, without such night as ours, for the darkness there is no more than grateful twilight. Night comes not there in darker veil. See ver. 645. of this book. Circle his throne rejoicing; ye in heaven, Him first, him last, him midst, and without end. If better thou belong not to the dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn 163. Circle his throne rejoicing;] See note on the poem Ad Salsillum, v. 4. E. 165. Him first, him last, him midst,] Theocrit. Idyl. xvii. 3. Ξενι πρωτοισι λεγέσθω, Και πύματος, και μέσσος And then how has Milton improved it by adding and without end! as he is celebrating God, and Theocritus only a man. 166. Fairest of stars,] So Homer calls it, Iliad. xxii. 318. Εσπερος, ὃς καλλιστος εν ουρανῳ ίσταται αστηρ 165 170 the Morning Star; when she sets after the sun is called Hesperus, Vesper, and the Evening Star, but she cannot rise before him, and set after him at the same time: and yet it may be objected that our author makes her do so; for describing the last evening, he particularly mentions Hesperus that led the starry host, iv. 605. and the very next morning she is addressed as last in the train of night. If ted, all we can say to it is, that this objection should be admita poet is not obliged to speak with the strictness and accuracy of a philosopher. 172. Acknowledge him thy greater,] It is not an improbable reading which Dr. Bentley proposes Acknowledge him Creator, or as Mr. Thyer Acknowledge thy Creator: but I suppose the author made use of greater answering to great. Thou Sun, of this great world both eye and soul, Acknowledge him thy greater. So Ovid calls the sun the eye of the world, Mundi oculus, Met. iv. 228. And Pliny the soul, Nat. |