100 More juftly, feat worthier of Gods, as built 105 Centring receiv'ft from all those orbs; in thee, other worlds inhabited. See III. 566. The imagination that all the heavenly bodies were created for the fake of the Earth was natural to human ignorance, and human vanity might find its account in it: but neither of these could influence Satan. Heylin. As it is common with people to undervalue what they have forfeited and loft by their folly and wickednefs, and to overvalue any good that they hope to attain; fo Satan is here made to question whether Earth be not preferable to Heaven: but this is spoken of Earth in its primitive and original beauty before the fall. As Mr. Thyer obferves, Spenfer has the very fame thought upon a like occafion, for defcribing III Of the gardens furrounding the temple of Venus he fays, That if the happy fouls which do poffefs Th' Ely fian fields, and live in lafting blifs, Should happen this with living eye to fee, They foon would loath their leffar happiness. Fairy Queen, B. 5. C. 10. St. 23. But Satan concludes that Earth muft be beft, because it was created laft; For what God after better worse would build ? A fophiftical argument worthy of Satan, and for the fame reafon Man would be better than Angels. But Satan was willing to infinuate imperfection Of creatures animate with gradual life Of growth, sense, reason, all fumm'd up in Man. With what delight could I have walk'd thee round, If I could joy in ought, fweet interchange Of hill, and valley, rivers, woods and plains, 115 Now land, now fea, and fhores with forest crown'd, Torment within me', as from the hateful fiege perfection in God, as if he had mended his hand by creation, and as if all the works of God were not perfect in their kinds, and in their degrees, and for the ends for which they were intended. 113. Of growth, fenfe, reafon, all fumm'd up in Man.] The three kinds of life rifing as it were by fteps, the vegetable, animal, and rational; of all which Man partakes, and he only; he grows as plants, minerals, and all things inanimate; he lives as all other animated creatures, but is over and above indued with reason. Richardfon. 119. Find place or refuge;] Dr. Bentley believes that the author gave it Find place of refuge: Another learned gentleman propofes to read my 120 ftate. But Find peace or refuge: but it may be But neither here seek I, no nor in 122 —all good to me becomes Bane,-] When the pause is made upon the firft fyllable of the verse, it is commonly upon a verb to mark the action more ftrongly. I think it is always fo in Homer. But Milton makes the paufe as well upon a fubftantive, as here, and in VI. 837. fuch as in their fouls infix'd Plagues; and But neither here feek I, no nor in Heaven To dwell, unless by maft'ring Heav'n's Supreme; 125 Nor hope to be myself less miserable By what I feek, but others to make fuch As I, though thereby worse to me redound : For only in destroying I find ease To my relentless thoughts; and him destroy'd, 130 For whom all this was made, all this will foon Th' infernal Pow'rs, in one day to have marr'd 135 140 Of remarks) that the fyntax requires to make fuch as me: But may not the verb fubftantive am be understood, to make others fuch as I am? and is fuch an abbreviation uncommon? 146. ther Of his adorers: he to be aveng'd, And to repair his numbers thus impair'd, Whether fuch virtue spent of old now fail'd 145 More Angels to create, if they at least Are his created, or to spite us more, Determin'd to advance into our room A creature form'd of earth, and him endow, 150 With heav'nly spoils, our fpoils: What he decreed 155 In every bush and brake, where hap may find 160 The ferpent fleeping, in whose mazy folds ther the Angels were created by God; he had before afferted, that they were not, to the Angels themfelves, V. 859. We know no time when we were not as now; By our own quick'ning pow'r. Το He maketh bis Angels fpirits, and in whofe mazy folds] Know none before us, felf-begot, Dr. Bentley reads, in his mazy folds. felf-rais'd Nor nocent yet, but on the graffy herb In heart or head, poffeffing foon infpir'd 190 Disturb'd not, waiting close th' approach of morn. Now when as facred light began to dawn In Eden on the humid flow'rs, that breath'd Their morning incenfe, when all things that breathe, From th' earth's great altar fend 186. Nor nocent pet,] Thus it is in the fecond and in the fubfequent editions; in the first edition it is Not nocent yet. 186. the graffy herb] So we have in Virgil, Ecl. V. 25. graminis berbam. 192. Now when as facred light &c.] The author gives us a defcription of the morning, which is wonderfully fuitable to a divine poem, and peculiar to that first season of nature: He represents the earth, before it was curs'd, as a great altar, breathing out its incenfe from all parts, and fending up a pleasant favor to the noftrils of its Creator; to which he adds a noble idea of Adam and Eve, as offering their morning worship, and filling up the univerfal confort of praise and adoration. Addifon. This is the morning of the ninth day, as far as we can reckon the time in this poem, a great part of the action lying out of the sphere of up filent praise 195 Το day. The first day we reckon that wherein Satan came to the earth; the space of feven days after that he was coafting round the earth; he comes into Paradise again by night, and this is the beginning of the ninth day, and the laft of Man's innocence and happiness. And the morning often is called facred by the poets, becaufe that time is ufually allotted to facrifice and devotion, as Euftathius fays in his remarks upon Homer. 193. In Eden on the humid flow'rs, things that breathe,] Here Milton gives to the English word breathe, which is generally used in a more confin'd fenfe, the extenfive fignification of the Latin fpirare, imitating perhaps Spenser, Fairy Queen B. 1. Cant. 4. St. 38. With pleafance of the breathing fields y fed. Thyer. 197. With |