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Lament not, Eve, but patiently refign
What justly thou haft loft; nor fet thy heart,
Thus over-fond, on that which is not thine;
Thy going is not lonely; with thee goes
Thy husband; him to follow thou art bound;
Where he abides, think there thy native soil.

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Adam by this from the cold fudden damp
Recovering, and his scatter'd fpi'rits return'd,
To Michael thus his humble words addrefs'd. 29;
Celestial, whether among the Thrones, or nam'd
Of them the high'eft, for such of shape may feem
Prince above princes, gently haft thou told
Thy meffage, which might else in telling wound,
And in performing end us; what befides
Of forrow and dejection and despair
Our frailty can fuftain, thy tidings bring,
Departure from this happy place, our sweet

300

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Prefence d

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296. Celeftial, whether &c.] Adam's critics have obferved in the fpeech of Paradife, Ad speech abounds with thoughts, which are equally moving, but of a more mafculine and elevated turn. Nothing can be conceived more fublime and poetical than the following paffage in it,

This moft afflicts me, that departing

hence &c. Addifon. There is the fame propriety in these

mri leave a p Coverfed with G Eve laments mare behold the Eden: Here Ad an, and Eve li

of Priam and Hecuba to difinde Hector from fighting with Achie in the twenty-fecond book of the Iliad, where the fentiments are cellently adapted to the different characters of the father and mother And this, fays Mr. Pope, puts me in mind of a judicious ftroke This has been ob Milton, with regard to the fever. ice what our aut characters of Adam and Eve. When another place, du

120 On this mo

fpeeches of Adam and Eve, as the the Angel is driving them both out made for the di

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Recefs, and only confolation left

Familiar to our eyes, all places else

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Inhofpitable' appear and defolate,

Nor knowing us nor known: and if by prayer
Inceffant I could hope to change the will

Of him who all things can, I would not cease

To weary

him with my affiduous cries :

But pray'r against his abfolute decree

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No more avails than breath against the wind,
Blown ftifling back on him that breathes it forth :
Therefore to his great bidding I submit.

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This moft afflicts me, that departing hence,
As from his face I fhall be hid, depriv'd
His bleffed count'nance; here I could frequent
With worship place by place where he vouchsaf'd
Prefence divine, and to my fons relate,

On this mount he appear'd, under this tree

and fubject.

320

Stood

"With lefs fervency

of Paradife, Adam grieves that he 66 was ftudied what St. Paul or St. muft leave a place where he had converfed with God and his Angels; "John had written, than was liften'd but Eve laments that she shall never "to one that could fay, here be taught, here he flood, this was his more behold the fine flowers of " Eden: Here Adam mourns like a ftature, and thus he went habited, "and O happy this house that harman, and Eve like a woman. "bour'd him, and that cold flone where

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320 On this mount he appear'd, &c.] This has been obferved to be very on he refted, this village wherein like what our author has written in "be wrought fuch a miracle, and another place, due allowance being "that pavement bedew'd with the made for the difference of perfon "warm effufion of his laft blood, that

Y 3

"Sprouted

Stood vifible, among these pines his voice

I heard, here with him at this fountain talk'd:
So many grateful altars I would rear

Of graffy turf, and pile up every stone

Of luftre from the brook, in memory,
Or monument to ages, and thereon

Offer sweet smelling gums and fruits and flowers:
In yonder nether world where fhall I feek
His bright appearances, or foot-ftep trace?
For though I fled him angry, yet recall'd

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to ages, that is, to warn, teach and inftruct them that God formerly ap pear'd there to me. The Doctor, not perceiving this fenfe of the pa fage, would read

from the brooks in memory, A monument to ages. Pearce. 332. Gladly behold though but bis utmoft skirts

Of glory,] He alludes to Exod. XXXIII. 22, 23. And it shall cont to pass while my glory passeth bythou shalt fee my back parts, but my face shall not be feen: As in what follows he had Statius in memory. Thebaid. XII. 817.

and far off his fteps adore. Sed longe fequere, et veftigia femper adora.

337.—and every kind that lives,] The conftruction is, his omniprefent fills every kind that lives: Which, if true, fays Dr. Bentley, author's intention. But how it can be proved that it was not the a thor's

was not the

To life prolong'd and promis'd race, I now
Gladly behold though but his utmost skirts
Of glory, and far off his fteps adore.

To whom thus Michael with regard benign. Adam, thou know'ft Heav'n his, and all the Earth, Not this rock only'; his omniprefence fills

Land, fea, and air, and every kind that lives,
Fomented by his virtual pow'r and warm'd:
All th' earth he gave thee to poffefs and rule,
No defpicable gift; furmife not then

thor's intention, when his words fo learly exprefs it, I am at a lofs to apprehend: And if the Doctor could really queftion the truth of the af sertion it must be faid that the poet had nobler and more worthy conceptions of God's omniprefence than the Divine; for in him we live, and move, and have our being, A&ts XVII. 28. Another poet has inlarged upon The fame fentiment, with great fublimity of thought, and as great force of language. Effay on Man, 1. 259, &c.

All are but parts of one ftupendous whole,

Whole body Nature is, and God the foul;

That, chang'd thro' all, and yet in all the fame,

Great in the earth, as in th' ethereal frame,

Warms in the fun, refreshes in the breeze,

Glows in the ftars, and bloffoms in . the trees,

336

340 His

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His prefence to these narrow bounds confin'd
Of Paradife or Eden: this had been

Perhaps thy capital feat, from whence had spread
All generations, and had hither come

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From all the ends of th' earth, to celebrate And reverence thee their great progenitor. But this præeminence thou' haft loft, brought down To dwell on even ground now with thy fons: Yet doubt not but in valley and in plain God is as here, and will be found alike Prefent, and of his prefence many a fign Still following thee, ftill compaffing thee round With goodness and paternal love, his face Express, and of his steps the track divine. Which that thou may'st believe, and be confirm'd Ere thou from hence depart, know I am fent 356 To show thee what shall come in future days

344. and had hither come] So the first editions, and not thither, which is in most of the later ones. 366.

Afcend

This bill;] The Angel afterwards leads Adam to the highest mount of Paradife, and lays before him a whole hemifphere, as a proper ftage for thofe vifions which were to be reprefented on it. I have before obferved how the plan of Milton's

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poem is in many particulars greater than that of the Iliad or Æned. Virgil's hero, in the last of thei poems, is entertained with a fig of all those who are to defcend from him; but though that epifode is jufy admired as one of the nobleft defigns in the whole Æneid, every one must allow that this of Milton is of a much higher nature. Adam's vi fion is not confin'd to any particular

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