Inductive mainly to the sin of Eve.
Therefore so abject is their punishment, 520
Disfiguring not. God's likeness, but their own,
Or if his likeness, by themselves defac’d,
While they pervert pure nature's healthful rules
To loathsome sickness, worthily, since they
God's image did not reverence in themselves. 525

I yield it just, said Adam, and submit.
But is there yet no other way,

besides These painful passages, how we may come To death, and mix with our connatural dust?

There is, said Michael, if thou well observe 530 The rule of not too much, by temp'rance taught, In what thou eat'st and drink'st, seeking from thence Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight, Till many years over thy head return : So may'st thou live, till like ripe fruit thou drop 535

Into in their looks divine Cicero De Sene&t. 19. Et quafi poThe image of their glorious Maker ma ex arboribus, cruda si fint, vi fhone,

avelluntur; fi matura et coeta, deTruth, wisdom, fanctitude severe cidunt: fic vitam adolescentibus vis and pure!

aufert, senibus maturitas. 531. The rule of not too much,] &c.] There is something very, juft

538

but then tbou must cuttiva Ne quid nimis.

and poetical in this description of 537. Gather'd, not harshly pluck'd, the miseries of old age, so finely con

for death mature :] He seems traited as they are with the oppohit jo have had in mind this paslage of pleasures of youth. It is indeed

Thort,

Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease
Gather’d, not harshly pluck’d, for death mature:
This is old age ; but then thou must outlive
Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change
To wither's, weak, and gray; thy senses then 540
Obtuse, all taste of pleasure must forgo,
To what thou hast; and for the air of youth,
Hopeful and chearful, in thy blood will reign
A melancholy damp of cold and dry
To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume

545 The balm of life. To whom our ancestor.

Henceforth I fly not death, nor would prolong Life much, bent rather how I may be quit Fairest and easiest of this cumbrous charge, Which I must keep till my appointed day 550 Of rendring up, and patiently attend My dissolution. Michaël reply'd.

Nor

short, but vaftly expressive, and I

Which I must keep till my apthink ought to excite the pity as well pointed day as the admiration of the reader; Of rendring up. Michael to him fince the poor poet is here no doubt reply'd. describing what he felt at the time he wrote it, being then in the de. But I suppose the author thought cline of life, and troubled with va- that ending too abrupt, and thererious infirmities. Thyer.

fore added these words in the second 551. -- and patiently attend edition, and omitted to him for the

My dissolution.) In the first edition verse fake. it was thus,

Z 4

Nor love thy life, nor hate; but what thou liv'st Live well, how long or short permit to Heaven : And now prepare thee for another sight.

555 He look’d, and saw a spacious plain, whereon Were tents of various hue; by some were herds Of cattel grazing; others, whence the found Of instruments that made melodious chime Was heard, of harp and organ; and who mov'd 560 Their stops and chords was seen; his volant touch Instinct through all proportions low and high Fled and pursu'd transverse the resonant fugue.

In 553. Nor love thy life, nor hate ;] 557. Were tents of various bue; &c.] Marlial. Lib. 10.

These were the tents of the posterity Summum nec metuas diem, nec

of Cain, as the author himself afteroptes.

wards instructs us ; by some were bords

of cattel grazing; these belongd to 554: permit to Heaven:) Per

Yabah he was the father of fub as mitte Divis. Hor. Od. I. IX. 9. 556. He look'd, and saw a spacious cattel

. Gen. IV. 20. Oibers, whence

dwell in tents, and of such as bazı plain, &c ] As there is no the found was heard of barp and of thing more delightul in poetry than a coatrast and opposition of inci. gan; these belonged to Jubal, ko dents , the author after this melan. the harp and organ. Gen. IV. 21.

was the father of all such as bazle choly prospect of death and fickness, In other part fiood one at the forgi, raises up a scene of mirth, love, and

this was ‘Tubal-cain, an instructor of jollity. The secret pleasure that iteals into Adam's heart, as he is every artificer in brass and iron. Gen. intent upon this vision, is imagin'd

562. Infine through all proportivas with great delicacy. I must not omit the description of the loose female if inspired, flew thro' all the varios

&c.] His nimble fingers, as troop, who seduced the sons of God, distances of sound, o'er all proper as they are called in Scripture.

tions, low or high, treble or base, For that fair female troop thoy and through all its parts followed faw'ft, c.

Addison. the founding fymphony. A fage

IV. 22.

In other part stood one who at the forge
Lab'ring, two masly clods of ir’on and brass

565
Had melted, (whether found where casual fire
Had wasted woods on mountain or in vale,
Down to the veins of earth, thence gliding hot
To some cave's mouth, or whether walh'd by stream
From underground) the liquid ore he drain'd

570 Into fit molds prepar'd; from which he form’d First his own tools; then, what might else be wrought Fusil or grav’n in metal. After these, But on the hither side, a different fort a

From (of fuga Latin, a flight) is in music Ignis ubi ingentes filvas ardore crethe correspondency of parts, answer- mârat ing one another in the same notes,

Montibus in magnis. either above or below; therefore ex. But these verses want emendation. actly and graphically filed resonant, Plumbi poteftas is nonsense. as founding the same' notes over stops should be placed thus : again.

Hume.
Milton is the more particular in this

Et fimul argenti pondus, plumbidescription, as he was himself a lover

que, poteftas of music, and a performer upon the Ignis ubi ingentes &c. organ.

Argenti pondus plumbique, as in 565. - two masly clods of iron and Virgil, argenti pondus et auri. Pobrass

testas ignis expresses the consuming Had melted, (whether found where power of fire. We have potentia casual fire

lolis in Virgil, and potestates herHad wasted woods on mountain or barum. Fortin, in vale,

573. Fufil or grav’n] By melting Down to the veins of eartb, -] or carving Hume. From Lucretius, V. 1240.

573: -- After these,] As being Quod superest, æs atque aurum, fer- the descendents of the younger bro

rumque repertum eft, ther, but on the bither side, Cain Et fimul argenti pondus, plumbique having been banish'd into a more poteftas;

diftant country, a different fort, the

pofterity

From the high neighb'ring hills, which was their seat,
Down to the plain descended: by their guise 576
Just men they seem'd, and all their study bent
To worship God aright, and know his works
Not hid, nor those things last which might preserve
Freedom and peace to men: they on the plain 580
Long had not walk'd, when from the tents behold
A bevy of fair women, richly gay
In
gems

and wanton dress; to th' harp they sung
Soft amorous ditties, and in dance came on:
The men though grave, ey'd them, and let their eyes
Rove without reign, till in the amorous net 586
Fast caught, they lik’d, and each his liking chose;
And now of love they treat, till th' evening star,
Love's harbinger, appear'd; then all in heat

They posterity of Seth wholly different tiq. Lib. 1. c. 2.) nor those things lajt from that of Cain, from the bigh (in the first edition it is left, but neighboring bills, which was their seat, afterwards corrected among the Erhaving their habitation in the moun. rata,) which might preferve, nor was tains near Paradise, down to the plain it their last care and study to know defcendet, where the Cainites dwelt: those things which might preserve, by their guise juft men they seem’d, and freedom and peace to men. Tho' this all their pudy bent to worship God account of the Sethites be in the aright, the Scripture itself speaks general agreeable to Scripture, yet of them as the worshippers of the the particulars of their living in the true God, and know his works not hid, mountains near Paradise, and of their and Josephus and other writers in- descending thence into the plain, and form us that they were addicted to there corrupting themselves in that the study of natural philosophy, and manner with the daughters of Cain, especially of astronomy (Joseph. An. our author seems to have taken from

the