Dismay'd, and thus in haste to th’ Angel cry'd.

O Teacher, some great mischief hath befall’n 450 To that meek man, who well had facrific'd; Is piety thus and pure devotion paid?

T' whom Michael thus, he also mov'd, reply'd. These two are brethren, Adam, and to come Out of thy loins; th' unjust the just hath llain, 455 For

envy that his brother's offering found From Heav'n acceptance; but the bloody fact Will be aveng'd, and th' other's faith

's faith approv'd Lose no reward, though here thou see him die, Rolling in dust and gore. To which our fire. 466

Alas, both for the deed and for the cause ! But have I now seen Death? Is this the

way

I

ever he makes his blood to be spill'd, Hebrews, who bears this testimony as the Scripture particularly men- to it, XI. 4. By faith Abel offered tions the blood of Abel.

unto God a more excellent sacrifice Groan'd out his soul with gushing ness

, that be was righteous

, God

than Cain, by which he obtained witblood effus d.

teftifying of his gifts; and by it be Undantique animam diffundit in being dead, yet speaketh. arma cruore. Virg. Æn. X. 908.

462. But have I now feen Death?

Is this the way &c.] Our This is very properly made the first author, in making Adam so ignorant vifion, and is so much inlarg'd upon, of what death was and the way to as it is of Adam's immediate de. it, seems to have forgot what he had fcendents.

put in the mouth of Eve in the pre

ceding book, ver. 1001. 458. – and th' other's faith ap

ih

prov'd] It was, according Let us seek Death, or he not found, to the author of the epistle to the supply. VOL. II.,

Z

With

I must return to native dust? O fight
Of terror, foul and ugly to behold,
Horrid to think, how horrible to feel ! 465

To whom thus Michaël. Death thou hast seen
In his first shape on man; but many shapes
Of Death, and many are the ways that lead
To his grim cave, all dismal; yet to sense
More terrible at th' entrance than within.

470 Some, as thou saw'st, by violent stroke shall die, By fire, flood, famin, by intemp’rance more In meats and drinks, which on the earth shall bring Diseases dire, of which a monstrous crew

a Before thee shall appear; that thou mayst know 475 What misery th' inabstinence of Eve

Shall With our own hands his office on mille ad hanc aditus patent.

ourselves : Why Itand we longer shivering un- 477. Immediately a place &c) der fears

The fecond vision sets before his That show no end but death, and the image of death in a great variety have the power,

of appearances. The Angel, to give Of many ways to die the shortest him a general idea of those effects choosing,

which his guilt had brought upon Defruction with deftru&tion to de- his posterity, places before him a stroy Thyer.

large hospital or lazar-house, fill'd 467. but many shapes

with perlons lying under all kinds of Death, and many are the ways the poet told us that the fick persons

of mortal difeáfes. How finely has that lead To bis grim cave,] Senec. Phce, languish'd under lingring and innilæ, Ad 1. 151, 153.

curable difempers, by an apt and

judicious use of fuch imaginary beUbique mors eft

ings as those I mention'd in my lafi

paper!

485

Shall bring on men. Immediately a place
Before his eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark,

A lazar-house it seem’d, wherein were laid
E Numbers of all diseas’d, all maladies

480
Of ghaftly spasm, or racking torturé, qualms
Of heart-fick agony, all feverous kinds,
Convulsions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
Intestin stone and ulcer, colic pangs,
Demoniac phrenzy, moaping melancholy,
And moon-struck madness, pining atrophy,
Marasmus, and wide-wasting pestilence,
Dropsies, and asthma’s, and joint-racking rheums.
Dire was the toffing, deep the groans; Despair

,
Tended the fick bufieft from couch to couch;

490

And paper! The paffion, which likewise Marasmus, and wide-wasting pefti. rises in Adam on this occasion, is lence, very natural. The discourse between

were not in the first, but were added the Angel and Adam which follows, by the author in the second edition, abounds with noble morals. to swell the horror of the description.

Addison. Dr. Bentley is for friking them out 487. Marafmus,] The word is again, but Mr. Pope says they are Greek, and it fignifies a kind of three admirable lines. consumption, accompanied with a fever wasting the body by degrees;

489. Dire was the tossing, deep the but we hould observe that these

groans; Despair &c.] This verses,

is entirely in the picturesque manner

of Spenser, and seems to allude parDemoniac phrenzy, moaping me. ticularly to that beautiful paftage,

where describing the way to Pluto's And moon ftruck madness, pining grily reign, he represents Pain, Strife,

Revenge, &c. as so many persons

assem

lancholy,

atrophy,

Z 2

And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook, but delay'd to strike, though oft invok'd
With vows, as their chief good, and final hope.
Sight so deform what heart of rock could long
Dry-ey'd behold ? Adam could not, but wept, 495
Though not of woman born; compassion quella
His best of

man,

and
gave
him

up to tears
A space, till firmer thoughts restrain’d excess;
And scarce recovering words his plaint renew'd.
O miserable mankind, to what fall

500
Degraded, to what wretched state reserv'd!
Better end here unborn. Why is life given
To be thus wrested from us? rather why
Obtruded on us thus? who if we knew

What assembled, and over them sad Horror And over them triumphant Death Soaring with grim hue, and beating his dart his iron wings. Fairy Queen, Book 2. Shook, but delay'd to strike. Cant. 7. St. 21. to St. 24. By that way's side there fat infernal it is excellently expressd with the By that way's fide there fat infernal As the image is wonderfully fine, fo Pain, &c. Thyer.

pause upon the firit fyllable of the The breaks and pauses in this verse verse, shook. One thinks one almoft are admirable ; and this beauty is sees the dart shaking. How much improved by each period's begin- better is this than Virgil's Æn. XI. ning with the same letter d.

767. Dire was the tossing, deep the et certam quatit improbu groans; Despair

haitam! Substitute any other word in the room of dire or deep, and you will

If the line was to be alter'd, as thus, perceive the difference. And then And o'er them Death triumphant . follows

fhook his dart,

What we receive, would either not accept 505
Life offer'd, or soon beg to lay it down,
Glad to be so dismiss'd in peace.

Can thus
Th’ image of God in man created once
So goodly and erect, though faulty since,
To such unsightly sufferings be debas'd

510
Under inhuman pains ? Why should not man,
Retaining still divine similitude
In part, from such deformities be free,
And for his Maker's image fake exempt ?

Their Maker's image, answer'd Michael, then 515 Forsook them, when themselves they vilify'd To serve ungovern'd appetite, and took His image whom they sery'd, a brutish vice,

Inmuch of the fire and spirit would ton has preserved at the close of the be loft. The reader may see other sentence. beauties of the same kind in the note I had not so much of man about me, upon IV. 351. And there are seve

But all my mother came into my ral examples of it in Homer, but

eyes, the Latin language seems hardly capable of it; at least I cannot recol

And gave me up to tears.

Henry V. AX IV. lect an infance in Virgil, who is the great matter of versification.

517. To serve ungovern'd appetite,]

Appetite here is made a person: and 495.

took his image whom they serv'd, that Though not of woman born; com- is ungovern'd appetite's, a brutis pasion quella

vice, that was the principal occasion His best of man, and gave him up of the fin of Eve, inductive mainly

to tears) This thought (as to the fin of Eve. How different is Ms. Whalley observes) is certainly this image from God's image, when from Shakespear, whose words Mil. (as we read in IV. 291.)

Adam wept,

in