Knew it not good for man to be alone; To see how thou couldst judge of fit and meet : He ended, or I heard no more; for now W Which it had long stood under, strain'd to the highth As with an object that excels the sense, Dazzled and spent, sunk down; and sought repair 445 450 455 460 Who stooping, open'd my left side, and took 466 ; And life-blood streaming fresh; wide was the wound, But suddenly with flesh fill'd up and heal'd: The rib he form'd and fashion'd with his hands before Adam, and Adam gives them names; "but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him; as if Adam had now discovered it himself likewise and from this little hint our author has raised this dialogue between Adam and his Maker. And then follows, both in Moses and in Milton, the account of the formation of Eve, and institution of marriage.-NEWTON. The Scripture says only, that "the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam," Gen. ii. 21; and our author endeavours to give some account how it was effected. Adam was overpowered by conversing with so superior a Being, his faculties having been all strained and exerted to the highth; and now he sunk down quite dazzled and spent, and sought repair of sleep, which instantly feel on him, and closed his eyes. "Mine eyes he closed," says he again, turning the words, and making Sleep a person, as the ancient poets often do.-NEWTON. Open left the cell Balaam, before he prophesies the happiness of Israel, thus describes himself in the vision which communicated to him the divine word :-"The man, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open," Numb. xxiv. 4. On the latter part of which verse the gloss of the commentators Vatablus and Fagius is," dormitans, et tamen habens oculos mentis apertos." This frequent recollection in Milton, not only of every applicable Scripture passage, but of every material comment on them, shows the wonderful extent of his reading, and power of his memory.-DUNSTER. y Abstract as in a trance. "The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam," Gen. ii. 21. The word that we translate a deep sleep, the Greek interpreters render by trance or ecstasy, in which the person is abstract, is withdrawn as it were from himself, and still sees things, though his senses are all locked up. So that Adam sees his wife, as he did Paradise, first in vision.-NEWTON. Under his forming hands a creature grew, 470 Man-like, but different sex; so lovely fair, That what seem'd fair in all the world, seem'd now And in her looks; which from that time infused And into all things from her air inspired I, overjoy'd, could not forbear aloud : This turn hath made amends; thou hast fulfill'd Of all thy gifts! nor enviest. I now see : Father and mother, and to his wife adhere; And they shall be one flesh, one heart, one soul. She heard me thus; and though divinely brought, Yet innocence, and virgin modesty, Her virtue, and the conscience of her worth, The more desirable; or, to say all, She disappear'd, and left me dark. 475 480 485 490 495 500 505 She that was my light vanished, and left me dark and comfortless: for light is in almost all languages a metaphor for joy and comfort, and darkness for the contrary. As Dr. Pearce observes, it is something of the same way of thinking that Milton uses in his Sonnet on his deceased wife: after having described her as appearing to him, he says, She fled, and day brought back my night.-NEWTON. For the Scripture says, a Led by her heavenly Maker. "The Lord God brought her unto the man," Gen. ii. 22. And Milton, still alluding to this text, says afterwards that she was "divinely brought," v. 500.-NEWTON. b Bone of my bone. That Adam, waking from his deep sleep, should, in words so express and prophetic, own and claim his companion, gave rise to that opinion, that he was not only asleep, but entranced too; by which he saw all that was done to him, and understood the mystery of it, God informing his understanding in his ecstacy.-HUME. Nature herself, though pure of sinful thought, Thus have I told thee all my state, and brought As, used or not, works in the mind no change, Nor vehement desire; these delicacies I mean of taste, sight, smell, herbs, fruits, and flowers, c With obsequious majesty approved. 510 515 520 525 'coy sub How exactly does Milton preserve the same character of Eve in all places where he speaks of her! This "obsequious majesty" is the very same with the " mission, modest pride," in the fourth book; and both not unlike what Spenser has in his 'Epithalamion : Behold how goodly my faire love does ly, d The earth Gave sign of gratulation. This is a copy from Homer, Il. xiv. 347 :— Τοῖσι δ ̓ ὑπὸ Χθὼν δια φύεν νεοθηλέα ποίην, κ. τ. λ. but Milton has greatly improved this, as he improves everything, in the imitation. In all his copies of the beautiful passages of other authors he studiously varies and disguises them, the better to give himself the air of an original, and to make, by his additions and improvements, what he borrowed the more fairly his own; the only regular way of acquiring a property in thoughts taken from other writers, if we may believe Horace, whose laws in poetry are of undoubted authority, ‘De Art. Poet.' v. 131, &c. Milton, indeed, in what he borrows from Scripture, observes the contrary rule; and generally adheres minutely, or rather religiously, to the very words, as much as possible, of the original.-NEWTON. The evening star is said to light the bridal lamp, as it was the signal among the ancients to light their lamps and torches, in order to conduct the bride home to the bridegroom. Catullus :-"Vesper adest, juvenes consurgite," &c. "On his hill top;" for when this star appeared eastward in the morning, it was said to rise on Mount Ida, Virg. Æn. ii. 801: when it appeared westward in the evening, it was said to be seen on Mount Eta, Virg. Ecl. viii. 30. Milton therefore writes in classical language: he does not mention any mountain by name, but says only "the evening star on his hill top," as appearing above the hills.-NEWTON. Far otherwise, transported I behold, For well I understand in the prime end His image who made both, and less expressing To whom the angel with contracted brow: Dismiss not her, when most thou need'st her nigh, Less excellent, as thou thyself perceivest. For, what admirest thou, what transports thee so ? : Thy cherishing, &c. And worthy well 530 535 540 545 550 555 560 565 570 He makes use of these three words, agreeably to Scripture:-"So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself; for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it," Ephes. v. 28, 29. Giving honour unto the wife," 1 Pet. iii. 7.-NEWTON. Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right Well managed; of that skill the more thou know'st, The more she will acknowledge thee her head, Made so adorn for thy delight the more, 575 So awful, that with honour thou mayst love Thy mate, who sees when thou art seen least wise. To whom thus, half abash'd, Adam replied; From all her words and actions, mix'd with love More grateful than harmonious sound to the ear. 8 Love refines. 580 535 590 595 600 605 610 Milton, in his 'Apology for Smectymnuus,' speaks thus:-"Thus, from the laureatfraternity of poets, riper years and the ceaseless round of study and reading led me to the shady spaces of philosophy; but chiefly to the divine volumes of Plato, and his equal Xenophon: where if I should tell ye what I learned of chastity and love, I mean that which is truly so," &c.-THYER. h Union of mind. So in his 'Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce,' b. i. c. 2 :—“And indeed it is a greater blessing from God, more worthy so excellent a creature as man is, and a higher end to honour and sanctifie the league of marriage, when as the solace and satisfaction of the mind is regarded and provided for before the sensitive pleasing of the body."TODD. |