850 All things with double terror: on the ground 8 The day of his offenfe. Why comes not death," But death comes not at call, justice divine O woods, O fountains, hillocs, dales and bowers, 860 By night, and lift'ning where the hapless pair Sat in their fad difcourfe, and various plaint, Thence gather'd his own doom; and the next morning, while the fun in Aries rofe, ver. 329. he met Sin and Death in their way to earth; they difcourfe together, and it was after Sin and Death were arriv'd in Paradife, that the Almighty made that speech from ver. 616. to ver. 641. and after that the Angels are order'd to make the changes in nature: fo that this, we conceive, must be fome other night than that immediately after the fall. To Ω θανατε, θανατε, πως αe και λεμεν ( Ουτω κατ' ήμαρ, ου δυνη μολείν πότε; 859. ber floweft pace] Pede The most beautiful paffages compœna claudo. Hor. Od. III. II. 32. for the beauties of this passage, we monly want the feweft notes: and are fure, the reader mut not only perceive them, but must really feel them, if he has any feeling at all. is more moving and pathetic. Nothing in all the ancient tragedies 860. O woods, O fountains, billocs, dales and bowers, With other echo late I taught your fhades To answer, and refound far other Song] Alluding to this part of Adam's morning hymn, V. 202. T 3 Witnefs To answer, and refound far other fong. Out of my fight, thou Serpent; that name best Befits thee with him leagu'd, thy felf as falfe And hateful; nothing wants, but that thy fhape, Like his, and color ferpentine may show 870 Thy inward fraud, to warn all creatures from thee And wand'ring vanity, when leaft was fafe, Not to be trufted, longing to be feen 875 880 Though by the Dev'il himself, him overweening an ordinary commiferation, they kewife contain a very fine moral. The refolution of dying to end our iferies, does not show fuch a deree of magnanimity as a refolution o bear them, and fubmit to the fpenfations of Providence. Our athor has therefore, with great decacy, reprefented Eve as entertain g this thought, and Adam as difproving it. Addifon. 872. left that too heav'nly form, pretended 885 To or plac'd before: fo we have in Virgil's Georg. I. 270. fegeti prætendere fepem; and in Æn VI. 60 prætentaque Syrtibus arva. So Pliny in his Epiules, Lib. 1. Ep. 16. fays, nec defidiæ noftræ prætendamus alienam. Pearce. Pretended to, held before. So Milton himself explains this phrafe, p. 809. Tol. Edit. but ecclefiaftical is ever pretended to political. Thus Quintil. Pref. to L. 1. Vultum et triftitiam et diffentientem a cæteris habitum peffimis moribus prætendebant, fpeaking of the falfe philofophers. Richardfon. To bellifh falfhood, fnare them.] r. Bentley chooses rather obtended: it in English the word obtended is leaft as unusual, as the fenfe here 883. And under flood not] The conpretended is. Pretended to fignifies ftruction is I was fool'd and beguil'd ere, as in the Latin tongue, held by thee, and underflood not &c: T 4 888. To To my juft number found. O why did God, This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once Or find fome other way to generate 890 Mankind? this mischief had not then befall'n, 895 888. To my just number found.] The juft number of ribs in a man is twentyfour, twelve on each fide, though fometimes there have been found those who have had thirteen as Galen fays, and very rarely fome who have had but eleven, as Tho. Bartholinus, a famous phyfician, obferved, in a lufy ftrong man whom he diffected in the year 1657, who had but eleven on one fide, and a fmall appearance of a twelfth on the other. Hiftor. Anatom. & Medic. Centur. 5. c. 1. But fome writers have been of opinion that Adam had thirteen ribs on the left fide, and that out of the thirteenth rib God formed Eve: and it is to this opinion that Milton here aliudes, and makes Adam fay, It was well if this rib was thrown out, as fupernumerary to bis just number. 888. O why did God, &c.] This thought was originally of Euripides, who makes Hippolytus in like manner expoftulate with Jupiter for not creating man without women. See Hippol. 616, And Ω Ζευ, τι δη κιβδηλον αίθρώποις κακού, Turainas, ES QWS NλIX ZATWRISES; Ου κεκ γυναικων χρην παραχεί And Jafon is made to talk in the fame itrain in the Medea, 573. χρην γαρ αλλοθεν τεν βροτος Παιδος τεκνοποι, θηλυ δ' ε είναι γενΘ, Ουτω δ' αν εκ ην εδεν ανθρώπων κακον. And fuch fentiments as thefe, we Perche fatto non ha l'alma Natura Why And more that shall befall, innumerable 900 By Lyfander fays in the Midfummer The course of true love never did run smooth; But either it was different in blood, Or if there were a fympathy in War, death, or fickness did lay fiege to it &c. 898. for either He never fhall find out fit mate, &c.] I have often thought, it was great pity that Adam's fpeech had not ended where these lines begin. The fenfe is quite complete without them; and they seem much fitter for a digreffional obfervation of the author's, fuch as his panegyric on marriage &, than to be put into the mouth of Adam, who could not very naturally be fuppofed at that time to foresee so very circumftantially the inconveniences attending our firait conjunction with this fex, as he expreffes it. Thyer. 916.- and |