And thou their natures know'ft, and gav'ft them names, The serpent subtlest beast of all the field, Not noxious, but obedient at thy call. Now Heav'n in all her glory fhone, and roll'd Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand 495 500 First 505. There wanted yet the mafter work, &c.] The author here remember'd and copied Ovid, Met. I. 76. Sanctius his animal, mentisque ca- Finxit in effigiem moderan- Paris 1744. wherein the curious author has collected all that Swammerdam and others have written upon the fubject. He fays that in a hive there is commonly one queen, and perhaps a thousand males called drones, and near 20000 working bees of no fex that can be diftinguifh'd. The queen or mother bee is longer than the rest, and will produce one year with another from thirty to forty thousand bees. The drones or husbands of this queen, except when they are paying their duty to her, live idly and luxuriously Juffit, et erectos ad fidera tollere upon the finest honey, whereas the common bees live in great measure upon wax; and the queen herself will condefcend to wait upon the drones, and bring them honey; and fo, as Milton expreffes it, feeds her busband drone deliciously. cætera terram, Os homini fublime dedit; cœlumque tueri vultus. A creature of a more exalted kind Man defign'd: For empire form'd, and fit to rule the reft. -Thus while the mute creation downward bend Their fight, and to their earthly mother tend, Man First wheel'd their courfe; earth in her rich attire a creature who not prone To earth, nor mute, nor beflial, but indued With fanctity, Speech, reafon. I agree with him that Milton had Ovid in view, when he compos'd thefe verses. Let us fee then what are the Doctor's objections against them. Prone, fays he, barely put, does not express what Milton aim'd at from Ovid, viz. Pronaque cum spectent animalia cætera terram. It is true, that Ovid fays more than prone: but Milton, who was perfectly skill'd in the force of Latin words, knew that pronus in Latin fufficiently exprefs'd what Ovid thro' a redun 505 His dancy of ftile had express'd by two more words Spectent terram. Any good Latin dictionary will furnish the reader with examples of pronus us'd in this fenfe without any additional word; and Milton himfelf ufes it fo again in VIII. 433. Why, as other creatures? fays the Doctor, when the Angels are creatures neither prone, nor brute. But does not Ovid's animalia cætera and Cicero's cæteras animantes in his De Leg. L. 1. warrant Milton's faying as other creatures? Thofe other creatures can be none but fuch as Raphael had been defcribing the creation of; and therefore Angels are excluded fufficiently from being underflood here. [And Milton, I fuppofe, made ufe of the word creatures as creature went before; a creature not as other creatures.] With fancity of reason: what does of do here? fays the Doctor; he would have us read With fanctity and reafon. Ovid's words are thefe, Sanctius his animal, mentisque capacius alta. And His ftature, and upright with front ferene Govern the reft, felf-knowing, and from thence 510 But grateful to acknowledge whence his good And worship God fupreme, who made him chief 515 Eternal Father (for where is not he Present?) thus to his Son audibly spake. Let us make now Man in our image, Man In our fimilitude, and let them rule 520 Over the fish and fowl of fea and air, Beaft of the field, and over all the earth, And this verfe our poet had in his mind, no doubt. But instead of merely copying from it, he has improv'd it by expreffing Ovid's meaning in clearer and fewer words; for in Ovid the fanctity of the creature confifts in its having reason, and this Milton better expreffes by fanctity of reafon. When the Doctor upon fecond thoughts proposes to read, With fanctity, speech, reafon, he adds a circumstance not to be found in the Heathen poet, and therefore not intended (I prefume) by Milton. Pearce. 519. Let us make now Man in our image, &c.] The author And keeps clofely to Scripture in his account of the formation of Man as well as of the other creatures. And God faid, Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the fea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattel, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created Man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them. And God bleffed them, and God faid unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenifh the earth, and fubdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the fea, And every creeping thing that creeps the ground. Duft of the ground, and in thy noftrils breath'd 525 The breath of life; in his own image he Created thee, in the image of God Exprefs, and thou becam'ft a living foul. Male he created thee, but thy confort Female for race; then blefs'd mankind, and faid, 530 And every living thing that moves on th' earth. Is yet distinct by name, thence, as thou know'ft, fea, and over the forel of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. I. 26, 27, 28. I have fet down the paffage at length, that the reader may compare the divine hiftorian and the poet together. There are scarce any alterations, but what were requifite for the verse, or were occafion'd by the change of the perfon, as the Angel is fpeaking to Adam. And what additions are made, are plainly of the fame original, as the reader may fee by comparing both together. And the Lord God formed Man of the duft of the ground, and breath'd into his noftrils the breath of 535 He life, and Man became a living foul. Gen II. 7. 535. Wherever thus created, &c.] The facred text fays that the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the Man whom he had formed, Gen. II. 8. And afterwards, ver. 15. And the Lord God took the Man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. This seems to imply that Man was created in fome other place, and was afterwards brought into the garden of Eden; and therefore Milton fays, Wherever thus created, for no place He brought thee into this delicious grove, And freely all their pleasant fruit for food 540 Gave thee; all forts are here that all th' earth yields Variety without end; but of the tree, Which tafted works knowledge of good and evil, Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'ft, thou dy'ft; Death is the penalty impos'd, beware, And govern well thy appetite, left Sin 545 Surprise thee, and her black attendent Death. Is yet diftinct by name, thence, as He brought thee into this delicious Dr. Bentley and Mr. Fenton in their And every living thing that moves on th' earth, and fo referring wherever thus created Yet to every living thing, whereas it fhould be join'd in conftruction with He brought thee; Wherever thus created, thence he brought thee &c. 548. Here finish'd he, and all that be bad made View'd,] The paufe is very remarkable, and admirably expresses the Creator furveying and contemplating his work, and behold all was entirely good; So ev'n and more accomplisb'd the fixth day. He finifhes the account of the creation, in the fame manner as Mofes, Gen. I. 31. And God farw every |